are expeaectation about childs development related to different cultures? :: essays research papers

P arental expectations of their childrens increase can be influenced bymany factors. factors like media, family beliefs, personal experience. Expectations come from several sources- from parents, t for each oneers, family, peers and ourselves. all these factors relate to social and culture beliefs. Piaget stressed the importance of the environment in childrens learningm seeing children as active builders of their own knowledge. The social constructive perspective on child development places main emphasis on the importance of the social environment on child development. Lev Vygotskys findings showed that children had a great deal to learn from each other through interaction and communication. Unlike piaget, Vygotsky thought that childrems ability should not be judged only on what they can do alone, but on what they are capable of with help. So the child may be provided with a more challenging and stimulating environment. Constructivist propose that children have qualitatively disti nct ways of thinking, sense and behaving at different stages of development. Whiting and Edwards ( 1992) discuss the importance of cultural values and their influence on what is perceived as appropriate social behaviour.Hess et al.(1980) carried out cross-culturalstudy into the expectations of American and Japanese mothers about their childrens development. He design a developmental expectation procedure to study mothers expectations. The study produced some interesting dara into the cultural differences in the deuce groups expectations.It showed that the Japanese mothers expectations for early achievement fell into categories of compliance, independence and emotional maturity. In contrast the American mothers expected social skills and verbal assertiveness to be observed at a younger age. Whiting and Edwards (1992) discussed the importance of cultural values and their influence on what is seen as an appropriate social behaviour. they explain different expectations of childrens de velopment in various cultures and why different cultures expect different things of their children. For example in a more complex society literacy would seen as the most distinguished skills to learn. Whereas in a simple society it is likely that children will learn the physical world. It can be said that cultural needs of society strongly influence parents expectations of their own childrens development.