Contemporary Perspectives of Learning and Development PDF

Running Head: Contemporary Perspectives of Learning and Development
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Contemporary
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Contemporary Perspectives of Learning and Development 1
Contemporary Perspectives of Learning and Development
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to enlighten the reader with the detailed information
about the application of several theories to understand the childhood behaviour and education
that considers several factors in the environment. It should be noted that the behaviour of a
child could be inflicted by several social as well as psychological factors in the environment.
The given paper analyse two theories in relation to the case along with implementation of two
approach that refers to the social, cultural and historical factors in educating a child (National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017). Child development and learning
is extremely crucial because if a child is not developed with good teaching then they might
not be able to see the difference between right or wrong when they get old. The given paper
analyse these theories in relation to children behaviour and education in the environment. The
theories helps in constructive development of a child through social learning as well. Further,
it should be considered that different types of learning makes use of different types of
practices to modify the behaviour of children accordingly. Some of these theories are
classical conditioning, operant condition, social learning theory etc. (Waite, 2017).
First Philosophical Theory
The given paper makes use of two theoretical perspectives of Reggio Emilia and
Montessori in order to analyse the educational learning practices of children in the real world
scenario (Vandevelde, Van Keer, & Merchie, 2017).
The Reggio Emilia philosophy is an innovative approach that is inspiring to early
childhood education. This type of approach values the children as strong beings that are
capable as well as resilient and can change the world with their knowledge and wonders as
well. This philosophy specially focused on the preschool and primary school education.

Contemporary Perspectives of Learning and Development 2
According to this type of approach, the teaching method should be student-centred and
constructive as well that drives the students towards experimental learning in relationship
driven environment. The program effectively involves the environmental features in
teachings and let the students to explore several perspectives in the society (Hubber,
Outhwaite, Chigeda, McGrath, Hodgen, & Pitchford, 2016).
This approach works to help the children form their own personality from the
childhood itself. This approach focuses on teaching the students to make use of symbolic
language in their everyday life. In this way, this approach works on making the students
creative and adaptive in the society. Further, it should also be noted that this type of
philosophy in education and learning works on four primary rules that are children must have
control over the direction of their learning. Children must be able to learn through
experiences like touching, listening etc. Thirdly, children must be allowed to explore
different perspectives in the society and form relationships with other children as well.
Lastly, them must have endless ways and opportunities to explore themselves and express
themselves accurately (Hong, Shaffer, & Han, 2017).
Furthermore, relating the given theory with social, cultural and historical factors, it
should be noted that this theory has a limitation consideration to social factor. It should be
noted that in a social environment, every child is given the opportunity to rise irrespective of
their disability, however, second rule of this theory only allow the students to practice
learning who do not have any disability within them (McNally, & Slutsky, 2017). Revising
the second rule of this theory which states that the children could be able to learn through
their experience of listening, smelling, touching etc., but what if the child is impaired and
cannot hear. In that case, the child would not be able to learn and develop based on this
theory. Considering the cultural and historical factors in relation to this theory, this theory

Contemporary Perspectives of Learning and Development 3
takes both of these factors into account and implement pedagogy practices accordingly
(Santn, & Torruella, 2017).
The children development activities involve training the children about different type
of culture and rich history as well. As this theory involves community support and parental
involvement in the learning process, due to which the child gets to know about their
background and history as well. Therefore, this philosophy does not end when the child
leaves the classroom and it keeps on working in real life incidences as well (Ebbeck, &
Waniganayake, 2017).
Theoretical Perspective aligning with First Approach
Now, comparing the cognitive theory of learning with the above mentioned Reggio
Emilia philosophy, it should be noted that both the educational learning aspects works
similarly to some extent. As, on one hand Reggio Emilia talks about the use of experience in
learning and development of a child, while on the other hand cognitive theory works aspect
that a child develops cognitive pathways in understanding and give physical response to the
experience as well. Students in this theory learn through reading texts and understanding
instructions as well. This theory makes use of experience by the children and guide them
towards perceiving new learning in the environment (Saarinen, Lipsanen, Huotilainen,
Hintsanen, & Keltikangas-Järvinen, 2019). Focus should be made on the fact that Reggio
Emilia is basically an educational philosophy approach that works on the preschool and
primary education for children as well.
This type of theory lets the children to create a map in their minds and then perform
actions accordingly. Just like the Reggio Emilia theory works upon the experience earned by
the children in the environment, this theory works on the facilities of perceiving information
in the environment and then using such experience to solve the problems and learn as well.