CITY OF MALABON UNIVERSITY

Pampano corner Maya-maya St., Longos, Malabon City

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
City of Malabon University – Open University

THE CHILD AND ADOLESCENT LEARNERS AND LEARNING PRINCIPLES

This course focuses on child and adolescent development with emphasis on current research and theories
on biological, linguistic, cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions of development. Further, this includes factors
that affect the progress of development of the learners and appropriate pedagogical principles applicable for each
developmental level of the learners. The course also addresses laws, policies, guidelines, and procedures that
provide safe and secure learning environments, and the use of positive and non-violent discipline in the
management of learner behavior.

COURSE OUTCOMES

[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 broad dimensions of
child and adolescent development and their application to each 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 behavior.

MODULE 2 WEEK 1
UNIT 1: BASIC CONCEPTS

Overview

Every living creature is called to become what it is meant to be. The Caterpillar is meant to become a
butterfly; a seed into a full-grown herb, bush, or tree; and the human baby into a mature person, the person “who
is fully alive, the glory of God” in the words of Saint Irenaeus. How this development happens is what we learn in
our biology class. We have seen it to be a fantastic process. So wonderful process that we can't help but
experience a feeling of awe for the Power of the Force or the Principle (theists call this Power or Force or Principle
(God)) behind all these. The process of development involves beginnings and endings. What was the organism
then? What will this organism be? Several research on human development have been conducted. A lot of
theories and human development have been forwarded. Researchers and human development continue as
existing theories get corrected, complemented, or replaced. Up to the present several issues in human
development are unresolved and so the search for explanations continues. In this unit, you will be acquainted
with human development as a process, the developmental tasks that come along with each developmental stage
and relevant issues that are raised about human development.

Learning Objectives

In this module, you are expected to:

1. Explain the basic concepts related to child and adolescent development.

2. Explain how current research and theories on child and adolescent development contribute to teaching
and learning within and across different areas.

Key Words and Concepts

Child, adolescent, learners, definitions of growth, development, developmental tasks, domains of

development, context, and development, biological cognitive and socio-emotional

Content
The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles Module 2
Page 1
Content:

A. Developmental Tasks and Education (Havighurst)

In each stage of development, a certain task or tasks are expected of every individual.
Robert Havighurst defines developmental task as one that ‘’arises at a certain period in our life,
the successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success with later tasks while
failure leads to unhappiness, social disapproval, and difficulty with later task.’’ (Havighurst,
1972)

Developmental Tasks by Havighurst

Infancy and Early Middle Childhood (6- Early Adulthood Middle adulthood Later maturity
Adolescence (13-18)
Childhood (0-5) 12) (19-29) (30-60) (61-and over)

1. Learning to 1. Learning 1. Achieving 1. Selecting a 1. Helping 1. Adjusting

walk physical skills mature mate teenage to
2. Learning to necessary for relations with 2. Learning to children to decreasing
take solid ordinary both sexes live with a
become strength
foods games. 2. Achieving a partner
3. Learning to 2. Building a masculine or 3. Starting a happy and and health
talk wholesome feminine social family responsible 2. Adjusting
4. Learning to attitude role 4. Rearing adults. to
control the toward oneself 3. Accepting children 2. Achieving retirement
elimination of 3. Learning to get one’s physique 5. Managing a adult social and
body wastes along with 4. Achieving home and civic reduced
5. Learning sex agemates emotional 6. Starting an
responsibility. income
differences 4. Learning an independence occupation
and sexual appropriate of adults 7. Assuming 3. Satisfactory 3. Adjusting
modesty sex role 5. Preparing for civic career to death of
6. Acquiring 5. Developing marriage and responsibility achievement spouse
concepts and fundamental family life 4. Developing 4. Establishing
language to skills in 6. Preparing for adult leisure relations
describe social reading, an economic time with one's
and physical writing, and career
activities own age
reality calculating 7. Acquiring
7. Readiness for 6. Developing values and an 5. Relating to group
reading concepts ethical system one’s spouse 5. Meeting
8. Learning to necessary for to guide as a person social and
distinguish everyday living behavior 6. Accepting the civic
right from 7. Developing 8. Desiring and physiological obligations
wrong and conscience, achieving
changes of 6. Establishing
developing a morality, and a socially
conscience scale of values responsible middle age satisfactory
8. Achieving behavior 7. Adjusting to living
personal aging parents quarters
independence
9. Developing
acceptable
attitudes
towards
society

B. Domains of Development

The pattern of child development is complex because it is the product of several

processes: biological, cognitive, and socioemotional. Development can also be described in
terms of periods. Biological process involves changes in the child’s body. Genetic inheritance
plays a large part. Biological processes underlie the development of the brain, gains in height,
changes in motor skills, and puberty’s hormonal changes. Cognitive processes on the other
hand, involve the child’s thinking, intelligence, and language. Cognitive developmental
processes enable a growing child to memorize a poem, imagine how to solve a math problem,
come up with a creative strategy, or speak meaningfully connected sentences. Lastly,
socioemotional processes involve changes in the child’s relationships with other people,
The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles Module 2
Page 2
 changes in the emotion and changes in personality. Parents’ nurturance toward a child, a boy’s
aggressive attack on a peer, a girl’s development of assertiveness, and an adolescent’s feelings
of joy after getting good grades all reflect to socioemotional processes in development.

C. Context and Development

In each stage of development, a certain task or tasks are expected of every individual
Robert Havighurst defines developmental task as one that “arises at a certain period in our life,
the successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success with later tasks while
failure leads to unhappiness, social disapproval, and difficulty with later tasks.” (Havighurst,
1972).

Developmental stages

There are eight developmental stages given by Santrock. The eight developmental
stages cited by Santrock are the same with Havighurst six developmental stages only that
Havighurst did not include prenatal period. Havighurst combined infancy and early childhood
while Santrock mentioned them as two separate stages. These developmental stages are
described more in detail in the next paragraphs.

• Prenatal period (from conception to birth) - it involves tremendous growth from a single cell
to an organism complete with brain and behavioral capabilities.
• Infancy (from birth to 18 to 24 months) - a time of extreme dependence on adults. Many
psychological activities are just beginning - language symbolic thought sensory motor
coordination and social learning.
• Early childhood (end of infancy to five to six years Grade 1) - these are the preschool years.
Young children learn to become more self-sufficient and to care for themselves, develop
school readiness skills and spend many hours in play with peers.
• Middle and late childhood (6 to 11 years of age, the elementary school years) - the
fundamental skills of reading, writing and arithmetic are mastered. The child is formally
exposed to the larger world and its culture. Achievement becomes a more central theme of
the child's world and self-control increases.
• Adolescence (10 to 12 years of age ending up to 18 to 22 years of age) - begins with rapid
physical changes - dramatic gains in height and weight, changes in body contour, and the
development of sexual characteristics such as enlargement of breasts, development of pubic
and facial hair, and deepening of the voice. Pursuit of independence and identity are
prominent. Thought is more logical, abstract, and realistic. More time is spent outside of the
family
• Early childhood (from late teens or early 20’s lasting through the 30’s) - it is a time of
establishing personal and economic independence, career development, selecting a mate,
learning to live with someone in an intimate way, starting a family and rearing child.
• Middle childhood (40 to 60 years of age) - it is a time of expanding personal and social
involvement and responsibility; Of assisting the next generation in becoming competent and
mature individuals; And of reaching and maintaining satisfaction in a career.
• Late adulthood (60’s and above) - it is a time for adjustment to decreasing strength and
health, life review, retirement, and adjustment to new social roles.

D. Development and Pedagogy: Theory and Research

Teachers as Consumers/End users of research

Research gives teachers and policymakers important knowledge to use in decision

making for the benefit of learners and their families. Well-informed teachers can use and integrate
the most authoritative research findings. Research enables teachers to come up with informed
decision on what to teach and how to teach. This involves decisions related to educational policies,
curriculum, effective teaching learning processes, and even those involving research, too. It can
help us, teachers, to be more knowledgeable about how to fit our teaching with the developmental
levels of our learners.

Teachers as Researchers

The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles Module 2

Page 3
 The conduct of research does not only belong to thesis and dissertation writers, but it is
also for students and teachers, too. Let us learn how to conduct research by finding out the
different research principles and the research methods and designs which focus on child and
adolescent development.

The scientific method

One important principle in research is adherence to the scientific method since

research is a systematic enological process. As such, researchers basically follow the scientific
method. Dewey gave us five steps of the scientific method. They are as follows:
1. Identify and define the problem
2. Determine the hypothesis
3. Collect and analyze data
4. Formulate conclusions
5. Apply conclusions to the original hypothesis

Simply explain, identifying the research problem is the first step. This is followed by
stating a tentative answer to the research problem called the hypothesis. The hypothesis is also
referred to as an “educated guess”. How correct is your educated guess or hypothesis? If your
research problem is concerned with determining the cause of an effect or a phenomenon you have
to gather and analyze data derived from an experiment. This is true with experimental research.
However, if your research problem is concerned with describing data and characteristics about the
subjects or phenomenon you are studying, you do not need to perform an experiment. This is
descriptive research. After analyzing the data, you formulate your conclusions. Compare your
conclusions to your original hypothesis to find out if your original hypothesis is correct or not. If
your original hypothesis jibes with your finding and conclusion, affirm your hypothesis. If your
original hypothesis does not jibe with your findings and conclusions, reject your original hypothesis.

The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles Module 2

Page 4
Assessments and Evaluations

Test I. Directions: Provide the answers to the given questions:

1. How many developmental stages were described? How do these stages compared to Havighurst’s
developmental stages given below:

Havighurst has identified six major age periods:

• infancy and early childhood zero to five years
• middle childhood 6 to 12 years
• adolescence 13 to 18 years
• early adulthood 19 to 29 years
• middle adulthood 30 to 60 years
• later maturity 61 years in above

2. What is an outstanding trait or behavior of each stage?

3. What tasks is or are expected of each developmental stage?
4. Does a developmental task in a higher level require accomplishment of the lower developmental tasks?

Test II. Free Speech: What are the implications of these developmental past see your role as a teacher and or
parent?

1. Early childhood
• what are preschool teachers supposed to do with preschoolers?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. Middle and late childhood
• elementary school teachers ought to help their pupils by
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
• parents ought to help their children
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Adolescence
• high school teachers ought to help their students by
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
• parents ought to help their teenage children by
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Early adulthood
• college teachers ought to help their students by
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
• parents can help their children who are now young adults by
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. Middle adulthood
• what should adults do to obtain satisfaction in their career? What should schools teach for
students to be prepared for middle adulthood? In their retirement, adults should
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. Late childhood
• in their retirement, adults should
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
• how should children relate to their parents in their late adulthood stage? What should teachers
teach to students and how they should treat and relate to parents, grandparents in their late
adulthood?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles Module 2

Page 5
Test III. Put a check beside those statements that are correct and an X beside those that are wrong if your answer
is an X explain why.

1. Developmental tasks are only for the first three stages of human development.
2. Failure of achieving developmental tasks in an earlier stage also means failure for the learner to
master the developmental task in the next stage.
3. Preschool age corresponds to early childhood stage.
4. Adolescence is middle and late childhood stage.
5. Teenage is middle childhood.
6. Mastery of fundamental skills is a major concern during early childhood.
7. Play is a great need of children in middle childhood.
8. Preparing children for school readiness is a major concern of middle childhood.

Summary and Reflection

As a future teacher, you need to understand how learners developed to provide them with the best
learning experience. As a teacher, you will be responsible for a new wave of students each year in your classroom.
The more you learn about children's development, the more you can prepare for your teaching strategies and
materials you will apply in your lessons. Knowing what concepts to teach and how to teach it or the primary areas
covered by the Philippine Professional Standards for teachers or PPST. The PPST enumerates the standards novice,
proficient, highly proficient, and distinguished teachers.

Development is a pattern of biological, cognitive, and social emotional changes that begins at conception
and continues throughout the lifespan. Most development involves growth, although it eventually if involves
decay or dying.

It is imperative that we understand our students background may be personal, social, and cultural to be
able to engineer our teaching strategies to maximize learning. By knowing their needs, we can address their
concerns and seek for appropriate support.

References:

Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles

Brenda B. Corpuz PHD
Ma. Rita D. Lucas PHD
Heidi Grace L. Borabo PHD
Paz I. Lucido PHD

The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles

Teresita T. Rungduin PHD
Darwin C. Runguin M.A.

The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles Module 2

Page 6