THE CHILD AND

ADOLESCENT LEARNER &

LEARNING PRINCILES

JOVAN B. ALITAGTAG, MEM

Instructor I, Teacher Education Department
College of Education
OBJECTIVES
After the completion of the chapter, students should be able
to:
1. Define human development in their own words;
2. Distinguish two approaches to human development;
3. Identify developmental stages of learners in different
curriculum year levels;
4. Identify their stand/position on the three issues on
development; and
5. Read researches on child and adolescent development
and make simple research abstracts out of researches
read.
TOPICS
Basic Concepts and Issues on Human
Development

1. Human Development

2. The Stages of Development

3. Issues on Human Development

4. Research in Child and Adolescent and

Development
ACTIVITY
 Tom

Jaimee
Here are pictures of Jaimee and Tom. Each one is a bundle
of possibilities. Describe what they were before birth (their
point of origin) and who they will possibly be after birth
unto adulthood. What they possibly become? Expound on
your answers.
ANALYSIS
1. When you gave your own predictions as to the
kind of child, adolescent and adult Jaimee and Tom
may become and hypothesized on who they once
were, you were referring to human development.
What then is development?

2. Will there be anything in common in the pattern

of development of Jaimee and Tom? If yes, what?
3. Will there be differences in their development,
e.g. pace or rate of development? What and why?

4. Will the process of development take place very

fast or gradually? Expound on your answer.

5. Do you believe that Jaimee and Tom will

continue to develop even in adulthood? Or will
they stop developing in adulthood?
ABSTRACTION
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Human development is the pattern of

movement or change that begins at
conception and continues through the
life span(Santrock, 2002).
MAJOR PRINCIPLES
OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
1. Development is relatively orderly.

2. While the pattern of development is

likely to be similar, the outcomes of
development processes and the rate of
development are likely to vary among
individuals.
3. Development takes place gradually.

4. Development as a process is complex

because it is the product of biological,
cognitive, socio-emotional processes.
TWO APPROACHES
TO HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
1. TRADITIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

2. LIFE-SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
CHARACTERISTICS
OF LIFE-SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
1. Development is lifelong.

2. Development is
multidimensional.

3. Development is plastic.
4. Development is contextual.

5. Development involves growth,

maintenance and regulation.
PRINCIPLES OF
CHILD
DEVELOPMENT
AND LEARNING
THAT INFORM
1. All the domains of development and
learning-physical, social and emotional,
and cognitive- are important, and they
are closely interrelated.
2. Many aspects of children’s learning
and development follow well
documented sequences, with later
abilities, skills, and knowledge building
on those already acquired.
3. Development and learning proceed at
varying rates from child to child, as well
as at uneven rates across different areas
of child’s individual functioning.
4. Development and learning result from
a dynamic and continuous interaction of
biological maturation and experience.
5. Early experiences have profound effects,
both cumulative and delayed, on a child’s
development and learning; and optimal
periods exist for certain types of development
and learning to occur.
6. Development proceeds toward
greater complexity, self-regulation,
and symbolic or representational
capacities.
7. Children develop best when they have
secure, consistent relationships with
responsive adults and opportunities for
positive relationship with peers.
8. Development and learning occur in
and are influenced by multiple social and
cultural contexts.
9. Always mentally active in seeking to
understand the world around them,
children learn in variety of ways; a wide
range of teaching strategies and
interactions are effective in supporting
all these kinds of learning.
10. Play is an important vehicle for
developing self-regulation as well as for
promoting language, cognition, and
social competence.
11. Development and learning advance
when children are challenged to achieve
at a level just beyond their current
mastery, and also when they have
opportunities to practice newly acquired
skills.
12. Children’s experiences shape their
motivation and approaches to learning,
such as persistence, initiative, and
flexibility; in turn, these dispositions and
behaviors affect their learning and
development.
APPLICATION
 “Growth is an
evidence of life.”

What does this mean?

1. Define development in your own
words.
Interpret the following quotations in
relation to human development:
2. “Every man is in certain respects like
all other men, like some other men, no
other man.” (Murray, H.A. & C.
Kluckhohn)
3. “Man is an unfinished project. He is
always in the process of becoming.”
 STAGES OF
DEVELOPMEN
T
1. Prenatal Period – from conception to
birth

2. Infancy – from birth to the end of the

second week
3. Babyhood – from end of second week
to the end of the second year

4. Early Childhood – from two to six

years
5. Late Childhood – from six to ten or
twelve years

6. Preadolescence or Puberty – from ten

or twelve or thirteen or fourteen years

7. Adolescence – from thirteen or

fourteen to eighteen years
8. Early Adulthood – from eighteen to
thirty-five years

9. Middle Adulthood – from thirty-five to

sixty-five years

10. Late Adulthood or Senescence – from

sixty-five years to death
CONTROVERSIES
about HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
 1. Inherently Bad versus Inherently
Good

Social philosophers of the 17th and 18th

centuries have portrayed children as
inherently bad, as inherently good, or
as neither bad nor good.
 2. Nature versus Nurture
Arthur Jensen (1969) has argued that heredity
accounts for some of the variability in human
intelligence; most developmental researchers,
however, consider this an overestimation.

B. F. Skinner (1971) believes that many human

attributes are determined largely by environment,
biology playing only a minor role.
 3. Activity versus Passivity

Some children are curious, active creatures who

largely contribute to the agents of society that threat
them.

Some are passive souls on whom society fixes its

stamp.
 4. Continuity versus Discontinuity
Continuity theorist view human development as an
additive process that occurs in small steps, without
sudden changes.

Discontinuity or stage theorists believe that the

developing skill proceeds through a series of abrupt
changes, each of which elevates the child to a new
and presumably more advanced stage.