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	Time: 20 hours Level: Intermediate

	Introduction Introduction Resource This unit examines four of the ‘grand theories’ of child development: behaviourism, social learning, constructivism and social constructivism.

	1 Child development 1 Child development Resource Ideas about children and their development have varied across different periods of history and cultural contexts. Four contrasting, commonly held views of how children develop have been identified:

	2 Behaviourism 2.1 Psychology as an objective science Resource Behaviourism was an approach driven by an attempt to treat psychology as an objective science. To do this, behaviourists focused only on directly observable, measurable events and behaviours. Consequently,... 2.2 Classical conditioning Resource Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) was a Russian neurophysiologist who studied the physiology of digestion. During this research he noticed that hungry dogs would salivate at the mere sight of the attendant who brought... 2.3 Operant conditioning Resource According to behaviourism, all behaviour is learned and maintained by its consequences. B. F. Skinner (1905–1990) devised apparatus and methods for studying these effects. Figure 3 shows a ‘Skinner Box’... 2.4 Use of punishment: spare the rod? Resource One issue, about which there is regular debate, concerns the use of ‘punishment’ to control children's behaviour. Behaviourism might, at first glance, appear to offer support for using punishment to reduce... 2.5 Application: applied behavioural analysis Resource Applied behavioural analysis (ABA) is a method of teaching that involves breaking tasks into small, discrete ‘teachable’ steps. At each step appropriate behaviours are reinforced. ABA selects developmentally... 2.6 Evaluating behaviourism Resource As the previous section indicates, although ‘classic’ behaviourism is rare in contemporary explanations of child development, many of its guiding principles have been retained in some form or other in... 2.7 Summary Resource Behaviourism proposes that all behaviour is learned and maintained by its consequences. It does not theorise about ‘mental events’.

	3 Social learning theory 3.1 The role of abservation Resource It was clear to Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura (1924– ) that not only is children's behaviour shaped by its consequences, but also that children learn by watching the behaviour of people around them.... 3.2 Observation and imitation of aggression Resource Bandura conducted a series of experimental studies into children's tendency to imitate. In these experiments pre-school children watched adult models act either non-aggressively or aggressively towards... 3.3 Application: children and television violence Resource Bandura's use of filmed events prompted other researchers (Liebert et al., 1977) to argue that his work had important implications for the influence that television violence may have on young children.... 3.4 Evaluating social learning theory Resource Bandura's work shows that learning can occur without the sorts of reinforcement that behaviourists see as essential, and that children are active in their learning. The sort of learning that Bandura highlighted... 3.5 Summary Resource Social learning theory proposes that it is possible for children to learn by observing other people.

	4 Constructivism 4.1 Genetic epistemology Resource Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was not primarily interested in child development, but in the nature of knowledge and how it could be seen as a form of adaptation to the environment. He described his work as genetic... 4.2 The origins of Piagetian theory Resource Piaget started his career as a biologist, interested in the processes by which organisms adapt to their environment during development. Born in Switzerland, his interest in child development began in 1920... 4.3 Processes of development Resource A central concept in Piaget's theory is that of the schema, a representation of a sequence of actions developed as a result of a child's action on the environment. A schema is, initially, a simple sequence... 4.4 Structure and stages Resource Piaget's developmental processes can be described in the context of infant behaviour to show how they explain behaviour becoming more adapted, in a step-by-step way. First, the infant develops the ability... 4.5 Application: discovery learning Resource Piaget's theory offers a rich description of a child developing a more abstract and general capacity to tackle problems in the world, in a very independent way. There is little place in Piaget's theory... 4.6 Evaluating constructivism Resource Piaget's theory was revolutionary in many respects. It recognised that children thought differently to adults. The view that learning is an individual and constructive process differed sharply from the... 4.7 Summary Resource Piaget proposed that all children pass through an ordered sequence of stages of cognitive development. This development arises through the processes of intrinsic motivation, assimilation and accommodation...

	5 Social constructivism 5.1 Cultural tools Resource Vygotsky (1896–1934) wrote two important books, Mind in Society (1978) and Thought and Language (1986), which were only widely published after his death. Due to state suppression, since they challenged... 5.2 Thought and language Resource For Piaget the development of thought and language was dependent on underlying ‘intelligence’. Language is therefore simply a reflection of mental ability: intelligence precedes language and is independent... 5.3 Teaching and learning Resource Vygotsky proposed that through contact with other, more able people children appropriate new ways of thinking and doing. Indeed Vygotsky saw learning as best supported when there is a degree of inequality... 5.4 Application: deaf-blind education Resource Vygotsky's ideas have been applied to the remediation of the developmental barriers encountered by a wide variety of children, most notably deaf-blind children, and those with learning difficulties. As... 5.5 Evaluating social constructivism Resource Vygotsky highlighted how intrinsic developmental and cultural forces interact, and as Moll concluded ‘Vygotsky's primary contribution was in developing a general approach that brought education, as a fundamental... 5.6 Summary Resource Vygotsky saw learning as a cultural and interpersonal process that involves the acquisition of ‘cultural tools’ from others.

	6 Conclusion 6 Conclusion Resource At the beginning of this unit we recalled four views of development. The ‘grand theories’ reviewed here can be seen to capture elements of those views:

	References and Acknowledgements References Resource Acknowledgements Resource

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