Introduction
In this chapter, you will take a position on the theories of child development you believe are best for you. You may have more than one favourite. Having read through the content of this book, you now have the background required to make an informed decision about each of the child development theories discussed.
To support you with this penultimate goal, you will begin this chapter by critiquing the theories of child development, deciding on what they offer and what they silence. You are then invited to return to your reflections made in Chapter 1 and compare your original thinking with where you are now. The chapter, and hence the book, finishes with you preparing a philosophy statement about child development.
Through engaging with the content of this chapter, it is anticipated that you will:
• take a position on the value of the major theories of child development that have traditionally informed education in Australia
• make a commitment to listening to the voice of the Indigenous communities in which you will be teaching
• think about child development in the context of Australian families and communities and the conditions that we as educators create in child-care centres, preschools and primary schools.
Critiquing theories
You have now read through the content of this book and engaged in detail with the theories of child development that are widely used in early childhood and primary education. The theories were:
• maturational theory of child development (e.g. milestones; biology is the focus; age is the criterion for progression)
• sociocultural theory, as presented by Barbara Rogoff (learning by observing and pitching in; three lenses for analysing children's development – personal, interpersonal and contextual/institutional/cultural)
• Piaget's theory of child development (great developmental periods: the sensorimotor level; the concrete operations of thought and interpersonal relations; and the preadolescent and propositional operations)
• Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of human development (propositions to capture the interrelatedness of individual and context; proximal processes; earlier versions including the chronosystem and time; and the first version of his model, a nested system of microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem)
• Vygotsky's (periodisation; drama as the force for development; a revolutionary view of child development), Hedegaard's (personal, institutional, societal – values, demands and motives) and Kravtsova's (stable and dramatic periods) cultural-historical theory of child development
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