Developmental Teaching and Learning

Developmental teaching and learning on the web-site for teachers and learners of English as a secondary language from a German point of view

Table of Contents Developmental teaching and learning HOMEPAGE back to
Co-operative learning go on to
Mono-lingual approach

Developmental Teaching and Learning (Durham/Ontario)

The essence of developmental teaching is choice, with the aim to give children greater control over their learning.
Giving children greater control over learning increases their sense of self-esteem
Choice relates not only to the substance of what children learn but also to how it is learnt.
Development recognises that when children are actively engaged and transforming knowledge they will also be learning about the very nature of the production and validation of knowledge.
How children learn is an essential part of developmental because it addresses directly the issue of the timing of children's maturational learning sequences.
Developmental rests on the idea that naturalistic contextual learning is the best and most efficient way to learn.
Developmental recognises the interaction between cognition and emotion in learning, and that skills are best learnt in the course of working to achieve the main aim of curriculum areas - usually value-based.
Developmental recognises that children will gain a multiplicity of meanings, personal to them, from information they receive or experiences they have.
Developmental helps children to solve series of child-centred problems.
The tasks for teachers in developmental is to provide a series of appropriate contexts within which children can make sense of things in their own way.
An important choice for children in developmental is to work at a pace, and in a way, that suits their learning styles.
Developmental establishes a sense of continuity between the various levels and stages of education.
Developmental teaching emphasises independent learning in an emotionally supportive atmosphere.
Developmental teaching provides the conditions which make teachers freer to give attention to individuals, and children freer to make choices.
Developmental is a philosophy - activity-based teaching, in its child-centred forms, is how it is put into practice.
For momentum, a developmental classroom relies not on teacher personality, or teacher command, but on interesting, pertinent, and manageable activities.
In all the choice that is available, teachers never relinquish their supervisory function of assessing the worthwhileness of activities.
Learning boundaries are set so that superficiality is avoided.
All classrooms have developmental characteristics but a developmental classroom is one in which the making of choices by children is a predominant organisational characteristic.
In moving along a developmental continuum teachers do not make available more choice than their personalities or professional skills can cope with.
Developmental teaching and learning is foremostly an attitude of mind in both teachers and children. Once the attitude of mind is there, the possibilities appear and at that stage it becomes very simple.
Developmental emphasises evaluation of learning rather than teaching. As a result, evaluation is mainly carried out by observing children as they participate in activities.

Table of Contents Developmental teaching and learning HOMEPAGE back to
Co-operative learning go on to
Mono-lingual approach