Page 7 - Social Sciences Humanities - The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 to 12 - 2013

only whether a person is physically healthy but also the extent to which he or she will have the physical, social, and personal resources needed to cope and to identify and achieve personal aspirations. These factors also have an impact on student learning, and it is important to be aware of them as factors contributing to a student’s performance.
An educator’s awareness of and responsiveness to students’ cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development is critical to their success in school. A number of research- based frameworks, including those described in Early Learning for Every Child Today: A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings (2007) and Stepping Stones: A Resource on Youth Development (2012),1 identify developmental stages that are common to the majority of students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. At the same time, these frameworks recognize that individual differences, as well as differences in life experiences and exposure to opportunities, can affect development, and that developmental events are not specifically age-dependent.
The framework described in Stepping Stones is based on a model that illustrates the complexity of human development. Its components – the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social domains – are interrelated and interdependent, and all are subject to the influence of a person’s environment or context. At the centre is an “enduring (yet changing) core” – a sense of self, or spirit – that connects the different aspects of development and experience (p. 17).
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Cognitive Emotional Self/Spirit
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Source: Stepping Stones: A Resource on Youth Development, p.17
Educators who have an awareness of a student’s development take each component into
account, with an understanding of and focus on the following elements:
• cognitive development − brain development, processing and reasoning skills, use of strategies for learning
• emotional development − emotional regulation, empathy, motivation
• social development − self-development (self-concept, self-efficacy, self-esteem); identity formation (gender identity, social group identity, spiritual identity); relationships (peer, family, romantic)
• physical development – physical activity, sleep patterns, changes that come with puberty, body image, nutritional requirements
1. Best Start Expert Panel on Early Learning, Early Learning for Every Child Today: A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings (2007) is available at http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/topics/ earlychildhood/early_learning_for_every_child_today.aspx, and Government of Ontario, Stepping Stones: A Resource on Youth Development (2012), is available at http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/ English/topics/youthopportunities/steppingstones/youth_policy.aspx.
PREFACE
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