Child development and learning

When teaching Primary ESL Standard learners, we need to be aware of the linguistic demands our lesson place on children, and also of the cognitive, social-emotional and physical demands of the activities we have planned.

Understanding key concepts related to child development and learning can help teachers effectively evaluate lesson demands and plan for appropriate differentiated support.

See the links below for basic refresher content on key concepts related to child development and learning, and for links to contemporary research.

Key concepts in child development and learning Principles of Child Development and Learning that Inform Practice - NAEYC - an overview of key child development principles

Zone of Proximal Development Providing an appropriate level of challenge in our ESL classes is key to our students achieving learning outcomes and reaching their full potential in our classrooms. Lev Vygotsky's concept of the 'Zone of Proximal Development' (ZPD) can help us understand our role in identifying where our learners' capabilities are now and providing them with the high challenge - high support lessons they need to progress. Check out this article from Elza Billings and Aída Walqui at West Ed for a review of the ZPD and practical examples for scaffolding learning with a focus on Think-Pair-Share (TPS) and peer-to-peer learning: Zone of Proximal Development: An Affirmative Perspective in Teaching ELLs/M LLs

Guided Discovery Discovery approaches to learning have their origins in the work of John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, Jean Piaget and Seymour Papert. Guided Discovery involves selecting content and designing questions that allow learners to notice things about language and to connect this new information to existing information as their interlanguage develops. This sort of inductive approach to achieving language focus learning objectives takes the focus of the teacher and places it on students. The cognitive demands of guided discovery activities likely aid student retention and support deeper understanding of the way different parts of language fit together. They give more autonomy to learners, and provide opportunities to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills too. Read more here on how to take a guided discovery approach to language learning in your classroom: What is Guided Discovery and How Can We Use It in the EFL Classroom? (theteflacademy.com)

Social and emotional learning What does social-emotional learning look like in the classroom? Addressing student social-emotional wellbeing is central to meeting our pastoral care responsibilities towards our learners and is increasingly a focus of effective classroom behaviour. What is it? Social-emotional wellbeing relates to a set of self-management and coping skills that children have access to to help them manage the demands of life in school and outside school in emotionally healthy ways. It focuses on things like emotional literacy, identifying your own strengths, problem solving, positive coping, stress management and normalizing asking for help. How do we teach it? Check out the activities in this resource from Australia's Victoria Education Department for grade-specific classroom activities that support children in developing the competencies associated with social-emotional well-being, many of which can be easily adapted for the ESL classroom. Check out this link for further guidance: wellbeing-social-emotional-learning-activities-primary.pdf (education.vic.gov.au)

Links to contemporary research Child Development and Early Learning: A Foundation for Professional Knowledge and Competencies - extract from 2015 Institute of Medicine and National Research Council report addressing key aspects of child development from birth to 8 years