EDP Blog Post #2

One key concept that we learned last week in chapter four was perspective taking. In Selman’s five stages it addresses five different periods of perspective-taking development. Stage 2 is around the age group of the students in my fourth-grade classroom. These students understand the relationship between self and others’ perspectives. Today in my internship I viewed two students displaying this kind of perspective-taking. One student needed a pencil and saw one on an empty desk. The student was about to take the pencil and then said, “Katie will be mad at me if I use her pencil so I will leave it alone”. Another student overheard and said, “Here you can use my pencil so Katie will not be upset when she comes back”. The student was able to connect how they would feel in that situation and understand others’ perspectives.

Two more key concepts we learned in the last chapter was overt aggression and relational aggression. Between the two types, I have only noticed firsthand relational aggression in this particular classroom. The students have overall good behavior, so students have not gotten physical with one another before. I have only observed relational aggression between the girls. There is a group of girls that exceed in school and are in the gifted program. At times, they will comment about the other girls who are not doing as well as they are to bring down their social status. The teacher told me she addresses it by discussing it alone with the girls and separating the gifted students at their desks.

Two Reflective Questions:

1. What would be the best option in addressing relational aggression?

2. What are the other factors that cause the relational aggression in the classroom I currently intern in?