Understanding The Learner (UTL)

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• Understanding The Learner (UTL)
• (Spring Semester PgDE 2009)
• __________________________
• Child Development An Introduction
• Module Tutor
• Karma Gayphel

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• Lets think of these questions
• What made you the kind of child you were?
• What made you the kind of adult you are now?
• What made your parents, friends, teachers, the
  leaders of government the way they are?
• What factors will influence your children to be
  in future?
• What influences some person to become a mass
  murderer and other a humanitarian?
• What influenced you to be different from your
  next neighbours and even from your own brothers
  and sisters?
• The answers to these questions are what we hope
  to find by studying human development from birth
  to life span

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• 1.1 What is Development?
• Development is the pattern of change that begins
  at conception and continues through the lifespan.
• What are some changes we undergo as we grow from
  childhood to adulthood?
• Biological
• Cognitive Three Domains
  of Development
• Socio-emotional
• Development is a product of biological, cognitive
  and socio-emotional processes

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• 1.2 Why Study Child Development?
• Responsibility for children is part of our
  everyday
• life as parents teachers.
• The more you know them, the better you can deal
  
• with them.
• Gain insights into our own growth history.
• To understand how we change as we grow up and the
  forces that contribute to this change.

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1.3 Periods of Development

• Periods of dev. hyperlink.doc

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• 1.4 Developmental Issues
• a) Nature vs. Nurture
• Nature refers to the inborn biological traits
  such as heredity and genetically controlled
  maturational processes of development.
• Nurture refers effects of environmental
  conditions on our development.

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• Which has the most important influence on our
  development biological inheritance or
  environmental experience?
• Think about commonalities such as
• we walk before we talk
• speak using one word before using two words
• grow rapidly in infancy and less so in early
  childhood
• experience a rush of sexual hormones during
  adolescence
• reach peak of physical strength during early
  adulthood etc.
• In contrast think about how the following
  influence us
• family, friends
• school, community
• media, culture etc.

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b) Continuity and Discontinuity Does our
development involve gradual, cumulative change
from conception to death or does it involve
distinct stages in life span?


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Do we grow slowly and cumulatively like a
seedling to a great big tree, or are there
sudden distinct changes in our growth just as a
caterpillar changes into butterfly?
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• c) Early and Later experience
• Are we more affected by events that occur in
  early childhood, or do later events play an
  equally important role?
• OR
• Is our later development determined by our early
  experiences of childhood or does it continue to
  be like the ebb and flow of a river rather than
  statue like?
• However, developmentalists recognize that it is
  unwise to take an extreme view. For instance,
  most believe that the key to development is the
  interaction of nature and nurture rather than
  either factor alone.

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References

• McDevitt, T. M. and Ormrod, J. E. (2004). Child
  Development Educating and Working with
  Children and Adolescents. (2nd Ed.). Pearson
  Education, Inc., Upper River, New Jersey.
• Meadows, S. (1990). Understanding Child
  Development. Unwin Hyman, Broadwick
  Street, London.
• Santrock, J. W. (1998). Child Development.(8th
  Ed.). McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., USA.
• Wagner, K. V. (2009). Issues in
  Developmental Psychology. The New York Times
  Company. Retrieved February, 18, 2009 from
  http//psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsycho
  logy/a/devissues.htm