Foundations of Learning and Child Development
Child development and learning theory underpin every later decision about planning, questioning and behaviour. Learn each theory as a claim about how learning happens, plus its classroom implication, rather than as a list of names.
Cognitive development
Piaget described qualitative stage shifts - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational - with learners constructing schemas through assimilation and accommodation. The classroom implication is that abstract, hypothetical tasks may outrun a concrete-operational learner, so pair abstraction with manipulatives and real examples. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the distance between what a learner does alone and what they can do with support; scaffolding is the temporary assistance that is faded as competence grows. Bruner's spiral curriculum and enactive–iconic–symbolic sequence link directly to task design. Piaget's stages are a rough guide, not a rigid timetable.
Social-emotional and self-regulatory development
Attachment theory and Erikson's psychosocial stages explain why safety and belonging precede risk-taking; Maslow's hierarchy is a useful heuristic, not a law. Executive function - working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility - develops slowly into adolescence, so a task that fails may be a load problem rather than a motivation problem.
Traps
Confusing the ZPD with a learner's current independent level; describing scaffolding as permanent support; labelling a child 'concrete' when the task simply overloaded working memory; assuming a developmental stage excuses lack of challenge.
Rule of thumb
Before any task, ask three questions: What must be held in mind at once? What prior schema does this assume? What support can I remove later? If the answer to the third is 'none', redesign the task.