Mr. Cooke teaches the fourth grade and expects his students to show a high level of independence about completing assignments, following procedures, and keeping up with homework and other daily responsibilities. School started two months ago, and Mr. Cooke is becoming increasingly frustrated with Teagan and her unwillingness to stick with difficult tasks. Teagan does not take risks or accept

Question

challenges. She prefers to work on assignments that are easy, and she stops when she faces a challenge. Rather than asking for help, she either turns in an incomplete assignment or hides it in her desk. During group work, she seldom speaks up and only wants to fill roles that are easy for her. She is intellectually capable of succeeding academically, but she is not successfully resolving the developmental crisis of her current stage of psychosocial development.

Using Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, describe the developmental crisis Teagan must resolve. Suggest strategies Mr.

Cooke might use to help Teagan resolve the crisis productively.

Answer 1

Suggested Response: Teagan is in the fourth stage of psychosocial development, the stage in which she needs to resolve the developmental crisis of industry versus inferiority. To resolve the crisis productively, she needs to handle the academic demands of school, including perseverance with difficult tasks. She needs to understand that she will not continue to learn unless she faces challenges and takes risks. In her thinking, she is avoiding failure. She needs to recognize that her strategy actually results in failure.
According to Erikson, students at this stage must master new skills and work toward new goals. They are being compared to others and have a greater awareness of the risk of failure. Mr. Cooke might take the following steps:
• Help Teagan set realistic learning goals. Mr. Cooke might begin by dividing assignments into smaller tasks and encouraging Teagan to set goals for completing small tasks and moving on to larger tasks.
• Help Teagan experience successes. Trying new skills has intimidated Teagan. As she achieves successes with new skills, she is more likely to show willingness to take risks. As she takes risks and discovers that she has the ability to master new skills, she is more likely to persevere when tasks are difficult.
• Encourage Teagan to ask for help. If Teagan follows procedures for getting help, she is more likely to keep trying rather than giving up.
Text Reference: Identity and Self-Concept