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SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Instructional Module in
The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles

Preliminaries
I. Lesson Number 2
II. Lesson Title Unit 2- Basic Concepts and Issues on Human Development
 Human Development: Meaning, Concepts and
Approaches
 The Stages of Development and Developmental Tasks

III. Brief Introduction “By the virtue of being born to humanity, every human being
of the Lesson has a right to the development and fulfillment of his potentials as a
human being.” – Ashley Montagu-
Every living creature is called to become what it is meant to
be. The caterpillar is meant to become a butterfly; a seed into a full
grown herb, bush or tree; and a human baby into a mature person,
the person “who is fully alive, the glory of God” in the words of St.
Irenaeus.
How this development happens is what we learn in our
biology class. We have seen it to be a fantastic process. So
wonderful a process that we can’t help but experience a feeling of
awe for the Power or the Force or the Principle (theists call this
Power or Force or Principle (God)) behind all these. 
In this lesson, you will be acquainted with human
development as a process, the developmental tasks that come
along with each developmental stage and relevant issues that are
raised about human development.
IV. Lesson Objectives At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
1. define human development and developmental tasks in
your own words;
2. describe the developmental tasks in each developmental
stage. 
3. State for yourself how these developmental tasks affect
your role as a facilitator of learning.

Lesson Proper
I. Getting Started
Here are pictures of seven-year old Naschielle and three-year old Kenn. Each one is a
bundle of possibilities. Describe what they were before birth (their point of origin) and who they
will possibly be after birth unto adulthood. What will they possibly become? Expound on your
answers.

After listening to the predictions given by each member of the group, answer the following
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questions: 
Questions
1. When you gave your owm predictions as to the kind of child, adolescent and adult Naschielle
and Kenn may become and hypothesized on who they once were, you were referring to human
development. What then is development? Translate the meaning of development in your Mother
Tongue. 
2. Will three-year old Kenn be able to do all that seven-year old Nachielle can do? Why or why
not? 
3. Will there be anything common in the pattern of development of Naschielle and Ken? If yes,
what? 
4. Will there be differences in their development, e. g. pace or rate of development? What and
why? 
5. Will the process of development take place very fast or gradually? Expound on your answer. 
6. Do you believe that Naschielle and Kenn will continue to develop even in adulthood? Or will
they stop developing in adulthood? 

II. Discussion

Human Development: Meaning, Concepts and Approaches

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exists and entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts. -William
Shakespeare

Two approaches to human development 

If you believe that Nikki and Kenn will show extensive change from birth to adolescence,
little or no change in adulthood and decline in late old age, your approach to development is
traditional. In contrast, if you believe that even in adulthood developmental change takes place
as it does during childhood, your approach is termed life-span approach. 
What are the characteristics of human development from a life span perspective? Paul
Baltes (Santrock, 2002), an expert in life-span development, gives the following
characteristics: 

1. Development is lifelong. It does not end in adulthood. Ken and Naschielle will continue
developing even in adulthood. 
2. Development is plastic. Plasticity refers to the potential for change. 3. Development is
possible throughout the life-span. No one is too old to learn. There is no such thing as “I am too
old for that…” Neither Kenn nor Naschielle will be too old to learn something. 
Aging is associated with declines in certain intellectual abilities. These declines can be
prevented or reduced. In one research study, the reasoning abilities of older adults were
improved through retraining (Willies & Schose, 1994 cited by Sammek 1., 2005) 

3. Development is multidimensional. Development consists of biological, cognitive, and socio-

emotional dimensions. Development as a process is complex because it is the product of
biological, cognitive and socioemotional processes (Sauna, 2002). ' 
Biological processes involve changes in the individual’s physical nature. The brains of
Naschielle and Kenn develop. They will gain height and weight. They will experience hormonal
changes when they reach the period of puberty, and cardiovascular decline as they approach
late adulthood. All these show the common biological processes in development. 

Development is relatively orderly. (httpzllwww.cdipage.eoml developmenthtm)

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Naschielle and Kenn will learn to sit, crawl then walk before they can run. The muscular control
of the trunk and the arms comes earlier as compared to the hands and fingers. This is the
proximodistal pattern. During infancy, the greatest growth always occurs at the top the head
with physical growth in size, weight and fixture differentiation gradually working its way down
from top to bottom (for example, neck, shoulders, middle trunk and so on). This is the cephalo-
caudal pattern. These development patterns are common to Naschielle and Kenn. 

Development takes place gradually. (http://www.edipa.ge.eoml development.htm)

Naschielle and Kenn won’t develop into pimply teenagers overnight It takes years before they
become one. In fact, that’s the way of nature. The bud does not blossom suddenly. The seed
does not germinate overnight. While some changes occur in a flash of insight, more often it
takes weeks, months, or years for a person to undergo changes that result in the display of
developmental characteristics. 

Cognitive processes involve changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and

language. Naschielle and Kenn develop from men: sounds to a word becoming two words, the
two words becoming a sentence. They would move on to memorizing their first prayer, singing
Bayang Magiliw in every hag ceremony to imagining what it would be like to be a teacher or a
pilot, playing chess and solving a complex math problem. All these reflect the role of cognitive
processes in development. 

Socioemotional processes include changes in the individual’s relationships with other

people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality. As babies, Naschielle and Kenn
responded with a sweet smile when affectionately touched and frowned when displeased and
even showed temper tantrum when they could not get or do what they wanted. From aggressive
children, they may develop into a fme lady and a gentleman or otherwise, depending on a
myriad of factors. They may fall in love and get inspired for life or may end up betrayed,
deserted and desperate afterwards. All these reflect the role of socioemotional processes in
development. 

These biological, cognitive and socioemotional processes are inextricably intertwined.

While these processes are studied separately, the effect of one process or factor on a person’s
developpment is not isolated from the other processes. If Kenn and Naschielle were
undernourished and troubled by the thought of father and mother about to separate, they could
not concentrate on their studies and consequently would fail and repeat. As a consequence,
they may lose face and drop out of school, revert to illiteracy, become unskilled, unemployed
and so on and so forth. See how a biological process, affects the cognitive process which in
turn, affects the socioemotional process. 

4. Development is contextual. Individuals are changing beings in a changing world. Individuals

respond to and act on contexts. These contexts include the individual’s biological make up,
physical environment, cognitive processes, historical, social and cultural contexts.
(Santrock, 2002) Naschielle’s and Kenn’s biological make, up, social and cultural contexts may
vary and therefore make them develop differently from each other. 

5. Development involves growth, maintenance and regulation. Growth, maintenance and

regulation are three (3) goals of human development. The goals of individuals vary among
developmental stages. For instance, as individuals reach middle and late adulthood, concern
with growth gets into the back stage while maintenance and regulation take the center stage. 

The Stages of Development and Developmental Tasks

Who are you? asked the caterpillar. Alice replied rather shyly “I-I hardly know, Sir, just at
present- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I must have changed several
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times since then”. -Lewis Carroll

For every developmental stage, there is an expected developmental task.

Questions:
1. What happens when the expected developmental tasks are not achieved at the
corresponding developmental stage?
2. How can you help children achieve these developmental tasks?

Developmental Task
Infancy and Early Childhood (0-5) 
1. Learning to walk. 
2. Learning to take solid foods. 
3. Learning to talk.
4. Learning to control the elimination of body.
5. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty.
6. Acquiring concepts and language to describe social and physical reality.
7. Readiness for reading. 
8. Learning to distinguish right from wrong and developing a conscience.

Middle Childhood (6-12) 

1. Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games. 
2. Building a whole- some attitude toward oneself
3. Learning to get along with age mates.
4. Learning an appropriate sex role
5. Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating.
6. Developing concepts necessary for everyday living. 
7. Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values.
8. Achieving personal independence.
9. Developing acceptable attitudes toward society.

Adolescence (13-18) 
1. Achieving mature relations with both sexes. 
2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role.
3. Accepting one’s physique. 
4. Achieving emotional independence of adults.
5. Preparing for marriage and family life. 
6. Preparing for an economic career. 
7. Acquiring values and an ethical system. 
8. Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior.

Early Adulthood (19-29) 

1. Selecting a mate. 
2. Learning to live with a partner. 
3. Starting a family. 
4. Rearing children. 
5. Managing a home.
6. Starting an occupation. 
7. Assuming civic responsibility. 

Middle Adulthood (30-60)

1. Helping teenage children to become happy and responsible adults. 
2. Achieving adult social and civic responsibility.
3. Satisfactory career achievement. 
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4. Developing adult leisure time activities.

5. Relating to one’s spouse as a person.
6. Accepting the physiological changes of middle age.
7. Adjusting to aging parent. 

Late Maturity (61 and over) 

1. Adjusting decreasing strength and health. 
2. Adjusting to retirement and reduced income. 
3. Adjusting to death of spouse.
4. Establishing relations with one’s own age group.
5. Meeting social and civic obligations.
6. Establishing satisfactory living quarters. 

Concept of developmental tasks 

In each stage of development, a certain task or tasks are expected of every individual.
Robert Havighurst defines developmental task as one that “arises at a certain period in our life,
the successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success with later tasks
while failure leads to unhappiness, social disapproval, and difficulty with later tasks.”
(Havighurst, 1972). 

Developmental stages 
There are eight (8) developmental stages given by Santrock. The eight (8) developmental
stages cited by Santrock are the same with Havighurst’s six (6) developmental stages only that
Havighurst did not include prenatal period. Havighurst combined infancy and early childhood
while Santrock mentioned them as two (2) separate stages. These developmental stages are
described more in detail in the next paragraphs. The developmental tasks (Santrock, 2002) 

Let’s describe the developmental tasks and outstanding trait of each stage as described by
Santrock and compare them to those listed by Havighurst himself. 

1. Prenatal period (from conception to birth) --It involves

tremendous growth from a single cell to an organism complete with
brain and behavioral capabilities. 

2. Infancy (from birth to 18-24 months) A time of extreme

dependence on adults. Many psychological activities are just
beginning language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor
coordination and social learning. 

3. Early childhood (end of infancy to 5-6 years (Grade 1)- These

are the preschool years. Young children learn to become more self-
sufficient and to care for themselves, develop school readiness
Skills and spend many hours in play with peers. 
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4. Middle and late childhood (6-11 years of age, the elementary

school years)-The fundamental skills of reading, writing and
arithmetic are mastered. The child is formally exposed to the larger
world and its culture. Achievement becomes a more central theme
of the child’s world and self-control increases. 

5. Adolescence (10-12 years of age ending up to 18-22 years of

age) Begins with rapid physical changes -dramatic gains in height
and weight, changes in body contour; and the development of
sexual characteristics such as‘ enlargement of the breasts,
development of palm and facial hair and deepening of the voice.
Pursuit of independence and identity are prominent Thought is more
logical, abstract and idealistic. Mom time is spent outside of the
family.

6. Early adulthood (from late teens or early 20s lasting through the

30s) It is a time of establishing personal and economic independence,
career development. selecting a mate, learning to live with someone in an
intimate way, starting a family and rearing child.

7. Middle adulthood (40 to 60 years of age) It is a time of expanding

personal and social involvement and responsibility; of assisting the next
generation to becoming competent and mature individuals; and of
reaching and maintaining satisfaction in a career.

8. Late adulthood (60s and above) It is a time for adjustment to

decreasing strength and health, life review, retirement, and adjustment
to new social roles. 

III. Application(Performance Task -40%)

1. Show the developmental stages by means of a diagram inclusive of the ages. Write also
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the outstanding characteristic trait and developmental task of each developmental stage.
(16 points).

IV. Assessment(Written Works-30%)

V. Reflection(Performance Task -40%)
1. Having mastered the developmental tasks of early childhood middle and late childhood
and adolescence, reflect on what you should do as a teacher to facilitate your students’
acquisition of these develpmental tasks. Answer the question in no less than 5
sentences.

Criteria: Content (10 pts.) Organization of Ideas (3 pts.)

Relevance to the topic (5 pts.) Brevity (2 pts.)
VI. Reference
Corpuz, B. et. al. (2018). Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles. Quezon City:
Lorimar Publishing Inc.

Prepared by:

ERIC L. JARO, MAEd, LPT

Instructor

Reviewed by: Approved by:

JOHN MARC R. MENDOZA, MAEd, MLIS JESS JAY M. SAJISE, DBA

Program Head, School of Teacher Education Vice President of Academic Affairs External