Module 9

Republic of the Philippines

MALLIG PLAINS COLLEGES INC.
Casili, Mallig, Isabela

FACILITATING LEARNER – CENTERED TEACHING

MODULE 9

Children’s Development

Child development deals with the biological, psychological, and emotional changes that
occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence. Developmental changes may
occur as a result of genetically controlled processes known as maturation, or as a result of
environmental factors and learning.

Nature – Nurture Controversy

Our ability to learn is affected by biological or genetic predisposition (nature) and

environmental factors (nurture). Nurture deals with the different external influences that
determine our development. Nature deals with heredity or the genetic makeup of genes which
means the information encoded in the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Heredity ranges from
genetic predispositions that seem specific to us that potentially explain why we have individual
differences.

Children’s Learning and Development

Children grow in different rates. Basically, some children may have qualitative growth
differences. These are “stages” to describe the underlying growth characteristics. In reality, there
are no pauses in development. Chang is a continuous and an evitable process, it is a lifetime
process. Change associates itself with development. Growth and development, therefore can be
characterized by Constant, Holistic, Automatic, Natural, Gradual, Essential, Systematic. Most
developmental changes are the results of interactions with people in the environment.

Inner Psychological Dimension

 Perceptual-cognitive-moral domains.
 Children’s Perception. Children are born with multiple sensory organs and a
well-formed brain. The fundamental organization of the brain does not change
after birth, but details of it its structure demonstrate plasticity. This means that the
brain has the capacity to be molded. Brain development is stimulated by exposure
to adult language through language. When they see things in the environment,
listen to the sounds around them, feel the heat of the sunshine, or use a computer,
they are certainly involved in perception through an array of environmental
interactions. Children learn through their perception as it becomes an important

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tool of learning. Perceptual learning for children such as looking, listening,

smelling, and feeling becomes more searching and less captive as they grow.
 Children’s cognitive development. As children grow, they seek to construct an
understanding of the world. The brain creates schemes which are mental
representations that organize knowledge. We know that children learn to think as
they grow, but we do not know where and how their perceptual processes cease
and cognitive processes commence. Perceptual development refers to the
detection of information while cognitive development involves the transformation
and manipulation of such information. The interaction between the children and
the environment is facilitated by two different processes – accommodation and
assimilation. Accommodation occurs when children modify their cognitive
structure in order to fit in new information. Assimilation happens when children
react to something new by looking for something in which they are already
familiar.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Levels Stages Reasoning Guides

Punishment-obedience Obey the rules to avoid punishment
Pre - conventional level
Reciprocity-needs Do what is best for the person in return
Approval of others Be good in the eyes of others
Conventional level
Law and order Act according to the law
Follow the rules and make rational
judgment
Individual rights
Post - conventional level Act according to one’s conscience based
Ethical principles
on what the person believes is right and
just

 Socio-emotional or personality domains. As children grow, they do not only learn how
to think but they also learn how to feel. act and control their feelings in response to other
people’s actions. Children are emotional beings. they too express a number of emotions.
Two main categories of emotions: (1) primary emotions including joy, surprise, anger.
sadness. fear; and (2) self-conscious emotions including empathy, jealousy and
embarrassment. The child’s ability to interact and do such in a positive way is known as
sociability. Those caregivers who adapt their interactions to what the child needs in order
to develop a nurturing, encouraging, and interactive environment can take their share in
the child’s sociability.

Some characteristics on how children learn:

 Perceptual abilities develop during the early stage. The first two years of a growing child
is spent for the development of “sense of self”.
 The learning of a child follows a certain sequence.
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 Learning proceeds at varying rates.

 Children learn and develop best when they have a secure relationship with the members
of the family and environment.
 Development is also affected by multiple socio-cultural contents.
 Children learn and develop in a variety of ways and preferences.
 Development and learning is triggered when children are being challenged.
 Play is important to development of self-regulation, regulation, language, cognition and
social experience.
 Children experiences shape their motivation and approaches to learning.

Young Children’s Biological Predisposition to Learn

Behavioral characteristics such as learning are believed to emanate from the confluence
of heredity and environment. Children are endowed with biological capacities for learning. These
human capacities are honed by the support provided in the environment. Learning is promoted
by children’s biological predispositions and the environment in which they come in contact with
different people.

The brain of growing child is a product of interactions between biological and ecological
factors. Children manifest the following characteristics:
 They actively engage in making sense of the world around them. It means that
they display specialized kind of information in privileged domains such as
reasoning, causality, language and number.
 Young children may be ignorant but they are not dull-witted.
 They may lack the needed knowledge in some tasks but they are knowledgeable
in other cognitive domains.
 They may be lacking in knowledge but they have the ability to reason with the
knowledge they understand.
 Young children attempt to solve problems around them and explore the
environment with their ability in order to seek novel ideas and new challenges.
 Even at an early stage of development, children possess the ability to develop
their own knowledge about their learning capability, thus leading to the
development of metacognition.
 Their natural tendencies to learn are supported by adult mediation and scaffolds.
Teachers play a very crucial role in this stage. They must develop the children’s
curiosity and persistence by helping them structure their experiences, support
their learning attempts, and provide mediation and scaffold whenever possible.

When children undergo certain developments such as physical changes, educational

transition from elementary to secondary school, and psychological shifts that accompany the
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emergence of sexuality, they then become part of what we call adolescent stage. In this stage,
they experience possibilities for both positive and negative experiences, creating important
opportunities for growth and development.

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