I taught early childhood development for a pretty long time. The best text that I have found is
Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective, 7th Edition (2018), by Jeffrey Trawick-Smith. This text comes with many stories and activities. It comes with many online resources for the instructor as well as PowerPoints for each chapter.
When I taught the child development class, the big assignment was for students to find someone who they could connect to and observe, writing down field notes using rich descriptions. This was hard for the students but with some work almost all of them mastered it. Later they had to analyze/interpret what they observed using developmental theories to which they had been exposed and about which they had read. They started by articulating clearly what typical behavior in each developmental domain looked like for a child the age of the child they observed.
The feedback that I got on this assignment was universally favorable.
Using a jigsaw-type activity to review each theorist's ideas is also a great tool. This can be done with many topics in the course.
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Nora Krieger, PhD
Associate Professor Emerita/Past Chair NJEEPRE
Bloomfield College/NJ Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
Highland Park, NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-14-2021 09:14 AM
From: Dottie Bauer
Subject: Good Ideas for Teaching Theories for Cognitive Development to Preservice Teachers
I too have taught child development and agree that understanding theories of development is crucial. But we often teach the theories when students have limited real world experiences to connect them with, or we don't help them make the connections to their own lives. I know when I was in college I just memorized stage names and promptly forgot. Later, when I had some teaching experience and was working towards my Master's, my classroom became my laboratory and I saw the theories in action.
Here's something that worked well for me. Provide students with several scenarios from classroom or family settings with differently aged children and ask them to apply each theory to help generate questions about the child's development. I found this type of activity helped show both the strengths and limitations of each theory. Stage theories provide one lens for understanding; learning theories something different. Social-emotional theories and cognitive theories also provide different views of the same event. Contrast behaviorism with Piaget, for example, when thinking about toilet learning. And the focus of theories, in my mind, is helping frame questions for further investigation or understanding.
Another idea is to have the srudents interview family members about their behaviors during different times of their childhood, and use theories to reflect on what might have been going on.
Thanks for the opportunity to reflect on my teaching experience from years past. 😊
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Dottie Bauer
Professor emerita
Keene State College
Antrim NH
Original Message:
Sent: 07-13-2021 11:20 AM
From: Susan Adams
Subject: Good Ideas for Teaching Theories for Cognitive Development to Preservice Teachers
Hi - I'm an instructor at a community college and teach Child Growth and Development. Part of my curriculum is to teach about the current and historical theories of cognitive development of young children - Piaget, Vygotski, etc. Any ideas for an interactive instructional activity to make this important but dry topic fun and easy? THANKS, Susan
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Susan Adams
Pikes Peak Community College Child Development Center at Centennial Campus
Colorado Spgs CO
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