Social Development

“Although family, church, and community are important sources for developing friendships, for most students school is a primary place to acquire a sense of social group belonging and to practice skills necessary for making and keeping friends”- Sheets (2005,71)

Social development is of high importance to the classroom and school atmosphere students must be capable to blend with their fellow classmates. They must have friends and associates. Even teachers and adults have friends and people we associate with day in and day out. Now imagine an adolescent with all the challenges of physical, cognitive, and identity development to have to cope with this as well. This is a challenge for the student and the teacher. Teachers should take this challenge on full force by having collaborative projects, more hands-on activities, and different styles of teaching and learning. In history class, this would be the perfect time to do role-playing of individuals during the civil rights era. Have a child play Rosa Parks and have a child play Malcolm X. This will give students the opportunity to interact with their classmates. I think that the teacher must be aware of the students during these times for not only content level but, on the social level. And not only in the classroom but, in P.E, lunch time, recess, during class, etc. Any down time that students have, teachers or adults should really pay close attention because this is where the students show their true selves. School is also a primary site to learn the quality traits in a good friend such as kindness, trustworthiness, honesty, forgiveness, and loyalty.

I believe that sometimes for the students who don’t fit in. This is where bullying and forms of negative behavior happen as students strive to find their niche. Popularity among the students is taking place. Adolescents know who is popular and liked by most people and who is not. It is extremely important for teachers to not just let negative behavior or questions from these adolescence to go by unanswered or ignored. Instructors must take advantage of this stage because this may help or hurt students find their identity.