| CODE | PSY5627 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Human Development, Learning and Education | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Psychology | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will enable participants to deepen their understanding of theories and research in human development, learning and education within a holistic, inclusive and positive psychology framework. It will focus on an understanding of human diversity and inclusive education, learning and other cognitive processes that have an impact on instruction, and social and emotional development. Participants will explore the role of the school psychologist in promoting the well being, learning and education of children and young people, particularly those who experience barriers to development and learning; and the promotion of social justice and inclusion. Study-unit Aims: This study-unit is aimed at enabling participants to develop a strong understanding of normal human development within a framework of respect for diversity and inclusive education. The unit underlines the principle that it is normal to be different and that schools need to adjust to the development and learning needs of students rather than the other way around. Thus participants will be encouraged to focus on holistic child development taking into consideration the importance of the social and emotional aspects of development to be as important as the cognitive aspects. Moreover, they will be encouraged to adopt a biopsychosocial approach that includes ecological systems theory so that they start looking for facilitators and barriers to learning within the ecological system as well as within the child. The unit promotes the adoption of an inclusive education systems, universal design for learning and culturally responsive and differentiated teaching. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: Critically evaluate the theories on biological, psychological, social and ecological processes on human development and learning; Critically analyze the theories and research on learning, cognitive development, and motivation to learn; Demonstrate a commitment to social justice and awareness and understanding of discriminatory processes and structures that create barriers to the well being of children's and young people's learning and healthy development; Critically analyse the main components of curriculum development and how it can impact the effectiveness of teaching and learning; Critically evaluate the social model of disability, and culturally responsive and inclusive education. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: Demonstrate competence in analyzing the impact of his/her own socio-cultural background on their own learning and development; Demonstrate respect for student diversity and a commitment to social justice; Critically evaluate the level of well being, development, and learning achieved by children and young people; Critically evaluate the adequacy of children's and young people's social and emotional development; Demonstrate competence in the design of assessment of barriers to learning arising from the mismatch of individual characteristics and contextual situations; Analyze processes and structures of discrimination at personal, cultural, institution, and structural levels; Demonstrate competence in the design of interventions at classroom, school, and education system levels for the development of more inclusive and culturally responsive teaching and school environments. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Bartolo, P., Janik, I., Janikova, V., Hofsäss, T., Koinzer, P., Vilkiene, V., Calleja, C., Cefai, C., Chetcuti, D., Ale, P., Mol Lous, A., Wetso, G.M., & Humphrey, N. (2007). Responding to student diversity: Teacher’s handbook. Malta: University of Malta. Berk, L. E. (2013). Child development (9th ed.). Boston: Pearson. Bartolo, P. A. (2010). The "process" of teacher education for inclusion: The Maltese experience. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 10(s1), 139-148. Bartolo, P. A. (2010). Why school psychology for diversity? School Psychology International, 31(6), 567-580. Cefai, C., & Cavioni, V. (2013). Social and emotional education in primary school: Integrating theory and research into practice. New York: Springer. Hick, P., Kershner, R., & farrell, P. (Eds.) (2009). Psychology for inclusive education. London: Routledge. Seligman, E.P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New York: Atria. Shriberg, D., Song, S.Y., Miranda, A. H., & Radliff, K.M. (2013). School psychology and social justice. New York: Routledge. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-Requisite qualifications: BPsy(Hons) | ||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Seminar | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Paul A. Bartolo (Co-ord.) Carmel Cefai |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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