DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS IN DIVERSE SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS

  1. A developmental task is a task which arises at a certain period in the life of the individual. The individual passes through a socially regulated cycle from birth to death and there is socially prescribed schedule for rendering major life events. The norms vary from culture to culture and socio-economic background. 
  2. It was Robert Havighurst (1951) who coined the term developmental task to delineate the individual’s accomplishment of certain social abilities or attitudes related to development. 
  3. Developmental tasks are skills, knowledge, functions, or attitudes that an individual must acquire at various stages during her/his lifetime in order to adjust successfully to the more difficult roles and tasks that lie before her/him. You might know that these tasks are acquired through physical maturation, social fulfillment, and personal effort. Successful mastery of these tasks makes an individual well adjusted and competent of dealing with future levels of development. 
  4. On the contrary, failure to acquire these tasks leads to maladjustment, increased anxiety, and an inability to deal with the more difficult tasks in future. 
  5. Havighurst also stressed that the developmental tasks of any given stage are sequential in nature; each task is a prerequisite for each succeeding task. He points out that the kinds of developmental tasks through which the individual must proceed may differ from culture to culture; and biologically determined tasks are more likely to be culturally universal than the tasks that have a strong cultural component. 

Developmental tasks of Adolescence given by Havighurst

1. Accepting one’s physical makeup and acquiring a masculine or feminine sex role;
2. Developing appropriate relations with age mates of both sexes;
3. Becoming emotionally independent of parents and other adults;
4. Achieving the assurance that one will become economically independent;
5. Determining and preparing for a career and entering the job market;
6. Developing the cognitive skills and concepts necessary for social competence;
7. Understanding and achieving socially responsible behaviour;
8. Preparing for marriage and family;
9. Acquiring values that are harmonious with an appropriate scientific world picture.

Note: The developmental tasks have to be designed on the basis of multicultural demands of students.

Case Study: Sunder has taken admission in class IX of an urban school. He basically belongs to a rural background. He is very eager to study in a big city. At the very first day of his school, he realizes a totally different picture of school in comparison to his school at village. He feels difficult to adjust with his peer group and face difficulty in understanding the classes.

Role of a Teacher in above case study:

If you are a teacher of Sunder, how would you deal with this case? 

  1. As a teacher, you have to understand the background of Sunder and make him adjust with the new environment slowly. 
  2. A teacher has to bring changes in all the students irrespective of their background. 
  3. The developmental tasks have to be designed on the basis of multicultural demands of students. 

For example, while teaching any concept you should give examples from different cultures. Another effort may be that if you are teaching in a school where students are coming from rural background, you could use local dialect for teaching various concepts that may help the students to understand properly.

 

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