QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY

DIFFUN CAMPUS
Diffun, 3401 Quirino

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Week 3
MODULE 2 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT: NATURE OR NURTURE

COMPETENCIES
 Explain the influence of nature and nurture to human growth and
development.
 Give the implications of nature and nurture to helping learners learn.

OVERVIEW
This module orients the learner of the difference between growth and
development and shed light on the roles played by nature and nurture on
human development

DEVELOPMENT

A. Activity

Look closely at the images.

(courtesy of very well

[Link])
1. List down at least two (2) observations you have for each picture.
2. What aspects of change(s) did you observe for picture 1? Picture 2?
3. What could have affected the changes that you observed?

B. Analysis

VISION MISSION
The leading center for academic and technological excellence Develop competent and morally upright professionals and generate
and prime catalyst for a progressive and sustainable Quirino appropriate knowledge and technologies to meet the needs of Quirino
Province and Southern Cagayan Valley. Province and Southern Cagayan Valley.

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

 QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY
DIFFUN CAMPUS
Diffun, 3401 Quirino

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Looking closely at the pictures, changes are observed. A few of these

changes in picture 1 include height and weight. These are physical changes
signifying growth.

Picture 2 also shows change in height of the boy as he grows but it did
not end in physical change, there was observed advancement in thought.
Changes in human show growth and development. How is growth differentiated
from development? Are there factors affecting growth and development?

C. Abstraction

Life is a changing process. From the moment of conception to the

moment of death, human beings undergo many complex processes of
development. Through life, people have the potential to grow, to change, and to
develop.
In addition to the definition of human development in module 1, human
development is also defined to be the scientific study of the quantitative and
qualitative ways by which people change overtime.
The quantitative ways by which people change is often referred to as
growth. Like the boy in picture 1 and the boy in picture 2, they went through
quantitative change. Both children increase in height and weight. On the other
hand, qualitative change refers to the increase in skills and complexity of
function resulting in increased specialization. The boy in picture 2 went through
qualitative change because he has learned to focus not just on one area (height
of the glass) but also on other areas (height, width, and content). There was a
change in the way of how the mind of the boy works.
Development is a progressive series of changes that occur as a result of
maturation and experience. This means that development does not consist
merely of adding inches to one’s height or improving one’s ability. Instead, it is
a complex process of integrating many structures and functions. Thus,
development is both quantitative and qualitative.
The distinction between quantitative and qualitative change can be seen
in the area of memory development. Example when Jenny was four years old,
she could recall only three objects out of a group she had seen a few minutes
before; now at seven, she can recall 7 objects. Her memory has undergone a
qualitative change that is an increase in how much she can remember. She has
experienced a qualitative change in memory, since she has now begun to use
such strategies as putting objects; she wants to remember into categories to
help her recall them (P.H. Miller, 1983 as cited by Papalia, 1989).

Key Factors to Development

VISION MISSION
The leading center for academic and technological excellence Develop competent and morally upright professionals and generate
and prime catalyst for a progressive and sustainable Quirino appropriate knowledge and technologies to meet the needs of Quirino
Province and Southern Cagayan Valley. Province and Southern Cagayan Valley.

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

 QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY
DIFFUN CAMPUS
Diffun, 3401 Quirino

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

There are key factors to development and these are:

1. Nature. Refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence
who a person is —from his/her physical appearance to his/her personality
characteristics. It is the direction and pattern given by the genes to growth and
development. It is the transmission of genetic characteristics from the parents
to the offspring.

2. Nurture. Refers to all the environmental variables that impact who a

person is, including our early childhood experiences, how he/she was raised,
his/her social relationships, and his/her surrounding culture. It includes all the
conditions inside and outside the individual
that in any way influence his/her behavior,
growth and development.

Figure 1. Nature VS Nurture. Genes or Environment

(Source: [Link])
How much is the influence of nature and nurture in development is a
long-time issue that has been subjected to many debates, but the relative
contribution of heredity and environment are not additive instead interactive
and cooperative (as shown in figure 1) Heredity and environment cooperate
and interact together to produce a person’s intelligence, temperament height
weight, ability to read, and so on... . In considering the nature-nurture
controversy, it is helpful to think in terms of a reaction range – the potential
variability in the expression of a hereditary trait, depending on environmental
conditions. As mentioned by Acero, et al (2013) even if heredity controls a
particular trait, the genetic instructions may allow some latitude.

To mention a few examples: perfect pitch is the ability to detect the

pitch of a musical tone without any reference and that, researchers have
found that this ability tends to run in families and believe that it might be tied
to a single gene. However, they've also discovered that possessing the gene
alone is not enough to develop this ability. Instead, musical training during
early childhood is necessary to allow this inherited ability to manifest itself.

Height is another example of a trait that is influenced by nature and

nurture interaction. A child might come from a family where everyone is tall,
and he may have inherited these genes for height. However, if he grows up in

VISION MISSION
The leading center for academic and technological excellence Develop competent and morally upright professionals and generate
and prime catalyst for a progressive and sustainable Quirino appropriate knowledge and technologies to meet the needs of Quirino
Province and Southern Cagayan Valley. Province and Southern Cagayan Valley.

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

 QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY
DIFFUN CAMPUS
Diffun, 3401 Quirino

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

a deprived environment where he does not receive proper nourishment, he

might never attain the height he might have had he grown up in a healthier
environment. ([Link]
2795392)
It is difficult to disconnect the relative contributions of heredity genes
and environment to development. Both nature (heredity) and
nurture(environment) are necessary for a person to develop and even to exist.
Without genes, there is no person; without environment, there is no person
(Scarr and Weinberg, 1980 as cited by Corpuz, 2018). Heredity and
environment operate together, cooperate and interact for development.
In terms of the implications of the nature and nurture issue to
teaching and learning, children learn better when they feel wanted and are in a
supportive environment. Teaching needs to go beyond pure content and focus
on learning how to learn French (2003)

D. APPLICATION (Use another sheet of paper/s to be submitted)

Do the following:
1. In a Venn diagram, write the roles played by nature (heredity) and nurture
(environment) in the growth and development of a person.

Nature Development Nurture

Creative activity
2. Write a narrative poem on human development. Make use of the first-
person point-of-view. (You can make use of the language of your
preference)

3. Journal Entry:
Are you who you are because of nature, or are you who you are because
of nurture? Why?

COMPREHENSION CHECK

VISION MISSION
The leading center for academic and technological excellence Develop competent and morally upright professionals and generate
and prime catalyst for a progressive and sustainable Quirino appropriate knowledge and technologies to meet the needs of Quirino
Province and Southern Cagayan Valley. Province and Southern Cagayan Valley.

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

 QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY
DIFFUN CAMPUS
Diffun, 3401 Quirino

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Read carefully each of the statements below. From 1-3, decide whether the
idea of the statement shows nature of nurture factor in development. From 4-6,
decide whether the statement is correct or wrong, if your answer is wrong, give a
short reason. Write your answer before the number.

_______ 1. James develops liking for chess because he plays chess with his
father everyday.
_______ 2. Myla has curly hair. Her mother has curly hair too.
_______ 3. People behave and socialize in certain ways because of the cultural
expectations of the society.
_______ 4. There’s conclusive evidence that nature effect more development that
nurture.
_______ 5. A person is more shaped by the experiences he had after birth.

REFERENCES

Acero, V. [Link]., (2013) Human Growth Development and Learning.

Manila: Rex Book store
French, F. (2003). Revisiting Nature vs. Nurture: Implications for
the Teaching/Learning Process. Education Canada, 43(2), 20-23.

[Link]

VISION MISSION
The leading center for academic and technological excellence Develop competent and morally upright professionals and generate
and prime catalyst for a progressive and sustainable Quirino appropriate knowledge and technologies to meet the needs of Quirino
Province and Southern Cagayan Valley. Province and Southern Cagayan Valley.

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”