HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATION Introduction The

Importance of Development in the Classroom

Understanding child development and young students' needs is critical in any classroom. As noted by Rice (2000), the study of human development has given educators a wide variety of learning models, e.g., behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and social-cognitive models, each with its own unique (although sometimes overlapping) assumptions about the nature of human learning and what constitutes appropriate principles of instruction for students at various ages.

As pointed out by Abbeduto and Elliott (1997), understanding human development helps teachers understand how students think and learn and informs them as to the kinds of material students are capable of learning and not learning at any given age. Knowing about human development also helps teachers to understand what obstacles are going to arise at given ages as students study and attempt to acquire

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ildren in grades one through three. First, the authors state that learning has to be made active and "hands on" because, at this age, understanding or learning comes from constructing meaning from learning experiences. Further, there needs to be a good deal of focus on the acquisition of basic skills such as reading and writing as these skills are foundational to all that will come in children's continuing learning during their school years. Interactive teaching and the use of cooperative learning groups are two other strategies that Gordon and Browne (2003) state work very well for the ages 5 to 8 year old group (grades one through three). This assists students in building their thinking skills because it helps them to look at a given academic problem or project from different angles and perspectives. Also helpful in terms of building build thinking skills and have students form cognitive associations, according to Gordon and Browne (2003) is having a good deal of integration of material across diverse subjects. Texts also should be reviewed to ensure that they include such developmentally relevant characteristics as: the use of language and material that is in accord with developmental expectations for the child's level of
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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