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Learner Development Framing Statement

1.2 The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of

learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic,

social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally

appropriate and challenging learning experiences.

Understanding child development is essential to constructing effective lesson plans.

Knowing what milestones children should reach by certain ages enables teachers to teach their

students within the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978). It also enables teachers to

help students construct knowledge by building on their prior knowledge and testing new

hypotheses (Piers & Piaget, 1972). Furthermore, when students’ developmental levels are a

touchstone for each lesson, children are more engaged and more likely to master the concepts

presented (Piaget, 1972).

Having a broad understanding of child development is important. Taking time to learn

about the developmental abilities of a classroom of students is also critical. Assessments given

regularly give teachers a clear picture of their students’ abilities. When regular formative

assessments are used, learning goals can be revisited and learning activities can be created. When

the teacher has a clear understanding of her students’ abilities, she can create learning

opportunities within the student’s zone of proximal development. Defined by Vygotsky (1978),

the zone of proximal development is “the distance between the actual developmental level as

determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as

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determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable

peers” (p. 86).

Lessons that are taught within the zone of proximal development are created with a focus

on the learners, rather than the teacher or the material. “Such an instructional model is learner

centered…a teacher’s role is not simply to cover material or expose students to content, but

rather to maximize student learning. Therefore, if a student is missing knowledge or skills…the

teacher’s role is to move both backward and forward with essential content. If a student already

knows what a teacher is about to teach, the teacher’s role is to help that student move beyond

current learning expectations so that growth will continue.” (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011).

Recently my second grade class learned all about honeybees and beekeeping. Students

took part in a pre-assessment activity and discussion. My partner and I looked through the

assessments and drew on what we already knew about our students’ reading and problem-solving

abilities to put them into groups and partnerships for the week. Our goal was to put them in

situations where they could benefit from each others’ learning and access the zone of proximal

development. In this zone, students can help each other access learning they would not be able to

on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). Students worked through a variety of activities, readings, and

videos to learn as much as they could about the subject. We used a variety of formative

assessments to make sure that each student was meeting the performance standards. We used exit

tickets that asked for quick summaries of readings or videos. We used comic drawing to find out

if our students understood the life cycle of a honeybee. We used reading response questions to

ensure that they had comprehended the informational texts about bees. We held discussions to

hear students explain their new knowledge orally. We observed students in pairs and groups to

see how active and confident they were with the new information they had been given. The
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information available to us through these assessments enabled us to deliver instruction that built

on the knowledge and abilities they had gained thus far. Frequent, quality feedback from learners

help teachers understand where their students are, developmentally, and empowers them to tailor

their instruction to fit the developmental level of their students. As we gathered information from

these formative assessments, we were able to reteach, accelerate, or gather small groups for

further instruction, or adjust our instruction as necessary.

At the end of the week, our school held an open house. Almost every student wants to

show or tell someone about something they’ve learned. Students are especially keen to share

their knowledge if the request is framed in a way that makes them feel like they are at service to

others. My partner and I told our students that their knowledge about honeybees would be highly

valued by the attendees of the event. Each student created a unique brochure to be photocopied

and handed out to the visitors. Students synthesized the lessons they learned throughout the week

in this final, summative assessment. The results blew us away and we were confident that our

students had grown, not only in their knowledge of honeybees, but also in their ability to write

informative paragraphs, create diagrams with labels, work with partners and groups, and explain

their new knowledge to others. We were confident that we were on the right side of Lemov’s

(2014) description of the “difference between ‘I taught it’ and ‘they learned it.’” (p. 24).

Piaget (1972) defines four stages of cognitive development. My second graders are in the

third stage: the concrete operational stage. In this stage, children’s thinking is concrete and

logical, but also begins to be defined by logic. In addition, children are able to think about

several aspects of a problem at once. In our unit about bees, my partner and I chose a topic that

was concrete rather than abstract: an observable, predictable organism in the students’

environment. We provided them with plenty of opportunities to delve into facts about the topic.
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We also provided them with hands-on activities such as visiting the school bee hives, looking

closely at a bee carriage with a queen bee and her attendants in it, and holding and exploring

honeycomb. We also gave them information about many aspects of honeybees and beekeeping.

Their ability to consider many parts of one topic was clear in their bee brochures.

The ability to tap into learners’ development when creating lesson plans is a skill that

takes experience. Each lesson or unit can be written around student abilities and knowledge, even

from a teacher’s first year. But over time, teachers learn the developmental milestones and

abilities of the students in their grade. Experience teaches them what the typical student will be

able to do and what will stretch her to the next level. The zone of proximal development

becomes a natural place to teach and learn.

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References

Lemov, D. (2014). Teach like a champion: 62 techniques that put students on the path to college,

2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Piaget, J. (1972). The psychology of the child. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Piers, M. W. & Piaget, J. (1972). Play and development: A symposium. New York: Norton.

Sousa, D. & Tomlinson, C.A. (2011). Differentiation and the brain: How neuroscience supports

the learner-friendly classroom. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press