Hey folks, this is Brad Stucki, and
I'm excited to be here to share
with you a little bit of the things
that I've learned from this particular
theorist. I signed up for Urie
Bronfenbrenner and his
bioecological theory of child
development, and we've talked
about this a little bit already
in class, and so I'm excited to
build on what we've already
talked about. So here we go.
I'd like to start by sharing a little
bit of the overview of what
Bronfenbrenner taught and
what he studied. His work focuses
on the development of the child
with their environment, and so
it shows how the child interacts
with different systems and different
people, and how it affects them to
become who they end up being--
who their individual person is.
So we'll go ahead and we'll just
jump right into it. Okay, so the
first system is the microsystem.
This is the most simple. It is the
child interactions with their family,
with their peers, it is their individual,
personal relationships that they have
with one another that shape them
into who they are and who they become.
And so an example of this would be
the child learning from their parents
or from their teachers, it may be them
picking up their different social cues,
their laugh, it could be just observing
the parent, or listening to what they say
and copying those same standards
and so it's just the interaction
between those two-- the child
and the parent, or the child and
their teacher, the child and their
friends-- that helps them develop
into their individual person.
Okay, so the next one-- oh, so actually,
every time we talk about a system
I'm just gonna lay down a line that
has the definition of it, and I'll just
reiterate what it says, and so the
microsystem is just an interaction
or support between the individual
and their direct relationship,
like their parents.
So the next system is the
mesosystem, and this one
is a system of microsystems.
So a microsystem that's
like the parents, the friends,
the teachers, and the mesosystem
is the interaction between these
two microsystems. And the results
of those affects the child positively
or negatively. So here's an example
of the mesosystem. In this post,
you see that their friends, and you
put them together with the parents,
like maybe they come over, and if they
have a negative reaction-- if they
disapprove of the friends, results in
the top part, where the child will
be sad, they may have a negative
development. They're pushing
against the parents, maybe have
negative feelings towards the
parents, whereas the bottom,
if the parents approve of the friends,
there's a positive development
where the child trusts the parents
more, trusts the friends more,
and this is positive all together.
And so that's an example of the
mesosystem and how the different
microsystems interact to affect the child.
And so that's the mesosystem, it's the
interaction between different microsystems
that affect the child. The exosystem
is the next step up from being further
away from the child. And so if you look
at the second line, it describes what the
exosystem is. It is people or places
that children may not directly interact
with, but still impact their lives.
And so, an example of this is the
community or the neighborhood
they grow up in, the government,
the church, their parents' workplace.
And certain examples.
And so the example of an exosystem,
the top one is a great example.
It's a father who is continually
passed up for a promotion by
an indifferent boss at the workplace,
who may take it out on his child and
mistreat them at home. And so the
child never interacted with the parent's
workplace, but received the results
of the stress and anger from the parent,
and so that's what an exosystem is,
and the bottom one talks about a
mother who leaves to go to the
military and the child develops
anxiety, even though she's never
been to her parent's workplace,
doesn't know why the parents are
leaving. And so that's the result of
the exosystem. And so the exosystem
is something-- an interaction, setting,
that does not involve the child but
still affects them.
Okay, and so the next one is the
macrosystem, and is described
as the effects of larger principles
defined by the macrosystem.
And so that's like cultural values,
religious values, customs, and laws.
And I guess also it includes the
mass media.
And so an example of that is culture--
culture's a collection of beliefs,
customs, and art, and people who
live in those customs are expected
to live certain ways. And so the
macrosystem affects the child
because of those cultures,
because of where they're
expected to live, and that
affects who they become
and the development of that
child. So like an example I use
is the societal culture where
the father's the breadwinner,
when that's not really the case
it is now, but it still affects the
child to maybe want to be
that breadwinner and to
not allow his wife to provide
for their family.
And so macrosystem is just the
effects of culture, religious beliefs,
their views and lifestyle of a child,
and so it helps develop that child
to become who they are.
The last one is the chronosystem,
and this one relates to time,
and so it's the passage of time
or the time and era that they live in
that affects the child. Like war-time,
depression, being a 'baby boomer'
(quote, unquote) to the gen-Z,
millennials, and that depiction
affects how the child is seen and
also how they live.
And like an example of that is
the Great Depression. My grandmother
lived around the time of the
Great Depression, right after,
and she grew up never throwing
anything away. Every little use
of every single item that she bought
to use and use until it wore out.
So that's an example of the chronosystem
and how time and era that you live in
affects who you are and what you
become. And so that's chronosystem,
the effect of time on the child, the
influence of time. And so now that we
understand all this, how does it affect
our teaching? And one of the articles
I found, it says, 'by studying the various
ecological systems, Bronfenbrenner's
ecological systems theory is able to
demonstrate the diversity of interrelated
influences on children's development.
Awareness of the contexts that children
are in can sensitize us to variations
in the way children may act in
different settings.' So as a teacher,
as we're aware of how the child's
development may be influenced
by these different systems, we can
do a better job in teaching and
being aware of our different students
so that we can be the best teacher
that we can. That we can give them
individualized teaching that will
help the student.
And so that's what I got from
Bronfenbrenner's theory,
and hopefully it helps you as well
in helping to individualize your
students' teaching to help them
to have the best education and
development that they can have.
So here is the bibliography, and
I'm excited to hear what you guys
have to say, so thank you.