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As a group, read the readings assigned and discuss the following questions (Connect-Extend-Challenge)
Please indicate your group number on your post.

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Discussion_Characteristics and Needs of Primary School Students

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1A) Stages of Brain Development and Associated Learning Opportunities (Different Developmental Stages)

1B) Maslow's Theory of Human Motivation
1B) The Self Determination Theory

1C) Overview of Social-Emotional Skills
1C) CCE Developmental Milestones

1D) The ECG Developmental Model

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Connect:
How are the ideas and information presented in the article connected to what you already know?

Extend:
How are Primary students similar or different from Secondary / Pre-U students in characteristics, needs and behaviours?

Challenge:
Now, what steps would you take in response to the ideas and information presented?

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Middle to Late childhood
1) Bring together information.
(What the students see, hear and experience in their home, school and community)
2) Giving them opportunities / provide environment to reproduce patterns, procedures and beliefs that is being taught in school.
(Through written and verbal reflections / roles and responsibilities)
3) Structured opportunities to explore, discover and invent with their peers.
(Through social interactions and group work)

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Connect: For primary school students, important needs: money/ financial stability, need for a stable home.
Safety needs, protection at home and school, esteem needs

Extend: primary school students need more affirmation, scaffold their learning, students love to share, students need strong family support for both primary and secondary.

Challenge: teachers need to help them to feel that we are sincere in helping them to succeed. Having a sense of success will enable the child to move from having extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation.

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Connect: 1) students' basic physiological needs should be fulfilled first before their cognitive needs can be met
2) We should provide a emotionally and physically safe environment for the students before we can address their cognitive needs

Extend: 3) Primary students, even more so than older students, may need to feel valued and respected before self-actualisation can take place
4) Thus when we provide students with a task, it should be challenging enough to allow learning, but students need to feel competent enough (equip them with the skills if necessary) to complete the task.
They should find meaning in the work that they do, so that they find relevance in the things that they learn.
Both of these will allow the students to feel more self-directed and further their learning beyond the classroom.

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Connect: Young learners need to start to be more self-aware as they have to primary school. They also need to develop social skills that will help them with mingling with friends in the new school environment.

Extend: Primary school students require more instructions in bite-size. They are more excited and energetic during lessons. They have shorter attention span, more malleable. As teachers we must plan lessons that can cater to their level of interest.

Challenge: High level of parent engagement. Different family backgrounds and socio-economic background. Need to communicate with parents if there is a need to remediate/do corrections.

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Connect: Children in this age group are trying to form connections using patterns and procedures that they have been exposed to at home and in school. They tend to learnt through concrete props, eg puppets, manipulative tools.

In terms of moral development, they tend to seek approval from their teachers and peers rather than form their own opinions and thoughts.

At this age group, teachers need to be more hands on and provide direct instruction.

Extend: Younger student will bring what they learnt and observe from home to school. For Sec school, they tend to be more influenced by their peers and do not share their thoughts and feelings with their parents/teachers. They are more motivated by extrinsic rewards and affirmation from teachers and adult figures. Both age group still crave the affirmation from others. In terms of behavior, Primary school students like to share their feelings with their parents.

Challenge: More communication and partnership with parents. More extrinsic rewards

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Connect:
Their personal experiences and interest.
Extend:
Harness their strengths and making connections with their learning and development.
Challenge:
Acknowledge that interest and strengths may not match, but don't give up, just accept and persevere through and you will make it one day.