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7 Main Developmental Theories

Child Development Theories of Freud, Erickson, and More

Verywell / JR Bee 

• Top Theories

Child development theories focus on explaining how children change and grow over the course of childhood. These developmental theories center on various aspects of growth, including social, emotional, and cognitive development.

The study of human development is a rich and varied subject. We all have personal experience with development, but it is sometimes difficult to understand how and why people grow, learn, and act as they do.

Why do children behave in certain ways? Is their behavior related to their age, family relationships, or individual temperaments? Developmental psychologists strive to answer such questions as well as to understand, explain, and predict behaviors that occur throughout the lifespan.

In order to understand human development, a number of different theories of child development have arisen to explain various aspects of human growth.

History of Developmental Theories

Child development that occurs from birth to adulthood was largely ignored throughout much of human history. Children were often viewed simply as small versions of adults and little attention was paid to the many advances in cognitive abilities, language usage, and physical growth that occur during childhood and adolescence.

Interest in the field of child development finally began to emerge early in the 20th century, but it tended to focus on abnormal behavior. Eventually, researchers became increasingly interested in other topics including typical child development as well as the influences on development.

More recent theories outline the developmental stages of children and identify the typical ages at which these growth milestones occur.

Why Developmental Theories are Important

Developmental theories provide a framework for thinking about human growth and learning. But why do we study development? What can we learn from psychological theories of development? If you have ever wondered about what motivates human thought and behavior, understanding these theories can provide useful insight into individuals and society.

An understanding of child development is essential because it allows us to fully appreciate the cognitive, emotional, physical, social, and educational growth that children go through from birth and into early adulthood.

Why is it important to study how children grow, learn, and change? An understanding of child development is essential because it allows us to fully appreciate the cognitive, emotional, physical, social, and educational growth that children go through from birth and into early adulthood.

7 Best-Known Developmental Theories

There are many child development theories that have been proposed by theorists and researchers. Some of the major theories of child development are known as grand theories; they attempt to describe every aspect of development, often using a stage approach. Others are known as mini-theories; they instead focus only on a fairly limited aspect of development such as cognitive or social growth.

Freud's Psychosexual Developmental Theory

Psychoanalytic theory originated with the work of  Sigmund Freud . Through his clinical work with patients suffering from mental illness, Freud came to believe that childhood experiences and  unconscious  desires influenced behavior.

According to Freud, conflicts that occur during each of these stages can have a lifelong influence on personality and behavior. Freud proposed one of the best-known grand theories of child development.

According to Freud’s psychosexual theory, child development occurs in a series of stages focused on different pleasure areas of the body. During each stage, the child encounters conflicts that play a significant role in the course of development.

His theory suggested that the energy of the libido was focused on different erogenous zones at specific stages. Failure to progress through a stage can result in fixation at that point in development, which Freud believed could have an influence on adult behavior.

So what happens as children complete each stage? And what might result if a child does poorly during a particular point in development? Successfully completing each stage leads to the development of a healthy adult personality.

Failing to resolve the conflicts of a particular stage can result in fixations that can then have an influence on adult behavior.

While some other child development theories suggest that personality continues to change and grow over the entire lifetime, Freud believed that it was early experiences that played the greatest role in shaping development. According to Freud, personality is largely set in stone by the age of five.

Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory

Psychoanalytic theory was an enormously influential force during the first half of the twentieth century. Those inspired and influenced by Freud went on to expand upon Freud's ideas and develop theories of their own. Of these neo-Freudians, Erik Erikson's ideas have become perhaps the best known.

Erikson's eight-stage theory of psychosocial development describes growth and change throughout life, focusing on social interaction and conflicts that arise during different stages of development.

While Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development  shared some similarities with Freud's, it is dramatically different in many ways. Rather than focusing on sexual interest as a driving force in development, Erikson believed that social interaction and experience played decisive roles.

His eight-stage theory of human development described this process from infancy through death. During each stage, people are faced with a developmental conflict that impacts later functioning and further growth.

Unlike many other developmental theories, Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory focuses on development across the entire lifespan. At each stage, children and adults face a developmental crisis that serves as a major turning point.

Successfully managing the challenges of each stage leads to the emergence of a lifelong psychological virtue.

Behavioral Child Development Theories

During the first half of the twentieth century, a new school of thought known as behaviorism rose to become a dominant force within psychology. Behaviorists believed that psychology needed to focus only on observable and quantifiable behaviors in order to become a more scientific discipline.

According to the behavioral perspective, all human behavior can be described in terms of environmental influences. Some behaviorists, such as  John B. Watson  and  B.F. Skinner , insisted that learning occurs purely through processes of association and reinforcement.

Behavioral theories of child development focus on how environmental interaction influences behavior and is based on the theories of theorists such as John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner. These theories deal only with observable behaviors. Development is considered a reaction to rewards, punishments, stimuli, and reinforcement.

This theory differs considerably from other child development theories because it gives no consideration to internal thoughts or feelings. Instead, it focuses purely on how experience shapes who we are.

Two important types of learning that emerged from this approach to development are  classical conditioning  and  operant conditioning . Classical conditioning involves learning by pairing a naturally occurring stimulus with a previously neutral stimulus. Operant conditioning utilizes reinforcement and punishment to modify behaviors.

Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory

Cognitive theory is concerned with the development of a person's thought processes. It also looks at how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the world. 

Theorist  Jean Piaget  proposed one of the most influential theories of cognitive development.

Piaget proposed an idea that seems obvious now, but helped revolutionize how we think about child development:  Children think differently than adults .  

His cognitive theory seeks to describe and explain the development of thought processes and mental states. It also looks at how these thought processes influence the way we understand and interact with the world.

Piaget then proposed a theory of cognitive development to account for the steps and sequence of children's intellectual development.

• Sensorimotor Stage:  A period of time between birth and age two during which an infant's knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities. Behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.
• Pre-Operational Stage:  A period between ages 2 and 6 during which a child learns to use language. During this stage, children do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view of other people.
• Concrete Operational Stage:  A period between ages 7 and 11 during which children gain a better understanding of mental operations. Children begin thinking logically about concrete events but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.
• Formal Operational Stage:  A period between age 12 to adulthood when people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge during this stage.

Bowlby's Attachment Theory

There is a great deal of research on the social development of children.  John Bowbly  proposed one of the earliest theories of social development. Bowlby believed that early relationships with caregivers play a major role in child development and continue to influence social relationships throughout life.

Bowlby's attachment theory suggested that children are born with an innate need to form attachments. Such attachments aid in survival by ensuring that the child receives care and protection. Not only that but these attachments are characterized by clear behavioral and motivational patterns.

In other words, both children and caregivers engage in behaviors designed to ensure proximity. Children strive to stay close and connected to their caregivers who in turn provide a safe haven and a secure base for exploration.

Researchers have also expanded upon Bowlby's original work and have suggested that a number of different attachment styles exist. Children who receive consistent support and care are more likely to develop a secure attachment style, while those who receive less reliable care may develop an ambivalent, avoidant, or disorganized style.

Bandura's Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory is based on the work of psychologist  Albert Bandura . Bandura believed that the conditioning and reinforcement process could not sufficiently explain all of human learning.

For example, how can the conditioning process account for learned behaviors that have not been reinforced through classical conditioning or operant conditioning According to social learning theory, behaviors can also be learned through observation and modeling.

By observing the actions of others, including parents and peers, children develop new skills and acquire new information.

Bandura's child development theory suggests that observation plays a critical role in learning, but this observation does not necessarily need to take the form of watching a live model.  

Instead, people can also learn by listening to verbal instructions about how to perform a behavior as well as through observing either real or fictional characters displaying behaviors in books or films.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

Another psychologist named  Lev Vygotsky  proposed a seminal learning theory that has gone on to become very influential, especially in the field of education. Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed that children learn actively and through hands-on experiences.

His sociocultural theory also suggested that parents, caregivers, peers, and the culture at large were responsible for developing higher-order functions. In Vygotsky's view, learning is an inherently social process. Through interacting with others, learning becomes integrated into an individual's understanding of the world.

This child development theory also introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development, which is the gap between what a person can do with help and what they can do on their own. It is with the help of more knowledgeable others that people are able to progressively learn and increase their skills and scope of understanding.

A Word From Verywell

As you can see, some of psychology's best-known thinkers have developed theories to help explore and explain different aspects of child development. While not all of these theories are fully accepted today, they all had an important influence on our understanding of child development.

Today, contemporary psychologists often draw on a variety of theories and perspectives in order to understand how kids grow, behave, and think. These theories represent just a few of the different ways of thinking about child development.

In reality, fully understanding how children change and grow over the course of childhood requires looking at many different factors that influence physical and psychological growth. Genes, the environment, and the interactions between these two forces determine how kids grow physically as well as mentally.

Bellman M, Byrne O, Sege R. Developmental assessment of children . BMJ. 2013;346:e8687. doi:10.1136/bmj.e8687

Marwaha S, Goswami M, Vashist B. Prevalence of Principles of Piaget's Theory Among 4-7-year-old Children and their Correlation with IQ . J Clin Diagn Res. 2017;11(8):ZC111-ZC115. doi:10.7860/JCDR/2017/28435.10513

Barnes GL, Woolgar M, Beckwith H, Duschinsky R. John Bowlby and contemporary issues of clinical diagnosis . Attachment (Lond). 2018;12(1):35-47.

Fryling MJ, Johnston C, Hayes LJ. Understanding observational learning: an interbehavioral approach . Anal Verbal Behav. 2011;27(1):191-203.

Esteban-guitart M. The biosocial foundation of the early Vygotsky: Educational psychology before the zone of proximal development . Hist Psychol. 2018;21(4):384-401. doi:10.1037/hop0000092

Berk, LE. Child Development. 8th ed. USA: Pearson Education, Inc; 2009.

Shute, RH & Slee, PT. Child Development Theories and Critical Perspectives, Second Edition. New York: Routledge; 2015.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

10 Major Child Development Theorists and their Theories Summarised

• June 18, 2023

Introduction

• Jean Piaget

Early Life and Background

Findings and philosophies.

• Stages of Cognitive Development

Significance of Philosophy for Child Development

Lev vygotsky, differences of vygotsky’s theory, jerome bruner, bruner’s three modes of representation, maria montessori.

• Differences of the Montessori Method
• Sigmund Freud

Freud’s 5 Stages of Psychosexual Development

• Albert Bandura

Key Factors in Observational Learning and Modelling Process

Burrhus frederic (b.f.) skinner, three operants of b.f. skinner’s theory, significant of philosophy for child development, erik erikson, arnold gesell, bibliography.

Childhood development and education are evolving topics that have caused disagreement and speculation in many societies and cultures for decades. Psychologists, theorists, parents, educators and allied professionals have strived to understand the stages of development, best learning methods and how to guide children successfully through thought-provoking practices. With time, observation, and practice, our arsenal of tools for teaching has expanded. 

However, with this expansion, comes more disagreement about which method is “right.” Understanding the ten theorists in which our beliefs about childhood, development, lifespan and how we learn, are vital to understanding early childhood development (from birth) to death and every learning experience in between. 10 key theorists and their philosophies shaped how we approach education today! 

The theorists discussed in this article are:

Each theorists or philosophy is summarised using the following headings:

Jean Piaget 

Jean Piaget was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896, where his early interests began in the subject of zoology. At the mere age of 11 years old, he began researching and reporting his findings on an albino sparrow. (Cherry, 2020) By the time he was 15, several reports were published, and famously his observations on mollusks gained renowned reputation with European zoologists (Britannica, 2021). This propelled Piaget to further his studies at the University of Neuchâtel, where he pursued further knowledge in zoology and philosophy, graduating with his doctorate in 1918. With his growing passion for psychology and biological sciences, Piaget began his interest in epistemology , otherwise referred to as the study of human knowledge, its origins and limits (Britannica, 2021). Piaget was preoccupied with understanding where knowledge originated from, how genetics impacts the process and the order in which it develops (Cherry, 2020). Shortly after receiving his Ph.D., he began his psychology studies under the teachings of Carl Jung (noted as being one of the most influential psychiatrists) and Paul Eugen Bleuler (a notable psychiatrist who coined many terms for mental illnesses that we know today, including Schizophrenia and Autism), at the University of Zürich, further exploring his passion in psychoanalysis (Biography, 2014).  Want more information on developmental psychology? Take our free professional development 1 hour course here .

In 1923, Piaget married his wife and mother of their three children, Valentine Châtenay. As a common practice with many theorists, his own children were the subjects of many of his observations. These observations led to the groundbreaking theories we know today (Cherry, 2020). Want to learn more about observational practices with actionable strategies for documentation and reflective practice in early childhood education? Watch our masterclass here with an optional certificate.

Before the findings of Jean Piaget’s theory came to light, children were considered to be tiny adults that were able to process their thinking the same way as any mature adult could. Anger and frustration was a typical response when children wouldn’t listen or understand a concept. After all, it was because “they’re just not listening” – right? It wasn’t until Piaget’s interest in psychoanalysis brought him to spend a year working at a boys’ institution founded by Albert Binet where things began to shift (Cherry, 2020).  Binet is famous for developing the world’s first intelligence test, where Piaget played a significant role in scoring the results. The assessments greatly impacted Piaget, encouraging him to explore a once-revolutionary notion – children think differently from adults (Cherry, 2020). 

During his time at the Binet Institute, Piaget’s intrigue for child development grew as he wanted to understand why children gave the wrong answers to questions that could be simply solved using logical thinking (McLeod, 2018). Piaget set out to understand the concepts from both findings logged in a diary about his own children and through controlled observations. Thus, Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was born, suggesting that children go through 4 stages in a specific order (McLeod, 2018). 

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage 1: The Sensorimotor Stage

From birth to approximately age 2, children are noted to understand the world primarily through their senses and movements (Cherry, 2020). During this stage, a number of cognitive abilities develop, such as: 

• Object permanence: knowing that an object still exists even though it is not in plain sight. 
• Self-recognition: having self-awareness of actions or consciousness.
• Deferred imitation: reproducing an action once observed.
• Representational play: engaging with toys mimicked after real-life scenarios, people, etc.

While learning in this stage, you may notice a child does not have object permanence, meaning that if something is hidden or out of sight, children at this stage believe it no longer exists (McLeod, 2018). The development goal during this period of an infant’s growth is to gain object permanence. It requires forming a schema (mental representation or memory) of the object, recalling it, and labelling it (McLeod, 2018). You can try this with a child at this stage. Show the child an object (e.g. a shiny rattle), they may even interact with it or touch it. After this, put the object under a cloth in front of the child. A child who does not have object permanence yet will not try to look for the object because if they cannot see it, to them, it does not exist.  Want more information on developmental psychology? Take our free professional development 1 hour course here .

Stage 2: The Preoperational Stage

From age two to age seven (approximately), children’s development is rooted in language and symbolic play (Cherry, 2020). In this stage, you’ll notice children are able to use language and mental imagery to interpret and represent their perspective on the world. However, logical thinking or problem-solving skills at this stage are rudimentary. Children may also demonstrate animism , a term that relates to believing non-living objects, such as a table or car, have feelings and life like a human being (McLeod, 2018). Towards the latter end of this stage, they begin to understand conservation . For example, children can understand how something can stay the same in quantity, even though the appearance changes. You can test this out by having two identical glasses with a third glass that is able to hold the same amount of liquid but a different size (e.g. two may be short, square glasses, while the third is a taller cylinder shape). Children at this stage also begin to understand symbols and their meaning. In their play, for example, they may pretend that a stick is a wand. Their pretend play becomes more advanced and they continue to use role playing activities to test and experiment.

Another one of Piaget’s beliefs was that the child during the preoperational stage is largely egocentric , meaning that they find it difficult to see things from other people’s perspectives. “The Three Mountain Task was developed by Jean Piaget and Bärbel Inhelder in the 1940s to study children’s ability to coordinate spatial perspectives. In the task, a child faced a display of three model mountains while a researcher placed a doll at different viewpoints of the display. The researcher asked the child to reconstruct the display from the doll’s perspective, select from a set of pictures showing the doll’s view, and identify a viewpoint for the doll specified by a picture of the display. Some children around age four did not distinguish between their own view and that of the doll, a tendency interpreted by Piaget as evidence of egocentrism. Egocentrism was considered an indication of the preoperational period, a stage that preceded logical thinking. Research since the 1970s has shown young children’s perspective-taking ability to be affected by a variety of situational variables” (Encyclopedia, 2021).

Stage 3: The Concrete Operational Stage

From approximately age seven to 11, children begin to develop their own thought process at a more mature level matched with an ongoing struggle with theoretical thinking (Cherry, 2020). However, it’s important to note that children at this stage are more advanced when thinking logically about concrete events than speculative theories (McLeod, 2018). The turning point for a child’s development in this stage is the ability to work things out in their head (abstract reasoning).  Want more information on developmental psychology? Take our free professional development 1 hour course here .

Stage 4: The Formal Operational Stage

In the final stage of Piaget’s cognitive development theory, from age 12 into adulthood, children are able to understand abstract ideas and theoretical scenarios without needing a physical aid, such as slicing up a cake to understand fractions (McLeod, 2018). 

In this stage, children will be able to speculate on possible ideas, consequences and outcomes for situations that may never come to be prepared for them. An example of this is being able to picture who is taller based on a sequence of information rather than a visual representation. 

“If Tyler is taller than Jamie, and Jamie is taller than Claire, who is the tallest?”

Piaget tested this theory in 1970 to understand operational thought processes. He asked children where they would put an extra eye if they could have a third one (McLeod, 2010). While children were in the concrete operational stage, they were quick to say it should be on their forehead. 11-year-olds in the formal operational stage had a different thought process, expressing that it would be better placed on their hand so they could see around corners (ibid, 2010). 

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was significant in constructing the idea that intelligence wasn’t a fixed trait . Cognitive development was related to biological maturation and how a child interacts with their environment (McLeod, 2018).  Want more information on developmental psychology? Take our free professional development 1 hour course here .

This theory promotes children’s understanding of the world and how they experience differences in what they already know and what they discover through their surroundings, environment and experiences. Every child and adult relate what they learn into schemas (ibid, 2018). An advanced version of this is the process of going to the movie theatre. From looking at the selection of films, to buying tickets, purchasing snacks and selecting your seat, there is an order based on memory or a known event, known as your schema. 

While Piaget’s theory did not directly relate to education, it was later discovered how it could be applied to teaching and learning. In 1966, the UK government did a review of the primary education system – based strongly on Piaget’s theory (McLeod, 2018). Discovery learning was introduced and transformed the curriculum. Children could now learn better through actively exploring, playing, and using the environment around them (McLeod, 2018). A vital part of this theory acknowledges that educators should ‘not assume that only what is measurable is valuable’ (Gillard, 2002). According to this theory, readiness is a critical factor for development in the school system, indicating children should not be taught certain concepts until they have grasped or reached the appropriate stage of cognitive development (McLeod, 2018). This theory states that the role of the educator should be to: 

• Focus on the process of learning instead of the end result.
• Use active methods of reconstructing “truths” (i.e. a child’s past worldview).
• Introduce collaborative and individual activities.
• Evaluate children’s development to set practical tasks and expectations.
• Develop scenarios that present useful issues that will provoke an alternative thought process for the child. 

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who was born in Orsha, a city in the western region of the Russian Empire, on November 17, 1896 (Cherry, 2020). Initially interested in law, Vygotsky graduated with his degree in 1917 from Moscow State University, where he studied linguistics, psychology, philosophy and sociology. Taking a particular interest in psychology, Vygotsky began his formal education in 1924, attending the Institute of Psychology in Moscow (Cherry, 2020). 

During Vygotsky’s studies in 1925, he suffered from an acute tuberculosis relapse but was able to complete his dissertation and was awarded his degree (Cherry, 2020). He died of the disease years later, in 1934 at just 37 years old. During his career, Lev Vygotsky was renowned for being a thoughtful writer, publishing six books on psychology in a seven-year period. His work primarily centred around child development and education. 

While his research is not as famous as Skinner, Pavlov, Freud and Piaget’s, this has been speculated to be due to the criticism received from the Communist party, making his writings inaccessible to the Western World for sometime, paired with his untimely death (ibid, 2020). Much of his writings remained incomplete and proved to be challenging to translate from their original Russian form but has been noted in educational practice since 1970.  

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who is well known for his sociocultural theory ; he believed that social interaction plays a crucial role in children’s learning and development (Cherry, 2020). His view promoted the distinct idea that most skills and knowledge developed by children stemmed from cultural values, beliefs and problem-solving strategies that were taught through collaborative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society (i.e. teachers, role models, older children, celebrities, peers, etc) and then on an individual level within the child (McLeod, 2018). Compared to Piaget, you may notice that Vygotsky’s theory does not have specific developmental stages but rather, the community/culture and social interaction are the foundation for cognitive development. 

While studying Vygotsky’s theory, you may notice similarities and subtle differences between Piaget’s socio-cultural context. While Piaget regards cognitive development as universal, noted through stages, Vygotsky argues that cultural differences play a huge role and can affect cognitive development stages (McLeod, 2018). 

Vygotsky believed that guided learning within the zone of proximal development was the key. The zone of proximal development is the distance between problem-solving independently and the level of potential development determined by problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. (Cherry, 2020). This “zone” is referred to as what the child knows and what they don’t know yet. In order to acquire missing information on the “unknown,” the child must move forward with the help of someone more knowledgeable to teach them. The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) is anyone who has more knowledge about the task at hand that the child does (Vygotsky 1980). The MKO can be an educator, parent or even a peer. An example of this is guided reading activities where a young child is supported by an older child.

With this theory, learning relies heavily on the environment in which children grow up and the tools they learn from others to process information while placing a high degree of importance on learning from others. In contrast, Piaget promotes independent knowledge and learning (McLeod, 2018). 

A famous case study performed by Shaffer in 1996 showcases this theory with the example of a young girl working her way through her first jigsaw puzzle. While attempting this alone, she struggled to complete the puzzle by herself. Her father then sat with her, and described and demonstrated basic strategies, such as finding edge pieces and provided a few pieces for the child to put together with words of encouragement (McLeod, 2018). 

If the child were left unattended, they would not be able to solve the jigsaw puzzle, or it would have taken a long time to do so. With social interaction and guidance from her father, the child was able to develop the skill that she could apply to future jigsaw puzzles. Once competency shines through, the child is able to problem solve more successfully in an independent setting after the collaborative dialogue promotes cognitive development in this case (McLeod, 2018).  Want more information on developmental psychology? Take our free professional development 1 hour course here .

The significance of the adult or more knowledgeable other is vital to child development. Imitation, guided learning, and collaborative learning are all critical parts of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory (Cherry, 2020). 

In order to promote learning that is within a child’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), teachers can partner ‘less skilled’ children with more advanced peers or older children to help them discover learning experiences. In these scenarios, children are encouraged to observe, imitate or receive instructions to acquire the information or skills they need from The More Knowledgeable Other. Compared to Piaget’s theory, Vygotsky emphasizes the interaction with more knowledgeable adults and peers while Piaget stresses peer interaction with lesser focus on their skill level (McLeod, 2018).  

To break it down, consider the jigsaw example and Vygotsky’s theory that every function in a child’s cultural development surfaces twice. The first is on the social level, and the second is on the individual level. To utilize this theory in the successful learning development of children, he advocates for the use of collaborative learning exercises or pairing ‘less competent children with more experienced peers (ZPD) (ibid, 2018).

Through collaborative dialogue, you’ll notice a child gives more attention and is able to retain the information by seeking to understand the instructions provided by an educator, adult or peer. Keep in mind, an adult is not always The Knowledgeable Other in this situation. If a child was learning a new video game, they may seek guidance from an older sibling or friend who has had the game longer (ibid, 2018). 

In today’s educational system, Vygotsky’s theory is reflected through collaboration and learning with others, as a fundamental way of introducing new ideas before exploring independent learning. 

Jerome Bruner was an American Psychologist and educator. Born blind on October 1st, 1915, in New York City. Bruner regained his sight and spent the remainder of his years studying how the human mind perceives the world (Schudel, 2016). His research and findings had an instrumental role in today’s educational system. His theories ranged in the topics of perception, memory, learning and other ideologies around cognition in young children (Britannica, 2021). 

When Bruner was only 12 years old, his father, a watch manufacturer, died but not before selling the family business to Bulova, leaving them well off (Schudel, 2016). Bruner began his educational studies at Duke University before attending Harvard, where he received his doctorate in psychology in 1941. After receiving his degree, he served as an expert on psychological warfare during World War 2 for the United States military (Britannica, 2021). 

After 1945, he returned to Harvard but this time as a professor, until he left in 1972 to become a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford. He later went on to teach at the New School for Social Research in New York City and at the New York University of Law (ibid, 2021). In the 1960s, Dr. Bruner was also a science adviser to presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, where he went on to develop the “spiral curriculum.” 

While Bruner lived to the age of 100, his 70-year academic career was founded in ongoing research. His educational theories were embraced after American school systems feared that students were falling behind in science after the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 (Schudel, 2016). He believed that students could grasp any information as long as it was presented in a way that they could understand.

Bruner’s studies were influenced strongly by Jean Piaget and B.F. Skinner. However, he argued that if any subject is presented to a child at any stage of their development, with proper instruction, they can learn it even if challenging (Britannica, 2021). Compared to Piaget and Vygotsky, Bruner did not agree that children couldn’t comprehend material if they had not reached the proper development stage. Instead, he suggested that as long as you learn in an organized manner, from enactive representation, to iconic and then symbolic, you can learn and retain information better (McLeod, 2019). 

Bruner’s findings were based on his curiosity about how knowledge is represented and organized through different modes of thinking. During his research, he proposed three modes of representation in which we process our information (McLeod, 2019)

• Enactive representation (action based)
• Iconic representation (image-based)
• Symbolic representation (language-based)

When describing this theory, modes of representation are related to how information is stored in our memory. This development is not age-related as much as it is in sequential order (McLeod, 2019). The three modes are:

The best way to describe enactive representation is learning by doing. This often happens in the first year of life, where an infant learns by physical actions, such as shaking a rattle or moving around in a jolly jumper. Later in life, this physical learning ability can be observed when first riding a bike or typing on a computer (McLeod, 2019).

Iconic refers to sensory images (aka, icons) such as pictures in your mind, smells, or noises that you can imagine without physically experiencing at that moment. During this stage of learning, when dealing with something new, it may be helpful to have visual aids through diagrams or pictures. 

This is when information is stored and is usually seen in children after the age of six. Children can store information as symbols during the symbolic stage, such as words, math equations, or other systems like music notes (McLeod, 2019). 

Another key finding of Bruner’s was Discovery Learning. This theory proposed that learners construct their own way of thinking by categorizing information within their own coding system (McLeod, 2019). The basis of this is that students learn their own method of discovery rather than being told what to do by the teacher. Instead, the teacher’s role is to facilitate the learning process and give the right tools for the children to draw conclusions from their own method of learning.  Want more information on developmental psychology? Take our free professional development 1 hour course here .

Significance of Bruner’s Philosophy for Child Development

According to Bruner’s theories, children have a natural curiosity and crave to be seen as competent. However, if not taught in the proper order, they can be easily bored with tasks that are too challenging and overwhelm them. (Britannica, 2021). The best way for them to learn is for the educator to find the right balance between challenging and difficult tasks. Today, we see this happening in our school system with Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum. This teaches subjects at a more manageable level, to begin with, gradually increasing in complexity as children’s learn until they are able to solve the problems independently (McLeod, 2019)

We see this theory practiced today with most of the subjects taught in our educational systems. You wouldn’t give an algebra equation to a child when they have just began to understand multiplication. However, Bruner believed that with the proper instruction or guidance and order of complexity, children will be able to learn more math concepts and even translate new ones independently without the need for much guidance. This is in part because of Bruner’s emphasis on not only teaching information for learning’s sake but for teaching how to learn. Educators must facilitate problem-solving skills and thinking strategies that can be applied to a variety of subjects and real-life experiences. 

The significance of this finding is that although it may be similar to Piaget, this theory stresses the importance of instructions aligned with practice and experience, promoting the learning process to strengthen the overall comprehension of new subjects. 

Maria Montessori was notably the first female physician, born in Italy on August 31st, 1870 (Biography, 2014). Growing up in the late 1800s, Italy’s old-fashioned conservative values regarding women’s roles did not impede Montessori’s ideologies. From a young age, she rebelled against gender norms and, at the age of 14, attended school at a boys’ technical institute where her understanding of math and sciences, particularly in biology grew (Biography, 2014). Although her father resisted her rebellion initially, her mother’s support propelled her success, where she graduated from the medical school of the University of Rome in 1896 with high honours. As a physician, she specialized in pediatrics and psychiatry and treated many poor and working-class children who attended the free clinics at the medical-school alma mater where she taught. 

Maria Montessori was in charge of Casa dei Bambini school, and her teachings exploded by 1925 with more than 1,000 Montessori schools across the United States. In 1940, the movement was quickly diminishing. Maria Montessori died on May 6, 1952, in the Netherlands, with a surge of Montessori schools led by Dr. Nancy McCormick Rambush returning in the 1960s where her teachings live on (Biography, 2014) 

Montessori became intrigued in early childhood development and education during her time as co-director of the Orthophrenic School for developmentally disabled children in 1900, where she trained teachers in the best approaches for educating unique individuals. While studying the experimentations with the capabilities of children with additional needs from renowned physicians Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Édouard Séguin, Montessori began to devise her own method for applying their theories which she began to test in the school system. This eventually led to improvements in the children’s development (Biography, 2014). 

Taking what she learned while teaching children with cognitive additional needs, Montessori believed that she could modify her methods to suit any educational system, regardless of the children’s level of development ability. On January 6, 1907, she was awarded her first classroom, the Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House), which was developed for children ages two to seven and opened initially with roughly 60 children (Ruhl, 2021). 

In the first classroom, you wouldn’t just find your typical tables, chairs and blackboard. You could find children engaged in activities that varied from gardening to dusting and even dressing. Montessori noted that free choice allowed students to develop interest on their own. 

Three Major Differences of the Montessori Method

Number 1 Learning Materials

The way children learn in the Montessori method differs depending on the child’s age and capabilities. The thought behind this practice is that a child should understand concrete concepts before complex or abstract ones. For example, before learning how to read, a child will learn how to grip a pencil and begin to write letters. Their motor skills toward the subject are focused on first before understanding the concept of reading (Ruhl, 2021). 

Number 2 Engaging with Learning Materials

A widely criticized method of Montessori teachings is being guided by the child, especially in the way they choose what to learn. Montessori observed that children could focus for an extended period of time if they were interested in that particular subject, which started the “internal work cycle.” As long as a child is willing to set up the activity or space in which they learn and put it away afterwards, they are free to learn what they please, for how long they please and choose who they learn with. (Ruhl, 2021). 

Number 3 Classroom Size

A Montessori classroom is very different from the typical classroom, which is age-based. Sometimes you may see a split class of 6-9-year-olds, but it’s rare. In a Montessori classroom, you can find diverse age ranges, which promote leadership skills for older children to serve as mentors for the younger age groups (Ruhl, 2021).  

In addition to classroom set-up two other fundamental principles guided Montessori’s belief in child development.

• One: Children and adults engage in realizing their own identity (self-construction) by interacting with their environment and;
• Two: Children have a natural path for psychological development.

Maria Montessori believed that schools that foster self-construction, can propel a child to reach their full potential and that children follow a similar development trajectory. This development takes place on four “planes of development”, which have different characteristics and learning modes that can be applied (Ruhl, 2021). 

First Plane of Development

The first plane typically includes children anywhere from age 0-6 and is the most essential stage. During this time, children should be exploring their physical environment using their senses. You’ll notice that at this stage children may begin to learn language skills and gain interest in small objects, perhaps their favourite toy (Ruhl, 2021).

Second Plane of Development

This plane is typically explored with children aged 6-12. This is generally realized once children work together in a group, rather than individually. During this stage, it’s vital for children to socialise, while also beginning to think independently. An example of this could be discovering more details about the planets, while a friend could be more interested in animals (Ruhl, 2021). 

Third Plane of Development

Children tend to fall in the ages of 12-18 during this developmental stage, normally referred to as adolescence, as they hit puberty. You’ll notice children in this stage crave praise, tangible rewards or recognition for their work (Ruhl, 2021). 

Fourth Plane of Development

Young adults from the ages of 18-24 in this stage begin to embrace their education, findings and begin to lead others from their knowledge. Financial and economic independence are crucial components so that youths can transition to individual adulthood (Ruhl, 2021).

Maria Montessori’s methods play a significant role in today’s education system, where successful executives such as Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Sergey Brin (co-founders of Google), Prince William, Prince Harry and more have fostered their learning experience from (Ruhl, 2021). 

Although it is widely criticized and difficult to pinpoint research that can distinguish the reasonings that Montessori learners are more advanced, a few case studies were able to prove the favourable results. 

In a study conducted between Montessori students and traditional students in France, one hundred fifty-nine, 7-12-year-olds were tested on five different tasks that focused on both divergent and integrative thinking over a long period of time. For every task at both testing periods, Montessori children scored higher than conventional school children (Ruhl, 2021). 

In today’s classrooms, this is what you’ll typically see with Montessori methods and philosophies in action. 

Toddler Programs

The toddler program is typically for children under the age of 3 and encourages children to develop movement and independence, such as potty training. Children are typically given materials and learning opportunities that suit their size and/or skill level during this development stage. It’s common to notice parents present or teachers assistants to actively participate with the children (Ruhl, 2021). 

Preschool and Kindergarten

You’ll find a classroom with Montessori methods at this stage with roughly 20-30 children of mixed ages with an entire team of teachers that can promote both independent learning and social interaction opportunities. An example of this type of learning is when a teacher introduces the activities, puts a variety of them on shelves throughout the room, and lets the children choose which one to explore at their own pace. Activities range from hands-on approaches such as washing tables and sweeping to academic subjects like language, math and art (Ruhl, 2021). 

Elementary Classrooms

Children in Montessori schools for elementary classes can range anywhere from age 6-12, where the philosophy of children’s personal interest in learning supersedes conventional methods. An educator will first teach the lessons to groups of children and then allow them to freely learn and explore independently. A vital component of this approach is investigating outside the classroom and exploring new learning methods (Ruhl, 2021). 

Middle and High School

For middle and high school students, Montessori methods continue to nurture individual learning while inspiring children to explore subjects that interest them through positive discovery. 

Overall, Montessori’s philosophies were significant in showcasing the “guided by children” method that celebrated learning and exploration over specific academic results in predetermined categories.  Want more information on developmental psychology? Take our free professional development 1 hour course here .

While David Weikart organized the HighScope education method, the leading theorists behind this curriculum are Piaget and Vygotsky. With the headquarters located in Ypsilanti, Michigan, this educational process was founded in 1970 as a nonprofit organization that promotes the development of children and youth worldwide. It also supports educators and parents as they help children learn with participative engagement. (Rock, 2020)

After examining 123 African American children that were born into poverty and were at risk for failing out of school,  the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study concluded that individuals who received a high-quality preschool program excelled compared to those in their neighbourhood who did not attend a similar program (Schweinhart, 2003). 

The HighScope method is recognized for taking an “intentional learning” approach that engages both educators and children. In this method, you can find Montessori, Piaget and Vygotsky’s ideologies woven together for supportive learning where teachers are in place to both support and guide the learning process (Rock, 2020). 

This approach tackles the intention that teachers will validate what the child already knows and, when the time is right, use a scaffolding method to teach the next step in learning, similar to Bruner’s theory about appropriate stages for learning complex teachings. In the classroom, you may recognize a HighScope curriculum as a busy environment with students simultaneously working independently and coming together to discuss what they’ve learned (Rock, 2020). 

Founded in 1970, this method was introduced as part of the Perry Preschool Project, which strived to provide early childhood education to young children that belonged to low-income families in Ypsilanti, Michigan. After introducing this philosophy to the education program, students were reported:

• More likely to graduate from high school
• Less likely to commit crimes
• Had better employment opportunities
• Earned more income than those who did not attend preschool or engage in a HighScope program (Rock, 2020). 

With this philosophy comes a high emphasis on documentation in order to improve the education and individual hands-on approach of parents with their children (UK Essays, 2018). 

This theory thrives on the basis that children are intentional learners who grasp new information better if they are able to be involved in the educational planning process, carry out activities on their own and review their findings. A teacher and parent’s role in this is to observe, support and challenge ideologies. In order for this study to be successful, home visits were conducted to ensure there was educational support at home as well (Schweinhart, 2003).

The significance of the HighScope method for child development directly relates to essential learning experiences, how they are divided and the active learning that takes place between the educator and the child. With a consistent yet flexible approach, children are able to express initiative and participate in the learning process. 

While this method takes care and attention to a child’s specific needs, it can be time-consuming for educators who must be keen on observations throughout the child’s studies. A Child Observation Record is kept, which is noted on a daily basis around 58 key developmental indicators (Rock, 2020). 

In order for this philosophy to be successful for educators today, the national High/Scope Training of Trainers must be available to provide teachers with hands-on workshops, observation, feedback and follow-up sessions for effective learning (Schweinhart, 2003). 

While these reports prove the value of high-quality education in Preschool, especially for children of poverty, it is not the only circumstance that affects society’s education methods. It is difficult to maintain in densely populated areas with education support staff that is spread thin. 

Sigmund Freud 

On May 6, 1856, Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia, now known as Příbor, Czech Republic and died at the age of 83 on September 23rd, 1939, in London, England. Although many are wildly critiqued, Freud is world-renowned for his theories. He was an Austrian neurologist who created psychoanalysis, and his thought-provoking work changed the way we view culture, society, and the human psyche (Jay, 2021). 

His history begins as the son of a Jewish wool merchant, Jakob, who is remembered as a strict authority figure while Freud was being nurtured emotionally by his mother, Amalie Nathansohn. In 1859, the family moved to Leipzig and settled a year later in Vienna, where Freud remained for the next 78 years (Jay, 2021). 

Freud pursued his career in medicine at the University of Vienna and by 1885 was appointed as a lecturer in neuropathology with research on the brain’s medulla. During this time, he also found an interest in the pharmaceutical benefits of cocaine, with an unpleasant outcome of addiction within his peers that tarnished his reputation for years to come (Jay, 2021). 

In 1886, Freud married Martha Bernays, daughter of a prominent Jewish family and had six children, one of whom was to carry his legacy as a psychoanalyst. In the early 1900s, Freud began his groundbreaking work in Psychosexual Stages of Development, highlighting the importance of child milestones and how a misstep can lead to mental illness and emotional distress (Kassel, 2020). 

If you’ve heard the terms “oral fixation” or “penis envy,” these were coined by Sigmund Freud during his study of psychosexual stages of development (Kassel, 2020). He described that children go through a series of these stages that directly affect the personality developed throughout childhood. During these stages, the erogenous zone associates itself with a source of pleasure. If specific issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixations can begin to occur and last throughout adulthood. An example of this could be someone who did not overcome the oral stage and is now over-dependent on others, seeking stimulation through eating, smoking or drinking (Cherry, 2020). 

Stage 1: Oral Stage

This stage will be familiar to parents and educators as they recall their infant instinctively putting everything in their mouth. The reason for this is that the mouth is vital to an infant and all gratification they receive. Oral stimulation comes from activities such as tasting or sucking, and the infant primarily experiences this by depending on their provider. At this stage, the weaning process begins, and if fixation occurs, Freud believed it directly impacted adult problems, such as nail-biting, smoking or overeating (Cherry, 2020).

Stage 2: Anal Stage

The age range for this stage is typically 1 to 3 years, with the main focus on bowel and bladder control as the libido is trying to focus on these movements. During this stage, the conflict that parents are overcoming in their child’s development is potty training. Success is solely dependent on the parent’s performance of motivating the toilet training. Too lenient, you may find that an anal-expulsive personality develops when the child becomes messy or destructive into adulthood. Freud explained that anal-retentive character could develop with a too strict approach, which is expressed in adulthood as obsessive or rigid (Cherry, 2020).

Stage 3: Phallic Stage

This tends to occur in children ages 3 to 6 years old with a sudden curiosity for genitals. You may notice that children are asking questions about the differences between boys and girls. Freud believed that boys might view fathers as rivals for mothers’ affection during this stage, while girls may experience penis envy. However, psychologist Karen Horney disputed this theory as inaccurate and demeaning, also suggesting that boys could also have womb envy and feelings of inferiority because they cannot give birth. 

The Latent Stage

From age 6 to puberty, adolescents develop social skills and relationships with both peers outside of the family and family members. Children are entering an explorative stage with their energy during this time, yet the sexual curiosity is dormant. While in the latent stage, children are encouraged to develop social skills, communication skills and self-confidence. If “stuck” on this developmental threshold, fixation can result in difficulty forming relationships as an adult or persistent immaturity (Cherry, 2020). 

The Genital Stage

This stage takes us through the rest of our life after it sets in during puberty. The libido is activated and begins its final stage in developing strong sexual interest. In Freud’s time, he concluded this could only be possible for members of the opposite sex, which has since seen fewer supporters. Adolescents who are successfully developing in this stage can balance their needs with conforming to the demands of reality and caring for the welfare of others (Cherry, 2020). 

Today, Freud’s complex theory can be described as simply this: Sexual pleasure plays a significant role in human development. For a child to be considered developing at a “healthy” rate, they must evolve through the five stages with the specific parts of the body. As Dr. Mark Mayfield, founder and CEO of Mayfield Counseling Centers, explains, “A child’s ability to resolve that conflict determines whether or not they were able to move onto the next stage”  (Kessel, 2020). 

Freud believed that children, and in turn, adults, can get “stuck” for one of two reasons. 

• Their needs weren’t met during this stage, causing frustration and fixation. 
• Their needs were overindulged, so they didn’t want to leave that stage. 

While Freud is famous for his ideologies, he is widely criticized for his male-focused and hetero-centric findings the stages bring. Although things have changed, Freud played a big part in today’s society due to his theories which inspired other psychologists to continue comparative research (Kessel, 2020). 

Albert Bandura 

Albert Bandura was born in a small Canadian town just 50 miles from Edmonton, known as Mundare, on December 4th, 1925. He was the youngest of six and his early years in the education system took place in a small school with only two educators for high school. According to Bandura’s recollection, “The students had to take charge of their own education.” (Cherry, 2020). 

His secondary education began in biological sciences at the University of British Columbia, where his interest in psychology supposedly formed as an accident. He arrived at school earlier than his courses began, which motivated him to take “filler classes” to pass the time where he stumbled upon psychology, which propelled him into his career. He later went on to earn his MA degree in 1951 and Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1952 (Cherry, 2020).

Albert Bandura put a focus on the importance of observing behaviours, modelling them and then imitating the behaviours based on the reaction of others. Many behavioural theories suggest that learning must be directly related by associations and formed by either conditioning, reinforcement or punishment. Bandura’s social learning theory suggested that learning can also occur just by watching others and observing their actions (Cherry, 2020).Want to learn more about guiding positive behaviour in children with strategies you can use immediately? Watch this 40 minute masterclass with an optional certificate here .

Think of it like “monkey see, monkey do.” Kids often imitate actions they observe, whether it’s from other kids, siblings, parents or digital influences that are considered to be models of behaviour. One of the well-known experiments showcasing how this theory can be proven is the Bobo Doll study. Bandura had children observe an adult acting violently towards a Bobo Doll. Later, when children were allowed to play with the doll, they imitated what they saw and played more aggressively (Cherry, 2020). 

While the theory was proven through a live demonstration in this instance, the social behaviour philosophy can also occur through symbolic modelling in books or movies or through verbal instruction. 

For this theory to prove successful, four mediational processes must occur in order for the learned behaviour or skill to be repeated. 

For either a child or adult to learn a new skill through this process, they have to be paying attention. With attention spans averaging 8 seconds, not every behaviour will be observed as they need to be noteworthy and grab the observer’s attention.

During the retention stage, in order for observational learning to occur, you must store information and recall it when necessary. Sometimes the behaviour is difficult to reproduce, which is where repetition makes retention of observed behaviour easier. 

Reproduction

Once you have paid attention to the model and retained the information, the next step is to reproduce that behaviour. This isn’t always possible, and further practice is where skills develop. A child may be able to pay attention to the workings of a piano, observe an adult playing, and retain information on the notes. However, they may not be able to play a complex Mozart melody until further practice is performed. Another hurdle is physical capability. An elderly woman with a recent hip replacement may be able to watch a group of talented skateboarders understand how to do the trick but cannot reproduce the result. 

The final stage of observational learning is the motivation to do the behaviour again. Reinforcement and ridicule play an integral part in this theory, both externally and internally. This can occur when a younger sibling observes their older sister get praised when they make dinner for the family. The child may start asking questions about how they can help or take the initiative and cook a terrible batch of scrambled eggs. While the correct thought process is there, they may need repetition to advance this skill. 

The Social Learning Theory has been a significant philosophy for child development by giving educators an additional tool to motivate children through positive reinforcement and by teaching new concepts through the 4 step process. 

Flaws in this theory lie in the learner’s internal motivation to make a change in their behaviour or develop a new skill. You can give positive reinforcement to a student and model exemplary behaviour when it comes to recycling, but if their inner motivation doesn’t care, they won’t reproduce this positive behaviour. 

When working with children, it’s essential to understand that teachers are often noted as models of behaviour and other students in the room. It’s critical to be vocal about positive and negative reinforcement to promote stopping or continuing a behaviour. 

Burrhus Frederick Skinner (known as B.F. Skinner for reasons you can likely assume) was born on March 20, 1904, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, where he spent his childhood. The son of a lawyer and stay-at-home mother, Skinner, began to show an interest in building inventions at an early age (Biography.com Editors, 2014). 

He began his studies at Hamilton College with a flair for writing and pursued it professionally after graduation in 1926. Two years later, after little success, he pursued psychology at Harvard University. During his time there, he was persistent in finding an objective way to measure and study behaviour – thus, the Skinner Box was born. He went on to publish reports on his findings which are well known today, such as The Behavior of Organisms (Biography.com Editors, 2014). Want to learn more about guiding positive behaviour in children with strategies you can use immediately? Watch this 40 minute masterclass with an optional certificate here .

In 1990, Skinner died on August 18 after battling leukemia for the past year, but his beliefs live on through the B.F. Skinner Foundation, which is led by his daughter, Julie Vargas (Biography.com Editors, 2014). 

B.F. Skinner is known as the father of Reinforcement, otherwise referred to as Operant Conditioning, based on Thorndike’s 1898 law of effect. Through this theory, Skinner developed a study in which he experimented on animals within a ‘Skinner Box.’ Animals would either be punished or rewarded for engaging in behaviours, such as a rat pressing a lever.  (McLeod, 2018)

Neutral Operants

In this case, responses from the environment are neither positive nor negative impact a repetition in the behaviour. 

Reinforcers

This positive or negative response suggests that if that behaviour is repeated, the same positive or negative response will happen again. 

This is a purely negative response that is set to weaken the subject’s behaviour and decrease the likeliness of that behaviour being repeated. 

Positive reinforcement can be found everywhere, and in Skinner’s study, was revealed to rats who pressed a lever in order to get food. This can translate to earning an extra 15 minutes of playtime at recess for finishing your homework in the classroom. Negative reinforcement and punishers are tough to distinguish as they are similar in practice. Negative reinforcement strengthens behaviour because it removes an unpleasant experience. If you had to take out the classroom garbage if you forgot to do your homework, you might quickly remember to come to class prepared with it completed. When a behaviour you want to be changed occurs, a punisher directly applies the punishment, such as cancelling recess for any child with unfinished homework (McLeod, 2018).

Throughout this study, a fundamental critique was the schedule of reinforcement and if the behaviour would continue without these motivations. This is known as the response rate (how quickly the behaviour happened) and the extinction rate (how quickly it stopped). Using the example of education as the scenario, the theory continued as follows (McLeod, 2018): 

Continuous Reinforcement

A child is positively reinforced every time a specific behaviour occurs, e.g. cleaning up their work table/desk earns them licorice. With this sentiment, the response rate is slow, learning that it will happen every time while the extinction rate is fast. Once the positive reinforcement stops, the child may keep things messy longer and not change overall behaviour (McLeod, 2018). 

Fixed Ratio Reinforcement

Behaviour is only reinforced in this scenario if the same behaviour is repeated a specified number of times. For example, if a child has a clean desk every day for five days, they receive licorice. Through this notion, the response rate is fast while the extinction rate is medium (McLeod, 2018). 

Fixed Interval Reinforcement

If you reward a child every 3 hours if they keep their desk clean, this is an example of fixed-interval reinforcement. As long as the correct behaviour persists during the interval time, they are rewarded. This is recognized to have a medium response rate with a medium extinction rate (McLeod, 2018). 

Variable Ratio Reinforcement

This practice is often compared to gambling or fishing in the sense that it is unpredictable when you will receive the reward. A child may volunteer to play a game of chance in school, knowing there will be a reward with licorice if the results are favourable. The response rate is fast in this case, with a slow extinction rate due to its unpredictable nature (McLeod, 2018).

Variable Interval Reinforcement

Given that positive behaviour has been established, a child may be given licorice after an unpredictable amount of time has passed, varying from 5 minutes to 5 hours and beyond. In an adult’s life, this can be found in a self-employed person being paid unpredictably. Under this assumption, the response rate is fast, with a slow extinction rate (McLeod, 2018).  Want to learn more about guiding positive behaviour in children with strategies you can use immediately? Watch this 40 minute masterclass with an optional certificate here .

In today’s classroom, educators often practice B.F. Skinner’s behaviour modification theory without even realizing it. Every time they punish a student for doing a behaviour they wish to be corrected, they display negative reinforcement acts. Rather than this theory lending to the learning aspect of education, it is more suited in terms of behaviour. 

This theory doesn’t always hold water and can be considered parallel to bribery, extinguishing meaning after the reinforcement rewards are no longer in effect. When practicing this theory to advance learning performance, teachers can shape behaviour by encouraging students to answer questions in class by praising them on participation alone, whether they get the answer right or wrong. Introducing a variable ratio to this practice will then only praise students who get the answer right, therefore offering this praise during intervals (McLeod, 2018).

Another example of this in today’s child development stages is by using the “token economy” system. They can be in the form of stickers, gold stars, fake money, etc., that add up to a reward for an exchange of tokens. Just like the flaws in Skinner’s theory, when this was found to be effective for psychiatric patients, it was proven to be difficult when adjusting to society when the system of tokens as they understood it no longer existed (McLeod, 2018). 

In all, this theory is famous for its behaviour modification results but questionable in the length the desired results will last. Success will only be realized through successive approximation, where rewards and punishments are adjusted to encourage those results.  

Erik Erikson is famous for his identity crisis theory which marked a significant shift in thinking on personality and development well through the age of maturity. In his early life, Erikson was introduced to the disparity of identity crisis when he learned that the man raising him was not his biological father (Cherry, 2020). 

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 15, 1902, Erik’s young Jewish mother, Karla Abrahamsen, raised him by herself until marrying a physician, Dr. Theodore Homberger. This sparked Erik’s interest in identity and was fueled further after his rejection from grammar school because of his Jewish background. In the same instance, his Jewish temple school also teased Erikson for being the only tall, blue-eyed blonde around (Cherry, 2020). 

Erikson was not on the path to learning about identity in the traditional manner. After dropping out of medical school, he went on to explore his crisis while wandering Europe with close friends. It wasn’t until a friend of Anna Freud (Sigmund Freud’s daughter) invited him to teach at a progressive school did he start his studies into psychoanalysis (Cherry, 2020). 

Erik Erikson was an ego psychologist who developed a popular theory that was influenced by Sigmund Freud’s work. Still, instead of psychosexual development as the basis, he believed psychosocial development proved to be prominent (Cherry, 2021). 

Comparative to Freud in terms of developmental stages, Erikson’s theory promotes that personality is developed in a series of stages that lead to conflict. If the conflict is not realized and overcome, the child or young adult may not build confidence or a strong self and may lack social normalcies compared to their peers. In contrast to other theorists, Erikson is generous with his theory and believes that development continues well into matured adult years and any stage can be successfully resolved at a later time (McLeod, 2018). A quick summary of these stages can be viewed below.

(Cherry, 2021). 

Erikson’s theory did have notable limitations and gained valid criticism but acted as a framework to view the entire lifespan in terms of development. There are no specific experiences that need to happen to successfully complete a stage and no root cause for moving on to the next (Cherry, 2021). 

The significance of Erikson’s philosophy for child development amplifies the importance of ego strength and how it aligns with continued growth. Being able to identify the underlying conflict or struggle based on the child’s age or stage is helpful for educators and parents to guide them to a sense of accomplishment and a healthy personality. 

Let’s compare the early years to common areas of development for children and how Erikson’s theory explains the behaviour and what needs to occur to move to the next stage. 

Trust vs. Mistrust 

During a child’s infancy, they are entirely dependent on their caregivers for the basic needs to survive. If an infant receives consistent, predictable care, they will move onto the net stage with a feeling of security. However, if their needs are not met, they may develop mistrust towards adults being able to provide for their needs. Success in this stage leads to the outcome & virtue of hope. Failure may lead to fear and anxiety (McLeod, 2018). 

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

This stage is primarily focused on personal control, independence and physical skills with a successful outcome leading to the virtue of will. Increased independence breeds increased confidence, while an overly controlled environment promotes self-doubt. During this stage, it’s important to let children explore and not be criticized harshly for mistakes made during this stage (McLeod, 2018). 

Initiative vs. Guilt

In the third stage of Erikson’s theory, you’ll recognize children planning activities and initiating play with others. When encouraged to explore this behaviour, children feel secure in making decisions and being a leader. If a child is being criticized or controlled during this stage, they will begin to feel guilt. An example of negativity is when a child asks too many questions and is treated as a bother, causing them to stop asking questions and quiet their curiosity (McLeod, 2018).  Want more information on developmental psychology? Take our free professional development 1 hour course here .

Industry vs. Inferiority 

During this stage, children are turning to peers and teachers for support, beginning a turning point for their self-esteem. During this development, children will feel pride in accomplishments that society is placing value on. This can be evident if a classroom particularly likes soccer and the child is the star goalie. However, a child can feel inferior if they can’t attain a skill that is perceived as important by their community. Success is mirrored through the virtue of competence in this stage, while failure can be recognized through modesty. While in balance, modesty and competence are the perfect pair, be careful to ensure a child is not shying away from activities (McLeod, 2018). 

Identity vs. Role Confusion

The fifth stage of Erikson’s theory and how it pertains to child development occurs during the adolescent stage of 12-18-year-olds, where they are searching for self and personal identity. Essentially, it is the bridge between childhood and adulthood. Children begin to learn their role as adults, observe their identity, and figure out who they are. In Erikson’s belief, this is in two parts: sexual and occupational (McLeod, 2018). 

Understanding the conflicts and potential outcomes through a child’s development is crucial in supporting their learning environment as well as personal growth. 

Arnold Gesell was born in Alma, Wisconsin, on June 21st, 1880. He was considered to be the pioneer of research that followed the process of human development from birth through adolescence through his recordings. He went on to receive his Bachelor’s Degree in 1906 from the University of Wisconsin before pursuing his Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University, where he later accepted an assistant professor position in 1911. He also earned his M.D. in 1915 and set up a “psycho-clinic,” now known as the Clinic of Child Development, where he acted as Professor of Child Hygiene at Yale from 1930-1948. While his work initially began as a curiosity in the development of disabled children, it evolved to understanding typical infant behaviour in contrast. (Mayes, 2018). 

In the early 20th century, Arnold Gesell was a clinical psychologist and pediatrician who developed a theory on child development that was based on observations of children from birth to adulthood that displayed both ordinary and exceptional patterns of behaviour. His Maturation Theory is considered what we know today as developmental milestones (Britannica, 2012). 

His research started with his concern to understand children with development challenges and concluded that he must first understand the typical patterns of development before being able to comprehend abnormalities. In order to observe the behaviour he needed for his studies, Gesell introduced a movie camera in 1926 to record his findings and monitor changes in behaviour. He put children in controlled environments with predetermined stimulations and recorded them through a one-way mirror (Britannica, 2012). Want to learn more about guiding positive behaviour in children with strategies you can use immediately? Watch this 40 minute masterclass with an optional certificate here .

From his research, Gesell found that children have to reach specific maturational stages before any learning can influence behaviour, and there was a hereditary connection for four key areas: motor skills, adaptive behaviour, language development and personal social skills (Britannica, 2012). 

From this, he created the Gesell Developmental Schedules, which were applicable for children from four weeks to six years of age that would test them for situations and measure both qualitatively and quantitatively (Mayes, 2018). 

Gesell’s methodology of using motion pictures and one-way screens to observe behaviour is now used by many researchers today who rely on the longevity of these studies. His findings are used as a benchmark for developmental schedules, now used as a standard method for assessing children’s development (Mayes, 2018). 

His maturation theory was based on the premise that there was a series of fixed sequences after birth, such as tongue movement first before control of the neck and shoulders. While development was believed by Gesell to be influenced by genetics and environment, he also upheld the importance of psychological development as the key to later success (Mayes, 2018). 

Under Gesell’s theory, he suggests that teaching children should be done in the order of things – i.e. only teach them when they are both physically and mentally ready. If you go ahead of the child’s developmental structure, it could do more harm than good. While educators and theorists use these evaluations as a baseline for normalcy, many questions are left unanswered, like if a child falls behind in their development stage and how they can catch up (Mayes, 2018).

From Freud’s theory on behaviour modification to Piaget’s stages of development, we can see pieces of each theorists’ philosophy woven into our current approaches to learning and the education system, which ultimately shapes child development. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to understand the developmental stages, but rather an encouragement to continue exploration in education to spark new ideas that will assist in the expansion of our methods to promote healthy growth and development in children. 

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Pedagogic Theories

Introduction, general overviews.

• Encyclopedias and Handbooks
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• Pedagogical Schools of Thought
• Great Educationalists
• Middle Ages
• 20th Century
• Johan Amos Comenius
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• Johann Friedrich Herbart
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• Maria Montessori
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• Janusz Korczak
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• Systematization of Basic Ideas and Concepts
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Pedagogic Theories by Juha Hämäläinen LAST REVIEWED: 27 May 2020 LAST MODIFIED: 27 May 2020 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0015

“Pedagogue” (παιδαγογος) was originally a term for a slave who was responsible for the care of children in the household. Later the meaning of the word expanded to mean educator and teacher. A pedagogic theory deals with the nature and structure of educational action, teaching, and upbringing. Pedagogic theories are connected with belief and value systems, concepts of man and society, and philosophies of knowledge and political interests. Thus, it is rather difficult to define a pedagogic theory exactly. In general, the concept of pedagogy refers to a systematic view of organizing education. It discusses the issues of how to educate and what it means to be educated. In this sense, a pedagogic theory is a theory of educational action, or a systematic view and reflection of pedagogic practice. Pedagogic theory is a systematic conceptualization of the process of education and conditions of human development in both the individual and the societal life sphere. It deals with processes of upbringing, teaching, learning, and social and cultural development. Aims and means, values and norms, and objectives and methods of education are systematically reflected therein. Pedagogic theory building starts with two fundamental anthropologic questions: What is a human being, and what should he or she be? Combining these questions, pedagogic theory examines educational aims and means of helping human beings to develop toward what they should be. Pedagogic reflection and theory building are based on the idea that—in the words of Immanuel Kant—a human being can become human only through education. Studying childhood from the vantage point of pedagogic theories focuses on the development of a pedagogic way of thinking over the course of time.

In effect, all comprehensive treatises on the history and philosophy of education include a general overview of pedagogic theories by considering the development of educational thinking and the basic theoretical concepts. For example, the McGraw-Hill Series in Education, begun after World War II, contains many important works illustrating the nature, multiplicity, and historical development of the pedagogic way of thinking. Brubacher 1966 is worthy of mention as a modern classic, but there are many other worthwhile general overviews on the history of educational thought. The majority of pedagogic theories do not only analyze the nature of education but also take a stand on “how education ought to proceed, what it is for, and whose interests it ought to serve,” as stated by Nicolas C. Burbules and Nathan Raybeck ( Burbules and Raybeck 2003 , p. 1882). Frankena 2003 covers a short historical overview on the pedagogic schools of thought, and Burbules and Raybeck 2003 discusses the current trends in the philosophy of education, identifying prescriptive, analytical, and critical impulses therein. Wynne 1963 introduces twelve types of theories, focusing on the philosophical foundations, implications, applications, and cultural conditions of each, and makes concluding comments. Correspondingly, Ellis, et al. 1991 discusses five philosophies—idealism, realism, Neo-Thomism, experimentalism/pragmatism, and existentialism—that have influenced the development of educational thought. O’Neill 1981 makes a distinction between conservative and liberal educational ideologies. Benner 2001 provides a systematic analysis of the most important currents of pedagogic theories. By introducing the most significant concepts of man in Western and Eastern thought, Stevenson and Haberman 2008 places the fundamental issue of human nature into the debate on pedagogic theory. Jackson 2011 deals with the nature of pedagogic thinking, and Noddings 2018 comprehensively discusses the key branches of educational philosophy.

Benner, Dietrich. Hauptströmungen der Erziehungswissenschaft: Eine Systematik traditioneller und moderner Theorien . 4th ed. UTB: Uni-Taschenbucher. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz, 2001.

This German modern classic of systematic pedagogy offers a structured overview of the field of pedagogic theories. First published in 1973.

Brubacher, John S. A History of the Problems of Education . 2d ed. Foundations in Education. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.

The author considers trends in educational thought from a historical point of view, paying attention to ideological aspects therein. The book is an overview of the history of ideas of education. First published 1947.

Burbules, Nicolas C., and Nathan Raybeck. “Philosophy of Education: Current Trends.” In Encyclopedia of Education . 2d ed. Vol. 5. Edited by James W. Guthrie, 1880–1885. New York: Macmillan, 2003.

Schools and trends of educational thought in the 20th century and their backgrounds are introduced briefly.

Ellis, Arthur K., John J. Cogan, and Kenneth R. Howey. Introduction to the Foundations of Education . 3d ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1991.

The authors introduce and discuss cardinal schools of educational thought, paying attention to their historical background and ontological and epistemological basis.

Frankena, William K. “Philosophy of Education: Historical Overview.” In Encyclopedia of Education . 2d ed. Vol. 5. Edited by James W. Guthrie, 1877–1880. New York: Macmillan, 2003.

The article is a brief historical overview of schools and trends of educational thought and their backgrounds.

Jackson, Philip W. What Is Education? Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226389394.001.0001

Influenced by John Dewey’s philosophy of education, this book challenges educators to reflect upon the nature of education. The author highlights the importance of the quality of educational thinking and quality understanding of the nature and meaning of education, in particular, for the development of the quality of educational practice.

Noddings, Nel. Philosophy of Education . 4th ed. New York and London: Routledge, 2018.

DOI: 10.4324/9780429494864

After a short overview of some great educationalist pre-20th century, the author discusses the most important schools of thought of educational philosophy from epistemological, ethical, social-philosophy-related, and political perspectives, paying attention to historical and systems-rational aspects. First published 2016 by Westview Press.

O’Neill, William F. Educational Ideologies: Contemporary Expressions of Educational Philosophy . Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear, 1981.

The author offers a view on schools of educational thought by analyzing how they are influenced by different ideological interests.

Stevenson, Leslie, and David L. Haberman. Ten Theories of Human Nature . 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

By providing a versatile survey on the most central theories of the universe and humanity, this book reflects pedagogic theory from the point of view of its ontological foundations.

Wynne, John Peter. Theories of Education: An Introduction to the Foundations of Education . Harper’s Series on Teaching. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.

In this versatile overview, theories of education are considered by focusing on their ideological backgrounds and meanings.

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Developmental Review

Developmental theories: past, present, and future ☆.

• • Past theories have raised enduring issues of development.
• • Theories have become less general and more domain specific.
• • Biological perspectives have become more dominant.
• • Future theories need to integrate diversity and larger social-cultural systems.
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7 Developmental Theories

What is a theory.

Students sometimes feel intimidated by theory; even the phrase, “Now we are going to look at some theories…” is met with blank stares and other indications that the audience is now lost. But theories are valuable tools for understanding human behavior; in fact they are proposed explanations for the “how” and “whys” of development. Have you ever wondered, “Why is my 3 year old so inquisitive?” or “Why are some fifth graders rejected by their classmates?” Theories can help explain these and other occurrences. Developmental theories offer explanations about how we develop, why we change over time and the kinds of influences that impact development.

A theory guides and helps us interpret research findings as well. It provides the researcher with a blueprint or model to be used to help piece together various studies. Think of theories as guidelines much like directions that come with an appliance or other object that requires assembly. The instructions can help one piece together smaller parts more easily than if trial and error are used.

Theories can be developed using induction in which a number of single cases are observed and after patterns or similarities are noted, the theorist develops ideas based on these examples. Established theories are then tested through research; however, not all theories are equally suited to scientific investigation. Some theories are difficult to test but are still useful in stimulating debate or providing concepts that have practical application. Keep in mind that theories are not facts; they are guidelines for investigation and practice, and they gain credibility through research that fails to disprove them. [1]

Let’s take a look at some key theories in Child Development. [2]

Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

We begin with the often controversial figure, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud has been a very influential figure in the area of development; his view of development and psychopathology dominated the field of psychiatry until the growth of behaviorism in the 1950s. His assumptions that personality forms during the first few years of life and that the ways in which parents or other caregivers interact with children have a long-lasting impact on children’s emotional states have guided parents, educators, clinicians, and policy-makers for many years. We have only recently begun to recognize that early childhood experiences do not always result in certain personality traits or emotional states. There is a growing body of literature addressing resilience in children who come from harsh backgrounds and yet develop without damaging emotional scars (O’Grady and Metz, 1987). Freud has stimulated an enormous amount of research and generated many ideas. Agreeing with Freud’s theory in its entirety is hardly necessary for appreciating the contribution he has made to the field of development.

Freud’s theory of self suggests that there are three parts of the self.

The id is the part of the self that is inborn. It responds to biological urges without pause and is guided by the principle of pleasure: if it feels good, it is the thing to do. A newborn is all id. The newborn cries when hungry, defecates when the urge strikes.

The ego develops through interaction with others and is guided by logic or the reality principle. It has the ability to delay gratification. It knows that urges have to be managed. It mediates between the id and superego using logic and reality to calm the other parts of the self.

The superego represents society’s demands for its members. It is guided by a sense of guilt. Values, morals, and the conscience are all part of the superego.

The personality is thought to develop in response to the child’s ability to learn to manage biological urges. Parenting is important here. If the parent is either overly punitive or lax, the child may not progress to the next stage. Here is a brief introduction to Freud’s stages.

Video reviews basic concepts of Freud’s theories and addresses three reasons why we still talk about Freud despite his theories lacking empirical validity.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Freud’s Theory

Freud’s theory has been heavily criticized for several reasons. One is that it is very difficult to test scientifically. How can parenting in infancy be traced to personality in adulthood? Are there other variables that might better explain development? The theory is also considered to be sexist in suggesting that women who do not accept an inferior position in society are somehow psychologically flawed. Freud focuses on the darker side of human nature and suggests that much of what determines our actions is unknown to us. So why do we study Freud? As mentioned above, despite the criticisms, Freud’s assumptions about the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our psychological selves have found their way into child development, education, and parenting practices. Freud’s theory has heuristic value in providing a framework from which to elaborate and modify subsequent theories of development. Many later theories, particularly behaviorism and humanism, were challenges to Freud’s views. [3]

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

Now, let’s turn to a less controversial theorist, Erik Erikson. Erikson (1902-1994) suggested that our relationships and society’s expectations motivate much of our behavior in his theory of psychosocial development. Erikson was a student of Freud’s but emphasized the importance of the ego, or conscious thought, in determining our actions. In other words, he believed that we are not driven by unconscious urges. We know what motivates us and we consciously think about how to achieve our goals. He is considered the father of developmental psychology because his model gives us a guideline for the entire life span and suggests certain primary psychological and social concerns throughout life.

Erikson expanded on his Freud’s by emphasizing the importance of culture in parenting practices and motivations and adding three stages of adult development (Erikson, 1950; 1968).

He believed that we are aware of what motivates us throughout life and the ego has greater importance in guiding our actions than does the id. We make conscious choices in life and these choices focus on meeting certain social and cultural needs rather than purely biological ones.

Humans are motivated, for instance, by the need to feel that the world is a trustworthy place, that we are capable individuals, that we can make a contribution to society, and that we have lived a meaningful life. These are all psychosocial problems.

Erikson divided the lifespan into eight stages. In each stage, we have a major psychosocial task to accomplish or crisis to overcome. Erikson believed that our personality continues to take shape throughout our lifespan as we face these challenges in living. Here is a brief overview of the eight stages:

These eight stages form a foundation for discussions on emotional and social development during the life span. Keep in mind, however, that these stages or crises can occur more than once. For instance, a person may struggle with a lack of trust beyond infancy under certain circumstances. Erikson’s theory has been criticized for focusing so heavily on stages and assuming that the completion of one stage is prerequisite for the next crisis of development. His theory also focuses on the social expectations that are found in certain cultures, but not in all. For instance, the idea that adolescence is a time of searching for identity might translate well in the middle-class culture of the United States, but not as well in cultures where the transition into adulthood coincides with puberty through rites of passage and where adult roles offer fewer choices. [4]

Video reviews Erikson’s discontinuous approach to social emotional development. You can choose to stop the video at 2 mins 41 secs after the review of the stages for childhood and adolescence or watch the whole video to review all eight of Erikson’s stages. 

Behaviorism

While Freud and Erikson looked at what was going on in the mind, behaviorism rejected any reference to mind and viewed overt and observable behavior as the proper subject matter of psychology. Through the scientific study of behavior, it was hoped that laws of learning could be derived that would promote the prediction and control of behavior. [5]

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov (1880-1937) was a Russian physiologist interested in studying digestion. As he recorded the amount of salivation his laboratory dogs produced as they ate, he noticed that they actually began to salivate before the food arrived as the researcher walked down the hall and toward the cage. “This,” he thought, “is not natural!” One would expect a dog to automatically salivate when food hit their palate, but BEFORE the food comes? Of course, what had happened was . . . you tell me. That’s right! The dogs knew that the food was coming because they had learned to associate the footsteps with the food. The key word here is “learned”. A learned response is called a “conditioned” response.

Pavlov began to experiment with this concept of classical conditioning . He began to ring a bell, for instance, prior to introducing the food. Sure enough, after making this connection several times, the dogs could be made to salivate to the sound of a bell. Once the bell had become an event to which the dogs had learned to salivate, it was called a conditioned stimulus . The act of salivating to a bell was a response that had also been learned, now termed in Pavlov’s jargon, a conditioned response. Notice that the response, salivation, is the same whether it is conditioned or unconditioned (unlearned or natural). What changed is the stimulus to which the dog salivates. One is natural (unconditioned) and one is learned (conditioned).

Video reviews Pavlov’s experiments and the principles of classical conditioning.

Let’s think about how classical conditioning is used on us. One of the most widespread applications of classical conditioning principles was brought to us by the psychologist, John B. Watson.

John B. Watson

John B. Watson (1878-1958) believed that most of our fears and other emotional responses are classically conditioned. He had gained a good deal of popularity in the 1920s with his expert advice on parenting offered to the public.

He tried to demonstrate the power of classical conditioning with his famous experiment with an 18 month old boy named “Little Albert”. Watson sat Albert down and introduced a variety of seemingly scary objects to him: a burning piece of newspaper, a white rat, etc. But Albert remained curious and reached for all of these things. Watson knew that one of our only inborn fears is the fear of loud noises so he proceeded to make a loud noise each time he introduced one of Albert’s favorites, a white rat. After hearing the loud noise several times paired with the rat, Albert soon came to fear the rat and began to cry when it was introduced. Watson filmed this experiment for posterity and used it to demonstrate that he could help parents achieve any outcomes they desired, if they would only follow his advice. Watson wrote columns in newspapers and in magazines and gained a lot of popularity among parents eager to apply science to household order.

Video reviews key concepts of Watson’s theory and briefly describes what happened to his own four children, including their struggles with suicidal ideation.

Operant conditioning, on the other hand, looks at the way the consequences of a behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring again. So let’s look at this a bit more.

B.F. Skinner and Operant Conditioning

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990), who brought us the principles of operant conditioning, suggested that reinforcement is a more effective means of encouraging a behavior than is criticism or punishment. By focusing on strengthening desirable behavior, we have a greater impact than if we emphasize what is undesirable. Reinforcement is anything that an organism desires and is motivated to obtain.

A reinforcer is something that encourages or promotes a behavior. Some things are natural rewards. They are considered intrinsic or primary because their value is easily understood. Think of what kinds of things babies or animals such as puppies find rewarding.

Extrinsic or secondary reinforcers are things that have a value not immediately understood. Their value is indirect. They can be traded in for what is ultimately desired.

The use of positive reinforcement involves adding something to a situation in order to encourage a behavior. For example, if I give a child a cookie for cleaning a room, the addition of the cookie makes cleaning more likely in the future. Think of ways in which you positively reinforce others.

Negative reinforcement occurs when taking something unpleasant away from a situation encourages behavior. For example, I have an alarm clock that makes a very unpleasant, loud sound when it goes off in the morning. As a result, I get up and turn it off. By removing the noise, I am reinforced for getting up. How do you negatively reinforce others?

Punishment is an effort to stop a behavior. It means to follow an action with something unpleasant or painful. Punishment is often less effective than reinforcement for several reasons. It doesn’t indicate the desired behavior, it may result in suppressing rather than stopping a behavior, (in other words, the person may not do what is being punished when you’re around, but may do it often when you leave), and a focus on punishment can result in not noticing when the person does well.

Video reviews key concepts of Skinner’s theory. 

Not all behaviors are learned through association or reinforcement. Many of the things we do are learned by watching others. This is addressed in social learning theory.

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura (1925-) is a leading contributor to social learning theory. He calls our attention to the ways in which many of our actions are not learned through conditioning; rather, they are learned by watching others (1977). Young children frequently learn behaviors through imitation

Sometimes, particularly when we do not know what else to do, we learn by modeling or copying the behavior of others. A kindergartner on his or her first day of school might eagerly look at how others are acting and try to act the same way to fit in more quickly. Adolescents struggling with their identity rely heavily on their peers to act as role-models. Sometimes we do things because we’ve seen it pay off for someone else. They were operantly conditioned, but we engage in the behavior because we hope it will pay off for us as well. This is referred to as vicarious reinforcement (Bandura, Ross and Ross, 1963).

Bandura (1986) suggests that there is interplay between the environment and the individual. We are not just the product of our surroundings, rather we influence our surroundings. Parents not only influence their child’s environment, perhaps intentionally through the use of reinforcement, etc., but children influence parents as well. Parents may respond differently with their first child than with their fourth. Perhaps they try to be the perfect parents with their firstborn, but by the time their last child comes along they have very different expectations both of themselves and their child. Our environment creates us and we create our environment. [6]

Video reviews key concepts and experiments for Bandura’s theory.

Bandura and the Bobo Doll Experiment & Today’s Children and the Media

Other social influences: TV or not TV? Bandura (et als. 1963) began a series of studies to look at the impact of television, particularly commercials, on the behavior of children. Are children more likely to act out aggressively when they see this behavior modeled? What if they see it being reinforced? Bandura began by conducting an experiment in which he showed children a film of a woman hitting an inflatable clown or “bobo” doll. Then the children were allowed in the room where they found the doll and immediately began to hit it. This was without any reinforcement whatsoever. Not only that, but they found new ways to behave aggressively.

It’s as if they learned an aggressive role.

Children view far more television today than in the 1960s; so much, in fact, that they have been referred to as Generation M (media). The amount of screen time varies by age. As of 2017, children 0-8 spend an average of 2 hours and 19 minutes. Children 8-12 years of age spend almost 6 hours a day on screen media. And 13- to 18-year-olds spend an average of just under 9 hours a day in entertainment media use.

The prevalence of violence, sexual content, and messages promoting foods high in fat and sugar in the media are certainly cause for concern and the subjects of ongoing research and policy review. Many children spend even more time on the computer viewing content from the internet. The amount of time spent connected to the internet continues to increase with the use of smartphones that essentially serve as mini-computers. And the ways children and adolescents interact with the media continues to change. The popularity of YouTube and the various social media platforms are examples of this. What might be the implications of this? [7]

Theories also explore cognitive development and how mental processes change over time.

Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is one of the most influential cognitive theorists. Piaget was inspired to explore children’s ability to think and reason by watching his own children’s development. He was one of the first to recognize and map out the ways in which children’s thought differs from that of adults. His interest in this area began when he was asked to test the IQ of children and began to notice that there was a pattern in their wrong answers. He believed that children’s intellectual skills change over time through maturation. Children of differing ages interpret the world differently.

Piaget believed our desire to understand the world comes from a need for cognitive equilibrium . This is an agreement or balance between what we sense in the outside world and what we know in our minds. If we experience something that we cannot understand, we try to restore the balance by either changing our thoughts or by altering the experience to fit into what we do understand. Perhaps you meet someone who is very different from anyone you know. How do you make sense of this person? You might use them to establish a new category of people in your mind or you might think about how they are similar to someone else.

A schema or schemes are categories of knowledge. They are like mental boxes of concepts. A child has to learn many concepts. They may have a scheme for “under” and “soft” or “running” and “sour”. All of these are schema. Our efforts to understand the world around us lead us to develop new schema and to modify old ones.

One way to make sense of new experiences is to focus on how they are similar to what we already know. This is assimilation . So the person we meet who is very different may be understood as being “sort of like my brother” or “his voice sounds a lot like yours.” Or a new food may be assimilated when we determine that it tastes like chicken!

Another way to make sense of the world is to change our mind. We can make a cognitive accommodation to this new experience by adding new schema. This food is unlike anything I’ve tasted before. I now have a new category of foods that are bitter-sweet in flavor, for instance. This is accommodation . Do you accommodate or assimilate more frequently? Children accommodate more frequently as they build new schema. Adults tend to look for similarity in their experience and assimilate. They may be less inclined to think “outside the box.” Piaget suggested different ways of understanding that are associated with maturation. He divided this into four stages:

Video reviews Piaget’s discontinuous approach to cognitive development.

Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory

Piaget has been criticized for overemphasizing the role that physical maturation plays in cognitive development and in underestimating the role that culture and interaction (or experience) plays in cognitive development. Looking across cultures reveals considerable variation in what children are able to do at various ages. Piaget may have underestimated what children are capable of given the right circumstances. [8]

Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Russian psychologist who wrote in the early 1900s but whose work was discovered in the United States in the 1960s but became more widely known in the 1980s. Vygotsky differed with Piaget in that he believed that a person not only has a set of abilities, but also a set of potential abilities that can be realized if given the proper guidance from others. His sociocultural theory emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the development of cognitive abilities. He believed that through guided participation known as scaffolding, with a teacher or capable peer, a child can learn cognitive skills within a certain range known as the zone of proximal development. [9] His belief was that development occurred first through children’s immediate social interactions, and then moved to the individual level as they began to internalize their learning. [10]

Have you ever taught a child to perform a task? Maybe it was brushing their teeth or preparing food. Chances are you spoke to them and described what you were doing while you demonstrated the skill and let them work along with you all through the process. You gave them assistance when they seemed to need it, but once they knew what to do-you stood back and let them go. This is scaffolding and can be seen demonstrated throughout the world. This approach to teaching has also been adopted by educators. Rather than assessing students on what they are doing, they should be understood in terms of what they are capable of doing with the proper guidance. You can see how Vygotsky would be very popular with modern day educators. [11]

Video reviews key concepts of Vygotsky’s theory.

Comparing Piaget and Vygotsky

Vygotsky concentrated more on the child’s immediate social and cultural environment and his or her interactions with adults and peers. While Piaget saw the child as actively discovering the world through individual interactions with it, Vygotsky saw the child as more of an apprentice, learning through a social environment of others who had more experience and were sensitive to the child’s needs and abilities. [12]

Like Vygotsky’s, Bronfenbrenner looked at the social influences on learning and development.

Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) offers us one of the most comprehensive theories of human development. Bronfenbrenner studied Freud, Erikson, Piaget, and learning theorists and believed that all of those theories could be enhanced by adding the dimension of context. What is being taught and how society interprets situations depends on who is involved in the life of a child and on when and where a child lives.

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model explains the direct and indirect influences on an individual’s development.

For example, in order to understand a student in math, we can’t simply look at that individual and what challenges they face directly with the subject. We have to look at the interactions that occur between teacher and child. Perhaps the teacher needs to make modifications as well. The teacher may be responding to regulations made by the school, such as new expectations for students in math or constraints on time that interfere with the teacher’s ability to instruct. These new demands may be a response to national efforts to promote math and science deemed important by political leaders in response to relations with other countries at a particular time in history.

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model challenges us to go beyond the individual if we want to understand human development and promote improvements. [13]

Video reviews key concepts of Bronfenbrenner’s theory.

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pedagogy , the study of teaching methods, including the aims of education and the ways in which such goals may be achieved. The field relies heavily on educational psychology , which encompasses scientific theories of learning , and to some extent on the philosophy of education , which considers the aims and value of education from a philosophical perspective.

Teaching methods

The teacher and the learner.

In the act of teaching there are two parties (the teacher and the taught) who work together in some program (the subject matter) designed to modify the learners’ experience and understanding in some way. It is necessary to begin, therefore, with observations about the learner, the teacher, and the subject matter and then to consider the significance of group life and the school. It will then be possible to consider the factors and theories involved in modifying a person’s experience and understanding. They include theories of learning in education, of school and class organization, and of instructional media.

A child enters school with little if any attainment in written expression and leaves it capable of learning much from human culture . It was thought originally that such progress was just a matter of learning, memorizing, associating, and practicing. The work of psychologists has revealed, however, that the growth of the pupil’s intellectual powers must include a large element of development through different phases, beginning with simple sensorimotor coordination ; going on to the beginnings of symbolizing, helped by the growth of language and play ; and then on to logical thought, provided the material is concrete; and, finally, in midadolescence, on to the power to examine problems comprehensively, to grasp their formal structure, and to evoke explanation. Regarding emotional experience, the child progresses from direct, immediate, uninhibited reactions to more complex, less direct, and more circumspect responses. The physical growth of the child is so obvious as to need no comment. Any attempt to educate the child intellectually and emotionally and for action must take account of those characteristics. Education must pace development, not follow it and not ignore it. The components in the child’s overall educational growth are physical and mental maturation, experience, formal teaching through language, and an urge in the learner to resolve discrepancies, anomalies , and dissonances in experience.

What is required of teachers is that they enjoy and be capable of sharing with children work programs designed to modify their experience and understanding. That means making relevant experience available to the student at the right time. The teacher must be mature, have humour with a sense of status, be firm yet unruffled, and be sympathetic but not overpersonal. With large classes, the teacher becomes a leader of a group, providing stimulating learning situations.

The subject matter taught also has a marked influence on the total teaching situation. It may be conveniently divided into the broad headings of languages, humanities , sciences , mathematics , and arts . Although each group of subjects has something in common with others in terms of the demands it makes on the thinker, each area has also something quite specific in its mode of development. Languages call for verbal learning and production based on oral work, particularly during the early phases. The humanities call for an understanding of cause-effect relations of immediate and remote connections between persons and institutions and between human beings and their environment . The sciences call for induction from experience, though deductive processes are required when the laws of science are formalized into mathematical terms. The humanities and sciences both depend on the ability of the learner to hypothesize. Mathematics calls for the ability to abstract, symbolize, and deduce. An interest in the formal and structural properties of the acts of counting and measuring is fundamental. Arts and literature call for a fairly free opportunity to explore and create.

A large part of the teacher’s role is as a group leader, and the group life of the school and the classroom must influence the teaching situation. Group life shows itself in the dynamic structure of the class—including its manner of reaching group decisions, the hierarchy of its members, the existence of cliques and of isolated individuals—and in its morale and overall response to the school and the rest of the staff. Individual pupils also conduct themselves under the influence of the groups to which they belong. Their achievements and attitudes are subject to evaluation by the group, leading to support or ostracism, and they set their standards according to those influences.

In many schools, the range of ages in any class is about one year, and the narrow range makes for some uniformity of subject-matter coverage. But in rural one- and two-teacher schools, groups of children may be heterogeneous by age and ability, and the mode of teaching has to cope with a number of smaller subunits moving along at different rates. The teacher’s problem is to coordinate the work of those small, dissimilar groups in such a way that all get attention. Creative free activity has to be practiced by one group while another has more formal instruction from the teacher.

The effect of “ streaming ,” or “tracking”—that is, selecting homogeneous groups by both age and intellectual ability—has promoted much inquiry. The practice evokes extreme opinions, ardent support, and vociferous condemnation. The case for uniformity is that putting pupils with their intellectual peers makes teaching more effective and learning more acceptable. The case against it draws attention to its bad effects on the morale of those children in the lower streams. That view supports the heterogeneous class on the grounds that the strongest are not overforced and the weakest gain from sharing with their abler fellows. Experimental evidence on the problem is diverse .

The school community is housed in a physical complex, and the conditions of classrooms, assembly places, and play areas and the existence (or nonexistence) of libraries , laboratories , arts-and-crafts rooms, and workshops all play their part in the effectiveness of the teaching-learning situation. Severe restrictions may be caused by the absence of library and laboratory services.

The social forces immediately outside the school community also influence the teaching situation. They emanate from home, neighbourhood, and wider social groupings. Teaching is a compact among several groups, including teachers, students, and parents, in the first place, with youth organizations and civic and sometimes religious groups playing a secondary role. The overall neighbourhood youth subculture also sets standards and attitudes that teachers must take into account in their work.

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Theories of Child Development and Their Impact on Early Childhood Education and Care

• Published: 29 October 2021
• Volume 51 , pages 15–30, ( 2023 )

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• Olivia N. Saracho   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4108-7790 1  

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Developmental theorists use their research to generate philosophies on children’s development. They organize and interpret data based on a scheme to develop their theory. A theory refers to a systematic statement of principles related to observed phenomena and their relationship to each other. A theory of child development looks at the children's growth and behavior and interprets it. It suggests elements in the child's genetic makeup and the environmental conditions that influence development and behavior and how these elements are related. Many developmental theories offer insights about how the performance of individuals is stimulated, sustained, directed, and encouraged. Psychologists have established several developmental theories. Many different competing theories exist, some dealing with only limited domains of development, and are continuously revised. This article describes the developmental theories and their founders who have had the greatest influence on the fields of child development, early childhood education, and care. The following sections discuss some influences on the individuals’ development, such as theories, theorists, theoretical conceptions, and specific principles. It focuses on five theories that have had the most impact: maturationist, constructivist, behavioral, psychoanalytic, and ecological. Each theory offers interpretations on the meaning of children's development and behavior. Although the theories are clustered collectively into schools of thought, they differ within each school.

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The Theory and Practice of Development Education A pedagogy for global social justice

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Development education is much more than learning about development; it is a pedagogy for the globalised societies of the twenty-first century that incorporates discourses from critical pedagogy and postcolonialism, and a mechanism for ensuring that differing perspectives are reflected within education, particularly those from developing countries. Learning about development and global issues is now part of the school curriculum in a number of countries, and terms such as global citizenship, sustainable development and cultural understanding are commonplace in many educational contexts. Development education has been recognised as one of the educational discourses that has influenced the acceptance of these terms, for both policy-makers and practitioners. This ground-breaking volume addresses the history, theoretical influences, practices and impact of development education in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan. Chapters include how development education evolved, the influence of theorists such as Paulo Freire, the practices of aid and development agencies, and the impact of governments seeking evidence of public understanding of and engagement with development. The Theory and Practice of Development Education provides essential reading for anyone engaged in re-thinking and reflecting upon the educational needs of a globalised society, and seeking approaches towards learning that place social justice at the heart of that practice. It will be of particular interest to academics and postgraduate students in the fields of development education, international education and globalisation.

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Douglas Bourn is Director of the Development Education Research Centre at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.

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‘The book suggests that development education’s pedagogical framework should be based on four underlying principles: global outlook, recognition of power and inequality in the world, belief in social justice and equity, and commitment to reflection, dialogue, and transformation. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.’ - D. L. Stoloff, Eastern Connecticut State University, in CHOICE, June 2015

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The Theory and Practice of Development Education

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Development education is much more than learning about development; it is a pedagogy for the globalised societies of the twenty-first century that incorporates discourses from critical pedagogy and postcolonialism, and a mechanism for ensuring that differing perspectives are reflected within education, particularly those from developing countries. Learning about development and global issues is now part of the school curriculum in a number of countries, and terms such as global citizenship, sustainable development and cultural understanding are commonplace in many educational contexts. Development education has been recognised as one of the educational discourses that has influenced the acceptance of these terms, for both policy-makers and practitioners.

This ground-breaking volume addresses the history, theoretical influences, practices and impact of development education in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan. Chapters include how development education evolved, the influence of theorists such as Paulo Freire, the practices of aid and development agencies, and the impact of governments seeking evidence of public understanding of and engagement with development.

The Theory and Practice of Development Education provides essential reading for anyone engaged in re-thinking and reflecting upon the educational needs of a globalised society, and seeking approaches towards learning that place social justice at the heart of that practice. It will be of particular interest to academics and postgraduate students in the fields of development education, international education and globalisation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part i | 68  pages, history, terminology and structures, chapter 1 | 5  pages, introduction, chapter 2 | 20  pages, from learning about development to global learning, chapter 3 | 24  pages, what is meant by development education, chapter 4 | 17  pages, a network, a community of practice or a movement for educational change, part ii | 53  pages, theory of development education, chapter 5 | 31  pages, towards a theory of development education, chapter 6 | 20  pages, a pedagogical framework, part iii | 55  pages, the practice of development education, chapter 7 | 14  pages, building a knowledge base – learning about development, chapter 8 | 16  pages, learning and skills in a global society, chapter 9 | 11  pages, non-governmental organisations and education for a more just world, chapter 10 | 12  pages, impact and evaluation, part iv | 25  pages, pedagogy for global learning, chapter 11 | 13  pages, putting learning at the heart of development education, chapter 12 | 6  pages, a pedagogy for global learning, chapter 13 | 4  pages.

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The Theory and Practice of Development Education: A Pedagogy for Global Social Justice

Reflections and Projections: Policy and Practice Ten Years On

Douglas Bourn (2015)  The Theory and Practice of Development Education: A Pedagogy for Global Social Justice , Abingdon: Routledge.

Doug Bourn is likely to be known by many in the development education sector in his role as the Director of the Development Education Research Centre of the Institute of Education in London.  It is perhaps as an academic in this field that he has sought to write this book, having being asked by his students for some clarity concerning the field of development education. He is well placed to do so having been a part of the sector for many years.  The debate on how the development education sector is ever-changing forms the backbone to this book.  In this sense, one of its aims is as a ‘catch-all’ for the literature that exists on what development education is and should be. Certainly, by drawing upon leading theorists, research and casting a wide net, Bourn fills in the gaps for many readers who might be working in development education, but only know a partial account of this field. The rationale for this book is however, much more than a summary or history of development education.

          Bourn puts forward the idea that development education is a pedagogical approach and so the stress is on the  education  part of development education.  In this book Bourn poses and answers key questions, such as the relevance and relationship of development education to the learning skills needed for a global society.  Another question concerns the impact of development education and what evidence exists to measure such impacts.  To answer such questions, development education is presented as a pedagogy, ‘an approach to learning which recognises that learners come to development and global issues from a wide range of starting points, perspectives and experiences’ (5).  By stressing this pedagogical aspect, Bourn sets out to outline a new pedagogical framework for development education.  He argues that instead of becoming focussed on a narrow view, we should encourage a range of different perspectives from learners.  Pluralism is therefore an asset adding strength to the discipline.

          From setting out the intent and rationale of the book in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 charts the historical progression from learning about development to global learning.  Bourn places development education within a cohort of other ‘adjectival’ movements, such as human rights, peace and environmental education that emerged in the 1960s and 70s. The foundational influence of the non-governmental sector is described and Bourn notes that this has caused criticism of development education as being too strongly linked to a charity framework of the global South.  Although this connection has often been present, radical approaches that paid attention to theorists such as Paulo Freire started to make their presence felt.  Bourn notes that the evolution of development education was fraught between debates on whether development education is about informing the public in the global North or is about changing ideas about development both in the global North and South.

          Bourn identifies new ‘adjectivals’ such as ‘sustainable development’ and ‘global citizenship’, as beginning in the early 1990s, and having currency today.  Educators and politicians have seen how these education movements are powerful in changing young people’s behaviours and attitudes – particularly in changing their consumption practices to becoming more ethical and globally-oriented citizens.  Despite the circulation of lots of terms to describe development education, global learning or sustainable global citizenship began to increase in popularity in the 2000s reflecting a maturing of the pedagogy and a realisation of its power.  Bourn argues the history of development education is less than linear, but that it has always achieved its greatest impact when part of a broader movement such as sustainable development or global citizenship.

          Following this historical mapping, Chapter 3 sets out to clarify what is meant by the term ‘development education’.  What is vital here is that Bourn addresses the fact that perspective is all important.  NGOs, education departments, foreign affairs ministries, teachers and academics may all have divergent understandings about what development education is and its purpose.  Perhaps reflecting these different perspectives, Chapter 4 describes how development education has often been seen as a loose network of interested bodies – and this is both a strength and a weakness.  What Bourn is interested in, is moving the concept of development education beyond a ‘touchy-feely’ adjectival and ad hoc movement to a distinctive pedagogy, one that is based on theoretical foundations, and open to debate, dialogue and change.  Bourn argues that despite the eclectic nature of the broad field, rigor can be applied, not to constrain the discipline but to create a formal discipline, based on theory that can be open to reflection and change.

          With this in mind, the book segues into Part 2, in which an explanation of the theories of Annette Scheunpflug and Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti are discussed.  This is an interesting account of how very different theorists may not divide the theoretical base of development education, but contribute to its strength by adding unique critical analysis to understanding development.  The chapter then includes discussion of other notions including postcolonialism, transformative learning and global cosmopolitanism.  Together with critical thinking, dialogue and self-reflexive learning, Bourn maintains that these ideas need to be connected to the various theories so that a pedagogy of development education can evolve (99).

          It is in Chapter 6 that Bourn outlines four principles that could form the foundation of a new pedagogical framework. They are: a global outlook; recognition of power and inequality in the world; belief in social justice and equity, and a commitment to reflection, dialogue and transformation.  In expanding on these, Bourn makes an important distinction between serving the needs of the learner, and serving the needs of the development sector. This is an important aspect linked to the ideas around transformative learning. The transformation of the learner in some form of behavioural change is often seen as the goal of development practice, often tied to a campaign or desired non-governmental organisation (NGO) outcome.  The discussion gains interesting momentum as this simplistic approach and rationale needs to be questioned as its full impacts are hard to measure.

          Part 3 of the book begins with a clear warning that education programmes that do not consider understanding the different interpretations of development as well as basic data about global poverty are too narrow to be considered good development education.  The crux of the matter is that a truncated learning may lead to partial understanding of development, short term thinking (a focus on the issues of the day) and strong linkages with emotion that may not always be productive.  This aspect of Bourn’s thesis may raise the hackles of some in the NGO sector, but I felt that this was a sympathetic deliberation on one of the key tensions in development education.  In Chapters 8 and 9, which explore more thoroughly the role of NGOs and debates concerning global skills, Bourn underlines this by arguing that for many NGOs in their educational work, ‘[they] make an assumption of a causal linkage between learning, empowerment and social action’ (159).  This assumption leads them to consider that greater awareness will equal greater commitment to their cause and proffered actions.

          The issue is about transformative learning, related to the desires of development educators to enact transformative learning to bring about behavioural change in learners. Drawing upon the literature, Bourn asks to whose end is this transformation intended, the learner or the provider?  Two examples, from Plan International and Save the Children, show that objectivity is increasingly difficult for NGOs. A critical pedagogy may be seen as detrimental to the very aims of an NGO.  Bourn notes that Oxfam is still able to approach development education with the stress on education, aiming to encourage critical learners.  Many NGOs promote positive stories about their activities as to do otherwise may cause their constituents to doubt their legitimacy.

          This leads to Chapter 10 which addresses the question of impact and evaluation. Bourn’s reflection on the history of development education is that the measure of success has often been on changing learners’ behaviours rather than on deepening their learning, something underlined in research by Darnton and Kirk (2011).  The twin goals development and education are brought into focus here and, and the impacts of development education are be characterised as hit and miss in some cases and nebulous in others.  Indeed, a subheading in the chapter is: ‘How do we know it’s working?’ (171), a pertinent question for funders of development education.  It is the measure of impacts against the aims of the providers that causes concern for Bourn and, in Part 4, he stakes his claim by arguing that with his new pedagogical approach outlined in Chapter 6, good development education broadens and deepens the learner’s knowledge first and foremost: the learning  about development  is the transformative change.  This includes critical and reflexive thinking.  Outward behavioural changes are an added bonus, not the central aim. Giving examples of good practice, Bourn then finishes this chapter by making a note that teachers are not just impartial deliverers of content, but need to be active in couching development education in a wider curriculum framework.

          Bourn finishes his book by summarising how he sees this evolving field of development education and what it needs to do to strengthen itself.  Rather than an eclectic, diverse range of topics that are currently fashionable, development education should be an approach to learning about the world that requires reflection on the part of both the educator and the learner (203). Instead of being yet another flimsy boat bobbing in the sea of good causes concerning development, Bourn has built a solid ship and has set a course.  In my own experience, teachers often see education for global social justice as random, emotive and media-driven. Bourn’s argument is for a solid pedagogy that takes young people forward so that they are better able to deal with the complexity and insecurity of our modern, unequal world. Such a framework deepens their engagement with the world in a positive manner that invites both critical questions and grounded action.

          I found this book useful and encouraging.  Significant debates are clarified, unspoken concerns brought into the limelight, and the tensions and critiques are positively and considerately portrayed.  At all times the discussion refers back to research and evidence for what is working and what is going on in the classroom.  For students of development education this book is a must and in my opinion those in the NGO sector who struggle with, at times, an unidentifiable tension between wanting to educate people about issues of global social justice and the swirling critiques about their practice and how it can be measured, this book will be of immense value.  Bourn gives both sides of the argument a sympathetic hearing and argues that the way forward is not to dismiss the debates, but to engage in them.  The transformation is that perhaps at the core, we are all learners.

Darnton, A and Kirk, M (2011)  Finding Frames: New Ways to Engage the UK Public in Global Poverty , London: BOND, UKAID and Oxfam.

Rachel Tallon  is an educator in Education and Geography at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.  Her doctoral research was on how young people aged fourteen engage with the NGO sector.  Her current research interests include examining how current ideas concerning philanthropy, global citizenship and service learning affect global-social relationships and democratic citizenship.

Library Health & Wellness Lifespan Development Education & Development Information Processing Theory In Child Cognitive Development

Information Processing Theory In Child Cognitive Development

Core Concepts of Information Processing Theory

Cognitive development milestones, what is information processing theory (ipt).

Information Processing Theory (IPT) suggests that children process information similar to computers, with sensory input, storage, retrieval, and output. It focuses on how children acquire, process, store, and retrieve information to understand their cognitive development.

When a child reads a book, IPT helps them process information by recognizing letters, understanding words, and forming mental images to comprehend the story. Similarly, when solving math problems, children use IPT to analyze the problem, recall relevant facts, and apply strategies to find the solution.

Information Processing Theory (IPT) helps us understand how children learn, think, and solve problems. Like computers, children take in information through their senses, process it in their minds, and use it to make decisions and solve problems. IPT helps us understand the steps children go through as they learn and develop new skills.

Some key contributors to IPT and their effect on child psychology include:

• Jean Piaget: Piaget’s work laid the groundwork for IPT by emphasizing how children’s thinking changes as they grow older. His stages of cognitive development, such as the sensorimotor and preoperational stages, help us understand how children process information at different ages.
• Lev Vygotsky: Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory highlighted the importance of social interactions and cultural influences on children’s cognitive development. His ideas about the zone of proximal development and scaffolding help us understand how children learn from others and build on their existing knowledge.
• Jerome Bruner: Bruner’s work on cognitive psychology emphasized the role of language and culture in children’s cognitive development. His ideas about scaffolding and the importance of storytelling and narrative in learning have had a significant impact on child psychology and education.

Understanding the contributions of these key figures helps us appreciate the complexity of child cognitive development and how IPT contributes to our understanding of how children learn and grow.

The core concepts of IPT include:

• Scripts: Scripts are like mental blueprints that help children understand and predict events or routines. For example, a bedtime script may involve brushing teeth, reading a story, and going to sleep in the same order each night.
• Metacognition: Metacognition is thinking about thinking, or knowing what you know. An example is when a child realizes they don’t understand a math problem and decides to ask the teacher for help.
• Chunking: Chunking is breaking information into smaller, manageable parts. For instance, a child might chunk a phone number into area code, prefix, and last four digits to remember it more easily.
• Memory Models: Memory models are like filing systems in the brain where information is stored and retrieved. An example is when a child recalls the steps to tie their shoes by retrieving the information stored in their memory.

The computer metaphor compares children’s cognitive processes to how computers work. Like a computer, children receive information through their senses (input), process it in their minds (processing), store it in memory (storage), and retrieve it when needed (output). This metaphor helps us understand how children learn, remember, and solve problems by processing information in their minds, similar to how a computer works with data.

By ages 2 to 5 years, most children have developed the skills to focus attention for extended periods, recognize previously encountered information, recall old information, and reconstruct it in the present. For example, a 4-year-old can remember what she did at Christmas and tell her friend about it when she returns to preschool after the holiday. Between the ages of 2 and 5, long-term memory also begins to form, which is why most people cannot remember anything in their childhood prior to age 2 or 3.

Part of long-term memory involves storing information about the sequence of events during familiar situations as “scripts.” Scripts help children understand, interpret, and predict what will happen in future scenarios. For example, children understand that a visit to the grocery store involves a specific sequence of steps: Dad walks into the store, gets a grocery cart, selects items from the shelves, waits in the check-out line, pays for the groceries, and then loads them into the car. Children ages 2 through 5 also start to recognize that there are often multiple ways to solve a problem and can brainstorm different (though sometimes primitive) solutions.

Between the ages of 5 and 7, children learn how to focus and use their cognitive abilities for specific purposes. For example, children can learn to pay attention to and memorize lists of words or facts. This skill is obviously crucial for children starting school who need to learn new information, retain it, and produce it for tests and other academic activities. Children this age have also developed a larger overall capacity to process information. This expanding information processing capacity allows young children to make connections between old and new information. For example, children can use their knowledge of the alphabet and letter sounds (phonics) to start sounding out and reading words. During this age, children’s knowledge base also continues to grow and become better organized.

Metacognition

Metacognition, “the ability to think about thinking,” is another important cognitive skill that develops during early childhood. Between ages 2 and 5 years, young children realize that they use their brains to think. However, their understanding of how a brain works is rather simplistic; a brain is simply a container (much like a toy box) where thoughts and memories are stored. 

By ages 5 to 7 years, children realize they can actively control their brains, influencing their ability to process and accomplish mental tasks. As a result, school-age children start to develop and choose specific strategies for approaching a given learning task, monitor their comprehension of information, and evaluate their progress toward completing a learning task. For example, first graders learn to use a number line (or counting on their fingers) when they realize that they forgot the answer to an addition or subtraction problem. 

Similarly, children who are learning to read can start to identify words (i.e., “sight words”) that cannot be sounded out using phonics (e.g., connecting sounds with letters), and must be memorized.

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Further Reading

• Understanding Early Childhood Development Stages
• Supporting Infant Cognitive Growth
• Symbolic Function in Early Childhood Cognitive Development
• Sensitive Periods in Child Development
• Factors Influencing Intelligence and Cognitive Development
• Cognitive Development in Adolescence
• Recognizing Cognitive Disorders in Children
• Developing Problem-Solving Skills in Children and Adults
• Non-Verbal Cognitive Assessment: Raven's Progressive Matrices
• Fostering Independence in Child Development

Human Capital Theory: Education, Training, and Economic Returns

Human capital theory is an essential framework within labor economics that underscores the significance of education and training in enhancing economic returns. The theory posits that investments in human capital, such as formal education, vocational training, and on-the-job experiences, lead to increased productivity and, consequently, higher earnings. This, in turn, drives economic growth and development. As we dive deeper into this concept, it becomes crucial to understand its various dimensions and the empirical evidence supporting its claims.

Introduction

At the heart of labor economics lies the theory of human capital, which fundamentally transforms our understanding of the labor market and economic growth. Human Capital Theory was significantly developed by economists such as Gary Becker and Theodore Schultz, who recognized education and training as forms of capital. This theory redefined the perception of education, viewing it not merely as a personal good but as a critical economic tool. Within this framework, human capital is akin to physical capital, where investments yield returns over time.

Education and training are pivotal to this investment, considered the primary means through which individuals can augment their skills and capabilities. The notion is simple yet profound: much like investing in machinery or infrastructure boosts production capacity, investing in human potential enhances an individual’s productivity. This heightened productivity then translates into higher wages, more robust employment opportunities, and overall economic prosperity. This article aims to elucidate the core principles of human capital theory, the role of education and training, and their economic returns.

The Concept of Human Capital

Human capital refers to the stock of knowledge, skills, health, and attributes that individuals possess, which enable them to perform labor and produce economic value. This conceptualization shifts the focus from traditional labor market metrics to a holistic understanding of what drives economic performance. Central to human capital theory is the idea that individuals are not merely labor units to be exploited but are dynamic beings who can be developed and improved over time.

Investments in human capital encompass a broad range of activities. Formal education, including primary, secondary, and tertiary education, is often the most visible form. Equally important are vocational training programs, which provide specific skills required in various occupations. Continuing education and on-the-job training are also vital, as they help workers adapt to new technologies and evolving industry standards. All these activities are viewed as investment decisions made by individuals or governments with the expectation of future economic returns.

Education as an Investment

One of the fundamental premises of human capital theory is that education should be seen as an investment in the future. The costs associated with education, such as tuition fees, materials, and the opportunity cost of foregone income, are weighed against future benefits like higher lifetime earnings and improved job prospects. Studies consistently show a positive correlation between educational attainment and earnings. For instance, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that individuals with a bachelor’s degree earn significantly more over their lifetimes than those with only a high school diploma.

This principle extends beyond personal financial gains. The broader economic implications include a more skilled workforce that can drive innovation, increase productivity, and contribute to overall economic growth. Economies with higher levels of educational attainment typically demonstrate stronger economic performance and greater resilience to economic shocks. Education also fosters critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, which are essential attributes in today’s rapidly changing global economy.

Training and Skill Development

While formal education lays the groundwork, training and continuous skill development are crucial for maintaining and enhancing human capital. Vocational training programs and on-the-job training initiatives play a critical role in equipping workers with specific skills tailored to industry demands. In sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology, specialized training programs can significantly improve worker productivity and efficiency.

On-the-job training enables employees to acquire new skills and adapt to technological advancements, which is particularly important in a knowledge-based economy. Employers often invest in training programs to boost productivity, reduce turnover, and improve job satisfaction. For instance, the introduction of advanced software in an organization may require employees to undergo training sessions to harness the new technology’s full potential. Such investments ensure that the workforce remains competent and competitive, leading to higher returns for both employees and employers.

Economic Returns of Human Capital Investment

The economic returns on investments in human capital are multifaceted and extend beyond individual earnings. Higher education and training levels contribute to increased productivity, which drives economic growth and improves living standards. This ripple effect benefits communities and nations, as a more educated and skilled population can generate greater economic output and innovation.

Empirical evidence supports the assertion that human capital investments yield substantial economic returns. Countries with a strong emphasis on education and skill development often exhibit higher GDP growth rates, reduced income inequality, and lower unemployment rates. For instance, Scandinavian countries, known for their robust educational systems and comprehensive training programs, consistently rank high on economic performance indicators. Their investments in human capital have translated into enhanced social cohesion and economic prosperity.

Challenges and Criticisms of Human Capital Theory

Despite its significance, human capital theory is not without challenges and criticisms. One major critique is that it may oversimplify the relationship between education, training, and economic returns. Factors such as labor market conditions, social capital, and individual abilities also play a crucial role in determining the economic outcomes of human capital investments.

Additionally, access to quality education and training opportunities is not uniformly distributed. Socioeconomic disparities, geographic constraints, and systemic inequalities can hinder marginalized populations from benefiting fully from human capital investments. This has led to calls for more inclusive and equitable approaches to education and training, ensuring that all individuals can realize their potential and contribute to economic growth.

Policy Implications and Future Directions

Policymakers play a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of human capital investment. Governments can implement policies that promote access to quality education and training programs, address disparities, and incentivize lifelong learning. Investing in early childhood education, improving the quality of primary and secondary education, and expanding vocational training opportunities are critical steps toward building a more skilled workforce.

Future directions in human capital investment may involve leveraging technology to enhance learning experiences and accessibility. Online education platforms, digital literacy programs, and virtual training initiatives can revolutionize how individuals acquire and upgrade skills. By embracing innovative approaches, societies can harness the full potential of their human capital and foster economic resilience in an ever-evolving global landscape.

Human capital theory underscores the pivotal role of education and training in driving economic returns and fostering economic growth. By viewing education as an investment rather than a cost, societies can unlock the potential of their workforce and achieve sustainable development. The empirical evidence supports the notion that human capital investments yield substantial economic returns, benefiting individuals, communities, and nations as a whole. However, it is essential to address the challenges and criticisms associated with human capital theory, such as access disparities and the interplay of various factors in economic outcomes.

Policymakers, educators, and employers must collaborate to create an inclusive and equitable environment for human capital development. By investing in quality education, promoting lifelong learning, and embracing technological advancements, societies can ensure that their workforce remains competitive and adaptable to future challenges. The ongoing commitment to human capital investment will be a cornerstone of economic prosperity and social well-being in the years to come.