Chapter 1: Editors’ Introduction: Teaching Human Development for Educators

The central idea of this volume is that teaching about how children, youth, and adults develop and change over time is critical to the preparation of well-prepared classroom teachers. Simply put, teachers need to understand human development in the same way that they need to understand their subject matter, classroom management strategies, or methods of assessing student learning. Unlike Athena, who was said to have emerged completely grown from the forehead of Zeus, students do not come into the classroom fully formed. Rather, students—even preschool age children—have a rich and varied developmental history of growth and change. And, they continue to grow and change over the course of any given academic year. As they mature physically, so do their cognitive abilities, providing them with improved thinking and problem-solving skills and greater awareness of self and others. Their social and emotional skills, too, continue to grow through their relationships and interactions with peers, teachers, family members, and others—both within and outside of school. These developmental changes have many and varied influences on how students learn.