ABSTRACT
In this chapter the focus is on theories of cognitive development. What all of them have in common is a desire to establish what develops and how such development takes place in children. Both constructivism and social constructivism are outlined, along with ideas derived from information processing approaches and modularity. Developmental psychology played a very dominant role in early childhood theory and practice in the twentieth century, possibly stemming from a desire to develop a theoretical foundation which could provide an explanatory theory of learning. Piaget’s developmental approach to cognition, for example, underpins ideas of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) (Bredekamp 1987). In recent years the work of, among others, Dahlberg et al. (1999), James and Prout (1997) and Mayall (1996) has challenged the universalist assumption of some models, emphasizing instead a model of children as social actors and of childhood as socially constructed, ‘always contextualized in relation to time, place and culture’ (Dahlberg et al. 1999:49). It is important to read this chapter against that backdrop, and to see theories of development as helpful in offering ‘signposts to different routes to understanding young children’ (Penn 2005:39).
