Effects of Nature and Nurture on Students' Classroom Performances

There has been a huge debate on nature versus nurture and how it affects people. This debate has been going on for years in the study of human development. Nature and nurture seem to both have an effect on people, and they both definitely have an overall effect on the classroom performance of a student. 
When people use the term "nature" in reference to human development, they mean "inherited (genetic) influences on growth and functioning" (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2004, p. 7). This means the basic inherited traits such as walking, talking, standing upright and using basic utensils, but there are many other inherited characteristics such as physical attributes, intelligence and psychological traits.

The idea of nurture affecting the development of an individual means that environmental factors around the individual affect the way a person grows and develops on many levels. Nurture is the "effects of family, peers, schools, neighborhoods, culture, the media, the broader society, and the physical environment. Nurture affects children's development through multiple channels-physically through nutrition and activity; intellectually through informal experiences and formal instruction; socially through adult role models
and peer relationships" (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2004, p. 7).

Although the argument is nature versus nurture, I believe that both of these factors attribute the development of a child. I also believe that it is hard to completely distinguish between the two ideas. Nature will inevitably affect the classroom performance of a student because a student inherits certain traits that pertain to education. A student inherits the ability to do well in certain subjects and poor in other subjects. A student also inherits the certain psychological traits such as shyness or self confidence. Students may not be very assertive in class because they are inherently shy; this is also true in the case of students that have inherited a tendency to be outgoing. They will consistently be out spoken people.

This is where nurture comes into play because students who are shy by nature can be nurtured and encouraged to be more aggressive and this may cause a change in their development. It also appears that nurturing can play a stronger role at certain points of a child's development. There are critical times where nurturing is more influential, and this usually occurs for young adults and children. These times may be more effectual, but they are not the only time where the environment has affect.

Overall it appears that nature supplies people with certain characteristics, but they can be altered and modified by the environment to an extent. Students are especially influenced by environment because although they are instilled with genetic influence at birth they can be influenced through the learning process in a way that can cause change in their development.

References:

McDevitt, T., & Ormrod, J. (2004). Child Development: Educating and Working with Children and Adolescents (2nd ed.). : Prentice Hall