Human development refers to the
process of orderly, cumulative, directional, age-related changes that
humans experience as they progress through their life cycle. Through
this process of development, individuals undergo qualitative changes
and reorganize their behaviors. Sroufe, Cooper, & DeHart (1992)
use an analogy from the business world to explain the concepts of
qualitative change and behavioral reorganization:
Imagine an accounting firm years ago in which the employees did all their work using hand calculators. For a while the business grew simply by adding new accountants, each of whom did the same thing (quantitative change). But then a computer was installed. This new technology produced dramatic qualitative change. Not only was the firm able to handle vastly more accounts, but tasks were performed in very different ways. Specialization occurred. Some staff members worked on designing new computer programs. Some actually worked on inputting information. Some primarily interpreted the output. A more elaborate organizational hierarchy evolved. Knowledge from the old system was used in the new system, but it was now part of a totally different organization. So it seems to be with human development. (p. 6)
Humans experience development in many areas: physical development, cognitive development, language development. social skills development, emotional development, etc. Development in one of these areas may overlap with development in other areas.
There are many theories of how human abilities develop. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and Piaget's theory of cognitive development are discussed later in this chapter. Aspects of Erickson's theory of personality development that relate to education are briefly described later in this chapter. In addition to these, the social cognitive (Bandura, 1989) and behavior analysis (Bijou, 1989) theories apply the principles of behavior modification, vicarious learning, and cognitive psychology to explain human development.
It would be possible to write entire textbooks on specific aspects of human development. This chapter will cover only a few of those aspects. The development of some other characteristics will be discussed in other chapters of this book. For example, Chapter 8 will discuss the development of moral reasoning, and Chapter 9 will discuss the development of individual differences arising from gender and culture. However, even though the factors that influence the development of learner characteristics cannot be treated in detail in this book, it is important to remember that all of these characteristics undergo development, and individual learners are likely to vary in the degree to which they have developed any of them. The following are a few examples of additional learner characteristics that undergo development:
It would be useful for readers to learn more about the development of all important learner characteristics by taking an entire course on developmental psychology or by consulting a more detailed textbook on human development.2
An understanding of human development is important to educators for two reasons. First, learning is one aspect of human development; and learning is the primary focus of education. Second, it is possible to understand learners more thoroughly and to help them learn if we understand the principles of development. If we can understand the origins of a child's behavior and what that child's behavior is likely to be in the future, the behavior makes more sense. By understanding human development, therefore, educators can make more effective interventions in order to make students' future behavior as productive as possible.
There are three processes that contribute to human development:
Growth consists of increases in physical size. These increases are quantitative, rather than qualitative. Educators typically do relatively little to influence the growth of learners. However, educators need to be aware of these changes, because they influence other aspects of development.Maturation consists of changes that occur relatively independently of the environment. Maturation is usually considered to be genetically programmed - the result of heredity. Educators typically do relatively little to influence the maturation of learners. However, educators need to be aware of these changes, because they influence other aspects of development.
Learning is a process that enables learners to modify their behavior fairly rapidly in a more or less permanent way in response to experience, so that the same modification does not have to occur again and again in each new situation. It is a response to the environment. Although learning occurs in many settings, not just in school, it is learning that is the primary focus of teachers and other educators.3
Growth, maturation, and learning interact to promote the development of individuals; and the role that each plays will vary, depending on the person's age, the aspect of development, and the background of the individual.
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