DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

North La Union Campus

Bacnotan, La Union
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT

LEARNERS AND
LEARNING PRINCIPLES
(EDUC 101)

PURITA R. ASPURIA

Module I
 2

COURSE OUTLINE
IN
CHILD AND ADOLESCENT LEARNERS AND LEARNING
PRINCIPLES (EDUC 101)

 COURSE
DESCRIPTION

This is a three-unit course which consists of six (6) modules. The Child
and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles focuses on child and
adolescent development with emphasis on contemporary research and theory
on biological, cognitive, language, social and emotional dimensions of
development and learning. Further, this includes factors that affect the
progress of development of the learners and appropriate pedagogical
principles.

OBJECTIVES

At the end of the course, the students should have been able to have:

1. demonstrate content knowledge and its application within and/or across

curriculum teaching areas;
2. demonstrate an understanding of the different research-based theories
related to the varied dimensions of child and adolescent development
and their application to each particular developmental level of the
learners;
3. demonstrate understanding of pedagogical principles suited to diverse
learners’ needs and experiences at different developmental levels;
4. demonstrate knowledge of laws, policies, guidelines, and
procedures that provide safe and secure learning environments; and
5. demonstrate knowledge of positive and non-violent discipline in
the management of learner procedure.

EDUC 101 – The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles
☑
1.
2.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Class attendance as scheduled
Active class participation through mutually agreed platform
3. Prescribed activities indicated in the learning module
4. Midterm and Final Examinations
5. Prompt submission of course requirements
6. Compliance with other requirements aligned to flexible blended learning
modality

 GRADING SYSTEM
Module Assignments -
Course Requirements, Activities, Assignments
60%

Midterm/Final Examination - 40%

100%
 MODULE I

BASIC CONCEPTS

Lesson 1 Definition Child and

Adolescent
Learners

Lesson 2 Growth and

Development (Nature and
Nurture)

Lesson 3 Periods of Development

Lesson 4 Developmental Tasks

and Education

Lesson 5 Domains of Development

Lesson 6 Context and Development

Lesson 7 Development and Pedagogy

 MODULE I

BASIC CONCEPTS


INTRODUCTION

This module has seven lessons that present to you the basic concepts
that are related to child and adolescent development. It will help you examine
how current research and theories on child and adolescent development
contribute to teaching and learning within and across different areas.
Lesson 1 describes child and adolescent learners according to the
universal definition of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
the World Health Organization.
Lesson 2 discusses the interaction of nature and nurture and their
influence in growth and development.
Lesson 3 provides a bird’s eye view of the periods of human
development.
Lesson 4 talks about the developmental tasks of infancy, childhood and
adolescence, on the basis of their physical growth, psychological pressures, and
socio- cultural pressures, and their educational implications.
Lesson 5 presents the distinctions and the association of the biological,
cognitive and socio-emotional domains of human development.
Lesson 6 tackles children’s developmental contexts and their
educational implications
Lesson 7 introduces the concepts of child development and pedagogy.
 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, you must be able to:

1. define child and other basic concepts that are associated to child and
adolescent learning and learning principles;
2. illustrate the influence of nature and nurture in growth and
development;
3. characterize distinctively the stages infancy, early childhood, middle
childhood, adolescence and adulthood;
4. identify the specific developmental tasks of the child and adolescent
learners and their educational implications;
5. illustrate the distinctions of biological, cognitive and socio-emotional
development;
6. write educational implications on varied the contexts child and
adolescent development; and
7. reflect on the relevance of child development and pedagogy

 DIRECTIONS/ MODULE ORGANIZER

There are seven lessons in the module. Read each lesson carefully then
answer the exercises/activities to find out how much you have benefited from
it. Work on these exercises carefully and critically and submit your output to
your subject professor.

In case you encounter difficulty, discuss this with your subject professor
during the face-to-face meeting.

Good luck and happy reading!!!

 Lesson 1


DEFINITION OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT
LEARNERS

In this lesson, you will learn the universal definitions of child and
adolescent. The definitions by UNESCO and UNICEF are contained in the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), described as Magna
Carta for Children which defines child as "every human being below the age of
18 years.” The UNCRC is an international convention that sets out the rights of
children: civil, economic, political, social and cultural rights. It is monitored by
the United Nations' Committee on the Rights of the Child which is composed of
members from countries around the world. The UNCRC will be further
discussed in Module 6.
UNESCO and UNICEF represent two different bodies of the United
Nations (UN) that are working together to improve literacy and education.
UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
It is concerned with eradication of poverty, achieving sustainable development
and intercultural negotiation to promote education, the sciences and culture.
It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in the Education, the
Sciences and Culture. Whereas, UNICEF is the United Nations International
Children's Emergency Fund, a special program of the United Nations which is
committed to the purpose of aiding national efforts for child care, that is to
improve the health, nutrition, education as well as general welfare of children.
The World Health Organization (WHO) gives the following definitions of
child and adolescent. A child is a person 19 years or younger unless national
law defines a person to be an adult at an earlier age. However, in these
guidelines when a person falls into the 10 to 19 age category they are referred
to as an adolescent. An infant is a child younger than one year of age
(Consolidated ARV guidelines, June 2013).

THINK!

In your own words, what is a child and its characteristics. Write your answer in
50 words or more.
Lesson 2

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

In this lesson, you will look into the impact of genetics and environment
in growth and development. You will also attain knowledge and comprehension
on what discriminates growth from development.
Human growth and development is a lifelong process of physical,
cognitive, and emotional growth and behavioral change. Growth is cellular and
is observed in quantifiable changes of physical aspects of the person such as
change in size. Development is organizational in nature and is is seen in the
qualitative overall and progressive changes of the person and change of
structure. Human children both grow and develop dramatically from birth
through about approximately 18 years of age.

The Influence of Nature and Nurture

One of the prevailing issues in psychology is the age-old debate on

nature and nurture, continuously seeking to understand the influence of nature
(genetics) and nurture (environment) on human development. The debate
intends to find out whether genetic factors have more influence on one’s
behavior or personality over environmental factors or the other way around.
Nature refers to genes or hereditary factors which are commonly seen in
appearance and characteristics while nurture implies environmental variables
such as how a child is raised, the socio-emotional relations and the surrounding
culture.
In order to understand the influence of genetics and environment, try to
look into the several perspectives in the fields of psychology and examine how
they agree and/or disagree in their contentions.
1. Plato and Descartes advocated that there are certain things that are
innate, or that they occur naturally apart from environmental contexts
and influences. They take the standpoint of nativists with the concept
that all or most characteristics and behaviors are the consequences of
inheritance and are the outcomes of evolution. Genetic traits handed
down from ancestors/parents influence the individual differences that
create uniqueness in every person.
2. John Locke, on the other hand, come with the concept of tabula rasa,
which gives the impression that the mind begins as a blank slate – at
birth, the human mind has no innate ideas. Thus, everything that a
person knows (knowledge) is determined by the encounter (experience)
with the varied stimuli around him or her.
3. Empiricists and behaviorists take the perspective that all or most
characteristics and behaviors result from learning. The behaviorists
believe that all actions and behaviors are the results of conditioning.
Irrespective of genetic background, behavioral theorists such as John B.
Watson believed that people could be trained to do and/or to become
anything.
4. Contemporary views present that more and more psychologists and
researchers are now starting to become aware of the reality that these
two factors do not individually influence development instead, they
work together (interact). Thus, they find interest in examining how
nature (genes) modulates nurture (environmental influences) or the
other way around. Nevertheless, while few take the extreme nativist or
radical empiricist/behaviorist approach, the debate on the degree to
which heredity and environment influence behavior remains.

THINK!

What influence children’s development, nature or nurture? Explain.

Lesson 3

 PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT

In this lesson, you shall see how developmentalists look at periods of

development with their distinctive features. Going back to Lesson one, it is
implied that a 1-year old and an 8-year old are described as children. Let us
not forget that even if they are both children, they are certainly dissimilar in
terms of motor, cognitive, and social skills. You will find later that this is also
true to a 20-year old and a 40-year old adults. In order to learn more, you shall
then have to examine briefly the following periods of development: prenatal,
infancy and toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence and
adulthood.

Prenatal Development

Conception signals the beginning of prenatal development which starts

with fertilization in the germinal stage through the implantation in the
embryonic development, and continues through cell differentiation in fetal
development. The average duration for prenatal development to complete is 38
weeks from the date of conception. The three stages of prenatal development
are called germinal, embryonic and fetal periods. Germinal stage happens in
the first two weeks after conception, embryonic stage is the third through the
eighth week, and from the ninth week up until birth is the fetal period. These
periods shall be dealt in details in the next chapter.
It may be helpful to mention that while the major structures of the
developing body are forming, the health of the mother is equally of primary
concern because the health of the mother will determine the health of the
developing child. Evolutionary psychology helps us understand that the
interplay of nature and nurture are markedly evident in this period. For
instance, environmental factors such as maternal nutrition and teratogens can
affect to a great extent the development of the child.

Infancy and toddlerhood

After birth, dramatic growth and changes occur during the first 18 to 24
months wherein a newborn, equipped with several involuntary reflexes and an
initially strong sense of audition (hearing) but poor vision (sight), is
transformed into an actively walking and talking toddler. Eventually, there is a
change in the roles of caregivers from managing feeding and sleep to
constantly repositioning guides and acting as safety inspectors for the
enormously energetic toddlers. There is remarkable rate of brain development
as well so do physical growth and language development. This time, infants
display their own temperaments, attitudes and styles in play. Sense of
attachment to primary caregivers develops so that interactions with them
changes very much with possible separation anxiety. Social and cultural issues
mainly address concerns that include breastfeeding vs formula-feeding,
sleeping in cribs vs in the bed with parents, toilet training and the like.

Early childhood

Early childhood consists of the years after toddlerhood and goes before
formal schooling, hence often referred to as preschool age. It is roughly
between the ages of 2 to 5 or 6. While the child is actively developing his or
her fine (use of small muscles) and gross (use of large muscles) motor skills, he
or she gains remarkable growth in vocabulary and cognitive development and
dramatically acquires language (first and second) and gains a sense of self and
greater independence A child in this stage has an aggressive and sometimes
violent willpower of doing something that may give him or her the chance to
experience guilt upon the disapproval of significant others.

Middle Childhood

This is the grade school age, ranging from six through eleven. Much of
what children experience at this age is linked to their management in the early
grades of elementary school. Physical growth slows down and while the child’s
world becomes one of acquiring academic skills, the children are able to refine
their motor skills, acquire foundational skills for building healthy social
relationships beyond the family and learn roles that will prepare them for
adolescence and adulthood. It is the time for children to show off their
accomplishments in school in varied areas.

Adolescence

Adolescence is a period of development with specific health and

developmental needs and rights. It is also a time to develop knowledge and
skills, learn to manage emotions and relationships, and acquire attributes and
abilities that will be valuable for experiencing the adolescent years and later
assuming adult responsibilities. Important development in the nerve cells also
take place during the adolescence. These developments are linked to hormonal
changes but are not always dependent on them. Developments are taking place
in regions of the brain, such as the limbic system which is responsible for
pleasure seeking and reward processing, emotional responses and sleep
regulation. Changes in the pre-frontal cortex happen later in adolescence and
theses are for organization, decision-making, impulse control
and planning. Linked to the hormonal and neurodevelopmental changes that
are taking place are psychosocial and emotional changes and increasing
cognitive and intellectual capacities. Over the course of the second decade,
adolescents develop stronger reasoning skills, logical and moral thinking, and
become more capable of abstract thinking and making rational judgments
(www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/ adolescence/development/en/).

Adulthood (Early, Middle and Late)

Early adulthood is in the ages of 20 through 40. While physical maturation

is done, physiological capabilities such as sensory abilities, reaction time,
muscle strength, and even cardiac functioning are at their peak. Foremost
tasks of the stage include establishing identity, developing more stable
emotional stability, establishing a career, forming intimate and long-term
relationship, becoming involved with various groups in the community,
establishing a residence, and adjusting to marital relationship and learning how
to be a parent. Though not apparent, the aging process starts toward the age
range of 30 to 35 where a lot of changes begin to happen in various parts and
functions of the body like the following: hair starts to thin and turn gray,
wrinkles appear because the skin becomes drier, there are changes in vision,
sensitivity to sound decreases (twice as quickly for men), the immune system
weakens, and reproductive ability declines.
Towards the age of 40 and through the mid-60‟s is middle
adulthood. Though characterized by physiological aging, two forms of
intelligence are highlighted: the crystallized and the fluid. Crystallized
intelligence is contingent upon the pile up knowledge and experiences that the
person has accumulated. These include the information and
competencies/skills one has acquired all the way through lifetime. It tends to
hold and may even be enriched as we age. For example, adults show relatively
stable to increasing scores on intelligence tests until their mid-30s to mid-50s
(Bayley & Oden, 1955). Fluid intelligence, in contrast, begins to drop even prior
to middle adulthood as it is more contingent on the skills of basic information-
processing shown in the slowing down of the skills of cognitive processing and
problem solving and in physiological activities. However, practical problem-
solving skills to handle the real-life problems tend to increase and apparently,
the wise and experienced middle aged ones may contribute a lot to figure out
the best approach to achieve a desired goal. Being in the sandwich generation,
middle- aged adults may be in the middle of taking care of their children (and
grandchildren) and of their aging parents. And at the same time they may also
be contemplating their own mortality, commitments, goals and achievements.
Late adulthood covers a wide range of ages with varied descriptions,
categorized as follows: 1) the young old (65-74 years old), 2) the old (75-84
years old), and 3) the oldest old (85 years old and above). The young old are
similar to middle-aged adults; possibly still working, is in very good health for
his or her age and keeps moving to have a lively and interesting life. The old
old are normally aging in which the changes are similar to most of those of the
 same age and may have certain health problems to deal with. The oldest old
are repeatedly weak and need long term health care and services.

THINK!

e infographic presentation of the distinctive characteristics of the periods of development, highlighting those of the child and

Criteria Exceeds Meets Almost meets Below

Expectations expectations expectations expectations
10 pts. 7 pts. 4 pts. 1 pts.
Directions Followed all Almost One or more Many items
directions followed items missing. missing and/or
exactly. directions. late.
Layout Extremely neat Neat and easy Somewhat Very difficult
and easy to to read. difficult to to read.
read. read.
Grammar & Flyer contains Flyer contains Flyer contains Flyer contains
Conventions no errors. one error. two or three four or more
errors. errors.

Content Content is Content is Content is Content is

comprehensive, accurate and incomplete. incorrect
accurate, and persuasive. Major points
persuasive. Major points are not clear.
Major points are stated.
are stated
clearly.
Lesson 4

 TASKS AND
EDUCATION
(HAVIGHURST)

In this lesson, we shall learn what developmental task means and how
important it is in education. Robert L. Havighhurst (1953) stated:
“a development task is a task which arise at or about a certain period in the
life of the individual, successful achievement of which leads to his happiness
and to success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness and
difficulty with later task. It implies that it is a task which an individual has to
and would like to perform in a specific period in life. Havighurst further
writes, “a developmental-task is the midway between an individual need and
a social demand. It assumes an active learner interacting with an active social
environment”. Taking from an educational and scientific perspective, the
concept of developmental task is in a lot of ways helpful in education. Its
implication is that children and/or young people are active learners who
desire to learn themselves. Physical maturation process together with socially
influenced development must be considerations in applying the theory in
education. The assertion of Havighurst agrees with behavioral principles that
social and educational arrangements do obstruct or reinforce the learning
process.
Developmental tasks arise from three different sources (Havighurst,
1948, 1953). First, some are mainly based on physical maturation (e.g.,
learning to walk). Another source of developmental tasks relates to socio-
structural and cultural forces. Such influences are based on, for instance, laws
(e.g., minimum age for marriage) and culturally shared expectations of
development e.g., age norms (Neugarten, Moore, and Lowe, 1965),
determining the age range in which specific developmental tasks have to be
mastered. The third source of developmental tasks involves personal values
and aspirations. These personal factors result from the interaction between
ontogenetic and environmental factors, and play an active role in the
emergence of specific developmental tasks (e.g., choosing a certain
occupational pathway).
 Six Stages of growth and development (http://faculty.mdc.edu).
Stages of G & D Developmental Tasks
1. Infancy 1. Learning to walk
and Early 2. Learning to take solid foods
Childhood 3. Learning to talk
4. Learning to control the elimination of body wastes
5. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty
6. Forming concepts and learning language to describe social
and physical reality.
7. Getting ready to read
2. Middle 1. Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games.
Childhood 2. Building wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a
growing organism
3. Learning to get along with age-mates
4. Learning an appropriate masculine or feminine social role
5. Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating
6. Developing concepts necessary for everyday living
7. Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values
8. Achieving personal independence
9. Developing attitudes toward social groups and institutions
3. Adolescence 1. Achieving new and more mature relations with age-mates of both
sexes
2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
3. Accepting one's physique and using the body effectively
4. Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults
5. Preparing for marriage, family life, and an economic career
6. Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a
guide to behavior; developing an ideology
7. Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior
4. Early 1. Selecting a mate
Adulthood 2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
3. Learning to live with a marriage partner
4. Starting a family
5. Rearing children
6. Managing a home
7. Getting started in an occupation
8. Taking on civic responsibility
9. Finding a congenial social group
5. Middle Age 1. Achieving adult civic and social responsibility
2. Establishing and maintaining an economic standard of living
3. Assisting teenage children to become responsible and happy
adults
4. Developing adult leisure-time activities
5. Relating oneself to one’s spouse as a person
6. Accepting and adjusting to the physiologic changes or middle age
7. Adjusting to aging parents
6. Later 1. Adjusting to decreasing physical strength and health
Maturity 2. Adjusting to retirement and reduced income
3. Adjusting to death of a spouse
4. Establishing an explicit affiliation with one’’s age group
5. Meeting social and civil obligations
6. Establishing satisfactory physical living arrangement
 Due to conforming empirical researches on Havighurt‟s theory, the
developmental-tasks concept gained gradual acceptance in pedagogy.
Pedagogical contexts imply that while children are challenged to acquire new
learning tasks and abilities, their existing skills must be recognized and
accepted. An ideal pedagogical environment provides a variety of opportunities
to developing young persons to utilize their already acquired knowledge and
skills and to win social recognition when they are confronted with novel tasks.
The pedagogical environment must consist of the school or learning center and
the family. The developmental-tasks concept thus assumes the likelihood that
social and educational arrangements support or hamper the corresponding
tasks.

THINK!

1. What does developmental task mean?

2. How can a teacher use practically the concept of developmental task? Illustrate by giving a specific situational classroom
Lesson 5

 DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT

You will learn in this lesson the descriptions of the domains that
distinguish specific aspects of growth and change: biological, cognitive and
language and social-emotional.

Physical and Biological Development

Physical growth and development involves growth and changes that

children undergo as they age such as the growth and changes in the body and
the brain, the sense organs, development of reflexes, motor skills, locomotion
and coordination, learning skill, and health issues. As mentioned in lesson 3,
motor skills are gross and fine, the child's ability to use large muscles and the
ability to use small muscles, respectively. Coordination is one more ability
that develops "on its own" as infants curiously discover their bodies and their
immediate environment. Attempts to put fingers together, reach for toes,
reach for nearby objects signal the emergence and development of eye-hand
coordination. Locomotion indicates that movement of a part of the body
leads to change in the position and location of the
organism. Body movements with no travel, such as wiggling, bending, swaying
are non-locomotive. Movements that involve the body and an object like
pushing or pulling a wheeled toy truck or swinging a golf club to strike a ball
are manipulative.

Cognitive Development

Cognitive development is the formation of thought processes, including

remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, and the use of language
from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. It is a field of study in
neuroscience and psychology that focuses on development in the specific areas
that include conceptual resources, information processing, perceptual skill,
and language acquisition. M Gauvain, R Richert (2016) defines cognitive
development as the process by which human beings acquire, organize, and
learn to use knowledge. He discusses two aspects of cognitive development:
„what develops,‟ or the content of knowledge, and „how knowledge develops. ‟
Discussion of „what develops‟ focuses on concepts, the mental groupings
of similar objects and other entities that play a fundamental role in organizing
knowledge of experience. The processes of memory, problem solving,
reasoning, and executive function are used to describe „how‟ knowledge
 develops (M Gauvain, R Richert, in Encyclopedia of Mental Health (Second
Edition), 2016).

Socio-emotional Development

Socio-emotional development includes the child's experience, expression,

and management of emotions and the ability to establish positive and
rewarding relationships with others (Cohen and others 2005). It represents a
specific domain of child and adolescent development characterized by a
gradual and integrative process by which children acquire the ability recognize,
experience, understand, and manage his emotions and get along well with
other children and .build good relationships with adults. These skills are
important for children to acquire the basic skills they need such as following
directions, cooperation, paying attention and showing self control and paying
attention. Children with good socioemotional skills recognizes if one is sad or
happy. They too can communicate with their friends differently from the way
they do with their teacher and their parents. More indications of social and
emotional skills will be presented in module 4.

THINK!

ribe and distinguish the following developmental domains: physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional. Integrate in your organize
 Lesson 6

 CONTEXT AND DEVELOPMENT

In this lesson, you shall briefly look at the significant impact of the most
influential contexts of children’s development and their educational
implications.

Socio-cultural Context

Children grow up in varied socio-cultural contexts with unique physical,

economic, social, cultural, and historical circumstances that definitely exert
significant influence in their childhood and development. Research has shown
that children’s socio-cultural context can have a large influence on their
development. We know that culture influences how children develop; across
different cultures, children can develop in quite different ways (Montgomery,
2008). And we know that children who are deprived of care from a primary
caregiver can often experience difficulties in later childhood because their
early attachment experiences were affected by this (Bowlby, 1980).

Family and School Context

Relationships with parents, siblings and caregivers, peers and teachers

are considerations in the context of early child care and childhood settings,
schools, classrooms, and home-based and school-based interventions.
Vanderamaas_Peeler, et.al (2009) described parent-child engagement and
parental guidance of children’s participation in literacy-related activities at
home and found that the extent to which both teaching-oriented guidance and
socio-emotional involvement in early home-based literacy activities may be
linked to enjoyment, motivation and success in subsequent school-based
literacy experiences warrants further investigation among economically diverse
families. Development involves a process of learning and improvement, and
children can only learn when others are there to support them, like parents,
teachers and siblings or other child’s significant others.

Children’s Appraisal of Relationships and Context

Children’s appraisal and interpretation of relationships and contexts can

be assets or dangers for beneficial learning and development as they imply
both positive and negative effect through early childhood and adolescence and
may even extend into adulthood. It is always advantageous if parents (and
 other caregivers) possess knowledge of the sensitive periods (windows) for
brain development, parental (caregivers) responsiveness and emotional
attunement, mindfulness, intentional skills development, reciprocal
interactions, enriching opportunities. Such knowledge foster and support
positive adaptations, learning, resilience, health, and child welfare.

Other Contexts

World wide contextual factors such as chronic stress and anxiety, institutionalized
racism, stereotype threat, racial identity, child abuse, parent’s separation, domestic
violence are affecting development unfavorably.

THINK!

Think deeply and reflect on your “own context and development”. Write a reflection (100 words) on the influence of:
socio-cultural context
family and school context
Lesson 7

 DEVELOPMENT AND PEDAGOGY

This lesson will teach you what pedagogy means, its connection to
development and its implications to education.

Pedagogy

Taken as an academic discipline, pedagogy is the study of how

information and skills are conveyed in the educational context. It has become
an important word in education and teaching and is referred to as the science
of teaching. Due to diverse learners‟ profile, political and socio-cultural
contexts, varying practice of pedagogy occurs largely. The interactions of these
factors during learning constitute a major consideration in teaching.
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss social reformer and educator, is known
as the Father of Modern Education. He saw teaching as a subject worth
studying in its own right and he is therefore known as the father of pedagogy,
the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or
theoretical concept (www.jhpestalozzi.org).
Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist who is famous on child development
believed that children construct their understanding of the things around
them and that learning happens when they experience inconsistencies
between what they previously know and what they discover themselves. He
emphasized that child and adolescent learning needs and capabilities are
significantly different from those of the adults.

The Relationship of Development and Pedagogy

While there are certain universal and eventually predictable dimensions

of development, diversity of learners most of which are attributed to socio-
cultural differences, child and adolescent learners differ in the ways that they
learn and develop. Every child comes to school with his unique temperament,
learning style, family background and orientation, and patterns and growth
phasing. In order to deal with these variations, teaching then requires thorough
knowledge on principles and theories of development, learning theories and
learning context and developmental tasks concept. The teacher must also be
deeply aware of his facilitative role in learning, the nature of individual
children including those with children special needs, students‟ profile and
context and must embrace diversity. He/she must be able to know
expectations from the students and always mindful of the importance of
student motivation. The child must be taught the way he learns.
Pedagogy and child development then implies the use of learner-
centered teaching methodologies and strategies which allow each learner to
avail of the best learning. It is important to understand the dynamics of the
learning process in order to aid learners to pay attention to, and later
construct their own knowledge based on their understanding of the lesson. (For
the Learner-centered principles, please see Appendix A - Learner-Centered
Psychological Principles (LCP).

THINK!

What does the statement “Teachers must teach the way

students learn” mean? Illustrate with specific example.
Rubric for Think in all of the lessons.

10 POINTS 8 POINTS 5 POINTS 3 POINTS 1 POINTS

Content & Content is Content is Content is not Content is Content is
Development comprehensive, accurate and comprehensive incomplete. incorrect.
accurate, and persuasive. and /or Major points
persuasive. Major points persuasive. are not clear.
Major points are are stated. Major points Specific
stated clearly Responses are are addressed, examples are
and are well adequate and but not well not used.
supported. address topic. supported.
Responses are Content is Responses are
excellent, clear. Specific inadequate or
timely and examples are do not address
address topic. used. topic. Specific
Content is examples do
clear. Specific not support
examples are topic.
used.
Organization & Structure is Structure is Structure of the Organization No organization
Structure clear and easy mostly clear paper is not and structure and structure
to follow. and easy to easy to follow. detract from of the
Transitions are follow. Transitions the message. response/s.
logical and Transitions are need Writing is
maintain the present. improvement. disjointed and
flow of thought Conclusion is Conclusion is lacks
throughout the logical. missing, or if transition of
paper. provided, does thoughts.
Conclusion is not flow from
logical and the body of the
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 MODULE SUMMARY

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

defines child as "every human being below the age of 18 years” while the World
Health Organization (WHO) gives the following basic definitions of child and
adolescent: a child is a person 19 years or younger but when a person falls into
the 10 to 19 age category, he or she is referred to as an adolescent. Several
viewpoints present discussions on the age-old debate on the influence of nature
and nurture in development. Nativists claim more influence of hereditary traits
while empiricists and behaviorists take the view that most traits and behaviors
are consequences of learning. Contemporary views however, are now becoming
more interested with how nature adapt to nurture and vice versa.
Developmentalists look at periods of development and divide the life span with
unique characteristics of the different stages of childhood through adulthood.
In each of the period arise a developmental task described as a skill which
arise at or about a certain period in the life of the individual, successful
achievement of which leads to his happiness and to success with later tasks,
while failure leads to unhappiness and difficulty with later task. A
developmental task is the midway between an individual need and a social
demand. These tasks arise in the domains of development and can be
biological, cognitive and language and social-emotional. There is a significant
impact of the interplay of context and development. While there are certain
universal and predictable dimensions of development, socio-cultural
differences bring about diversity in student profile hence, child and adolescent
learners differ in the ways that they learn and develop. Pedagogy then requires
thorough knowledge on principles and theories of development, learning
theories and learning context and developmental tasks concept. The teacher
must be facilitative in his role in the classroom and teach the child according
to his nature and the way he learns.
 SUMMATIVE TEST

In 50 words each, discuss the importance of having a knowledge of the

following basic concepts to a classroom teacher?

a. Developmental tasks
b. Context and development
c. Pedagogy and development