lesson plan

Week 1

What is child development?

McDevitt et al. (2013, p. 4) claim that the 'field of child development seeks to identify and explain persistent, cumulative and progressive changes in the development of children and adolescents'. They write that a child’s development is 'guided by three factors: Nature or Heredity – the genetic inheritance with which the child is born; Nurture or Environment – the influence of the setting in which the child lives; and Agency – the child’s choices, mental processes, emotional responses and behaviors'.

Week 2

Cognitive development

Cognitive development looks specifically at the brain development of children from birth, examining how they think and understand at various stages of their lives. You may have already heard a little about the two major cognitive development theorists: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, who each have strong views about influencing factors on cognitive development. As you are working through the readings and videos below, consider the similarities and differences between each theorist and how this applies to education.

Online resources

Websites

Theories of cognitive development: Jean Piaget (Eddy, 2010a) provides an overview of the key concepts and stages of development that are core to Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

Piaget: Implications for teaching (Webb, 1980) discusses how Piaget's views are best incorporated into the classroom environment.

Videos

Piaget’s stages of development (Misssmith891, 2011) gives practical demonstrations of children at different stages of development.

Online resources

Websites

Theories of cognitive development: Lev Vygotsky (Eddy, 2010b).

Bridging developmental theory and educational practice in Barbarin et al. (2009) discusses how the Vygotskian approach might affect your teaching practice.

Videos

An introduction to Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development (Johnson, 2010).

Summary of cognitive development: 6-12 years of age

· From Child development: A practitioner's guide (Davies, 2010, p. 382)

· Increasingly accurate perception of reality (reality testing) (6+ years).

· Reversibility: systematic ability to analyse perceptions by thinking back over them (6-7 years).

· Improving understanding of cause and effect; decline in magical thinking (6-7 years).

· Decentration: decline in egocentrism and increase in decentred thought allow child to distinguish between subjective and objective reality (6-7 years+).

· Concrete operations: processes of logic and reasoning can be applied to understand immediate reality (6-7 years+).

· Developmental spurt in cognitive functions at about age 7: spatial organisation, visual organisational ability, time orientation, distinctions between parts and wholes, serration, auditory processing (6-8 years).

· Memory: improved registration and categorisation of memory contributes to mastery of academic tasks (6 years+).

· Executive processes: new skills in thinking about problem solving, sustaining attention to intellectual tasks (7-8 years+).

Week 3

Moral development

You may find that moral development is an area of development that is charged with strong personal views and ideas, as it revolves around the idea of morality itself… or does it?

Read this Definition of morality (Gert, 2011). Notice that the definition provided is one devoid of an absolute truth. That is, what society deems morally appropriate is the standard.

How does this definition of morality affect how we view moral development? If there is no absolute or universal truth by which we can measure moral development, perhaps development has more to do with our cognitive ability to distinguish between and conform to socially accepted standards of morality. What do you think?

Once you have read the definition of morality, watch the documentary Moral development in children: Theories, stages, impact (Marcom Projects, 2010). You will need to log in to the Swinburne library in order to access the video. It is 33 minutes in length, but well worth the time as it will further add to your understanding of moral development.

Summary of moral development, 6-12 years of age (from Child development: A practitioner’s guide, p. 383):

· Decentred thinking and perspective-taking enable a child to better understand and empathise with the needs of others (6 years+).

· Development of conscience (superego) as an internal force controlling behaviour (5-7 years).

· Cognitive understanding of rationales, rules, and norms of correct behaviour (6-7 years+).

· Social conformity and acceptance of authority supports adherence to rules and expectations (6 years+).

· Moral perspectives evolve from emphasising equal treatment for all (6-7 years), to emphasising merit as basis for reward (8-9 years), to recognition of need to balance recognition of merit with benevolence (10-12 years+).

Week 4

Social development and Social neuroscience

Neuroscience is now explaining our natural inclination and need to care for others and build loving, collaborative relationships.

If we have a natural, biological need to care for and work with others, how might this affect our teaching practices?

Watch the movie An introduction to social and emotional learning (Edutopia, 2010) which explores developing students' emotional intelligence.

Summary of social development (6-12 years of age):

· Increasing orientation towards peers, development of friendships (6+ years).

· Social skills (sharing, negotiation, etc.) develop through peer interaction (6+ years).

· Development of peer group norms and status hierarchies (6+ years).

· Pro-social behaviour, based on internalisation of values and improved perspective taking (6+ years).

· Social perspective taking – increasingly clear understanding of others’ viewpoints, social expectations, and social cues (6+ years).

· Awareness of the psychological intent of others (8-10 years).

· Ability to hold two opposing viewpoints in mind at the same time (10-12 years).

· Clearer understanding of emotions and emotional nuances in self and others (10-12 years).

· Davies, D (2010). Child Development: A Practitioner’s Guide. 3rd Edition. New York: Guildford Press. p. 381.

Week 5

Emotional development is very much intertwined with social and moral development, but is there a place for emotional development in your classroom? You may be shocked to hear neuroscientists claim that emotional development is a core element of the very purpose of education.

Current trends show that many educators are now embracing the idea of educating children in a more holistic way; the sole focus is no longer on filling children's minds with factual knowledge, but also treating children as social and emotional beings who are developing these skills as they grow and develop. Do teachers need to find ways to help children develop the skills they need to cope with the expectations of living in the 21st century?

Neuroscience and the classroom is a comprehensive site on neuroscience and its implications for classroom practice. In particular, look at the unit on Unity of emotion, thinking and learning (The Annenberg Foundation, 2012).

Strategies to increase children’s emotional resilience:

Teachers should never underestimate their power to build children’s resilience by establishing a nurturing and safe classroom climate and, above all, a strong relationship with children (Brooks & Goldstien, 2008). A warm relationship of trust with teachers is seen by many experts as the strongest protective factor operating in schools (Nickolite & Doll, 2008). A feeling of belonging and being valued enhances children’s sense of self-worth and their ability to face obstacles and take risks in learning.

Model a positive attitude to failure/setbacks. This is particularly important if children do not have the ‘glass-half-full’ outlook modelled at home. Share personal stories or read picturebooks featuring characters who have overcome setbacks.

Make children aware that they will not be judged as inferior or less lovable if they fail, otherwise they will fear trying because of the possibility of not meeting expectations. Display inspirational quotes or posters around the classroom, for example:

Fall seven times, get up eight. (Japanese proverb)

The first pancake is always a failure (Russian proverb)

Your failures could be stepping stones to success (American proverb).

Explain that Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb after more than 2000 experiments. When asked by a young reporter how it felt to fail so many times, he replied: ‘I never failed once. I invented the light-bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process’ (Siccone & Canfield, 1993, p. 137)

Through school newsletters, outline safe and age-appropriate challenges parents could provide to help children step outside their comfort zone and learn to adapt to new and challenging situations. Bolster the confidence and self-esteem of children whose parents harbour unrealistically high expectations of them or are constantly critical of results and behaviour.

Well-tried and popular resources, such as Bounceback (McGrath & Noble, 2003), provide a sequential approach for teaching resilience. See also Leyden, R & Shale, E. (2012). What teachers need to know about: Social and Emotional Development. Melbourne: ACER Press. pp. 53-54.

Week 6

This week you will look at two concepts that work as a foundation to social and emotional development: self-concept and self-worth. You will have already read a little about these important developmental elements throughout the previous weeks, but this week will take a look at them in more detail. We will begin by looking at how we perceive ourselves.

From early childhood onwards, we begin to associate particular characteristics with ourselves and others. The idea of self-concept is one that evolves into adulthood but this week we focus on young children and young adolescent.

The benefits of a healthy self-esteem

The effects of having low self-esteem and poor self-concept can lead to behaviour problems in the classroom, a lack of interest in lessons, and poor social skills. On the other hand, Leyden and Shale (2012, p. 42) state that children with high self-esteem are more:

· popular, cooperative, independent and responsible

· resilient

· capable of handling emotions and developing good relationships

· positive about school

· protected from bullying

· able to reach their potential academically.

In relation to your study, do you have high or low self-esteem/self-concept? How does this affect your studies?

It is therefore worthwhile to actively promote the development of a healthy self-concept and self-esteem as a part of your teaching practice.

Strategies to help children develop a healthy self-concept:

Children who feel different can develop negative self-concepts. Encouraging an acceptance of difference – be it cultural, physical or family differences – helps children begin to see difference as special rather than something to be ashamed of.

Producing a family tree or investigating the life of one special family member helps children establish a deeper sense of belonging, which aides self-concept and identity development. Allowing children to choose how they present their family protects those who may not want to fully reveal their situation.

Encourage a cooperative classroom by assigning roles (e.g. scribe, organiser, or presenter) where children will shine and can use their strengths: ‘Tom, I want you to be a group leader because you’re a born organiser’. Avoid placing children in positions where they might 'fail' such as asking poor readers to read aloud. Subtly choose less difficult subjects or passages and have children rehearse these before class or public presentations.

Help students accept their limitations while identifying and developing their strengths. Some children don’t recognise their own strengths and capabilities.

Sourced from: Leyden, R & Shale, E (2012) What teachers need to know about: Social and emotional development. Melbourne: ACER Press.

Strategies to increase a child’s self-esteem:

Identify and praise talents – personal, social, emotional and academic.

Introduce the concept of multiple intelligences to children (Gardner, 1993). Every child is strong in one of the intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, special or visual, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic or existential. Gifts may be well hidden, but teachers are generally great archaeologists when faced with unearthing children’s special skills and attributes. Teachers will vividly remember children with high levels of interpersonal intelligence who could conduct visitors around the school with great self-assurance or the child who was a great sports person, yet these children struggled academically. Allowing children the opportunity to shine where their talents lie builds self-esteem.

Children need to know that teachers believe in them and have high expectations of them. Negative messages can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a landmark study, children who knew their teachers had low expectations of them consequently developed low levels of self-perceived academic ability and low self-esteem (Phillips, 1984).

Extra-curricular activities have been linked to better school results, which boosts self-esteem (Guest & Schneider, 2003). Help children step outside their comfort zone and face new challenges, again emphasising that effort is as highly valued as results. Carefully chosen challenges with a high chance of success help children get scores on the board.

It is never too early to give children careers education (Magnuson & Starr, 2000; Proctor, 2005). This increases self-esteem and self-reflection while empowering children, facilitating identity formation and providing many other tangible benefits socially, emotionally and academically.

Students with particularly low self-esteem may require a referral to a counsellor within or outside the school.

Sourced from: Leyden, R. & Shale, E. (2012). What teachers need to know about: Social and emotional development. Melbourne: ACER Press.

Week 7

You are probably starting to discover that there is great overlap between the developmental areas; that they all relate to each other quite closely. This makes sense when we consider the complexity of a human being. You might like to imagine a human like a large factory comprised of many rooms, all working on the same project.

This week we will enter the room titled 'attachment'. It has corridors that run directly through to the social and emotional rooms of this 'human factory'. It is in this room that strong emotional ties to a specific person help a child to develop a sense of security.

This development of security is a fundamental human need and therefore a crucial area of development. The idea of attachment is one that is commonly associated with mothers and infants, however it applies to caregivers who spend a substantial amount of time with the child. John Bowlby is largely considered the father of attachment theory, and he used biology as the basis of his theory. Many experiments and observations have been conducted about the effect of attachment, or a lack of, can have on children from birth into adulthood.

Although healthy attachment is developed primarily at home with significant caregivers during infancy, it is important for teachers to have an understanding of attachment theory and how to address social problems that might result from a child who hasn’t experienced a healthy attachment with their primary caregiver.

Summary of attachment in middle childhood

· Child uses autonomous coping rather than attachment seeking in situations of mild stress (6+ years).

· Rituals symbolising attachment persist – bedtime routines, gestures and affection (6+ years).

· Proximity seeking may be activated in situations of severe stress or during transitions, such as entry into school (6+ years).

· Attachment needs are increasingly expressed in friendships with peers (6+ years).

· Attachment remains salient as child moves through preadolescence – parental support and monitoring facilitate to adolescence (11-13+ years).

Week 8

We have looked at cognitive, moral, social and emotional development as well as the development of self-concept and attachment.

This week we will look at the brain. That is, quite specifically, development that occurs in relation to the physical functions and capacities of the brain itself.

So how will this week differ from what you have already covered in weeks that focused on cognitive development?

Unlike cognitive development theories that look specifically at explaining the construction of thought processes, this week you will be examining the science behind the brain and how this might affect the construction of thought processes.

As we delve into the depths of neuroscience, you may find some of the reading a bit heavy and technical. This is okay. Just push on through and aim to understand the broad ideas of what you are reading, how it might relate to your understanding of development, and how it will affect classroom practice.

Week 9 Physical delay

Last week we examined the development of the brain and the neuroscience related to it. This week we are still looking at physical development, but that of the rest of the body.

Over the course of this week, we will explore those things that impact on physical development, such as stress, nutrition, and sleep but we will also look at how you can further enhance physical development in school.

Two important forms of physical development that will be discussed this week are:

· gross motor development

· Fine motor development.

If you are unfamiliar with these kinds of muscular development, read Physical development: Motor development (Seven Counties Services, 2012) for some definitions.

Reading

Read pp. 51-67 from Bergin and Bergin (2012) Growth and motor development for an excellent overview of physical development in children.

Physical development can have a positive impact on many forms of development. The following readings emphasise the importance of physical education in schools, not only for increased and more refined physical development, but also for cognitive development and the cultivation of a healthy self-concept.

Additional reading

Physical education is critical to a complete education provides more information on the important role of physical education as part of an education program (National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2007).

Physical growth in middle childhood provides a very concise overview of physical growth in middle childhood. You may like to print this page for future reference in the field (University of Kansas, n.d.)

If you don’t have a specialist PE teacher in your school, you will be required to implement games and gross motor skills development activities into your classroom schedule yourself. In EDU80001: Humanities, Health and Physical Education in the Primary Classroom, you will discuss this in more detail. With regard to fine motor skills development, the following Prac App will help to stimulate ideas for fine motor skills development in your classroom.

100 Ideas for teaching physical development (Brownhill, 2009) is a book that makes an excellent resource for classroom practice. It succinctly covers reasons why physical education is important in boosting various kinds of development and will give you plenty of ideas for lessons that will stimulate physical development in children.

Week 10

Over the past nine weeks, we have looked at various types of development. This week you will look at one element that may aid almost all of these kinds of development: play.

Formerly considered just a frivolous way to spend time, play is now considered crucial in the process of healthy development. The Early Years Learning Framework in Australia is built around the idea of play and places a heavy emphasis on the benefits of play in educational settings.

Think about some of the following statements that Stuart Brown made in the TED talk above:

· Life without play is depression.

· We’re all designed to play throughout our lifetime.

· Play is related to the development of trust between individuals.

· 'Neoteny' gives us an advantage with adaptability.

· Do you feel that play is only important for children? Could classroom practice be enhanced by including the teacher in the play activities?

Reading

Play science: The patterns of play from the National Institute for Play (USA, founded by Stuart Brown) will take you through seven types of play with explanations and references to further information about each type of play (The National Institute for Play, 2009).

Read about play and the power it has to boost a child's development from birth to the end of middle childhood: The power of play to boost children's development (Coulson, 2011).

Summary of development of play and fantasy

· Play is increasingly sublimated into a work orientation, emphasising physical skills and intellectual competence (6-7+ years).

· Play continues to be a source of pleasure and discharge, but now is increasingly ritualised into games (6+ years).

· Fantasy play is increasingly ritualised and rule governed (6+ years).

· Uses of fantasy include displacement of feelings and wishes into imaginary scenarios and imagining the self in more competent or grown up roles (6+ years).

· Interest in collections and hobbies (7-8+ years).

· Interest and growing ability in games involving planning and strategy (10-12 years).

Want to know more?

Read the following article The impact of pretend play on children’s development: A review of the evidence (Lillard, Lerner, Hopkins, Dore, Smith & Palmquist, 2013) for research evidence that points to the benefits of pretend play in child development.

Hughes (2010), Chapter 8 Play and intellectual development considers the impact play has on intellectual development, and more specifically, language development.

Week 11 Language and literacy development

Although you will complete (or have already completed) a practicum unit that focuses specifically on the teaching of literacy, this week will give you an understanding of the theory behind language and literacy development as it relates to some of the concepts of development we have examined in previous weeks.

The first activity this week is to watch Middle childhood: Cognitive & language development (2012). You will need to log in to view this video.

You might like to think about the idea of bilingual instruction. Do you think this is a more effective method of education for students who are learning English as their second language? When teaching Indigenous children, for example, English is quite often their third or fourth language. Do you think that bilingual instruction would be an effective method of improving both language development and content comprehension?

Readings

Read the information on the following web page Language development for an introduction into language development for babies up to school-aged children (Encyclopedia of Children's Health, n.d.).

Read Riley (2006), Chapter 4 The emergent phase of literacy. It will guide you through the emergent phases of literacy. The subject focus of 'Chapter 12: Children who find learning to read and write difficult' may also be especially helpful when completing your final assessment.

Chapter 14 Teaching and learning to read (Wasik & Newman, 2009, pp. 303-322), suggests that literacy development works on a continuum, and that for children to develop reading skills they need to progress chronologically through a particular order of these skills. This has implications for teachers in that all of their students will have had diverse experiences relating to literacy and reading development, and will therefore require individualised programs that ensure all skills that might have been missed during infancy have been covered in order for them to progress throughout their future primary school years.

Additional Reading

Read Wells, Chapter 13 The social context of language and literacy development in Barbarin et al. (2009). Towards the end of this chapter (you may like to just skip ahead to pp. 293-300), the importance of creating a positive environment that values reading, writing and talking is discussed. These pages may be useful for developing ideas for engaging lessons and literacy-friendly environments

Summary of language and communication development

Basic facility in syntax and grammar established (6-7 years).

Gradually increasing understanding of nuances in meaning and more difficult grammatical features such as passive voice (6-7 years).

Gradually increasing ability to put thoughts and feelings into words (6+ years).

Narrative ability – child can tell an organised story (7+ years).

Understanding of wordplay, jokes, figures of speech, metaphor (8-10 years).

Growing ability, especially for girls, to articulate and share complex emotional concerns (10-12+ years).

References for the all the weeks

References we have used throughout the whole unit are listed immediately below.

Davies, D. (2010). Child development: A practitioner’s guide (3rd ed.). New York: Guildford Press.

Icons

· Nguyen, A. M. (from The noun project). (2012). Thinking [icon]. Retrieved from http://thenounproject.com/noun/thinking/#icon-No6771 (CC-BY-3.0)

· Prado, L. (from The noun project). (2012). Notebook [icon]. Retrieved from http://thenounproject.com/noun/notebook/#icon-No6085 (CC BY 3.0)

· Vogel, J. (from The noun project). (2012). Hand [icon]. Retrieved from http://thenounproject.com/noun/hand/#icon-No2372 (CC BY 3.0)

Week 1

Daniels, D. & Shumow, L., (2003). Child development and classroom teaching: A review of the literature and implications for educating teachers. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 23(5), 495-526.

Learning Zone Express. (2012). Child development theorists: Freud to Erikson to Spock and beyond [video file]. Retrieved from http://swinburne.kanopystreaming.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/video/child-development-theorists-freud-erikson-spock%E2%80%A6and-beyond

Vercillo, K. (2012). Why it is important for teachers to understand child development stages. Retrieved from http://kathrynvercillo.hubpages.com/hub/WhyTeachersMustUnderstandChildDevelopment

Week 2