Pariksha SaathiLesson 2 of 10 · Child Development and Pedagogy
Heredity, Environment and Socialisation: Nature, Nurture and the Teacher's Role
Drafted with AI assistance and fact-checked on 28 October 2026; not yet read line by line by a human editor. Spotted a mistake? Tell us. Editorial standards & corrections
Heredity
Heredity is the passing of characteristics from parents to children through genes, which are carried on chromosomes in the nucleus of the body's cells. A human cell normally has 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs, one member of each pair coming from the mother and one from the father, and a child's genetic make-up is fixed at conception. Heredity influences eye and skin colour, blood group, body build, the range of possible height, the rate of maturation and, to some extent, temperament and general mental ability. Gregor Mendel's experiments on pea plants in the nineteenth century laid down the basic laws of inheritance. Heredity does not decide everything, however: it sets a range, a potential, within which the environment works.
Environment
Environment means all the external influences that act on a person from conception onwards. The prenatal environment includes the mother's nutrition, health and exposure to drugs, alcohol or infections. After birth come the physical environment (food, climate, housing, sanitation), the social environment (family, neighbourhood, school, peers, community) and the cultural environment (language, customs, values and beliefs). Poverty, malnutrition and lack of stimulation can keep a child from reaching her potential, while books, conversation, play and caring adults help her achieve it.
The nature-nurture debate
Francis Galton, who wrote Hereditary Genius (1869) and popularised the phrase nature and nurture, argued that ability is mainly inherited. Long before him John Locke had described the newborn mind as a tabula rasa, a blank slate written on by experience, and the behaviourist John B. Watson boasted that, given a dozen healthy infants, he could train any one of them to become any kind of specialist. Twin studies help separate the two influences: identical (monozygotic) twins share all their genes, so differences between identical twins reared apart point to the environment, while their similarities point to heredity. The accepted view today is interactionist: development is the product, not the sum, of heredity and environment, and neither works alone. A child born with musical potential will not become a musician without exposure to music, and no amount of coaching can create a potential that is absent. For a teacher the practical lesson is that ability is not fixed at birth, so no child should be written off.
Socialisation and its agents
Socialisation is the lifelong process through which a child learns the language, norms, values, roles and behaviour of her society and becomes a functioning member of it. Primary socialisation takes place in the family in the early years: there the child learns her mother tongue, forms attachments and absorbs her first ideas of right and wrong, of gender roles and of who 'we' are, which is why the family is called the child's first school. Secondary socialisation follows through the school, peer groups, neighbourhood, religious and community bodies and the mass media. The school brings formal rules, less personal relationships, children from other backgrounds and a planned curriculum, along with a hidden curriculum - unstated lessons about obedience, competition or equality taught through routines. Peers offer relationships among equals in which children learn cooperation, sharing, settling quarrels and conformity; in adolescence peer influence often rivals that of parents. Television and the internet supply models and information but also stereotypes about gender, appearance and consumption.
Bronfenbrenner and parenting styles
Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory places the child at the centre of nested systems: the microsystem (family, classroom, friends) with which she interacts directly; the mesosystem, the links between microsystems, such as contact between parents and teachers; the exosystem, settings that affect her indirectly, such as a parent's workplace; the macrosystem of culture, values and laws; and the chronosystem, change over time. Diana Baumrind described the authoritative parenting style (warm but firm, with reasons explained), the authoritarian style (strict, demanding obedience, with little warmth) and the permissive style (warm but with few limits); a fourth, uninvolved or neglectful style was added later by Eleanor Maccoby and John Martin. Authoritative parenting is generally linked with the best outcomes, and the same balance of warmth and clear expectations makes a good classroom.
Culture, learning and the teacher
Children come to school with knowledge built in their homes and communities - counting with money, plants and animals they know, songs, stories and often two or three languages. NCF 2005 asks teachers to connect knowledge to life outside school and to treat this home knowledge and multilingualism as resources, not deficits. A teacher is herself an agent of socialisation and a role model, and children copy her fairness, language and attitudes. When a child from a tribal community uses words from her home language, or the child of a farming family knows a great deal about crops, the teacher should bring that knowledge into the lesson. She should avoid stereotyping any caste, religion, region, class or gender, build a classroom where every child belongs, and keep in touch with parents so that home and school work together. In a CTET item, the right answer usually treats the child's background as a strength and the school as a place that respects diversity.
Key facts
- Heredity: passing of traits through genes on chromosomes; a human cell has 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs; genetic make-up is fixed at conception and sets the potential.
- Environment: every external influence from conception onwards - prenatal (mother's health and nutrition), physical, social and cultural; it decides how far potential is realised.
- Galton (Hereditary Genius, 1869) stressed heredity; Locke's tabula rasa and Watson's 'dozen healthy infants' boast stressed environment; today's view is interaction.
- Identical (monozygotic) twins reared apart are studied to separate heredity from environment: differences between them point to the environment.
- Primary agent of socialisation: the family (the child's first school). Secondary agents: school, peer group, community, religious bodies and mass media.
- Hidden curriculum: the unstated lessons a school teaches through its routines and relationships - about obedience, competition, gender roles or equality.
- Bronfenbrenner: microsystem (family, school), mesosystem (links between them), exosystem (parent's workplace), macrosystem (culture), chronosystem (time).
- Baumrind: authoritative (warm and firm - best outcomes), authoritarian (strict, little warmth), permissive (warm, few limits); uninvolved style added by Maccoby and Martin.
- NCF 2005: connect knowledge to life outside school; a child's home language and community knowledge are resources, not deficits.
Quick revision
Heredity = genes on 46 chromosomes (23 pairs), fixed at conception, sets potential; environment = prenatal, physical, social, cultural; Galton (1869) heredity, Locke tabula rasa and Watson environment; development = heredity x environment; family primary agent, school, peers, media secondary; hidden curriculum; Bronfenbrenner micro, meso, exo, macro, chrono; Baumrind: authoritative best; home knowledge and languages are resources (NCF 2005).