Ecological Models of Human Development

Brofenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological Models of Human Development. In International Encyclopedia of Education, Vol. 2, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier.

The evolution of ecological models- is that much of developmental psychology is the science of the strange behavior of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible periods of time. The general ecological model- human development takes place through processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving biopschological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate environment. Also, it says that the form, power, content, and direction of the proximal processes effecting development vary systematically as a joint function of the characteristics of the developing person. Environments as contexts of development- the ecological environment is conceived as a set of nested structures, set inside one another. There is microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems, macrosystems, and last chronosystems. Genetic inheritance in ecological perspective- involves a reconceptualization of the role ofgenteics on human development.

Things that I can personally see better with this model are that a developing child in different situations has an affect on that child. If its not the people he is growing up around it could be the environment, and if I could just understand how the environment is affecting the child I can help the child. I can learn how to teach them as a teacher and understand what they are going through in their lives. As a teacher, you have to have a feel of what outside thoughts your students may be thinking about while you are teaching a lesson and have a way to help them put those thoughts aside while you teach.