Erikson's model of psychosocial development emphasizes that a teacher should encourage the virtue associated with a stage. This is

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Only for elementary students
• D. Irrelevant to instruction

Answer: (A)

In Erikson’s theory, each developmental stage comes with a psychosocial crisis and a corresponding virtue that emerges when that crisis is resolved positively. The teacher’s role is to support students in developing that virtue by creating a classroom environment that offers appropriate challenges, feedback, and opportunities to succeed. By encouraging the virtue linked to a student’s current stage, the teacher helps promote healthy social and emotional growth, not just academics. For example, in the stage associated with industry, providing tasks that are challenging yet attainable and praising effort builds a sense of competence. This idea applies beyond elementary years as well, because virtues like autonomy, initiative, identity, and generativity can be nurtured at various ages through supportive instruction and interactions. So the statement that a teacher should encourage the virtue associated with a stage is true.