Child Development And Education

Child Development and Education is a comprehensive child development text written especially for educators. It helps students to translate developmental theories into practical implications for teaching and caring for youngsters with diverse backgrounds, characteristics and needs.

The text draws from innumerable theoretical concepts, research studies conducted around the world and the authors’ own experiences as parents, teachers, psychologists and researchers to identify strategies for promoting young people’s physical, cognitive and social–emotional growth.

In this Australian edition, contemporary Australian and New Zealand research has been highlighted, and local educational structures, philosophies and controversies have been reflected.

PART 1: Foundations in Child Development 
1: Making a Difference in the Lives of Children and Adolescents 
2: Using Research to Understand Children and Adolescents 
3: Family, Culture, and Community 

PART 2: Biological Development
4: Biological Beginnings
5: Physical Development
 
PART 3: Cognitive Development
6: Cognitive Development: Piaget and Vygotsky
7: Cognitive Development: Cognitive Processes
8: Intelligence 
9: Language Development
10: Development in the Academic Domains

PART 4: Social and Emotional Development
11: Emotional Development 
12: Development of Self and Social Understandings 
13: Development of Motivation and Self-Regulation
14: Development of Morality and Interpersonal Behaviours 
15: Peers, Schools, and Society 

• Continually relates theories and research to educational practices in Australian and New Zealand educational settings
• Describes and demonstrates developmental phenomena
• Guides observations of children and adolescents
• Facilitates analysis of what children and adolescents say, do and create
• Offers concrete strategies for effective teaching of, and care for, children and adolescents
• MyEducationLab with MyVirtualChild can be packaged with this text or purchased separately.

Key Learning Pedagogy:

• Development and Practice features offer concrete strategies for facilitating children’s development. To help readers move from research to practice, each strategy is followed by an example of a professional using that strategy in a classroom or other setting. You will find examples under the Development and Practice heading throughout the text.
• Throughout the book Observation Guidelines tables are included. These tables offer specific characteristics to look for, present illustrative examples and provide specific recommendations for practitioners.
• Each chapter ends with a section called Applying Concepts in Child Development. Included in this section are Interpreting Children’s Artefacts and Reflections features that give readers practice in evaluating and interpreting children’s work and statements, and Developmental Trends Exercises that provide scenarios connected to developmental concepts and allow readers to practise applying their knowledge of development.
• Each chapter opens with an authentic local or international case study, introducing the topic with an applied example. At the end of each chapter there are 4–5 discussion questions which relate back to the opening case study, challenging students to apply their own new understanding of the topic to the situation
• Most chapters have one or more Developmental Trends tables that highlight the developmental differences that readers are apt to observe in infancy (birth–2 years), early childhood (2–6 years), middle childhood (6–10 years), early adolescence (10–14 years), and late adolescence (14–18 years). The diversity of potential observations is highlighted, and implications for practice are offered.
  

Glenn Cupit shares his life with his wife of over 40 years, two sons and a daughter-in-law, and two young granddaughters. From a background in psychology, he has taught child development and research methods to early childhood students since the 1970s, spending several years as head of the early childhood school at the University of South Australia before deciding he preferred being an academic to being a manager. With a BA (Hons) from Sydney University, an MA (Hons) from the University of NSW and a doctorate from Murdoch University, Glenn has published four monographs, 13 chapters and 15 journal articles and regularly speaks at academic and professional conferences and seminars, and public meetings. His current research interests are children’s spiritual development and their interaction with electronic media, especially related to their premature sexualisation. He has a long history of advocacy for children, especially in the area of electronic media, and has been a consultant/adviser on major children’s television programs. He is Vice-President of the Australian Council on Children and the Media and a life member of the Australian College of Education. In his spare time he has been a semi-professional musician and is an amateur actor.

Margaret Chandler is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of South Australia. She has Honours degrees in philosophy and psychology from the University of Adelaide and the Flinders University of South Australia, and a Masters degree from the University of Adelaide. Her professional roles have ranged from research in psychiatry to a lengthy stint as a Senior Lecturer in educational psychology at the University of South Australia. She has also worked on educational projects for AusAID, including being principal researcher for the Review of Upper Secondary Education in Papua New Guinea. Her research interests are in the development of problem solving and reasoning. She is the parent of two adult children, one a bio-archaeologist and the other a chemical engineer, and grandmother of three rapidly developing grandchildren. When other duties permit, she spends time in the highlands of her native Tasmania.

Valerie Aloa received a PhD from Flinders University in South Australia, an (MAT) double Masters degree in Early Childhood and Special Education from Oakland University in Michigan, a Bachelor of Teaching (Elementary) from Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan, a Diploma of Teaching (Infant) from Western Teachers College in Adelaide and an Associateship In Arts from Adelaide University in South Australia. Valerie teaches at the University of South Australia in the School of Education early childhood program. She concentrates on course development and teaching in child development with specialisations in infant and toddler development, social–emotional development and theoretical understandings of development. She also co-ordinates and teaches the field experience courses for childcare in the undergraduate and Masters programs in early childhood education. Valerie has a strong commitment to the provision of high-quality childcare for infants and toddlers. She has been the Director of an Infant–Toddler parent program at Oakland University, Director of a hospital-based childcare centre in Pontiac Michigan and a community childcare centre in Adelaide. In addition to membership of several childcare centre management committees, Valerie has been a moderator and member of the Quality Advisory Group for the National Child Care Accreditation system in Australia since its inception.

Teresa M. McDevitt is a psychologist with specialisations in child development and educational psychology. She received a PhD and MA in child development from Stanford University’s Psychological Studies in Education program, an EdS in educational evaluation from Stanford University and a BA in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Since 1985 she has served the University of Northern Colorado in a variety of capacities—in teaching courses in child and adolescent psychology, human development, educational psychology, program evaluation and research methods; in advisement of graduate students; in administration and university governance; and in research and grant writing. Her research focuses on child development, families and teacher education. She has published articles in such journals as Child Development, Learning and Individual Differences, Child Study Journal, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, Youth and Society and Science Education, among others. She has gained extensive practical experiences with children, including raising two children with her husband and working in several positions with children—as an early childhood teacher of toddlers and preschool children, an early childhood special education teacher and a volunteer in school and community settings. Teresa enjoys spending time with her children and husband and, when she has the chance, travelling internationally with her family.

Jeanne Ellis Ormrod is an educational psychologist with specialisations in learning, cognition and child development. She received a PhD and MS in educational psychology at The Pennsylvania State University and an AB in psychology from Brown University; she also earned licensure in school psychology through postdoctoral work at Temple University and the University of Colorado, Boulder. She was Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Northern Colorado from 1976 until 1998, when she moved east to return to her native New England. She is now affiliated with the University of New Hampshire, where she occasionally teaches courses in educational psychology and research methods. She is the author or coauthor of several other Merrill/Pearson Education books, including Educational Psychology: Developing Learners; Essentials of Educational Psychology; Human Learning; Case Studies: Applying Educational Psychology; and Practical Research. She has worked as a middle school geography teacher and school psychologist and has conducted research in cognitive development, memory, problem solving, spelling and giftedness. When Jeanne is not teaching, writing, reading professional books and journals, or spending time with her three grown children, she enjoys racquetball, boating and travel with her husband to diverse cultural settings.