Understanding Children's Development and Learning

EDU E823 Understanding Children’s Development and Learning is a 20-credit postgraduate level course in the Master of Education suite of programmes. This course has been adapted from course ED841 of the Open University in the United Kingdom (UKOU) with the same course title.

This course aims to develop learners’:

• Understanding of contemporary accounts and theories of children’s development;
• Capacity to consider how these are relevant to educational practice.

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Discuss the significant processes in infancy for development and learning.
2. Evaluate the importance of play with other children during the early years.
3. Analyse the important changes in children’s thinking and problem solving as they get older.
4. Critically review the impact of collaborative learning on children’s development.
5. Use cognitive theories of development to explain children’s learning difficulties.
6. Relate current theories about children’s learning and development to the development of new teaching and learning methods in schools.
7. Evaluate the influence of new digital technologies on the ways that children think and learn.

The materials for EDU E823 consist of this Course Guide, a Study Guide in four blocks, a Project Guide, and an Assignment File.

There are three set books for the course.

1. Donaldson, M (1978) Children's Minds, London: Fontana Press. (The printed copy is available in the University's Library.)
2. Garton, A (2004) Exploring Cognitive Development: The Child as the Problem Solver, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
3. Hulme, C and Snowling, M (2009) Developmental Disorders of Language Learning and Cognition, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

The Study Guide has been prepared by the UKOU so you will find references to the course as ED841. This is the same course as EDU E823 in Hong Kong Metropolitan University. The Study Guide may also make references to some video material which is only available in the United Kingdom. We will provide online supplementary material in lieu of this video material. Please refer to the Online Learning Environment (OLE) for the links to the online material.

The course consists of the following four blocks:

Block 1: Entry into the social and cultural worlds in infancy and early childhood

Block 2: Understanding children's thinking and learning

Block 3: Explanations for language and literacy disabilities

Block 4: Mediated cognition and educational innovation

Course assessment includes continuous assessment (60%) and an end-of-course examination (40%). Students must pass both the continuous assessment and the examination in order to pass the course.

The continuous assessment will include five assignments (including a project). Assignment 1 and Assignment 4 are essay-type questions for which you are expected to write an analytical essay discussing key issues covered in the course. Assignment 2, Assignment 3 and Assignment 5 are related to a small-scale research project: Assignment 2 is a research proposal, Assignment 3 is a literature review and Assignment 5 is the final project report. Developing abilities to conduct empirical research is one of the outcomes of the course and you are expected to develop such abilities through actually carrying out a research project.

Except for some designated assignments, students are required to submit assignments via the Online Learning Environment (OLE).

The three-hour examination at the end of the course requires students to write short essays designed to assess their ability to analyse and evaluate concepts and theories related to the course and give implications for practice. The examination aims to assess learning outcomes 1–7.

The assessment of EDU E823 is different from the one used in ED841. Students in Hong Kong should follow the locally prepared Assessment File and Project Guide.

This is a distance learning course in which you are expected to learn through course materials, with face-to-face and online support.

The Study Guide blocks provide an analytical explanation of key concepts and theories and guide students to interpret the discussions in the readings. Interactive activities are integrated into the text to help students to:

Interactive activities are integrated into the text to help students to:

• analyse theories and evaluate their applicability;
• examine viewpoints from different perspectives;
• reflect on personal conceptions, experience and practices; and
• suggest ways for further development.

As a distance learning student you are expected to manage your own learning. A presentation schedule is provided to help you in drawing up a study timetable. This is very important for you to keep pace in your studying. The course requires approximately 600 hours of work and therefore you may need to schedule around 15 hours per week to study the materials, write the assignments, attend the tutorials and prepare for the examination.

To supplement your self-study, face-to-face support is provided. There are thirteen two-hour tutorials, three two-hour day schools (which will take place at the weekend) and two 'surgeries' for individual consultation.

In the tutorials, your tutor will answer your questions about any problems you might face during self-study and conduct other activities, such as small group discussions, to facilitate your learning. The tutor may also cover the more difficult concepts in the course and the research strategies.

Besides the tutorials, your tutor will mark and comment on your assignments. When your assignment is returned, pay particular attention to your tutor's comments and suggestions as these provide useful feedback on your learning progress.

There is the option of additional online communication through HKMU's Online Learning Environment (OLE). This provides useful web-links and online readings, and is a platform for communication among students, tutors and the Course Coordinator, to further enhance learning.

We hope that by studying EDU E823 you will enhance your understanding of children’s development and their learning processes and difficulties. This understanding will enable you to formulate better pedagogical strategies to help children in their development and learning.

We wish you every success in the course.