Child Development and Children’s Learning. Introduction to Learning Theory.

1. Child Development and Children’s Learning.Introduction to Learning Theory.

2. Learning Outcomes • To know how children develop and learn. • To be aware of key theories of learning and the implications of these for classroom practice. • TS 1, TS 4, TS 5, TS 7

3. A tiny human in a sperm, drawn by a 17th century microscopist (Hartsoeker, 1694)

4. Maturation • Sequential patterns of change that are governed by instructions contained in the genetic code and shared by all members of a species. • Any maturational pattern is marked by 3 qualities: • It is universal, appearing in all children across cultural boundaries • It is sequential, involving some pattern of unfolding skill or characteristics • It is relatively impervious to environmental influence

5. Stages of development: • Periods of development which can be seen as distinctly different from each other and during which children experience the world in different ways. • At each stage children have unique, characteristic patterns of thought and behaviour • Continuity - discontinuity

6. The whole child The physical child • Physical development The social child • Social and emotional development • Spiritual and moral development The thinking child • Language Development • Cognitive development

7. What develops? Bruce and Meggitt (2006) • Physical development • Intellectual development • Language development • Emotional development • Social development • Spiritual development

8. The Physical Child – Physical development • Gross motor skills which use the large muscles of the body • Fine motor skills which involve single limb movements and precise movements of hands and fingers • Locomotion • Balance • Hand-eye co-ordination

9. The social child – social development • Concerns the child’s developing relationships with the people around him or her. • Vertical and horizontal relationships • Attachment • Social cognition • Emotional intelligence • Interpersonal and Intrapersonal intelligences

10. The social child – emotional development • Is concerned with the child’s developing ability to understand emotions, both his own and those of others • Impulse control • Self-concept • Self-esteem • Personality

11. The Social child – Spiritual and moral development • The developing sense of relationship with self, relating to others ethically, morally and humanely and a relationship with the universe • Piaget – moral realism, moral relativism • Kohlberg – pre-conventional, conventional and principled morality

12. The Thinking Child – Language development • ‘Inside-out’ theories – we are born with a language making capacity • ‘Outside-in’ theories - imitation - reinforcement - constructivist; language development is part of the broader process of cognitive development.

13. Four main areas of language competence • Phonology • Semantics • Syntax • Pragmatics

14. The Thinking Child – Intellectual or Cognitive development Learning can be seen as: ‘Relatively permanent changes in behaviour or in potential for behaviour that result from experience.’ (Lefrancoise, 1999)

15. The Thinking Child – Intellectual or Cognitive development • Knowledge • Concepts • Skills • Attitudes Learning can be considered as the process by which: • Acquired • Understood • Applied • Extended are (Pollard, 2008)

16. Operant conditioning B.F.SkinnerRat in Skinner Box

17. Child in the classroom

18. Pedagogy ‘Science of teaching’ Oxford English Dictionary

20. Break and reading!

21. What is learning? ‘Learning can be considered as the process by which knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes are acquired, understood applied and extended…Learning is partly a cognitive process, and partly social and affective.’ Pollard (2008)

22. What is learning? ‘Learning is provoked. Learning occurs in a specific situation, at a specific moment, or when a specific problem needs to be tackled. People help children to learn, by creating environments and atmospheres which promote learning.’ Bruce and Meggitt (2006)

23. Learning theories • Behaviourism • Constructivism • Social constructivism

24. Behaviourist theory • A behaviour followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behaviour occurring in the future • Aversive stimuli – something we find unpleasant or painful • Behaviourists cast learners in a passive role • Extrinsic – Intrinsic motivation

25. Constructivist theory • People learn through an interaction between thinking and experience, and through the development of more complex cognitive structures. • Jean Piaget – placed action and self-directed problem solving at the heart of learning and development • Accommodation and Assimilation

26. Piaget’s Stages of Development • Sensori–motor 0-2 yrs • Pre-operational a) pre-conceptual 2-4 yrs b) intuitive 4-7 yrs • Concrete operations 7-12 yrs • Formal operations 12 yrs

27. Intellectual / Cognitive development • Cognition • ‘Knowing…distinct from emotion’ Oxford English Dictionary • Jean Piaget • Swiss, clinical psychologist • 1896-1980 • Piaget’s theory: • Stages of cognitive development

28. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development • Sensori-motor  (Birth-2 yrs)  • Pre-operational  (2-7 years)  • Concrete operational  (7-11 years) • Formal operational  (11 years and up)

29. Piaget • Schema • Adaptation • Assimilation and Accommodation • Constructivism • 3 Mountains video

30. Challenges to Piaget’s Theory ‘Human sense’ • Donaldson M (1984) Children's Minds London; Fontana. • Wood D (1998) How Children Think and Learn (2nd edition) Oxford; Blackwell.

31. Social Constructivist theory • Children as active learners • Significance of social processes • Vygotsky • Appropriate intervention by more knowledgeable others • Zone of Proximal Development

32. The zone of proximal development ‘ the distance between the actual developmental level as determined through problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers’ (Vygotsky, 1978)

33. Potential development Appropriate intervention The Zone of Proximal Development Actual development

34. ‘Scaffolding’ children’s learning - Bruner Scaffolding has distinctive aspects: • Recruitment – engage the interest and motivation of the child • Reduction – simplify the task by reducing the number of acts needed to reach a solution (manageable chunks) • Direct maintenance – encouragement • Marking critical features – highlight features of the task that are relevant • Demonstration - modelling

35. Bruner All learning should move through three set phases: • Enactive – by doing (sensori-motor) • Iconic – pictorial representation (concrete operations) • Symbolic – abstract representation (formal operations) • The spiral curriculum

39. What is a learning style? • An individual’s preferred method of learning • Estimated to be over 80 learning style models

40. The brain • Left Hand Side • logical • Right Hand Side • affective • Greenfield • Neurotransmitter connections

41. Multiple intelligences • Gardner • Linguistic intelligence • Logical-mathematical intelligence • Musical intelligence • Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence • Spatial intelligence • Inter-personal intelligence • Intra-personal intelligence

43. VAK • Dominant sense • Visual - sight • Auditory - sound • Kinaesthetic - touch

44. How do we learn? Effective pedagogy includes understanding of… • Learning theory • How learning happens • Needs of individual learners • Learning content • Preferred approaches to learning