My Philosophy of Development and Learning

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. —Pablo Picasso

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. —Albert Einstein

The principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done. —Jean Piaget

Development in children never follows school learning the way a shadow follows the object that casts it. In actuality, there are highly complex dynamic relations between developmental and learning processes that cannot be encompassed by an unchanging hypothetical formulation. —Lev Vygotsky

During this unit, you have studied foundational thinking about development and learning. You also have investigated recent thinking about how the brain affects the ways in which children and adults develop and learn. You have been exposed to philosophies, theories and practices that have been proposed, adopted, adapted and evolved over time. In the second unit of this module, you learned more about how you, as a student and a learner, learn best.

Whatever meaningful contributions you decide to make with the knowledge and experience you gain from your Master’s programme, it is helpful to begin to synthesise what you are discovering about development and learning into a philosophical stance that will, of course, evolve and change as you learn and grow.

For this Individual Assignment, you will choose to use one or a combination of written, audio, video and/or visual or electronic presentations, such as PowerPoint, to communicate your Philosophy of Development and Learning. This presentation should be approximately 500 words and be based on what you learned about yourself through the self-assessments in Unit 2, the learning theories and theorists that resonate with you and why, and your perspective on how brain development affects development and learning and applies to your current and future professional practice.

Note: If you choose to do an audio or video presentation, plan what you want to say first to ensure that you articulate your thoughts clearly and that your presentation does not exceed approximately 500 words. To prepare for this Individual Assignment: Reflect on the following:

o What you learned about your own learning through the self-assessments in Unit 2

o The education thinkers and theorists who resonated with you and why

o The reciprocal relationship between development and learning

o What you learned about how the brain influences development and learning

o How you plan to use what you have learned about development and learning in the work you

do now and/or will do in the future

To complete this Individual Assignment (500 words): Choose to use one or a combination of written, audio, video and/or visual or electronic

presentations, such as PowerPoint, to communicate your Philosophy of Development and Learning.

As you construct your philosophy of development and learning, make a strong effort to be reflexive

in your thinking. In other words, continually ask yourself questions such as the following:

o Why do I think this way?

o Why are these theories resonating with me?

o How can I ‘step outside my own box’ and understand development and learning in new ways

that will help me in my professional work?

Be sure to include references to all sources, including your Readings, in Harvard Referencing

Style.

Store your Philosophy of Development and Learning in your Professional Practitioner ePortfolio.

Submit your Individual Assignment to your Faculty Member for feedback. Be sure to submit by the end

of this unit in order to receive timely feedback. Contact your Faculty Member for permission to submit

an assignment early, to submit an assignment after the end of the unit, or to re-submit an assignment on

which you have already received feedback.

To complete your Individual Assignment, do the following: You may use PowerPoint slides, Prezi, or other online presentations. If your online presentation

does not load to the submission link, copy/paste the presentation URL web link to a Word

Document and upload that document to the Assignment submission link.

To upload your Individual Assignment, click on Individual Assignments Submission on the

Module Menu and then click the ‘Unit 4 – Individual Assignment Turnitin’ link.