Areas of Consideration for Planning for an Intended Student Population
Teachers must take into consideration all aspects of their intended student population. There are many arenas to think about, and many developmental landmarks occurring in K-12 Education. Consider where the students are at in these fields:
- Physical
- Intellectual
- Emotional
- Social
- Psychological
- Personal challenges
I will give my personal response to these, concerning upper-level high school students (Grades 11 & 12, ages 17-18):
- Physical- formal operations, mostly through big transformative physical years
- Intellectual- beginning of adulthood, critical thinking continuing to develop
- Emotional- even though they are reaching the end of the “teenage years”, there is still a lot of drama going on, perhaps one of the biggest factors- intimate relationships, what to do with life after graduating
- Social- their identity continues to form and they can be very self-conscious, also dealing with issues of authority and social justice
- Psychological- psychological world is important, not as much to worry about physically
- Personal challenges- future dilemmas, relationships, thinking critically about their morals and values