Chapter Overview

We start the text by looking at development and its significance for learners and teachers. Physical development and language development are domains students are likely to be familiar with, but these domains’ influence on learning and teaching might be less obvious. We point out that development is interconnected across domains, and we prompt students to consider some principles of development that can be abstracted from their own knowledge of physical and language development. The second half of the chapter makes a bridge between development and school-based learning, looking at learning English as a second language (ESL), and at literacy and numeracy in the school context. We focus on how approaches to teaching in these domains build upon the early development of understandings and skills, and we invite the reader to extend this principle to teaching in other subject areas. The chapter concludes with a review of the principles of development, as illustrated in the chapter.

Key topics

• Physical development in infancy, early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence
• Brain development
• Language development, including adults’ role in language acquisition
• The development of school-based skills of literacy and numeracy
• Principles of development