Development in an Educational Context

This afternoon (though I'm posting this the day after) we had Dr. Marion Myhill give a lecture on development in an educational context, the first lecture in the developmental strand of professional studies.

Dr. Myhill described the reasons that we, as educators, are interested in development (it allows us to understand students as members of a cohort, gives us a way to understand them according to the ranges of capabilities typical of specific age groups, etc.). Developmentalists look beyond individuals to the generalities, to systematic changes and continuities seen across the cohort. This is particularly interesting to teachers as they deal with students as a group more often than with a specific individual.

We can view the development of children as a series of orderly changes. Individual children will have individual capabilities and characteristics (physiological, psychological, emotional and cognitive), but there will be a range within which most of the cohort are situated. We can also examine the rate at which development progresses. The development of an infant is very much faster than that of a late adolescent.

Where once there was a perception that development took us from undeveloped infants to developed adults, we now recognise that it is a life-long process -- deficiencies in early development can be remediated (as opposed to the view that short-comings in early development become insurmountable obstacles). While we now recognise that development is life-long, our potential for change does reduce over time (e.g: it is easier to learn a second language as a child than as an adult).

M talked about the four aspects of development (physical, social, emotional and cognitive) and that these aspects are interrelated. Developments which affect one aspect will often affect the others in some way.

As said above, while development does occur in stages and their are commonalities across cohorts, the each child's development and capabilities are still individual and it is our goal in education to narrow the gap between the best and brightest and the less able in each area. "While not everyone has the potential to be a Cathy Freeman, almost everyone can run a marathon with training."