Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human

Development

OUR LADY OF LOURDES COLLEGE FOUNDATION

College of Teacher Education
BSED Major sa Filipino
Vinzons Avenue, Daet, Camarines Norte
Tel, Number 154-721-3254

Prof Educ 1:
THE CHILD AND
ADOLESCENT LEARNING
AND LEARNING PRINCIPLE
(prelim)

Module 1
BASIC CONCEPT ANS ISSUES ON HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Nerissa C. Basto, LPT.

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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
I INTRODUCTION
Every living creature s called to become what it is meant to be. The caterpillar is meant to
become a butterfly, a seed into a full grown tree, and a human baby into a mature person, the
person “who is fully alive, the Glory og God” in the words og St. Irenaeus.

How this devepment happens in what we learn in our biology class. We have seen it to be a
fantastic process. So wonderful a process that we can`t help but to experience a feeling of awe
for the Power or the Force of the Principle (theists call this Power or Force or Principle (God)
behind all these.

A number of researches on human development have been conducted. A lot of theories on human
development have been forwarded. Researches on human development continue as existing
theories get corrected, complemented, or replaced. Up to the present several issues on human
development are resolved and so the search for explanations continues.

In this module, you will be acquinted with human development as a process, the developmental
task that come along with each developmental stage and relevant issues that are raised about
human development.

II OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, the student will able to:
 Distinguish two approaches to human development
 Define developmental task in your own word.
 Demonstrate appreciation of the role of teachers as consumers and producers of developmental
task.

III REVIEW OF PREREQUISITE

A. DISCUSS the following
1) Growth is an evidence of life.
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2) Every man is in certain respects like all other men, like some other men, no other men.
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IV CONCEPT MAP

BASIC CONCEPTS The Stages of

Human
AND ISSUES ON Development and
Development Developmental Task
HUMAN

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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
V LESSON PROPER

SUB-TOPIC 1: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; Meaning, Concept, and Approaches

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
 It is a pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the life
span. Development includes growth and decline. Thiss means that development can be positive or
negative (Santock, 2002)

MAJOR PRINCIPLES IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1) Development is Relatively Orderly
The muscular control of the trunk and the arms comes earlier as compare to the hands and
fingers. Call PROXIMODISTAL pattern. During infancy, the greatest growth always occurs at the
top (head) with physical growth in size, weight and future differentiation gradually working its
way down from top to bottom (neck, shoulder, middle trunk, and so on). Call CEPHALO-CAUDAL
pattern.

2) While the Pattern of Development is Likely to be Similar, the Outcomes of Development

Processes and the Rate of Development are Likely to Vary among Individuals.
If they come with a good home with loving and caring parents they may develop into warm home
and responsible children, adolescent, and adults. If they come from a deprived environment, they
may develop into carefree and irresponsible adolescents and adults.
Since heredity and environment are different for different people, it seems obvious that
individuals may encounter factors that make them different from other individuals. As a result,
we can expect individual differences in developmental characteristics abd variation in the ages
when people will experience events that will influence their development.

3) Development Takes Place Gradually.

It takes years before they become one. In fact, that`s the way of nature. The bud does not
blossom suddenly. The seed does not germinate overnight. While some changes occur in a flash of
insight, more often it takes weeks, months, or years for a person to underg changes tat result in
the display of developmental characteristics.

4) Development as a Process is Complex because it is the Product of Biological, Cognitive, and

Socioemotional Processes (Santrock, 2002).
Biological processes involve changes in the individual physical nature. They will gain height and
weight. They will experience hormonal changes when they reach the period of puberty, and
cardiovascular decline as they approach late adulthood. All these show the biological processes in
development.

Cognitive processes involve changes in the individual`s thought, intelligence, and language.
Children may develop from mere sounds to a word becoming two words, two words becoming a
sentence. They will move on to memorizing their first prayer, singing Lupang Hinirang in every flag
ceremony to imagining what it would be like to be a teacher or a pilot, playing chess and solving a
complex math problem. All these reflect the role of cognitive processes in development.

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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
Socioemotional processes include changes in the individual`s relationships with other people,
changes in emotions, and changes in personality. As babies responded with a sweet smile when
affectionately touched and frowned when displeased and even show temper tantrum when they
could not get do what they wanted. From aggressive children, they may develop into a fine lady
and gentleman or otherwise depending on a myriad of factors. They may fall in love and get
inspired for life or may end up betrayed, deserted, and desperate afterwards. All these reflect
the role of socioemotional process of development.

APPROACHES TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1) TRADITIONAL – If you believe that child will show extensive change from birth to adolescence,
little or no change in adulthood, and decline in late old age.

2) LIFE-SPAN APPROACH – If you believe that even in adulthood development change takes place as
it does during childhood.
LSA Characteristic:
a) Development is life long – it does not end in adulthood. No developmental stage dominates
development.
b) Development is multidimensional – development consists of cognitive and socio-emotionl
dimension.
c) Development is plastic – development is possible throughout the life-span.
d) Development is contextual – individuals are changing beings in a changing world.
e) Development involves growth, maintenance, and regulation – growth, maintenance, and
regulation are three (3) goals of human development. The goals of individual vary among
developmental stages. For instance, as individual reach middle and late adulthood, concern
with growth gets into the back stage while maintenance and regulation take the center
stage.

PRINCIPLES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING THAT INFORM PRACTICE

Below are the principles of child development and learning which are the bases of developmentally
appropriate practice (DAP) in early childhood program for children from birth through age 8,
which were stated in the position paper of the National Association of the Education of Young
Children (2009). They affirm the principles of human development and characteristic of life-span
development approach we just discussed. Find out which one is a re-statement of the principles of
human development.

1) All the development and learning-physical, social, and emotional, and cognitive are important, and
they are closely interrelated. Children`s development and learning in one domain influenced by
what takes place in other domain.
2) Many aspect of children`s learning and development follow well documented sequences, with later
abilities, skills, and knowledge building on those already acquired.
3) Development and learning proceed at varying rates from child to child, as well as at uneven rates
across different areas of a child`s individual functioning.
4) Development and learning result fro a dynamic continuous interaction of biological maturation and
experience.

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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
5) Early experiences have profound effects, both cumulative and delayed, on the child`s
development and learning; and optimal periods exist for certain types of development and learning
to occur.
6) Development proceeds toward greater complexity, self-reglation, and symbolic or
representational capacities.
7) Children develop best when they have secure, consistent relationship with responsive adults and
opportunities for positive relationship with peers.
8) Development learning occurs in and are influenced by multiple social and cultural contexts.
9) Always mentally active in seeking to understand the world around them. Children learn in variety
of ways; a wide range of teaching strategies and interactions are effective in supporting all these
kind of learning.
10) Paly is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as for promoting language,
cognition, and social competence.
11) Development and learning advance whwn children are challenge to achieve at a level just beyond
their current mastery, and also whwn they have many apportunities to practice newly acquired
skills.
12) Children experiences sshape their motivations and approache to learning such as persistence,
initiative, and flexibility; in turn, thiss disposition and behavior affect their learning and
development.

Summary:

By understanding how characteristic develop, we can make relatively accurate and useful
prediction about learners and design effective instructional strategies based on our knowledge of
development (Santrock, 2002)

Biologicsl, cognitive, and socioemotional process are inextricably intertwined. While these
processes are studied separately, the effect of one process or factor on a person`s development
is not isolated from other processes. If the child is undernourished and troubled by the thought
of father and mother about to separate, they could not concentrate on their studies and
consequently would fail and repeat. As a consequence, they may lose face and drop out of school,
revert to illiteracy, become unskilled, unemployed, and so on and so forth. See how biological
process, affect the cognitive process which in turns, affect the socioemotional process.

This focused on the development of the child and adolescent who are your clientele in basic
education. Necessarily, you will only be occupied by child and adolescent. So then, of what is your
understanding of life-span development, a development that includes the entire social life cycle
from conception of adulthood? You can apply what you will learn about life-span development as
you rreelate to yourself, to your fellow teachers, to parents of your students, to other colleagues
in the teaching profession and to other education stakeholders. It is inspiring to note that
development is a continuous process.

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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
Study Question
DISCUSS the approaches using the table below.

CONCEPT APPROACH

Traditional Life-span

Development during childhood

Development during adulthood

Development stage/s as focus of

study

Answer to self-assessment question: There is no specific answer. Your score may vary in the
deepness and content of your answer.

SUB-TOPIC 2: THE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT AND DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS

For every developmental stage, there is an expected developmental task. What happen when the
expected developmental tasks are not achieved at the corresponding developmental stage? How
can you help children achieve these developmental tasks?

I PRE-NATAL PERIOD
Referring to pre-natal development.

II INFANCY (BIRTH – 2 YEARS)

As new borns, we were not empty headed organism. We cried, kicked, coughed, sucked, saw,
heard, and tasted. We slept a lot and occasionally we smiled, although the meaning of our smile is
not entirely clear. We crawled and then we walked, a jpurney of thousand miles beginning with a
single step. Our development was continuous creation of complex form, and our helpless kind
demanded the meeting kinds of love. (Santrock, 2002)

III EARLY CHILDHOOD ( 3 – 5 YEARS)

In this stage, our greatest unfold poem was being only four years old. We skipped, played, and ran
all day long, never in our lives so busy, busy becoming something we had not grasped yet. Who
knew our thoughts, which worked up into amall mythologies all our own? Our thoughts and images
and drawings took wings. The blossom of our heart no wind could touch. Our small world widened
as we discovered new refuges and new people. Whwn we said “I” we meant something totally
unique not to be confused with any other. (Santrock, 2002)

IV MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD (6 – 12 YEARS)

We were in a different plane, belonging to a generation and a feeling properly our own. It is the
wisdom of human development that at no other time we are ready to learn than at the end of
early childhood period of expansive imagination. Ou thirst was to know and to understand. Our
parents continue to cradle our lives but our growth was also being shaped by successive choirs of
friends. We did not think much about the future or the past, but enjoyed the present.
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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
V ADOLESCENCE (13 – 18 YEARS)
In no order of things was adolescence, the simple time for us we clothes ourselves with rainbows
and went brave as the zodiac, flashing from one end of the world to the others. We tried on one
face after another, searching for the face of our own. We wanted our parents to understand us
and hope they would give up the privilege of understanding them. We wanted to fly but found that
first we had to learn to stand and walk and dance and climb. In our pimply and awkward moments
we became acquited with sex. We played furiously at adult games but were confined to a society
of our own peers. Our generation was the fragile cable by which the best and the worst of our
parents’ generation was transmitted to the present. In the end, there were two but lasting
bequest our parents could leave us, one being roots and others being wings. (Santrock, 2002)

VI EARLY ADULTHOOD (19 – 29 YEARS)

It is a time for work and a time for love, sometimes living little time for anything else. For some
of us, finding our place in adult society and committing to a more stable life take longer than we
imagine. We still ask ourselves who we are and wonder if it isn`t enough just to be. Our dreams
continue and our thoughts are bold but at the same point we become more pragmatic. Sex and
love are powerful passion in our lives, at times angel of light. At other times of torment and we
possibly will never know the love of our parents until we become parents ourselves. (Santrock,
2002)

VII MIDDLE ADULTHOOD (30 – 60 YEARS)

What we have been forms, what we will be. For some of us, niddle age is such a foggy place, a time
when we discover what we are running from and to and why. We compare our life with what vowed
to make it. In middle age, more time stretches before us and some evaluation have to be made.
However reluctantly, as the young/old polarity greets us with a special force, we need to join the
daring of youth with the discipline of age in a way that does justice to both. As middle aged
adults we come to sense that the generation of living things pass in a short while and like runners
hand on the torch of life. (Santrock, 2002)

VIII LATE ADULTHOOD (61 YEARS AND ABOVE)

The rhyme and meaning of human development eventually wend their way to late adulthood, when
each of us stands alone at the heart of the earth and suddenly it is evening. We shed the leaves
of youth and are stripped by the wind of time down to the truth. We learn that life is lived
forward but understood backward. We trace the connection between the end and the beginning
of life and try to figure out what this whole show is about beore it is over. Ultimately we come to
know that we are what survive of us. (Santrock, 2002)

DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS (David Havighurst)

INFANCY AND EALY 1) Learning to walk
CHILDHOOD (0-5) 2) Learning to take solid food
3) Learning to talk
4) Learning to control the elimination of body waste
5) Learning sex differences and sexual modesty
6) Acquiring concepts and language to describe social and physical reality

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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
7) Readiness for reading
8) Learning to distinguish right from wrong and developing a cconscience

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD 1) Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games

(6-12) 2) Building a wholesome attitude toward oneself
3) Learning to get along with agemates
4) Learning an appropriate sex role
5) Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating
6) Developing concept necessary for everyday living
7) Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values
8) Achieving personal independence
9) Developing acceptable attitudes toward society.

ADOLESCENCE (13- 1) Achieving mature decisions with both sexes

18) 2) Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
3) Accepting one`s physique
4) Achieving emotional independence of adults
5) Preaparing for marriage and family life
6) Preparing for an economic career
7) Acquiring values and an ethical system to guide behavior
8) Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior
EARLY ADULTHOOD 1) Selecting a mate
(19-29) 2) Learning to live with a ppartner
3) Starting a family
4) Reaing children
5) Managing a home
6) Sstartin an accupation
7) Assuming civic responsibility
MIDDLE ADULTHOOD 1) Helping teenage children to become happy and responsible adults
(30-60) 2) Achieving adult social and civic responssibiity
3) Satisfactory career achievement
4) Developing adults leisure time activity
5) Relatig to one spouse as a person
6) Accepting the psychological changes of middle age
7) Adjusting to aging parent

LATER MATURITY (61 1) Adjusting to decresing strength and health

AND OVER) 2) Adjusting to retirement and reduce income
3) Adjusting to death and spouse
4) Establishing relations with one`s own age group
5) Meeting social and civic obligation
6) Establishing satisfactory living quarters

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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
DEVELOPMEENTAL TASKS (Santrock, 2002)
PRE-NATAL  It involves tremendous growth, from single cell to an organism
(conception-birth) complete with brain and behavioral capabilities
INFACY (birth-2  A time of extreme dependence on adults. Many psychological activities
years) are just beginning (language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor
coordination, and social learning)
EARLY CHILDHOOD  These are the preschool years. Young children learn to become more
(5-6 years, grade 1) self-sufficient and to carfe for themselves, develop school readiness
skills and spend many hours in play with peers
MIDDLE AND LATE  The fundsmental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic are
CHILDHOOD (6-11 mastered. The child is formally exposed to the larger world and its
years, elementary) culture. Achievements become a more central theme of the child`s
world and self-control increases
ADOLESCENCE ( 10-  Begins with rapid physical changes, a dramatic gain in height and
12 years up to 18-22 weight, changes in body contour, and the development of sexual
years) characteristics such as enlargement of the breast, development of
pubic and facial hair, and deepening of the voice. Pursuit in
independence and identity are prominent. Thoughts are more logical,
aabstract, and idealistic. More time is spent outside of the family.
EARLY CHILDHOOD  It is a time of stablishing personal and economic independence, career
(late teens up to 20- development, selecting a mate, learning ti live wwith someone in an
30 years) intimate way, starting a family and rearing children.
MIDDLE ADULTHOOD  It is a time of expanding personal and social involvement and
(40-60 years) responsibility; of assisting the next generation in becoming competent
and mature individuals; and of reaching and maintaining satisfaction in
a career.
LATE ADULTHOOD  Time for adjustment to decreasing strength and health, life review,
(60 and above) retirement, and adjustment to new social roles.

Summary:
In each stage of development a certain task/s are expected of every individual. Robert
Havighurst define developmental task as one that arises at a certain peiod in our life, the
successful achievements of which leads to happiness and success with later task while failure
leads to unhappiness, social disapproval, and difficulty with later tasks.

Study Question
A. Answer the following questions.
1) What is developmental task/s? Base on your understanding.
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Prof Educ 1: The Child and Adolescent Learning and Learning Principles: Basic Concept and Issues in Human
Development
2) Having mastered the developmental task of early childhood, middle, and late childhood
and adolescence, reflect on what you should do as a teacher to facilitate your
students` acquisition of these developmental tasks. Wite down your reflection.
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_________________________________________________________________
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Answer to self-assessment question: There is no specific answer. Your score may vary in the
deepness and content of your answer.

VI CONCEPT INVENTORY
Read each item carefully. Indicate on the answer sheet how well you think yu understand each
concept of the lesson using the numerical system below;
 1 – If you do not understand the concept at all.
 2 – You are not sure what the concept is.
 3 – You think you have a fair but not good understanding in the concept.
 4 – You think you understand the concept but not well enough to explain it.
 5 – You think you understand the concept well ang able to explain it clearly.

TOPIC 1 2 3 4 5
Human Development
The Stages of Development
and Developmental Task

VII STUDY QUESTION

a) Imagine that you are already profesional teacher teaching middle schools, you are the
adviser of students called the “patapon” class due to their lack of study habit. Your
advisory class most likely to give attention on their physical appearance rather than their
academic performance. They are always late and noisy; no one wants to listen no matter
how mad the teachers are. What re you going to do? (be realistic with your answer)
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VIII REFERENCES
 Brenda B. Corpuz, Ph.D, et.al, Child and Adolescent Development, Lorimar Publishing Inc.,
776 Aurora Blvd., cor. Boston Street, Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila, 2015

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