ROLE OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT
At the school level, you must have noticed that the learner
learns concepts differently. Some of the learners learn concepts quickly and
others slowly. For example, take the case of drawing of a diagram of a flower
or a plant. Why do you think there is some kind of variation in learning?
Further, you might have observed certain variations in their handwriting or
scholastic achievement in school subjects. What may be the reasons for such
varied responses? It may be difficult to give an acceptable answer. This is
because of there are two obvious causes. They are:
i) Heredity
ii) Environment
Heredity is the sum total of the traits potentially present
in the fertilized ovum. All the qualities that a child has inherited from the
parents is called heredity.
The union of male and female germ cells causes fertilization
of the ovum. The fertilized egg is known as zygote. Each chromosome contains
numbers genes. The genes are responsible for the development of particular
traits.
Definitions of Heredity:
According to R.S. Woodworth “Heredity covers all the factors
that are present in the individual when he begins life not at birth, but at the
time of conception about nine months before birth.”
According to James Drever “Heredity is the transmission
from parents to offspring’s of physical and mental characteristics.”
According to Ruth Bandict “Heredity is transmission of
traits from parents to offspring.”
According to H.A. Paterson “Heredity may be defined as what
one gets from his ancestral stock through his parents.”
According to O.B. Douglas and B.F. Holland “One’s heredity
consists of all the structures, physical characteristics, functions or
capacities derived from parents, other ancestry or species.”
According to J.A. Thomson “Heredity is mainly a convenient
term for the genetic relation between successive generations.”
According P. Gisburt “Every act of generation in nature is
the transmission by the parents to their off-spring of certain characteristics
biological or psychological. The complex of the characteristics thus
transmitted is known by the name of heredity”.
MEANING OF ENVIRONMENT:
Environment means the totality of the stimuli that impinge
on the organism from without whatever found around the individual may be called
by the term environment. Environment consists of various types of forces like
physical, social, moral, economical, political cultural and emotional forces. A
favorable environment caters to the development of native abilities of a
child.
Definition of environment:
According to Anastaxi “The environment is everything that
affects the individual except his genes”.
According to Douglas and Holland “the term environment is the aggregate of all the external forces, influences and conditions, which affect the life, nature, behaviour, the growth, and development and maturation of living organisms”.
According to Gilbert “environment is anything immediately
surrounding an object and exerting a direct influence on it”
RELATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT
Heredity is defined as the totality of biologically
transmitted factors that influence the structure of the body and environment is
the totality of conditions that serve to stimulate behaviour or act to bring
about modification of behaviour. Both heredity and environment are important in
the life of an individual; both are the determinants of development.
According to ROSS, the action of these factors in
determining the level of an individual’s biological, psychological and social
development is sometimes expressed in the following formula:
H X E X T = DL
i.e. Heredity X Environment X Time = Development level of an
individual personality.
This formula implies the fact that it is meaningless to
speak of either heredity or environment, acting alone. Both are necessary for
the development that takes place in an individual.
Heredity works only
in some sort of environment. Without environment, it is useless and environment
without heredity means nothing. It means both are very important in the life of
the individual. Heredity gives us the body, structure, complexion or features
etc., and the environment provides the opportunities to develop them.
Landis and Landis remarked that “heredity gives us
capacities to be developed but opportunities for the development of these
capacities must come from the environment”.
According to Woodworth, both are equally essential in the
growth and development of the child.
Individual is the result of multiplication between heredity
and environment. Individual is represented by the area of a rectangle, where as
heredity is the base and environment is the height. Area of rectangle does not
depend merely upon the base or height, it depends on both. Similarly,
individual is a result of heredity and environment. The development of
hereditary potentialities is a matter of environment.
A = b x h
Heredity and environment cannot act in isolation. Every
individual possess heredity, these traits develop on an environment for their
nourishment.
Murphy has rightly pointed out, “heredity is known only by
the liberation of heredity potentials through specific environmental forces and
what is liberated is as much as function of the environment pressures as it is
of the latent or potential deposition”.
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATION:
The knowledge of both the factors will help the teacher in
finding out the individual differences among his students in learning either
Mathematics or English as well as in adjusting his teaching methods and
techniques accordingly, like project method and communicative teaching
techniques. The knowledge of heredity and environment is very much essential for
a teacher in dealing with all kinds of exceptional children including gifted,
normal, below average, and problem children, and first generation learners
including educationally backward children.
- The background of the learner: previous knowledge, intelligence, family background, lack of interest, aptitude and attitude play an important role. Some students who lag behind in some do better in the other area of achievement. Hence teacher must provide a congenial atmosphere for the students and treat them equally. The teacher must motivate them to adjust with the environment.
- There are individuals who deviate from the norms of group due to many factors. Hence the classroom teacher should try to have the desired knowledge of the abilities, capacity, interests, and attitudes, aptitudes and other personality traits of his/her pupils and in the light of this knowledge he/she should render individual guidance for the maximum utilization of their potentialities.
- Different methods of teaching must be adopted in the classroom. This helps in catering to the needs of different individuals according to their interest and understanding level.
- The school must be the place for personality development. The school should organized programmes on leadership group dynamics, keeping background the heredity and environment of the learner.
- Every school must have a guidance and counselling center.
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