Postgraduate

Understanding children's development and learning

On this page

• What you will study
• Entry
• Qualifications
• If you have a disability or additional requirement
• Study materials
• Teaching and assessment
• Students also studied
• Future availability
• How to register

ED841 is for people working with children and young people and looks at children's development and learning in cultural, educational and social contexts. It explains how theoretical and methodological frameworks contribute to understanding developmental change and how psychological research can inform educational and clinical practice. You will learn about how children actively contribute and shape their own development through meaningful interaction with others and how the study of atypical development and individual difference contributes to theory and practice. You will also carry out a small-scale, observational study and will design an extended research proposal relevant to your own professional interests.

Course facts

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This course is available for study in the countries shown.

What you will study

This course is designed for teachers and others interested in psychological accounts of children’s development and learning, and those who work with children and young people in a professional capacity. It invites you to engage with contemporary accounts and theories of children’s development and to consider how these are relevant to educational practice. The course addresses the following questions:

• What significant processes occur in infancy for development and learning?
• In what way is play with other children important during the early years?
• What are the important changes in children’s thinking and problem solving as they get older?
• Why is collaborative learning important for children’s development?
• How do cognitive theories of development help us to understand children’s learning difficulties?
• What can current theories about children’s learning and development contribute to the development of new teaching and learning methods in schools?
• Are new digital technologies changing the ways children think and learn?

This course is for those are interested in finding out how developmental psychologists and educational researchers attempt to answer these questions. It will appeal to parents, teachers and professionals wanting to find out about what psychological research can tell us about children’s development and learning. It will also be of interest to people who want to deepen their understanding of children’s learning difficulties, and those interested in the impact of new computer and web-based technologies on education.

ED841 will help you understand the main theoretical accounts, and research findings that attempt to explain children’s social, cognitive and emotional development from early infancy through the school years. The course also invites you to consider key debates about the applications of research on children’s development, and to consider how these inform decisions about educational and social practices that shape children’s experiences at home and at school.

• You will consider how babies and young children actively shape their own experiences through meaningful interaction with other people in family and preschool environments.
• You will consider how different cultural practices relating to parenting and children’s socialisation challenge traditional theories of child development.
• You will learn about children’s thinking and about how this changes and develops.
• You will study the observational research methods psychologists use to study children’s development and learning and use these to carry out your own small-scale study.
• You will learn how psychological accounts of developmental disorders of language and learning inform our understanding of children and young people who do not follow typical developmental pathways.
• You will learn how these accounts inform the design of educational interventions to help children with reading and language difficulties.
• You will evaluate the impact of research-based, educational interventions on learning and teaching in schools.
• You will consider how rapidly changing cultural and technological contexts influence children’s lives at home, at school and in the wider community (including virtual communities that children and young people create).
• You will draw on your understanding of educational intervention studies to develop an extended research proposal relevant to your own interests or professional context.

Comparing and contrasting children’s developmental pathways in different cultural, social and pedagogic contexts will help enable you to evaluate current practice and any proposed changes to practice in childcare and education related to children’s care and development from an informed and critical perspective.

In addition to a comprehensive Study Guide, the study materials include a DVD and DVD-ROM. The DVD contains interviews with acknowledged experts in the fields of psychology and education as well as with teachers and educational psychologists. It also provides examples of classroom practice and clinical assessments used with children with learning difficulties. The DVD-ROM contains advice on observational research methods, together with a guided set of video-based observation activities to help you develop your skills and understanding in this area. You will carry out literature reviews and will be required to download and read original research articles and reports from the Open Library online databases, ejournal and ebook collections.

The continuous assessment component of the course involves three essay-type assignments. In addition, you will carry out and write up an observation-based small-scale investigation of teaching and learning processes. You can carry out this study with learners of any age, including adults, and you can locate it in either an informal context (e.g. home, playgroup or after-school club), or a formal educational context such as a preschool, school, college or adult learning centre. You will use what you learn from this small-scale investigation to help you to develop a project proposal (the end-of-module assessment (EMA)).

For the EMA, you will carry out a literature review and develop a research proposal that outlines and discusses how you would design an intervention study to evaluate changes to educational or clinical practice. This can focus on an aspect of teaching and learning related to your own interests or, if you work in an educational context, to an aspect of your professional practice.

Entry

This course can be studied on its own and is also an optional module in the MA in Education, MA in Childhood and Youth, MSc in Psychology or MA in Social Sciences. 

You must hold a bachelors degree from a UK university or other recognised degree-awarding body, or a qualification at equivalent level.

You are expected to have some experience in education or an allied field, but you need not be a practising teacher. You do not need access to an educational institution, but you will need child or adult participants for the small-scale study. We have designed the course to be accessible to all students working at masters level. Knowledge of psychology is not essential, though if you have already taken child development courses that will clearly be an asset.

The course is taught in English, and your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard for postgraduate study, as you will need to read and understand original journal articles written in English. If English is not your first language, we recommend that you seek assessment under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Please see their website for details.

If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.

Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) bursaries

We may be able to offer bursaries for eligible students. For further details please visit our website.

Preparatory work

If you have never studied a course in child development, we suggest you read either

H. R. Schaffer (2003) Introducing Child Psychology, Wiley Blackwell

Or

P. K. Smith, H. Cowie, M. Blades (2003) Understanding Children’s Development, 4th edn, Wiley Blackwell

And

M. Harris (2008) Exploring Developmental Psychology: Understanding Theory and Methods, Sage Publications

If you have studied a course in child development or developmental psychology as an undergraduate you could read one of the following:

P. Hobson (2002) The Cradle of Thought: Exploring the Origins of Thinking, Pan Books

Or

B. Rogoff (2003) The Cultural Nature of Human Development, Oxford University Press

Qualifications

ED841 is an optional module in our:

• Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Studies in Education (C27)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Social Sciences (C24)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Studies in Education (D52)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Social Sciences (D41)
• Masters degree in Education (F01)
• MA in Childhood and Youth (F55)
• MA in Social Sciences (F09)
• MSc in Psychology (F15)

Some postgraduate qualifications allow study to be chosen from other subject areas. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this module can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.

Excluded combinations

Sometimes you will not be able to count a module towards a qualification if you have already taken another module with similar content.  To check any excluded combinations relating to this module, visit our excluded combination finder or check with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service before registering.

If you have a disability or additional requirement

Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Alternative formats of the study materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.

If you are a new student, or new to study using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our publication Meeting Your Needs.

You can also find information about accessible study materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.

Study materials

What's included

Study Guide, DVD, CD-ROM, supplementary materials (presented online), one bought in book (Children's Minds by Margaret Donaldson), an online Reader containing a range of journal articles and book chapters, online forums and a dedicated website.

You will need

A CD and DVD player.

Computing requirements

This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave.

You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new computer since 2005 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. We may also be able to offer group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where your tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking ED841. Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.

Assessment

The assessment details can be found in the facts box above.

You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.

Students also studied

Students who studied this course also studied at some time:

• Educational enquiry (E891)
• Children and young people's worlds: frameworks for integrated practice (E807)
• Ethnography (D844)
• Child development (ED209)
• Discourse analysis (D843)

Future availability

The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2012. We expect it to be available once a year.

How to register

To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.

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