1. CHILD DEVELOPMENT
EED108 Session 1, 2012
Gerald Wurf (Bld 27 Rm 203)
Consultation: Monday 10:00-12:00;
Thursday 10:00-12:00md
Wayne Parkins (Bld 27 Rm 201)
Consultation: Monday 2:00-3:30;
Wednesday 12:00-1:30pm

2. Subject aims EED108
 AITSL (2011) National Graduate Teacher Standards,
Elements 1 & 7) “Know [primary] students and how they
learn” & “Engage professionally with colleagues,
parents/carers and the community”
 Explore a range of topical issues and typical/atypical
development
 Apply the content of the subject to primary education
(including an investigation of sex/gender differences)
 Understand the effects of broader developmental
processes on learning

3. Today
 Introduce the subject and some of the major debates in
child development
 Use a model of three interacting processes to describe
development (biological, psychological & cognitive)
 Describe major theories that explain child development
and how they relate to primary classrooms
 Learning community (rules: noise, mobile phones, “off
task” behaviour, teachers’ responsibilities, prompts &
seating plans)

4. Workshops & Lectures
 Workshops & lecture content will follow the schedule on
p. 5-6 of the Subject Outline.
 PowerPoint handout of Lecture will be available on
Interact > resources
 Text complements workshop/lectures
 Santrock (2011). Expected to have read the associated
chapter for the weekly topic. A text is in closed reserve
at the library (2 hour, within library only loan)

5. Student consultation times
Gerald Wurf (Bld 27 Rm 203)
Consultation: Monday 10:00am-12:00md
Thursday 10:00am-12:00md
Wayne Parkins (Bld 27 Rm 201)
Consultation: Monday 2:00pm-3:30pm
Wednesday 12:00pm-1:30pm

6. Assessment Tasks
 Assessment item 1 (Research item - 50%)
 Workshop activities and data entry Week 4 (5%)
 Written research report due 18/04/2012 (45%)
 Assessment item 2 (Final Exam in Week 15/16 – 40%)
 20 multiple-choice questions (20%)
 1 essay question (10%)
 1 case study question (10%)
 Assessment item 3 (Workshop presentation 10%)
 5 minute chapter review in allocated workshop

7. Debates: Nature or Nurture?
 Is development primarily influenced by nature or nurture?
 Maturation (Nature) – Biological inheritance is most
important.
 Experience (Nurture) – Environment and experience is
most important.

8. Research
 To answer the nature/nurture question we can use
systematic research (a “scientific” approach)
 different types of research: case studies (n = 1),
observational studies, interviews and experiments.
 Case studies of “feral children”/extremely neglected
children – What happens if we raise a child without
“nurture”?
 Victor (Itard, 1801), “Genie” (1970) & Oxana Malaya
 Oxana video

9. Interactionist position: Developmental Processes
 Biological neural and physical changes
 Cognitive changes in thought, intelligence and language
 Socio-emotional changes in relationships, emotions and
personality

10. Child Development Processes
(Santrock, 2011, p. 16)

11. 1 Stage Theories: Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory /
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
I. Freud proposed children move through stages:
I. Oral
II. Anal
III. Phallic
IV. Latency
V. Genital
II. Erikson extended Freud’s stages and focused on psycho-
social development (rather than sexual development) –
First stage Trust Vs Mistrust

12. 2 The Behavioural Theories (+ Social –
Cognitive-Behavioural Theories )
 Traditional behavioural theories stressed
environmental conditioning (nurture)
 Conditioning works by:
 pairing of events (e.g. eat bad prawns > food
poisoning > avoid prawns
 rewards and punishments

13. Watson’s (classic) behavioural position
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and
my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him to
become any type of specialist I might select–doctor,
lawyer, artist merchant chief and, yes, even beggar-
man or thief –regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his
ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it,
but so have the advocates of the contrary and they
have been doing so for many thousands of years“
(Watson, 1924/2009, p. 82).
Think-Pair-Share: Examples of behavioural tradition in
schools?

14. Behavioural Theories (continued)
 Examples in schools:
 direct instruction (DI)/explicit teaching. (e.g. Accelerated Literacy,
Jolly Phonics, Ants in the Apple, SRA)
 behaviour/discipline systems (levels/ merit certificates/rewards &
punishments - typically taking away privileges)
 Lovaas’ program for students with autism - Applied Behaviour
Analysis
 Modern behavioural theories include cognitive/social processes)
 Bandura’s “Bobo” doll experiments (modelling). Later work on
beliefs about success (self-efficacy)
 Tend to be more teacher-centred approaches

15. 3 Cognitive Theories: The constructivists
(Piaget + Vygotsky)
 Piaget proposed children actively “construct” their thinking by interacting
with the environment and through maturation (stage theory). School
examples:
 discovery learning
 inquiry-based learning (science)
 problem-based learning (PBL)
 Vygotsky also believed children construct knowledge but by interacting with
the social world (i.e. social constructivism). School examples:
 ZPD and teacher scaffolding (Bruner)
 reciprocal teaching
 cooperative learning
 Tend to be more learner-centred

16. Cognitive Theories: Information Processing
Theories
 Another example of cognitive theories
 Focus on processes like perception, attention,
memory and recall
 School examples
 Cognitive (+ meta-cognitive) strategy instruction
 IQ (tests to determine additional resources e.g. aide
support)
 memorisation strategies (times tables/spelling)

17. 4 Ecological Theories (Bronfenbrenner’s model)
 Focus on interacting environments
 individual (biology)
 immediate family/school/neighbourhood systems
 mass media, government services, legal systems
 culture
 time
 School examples:
 whole-school approach (bullying interventions)
 home/school/community link/partnership programs

18. Summary
 Development a complex interaction between
biological, cognitive and socio-emotional
processes
 A range of research strategies are used to
study child development and learning
 Psychoanalytic, behavioural, constructivist,
IP and ecological theories introduced to
explain child development

19. References
Santrock, J. W. (2011). Child Development (13th
ed). New York, NY: McCraw-Hill.
Watson, J.B. (1924/2009). Behaviorism.
Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers .