How does a child's mind and behaviour change as they develop over time? In this free course, Exploring children's learning, four theories of child development are explored. Each theory views child development from a different perspective and all have underpinned psychological research for many years, and continue to do so today. By the end of this course you will have a good understanding of each of the theories and will probably have begun to challenge your own assumptions about how your own children, or children you know, have developed over time.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• describe the key features of behaviourist, social learning, constructivist and social constructivist theories of development
• evaluate critically these four theories
• illustrate their application to practical issues in child development.