Understanding child development - from synapse to society (MOOC)
Understanding child development - from synapse to society
In this course (MOOC) you will learn about the complexities of child development and how a surprisingly rich number of factors influence development at many different levels of organisation. This course enables you to understand development from an interdisciplinary approach, by reviewing how researchers from various disciplines and backgrounds study child development at Utrecht University.
In sum, we invite you to follow us on a journey to understand child development from synapse to society!
Suitable for
Anyone with an interest in child development.
Enroll for free
Understanding Child Development
In this course, we dive into the topic of child development. You will learn that child development is complex and is influenced by a surprisingly rich number of factors at many different levels of organization. You will see that development can be studied in various domains and at various levels of understanding, from different angles and disciplines. Importantly, you will come to understand that processes within and between the various domains and levels of organization continuously interact to shape development. This implies that understanding development requires taking an interdisciplinary approach.
In order to help you organize your thinking about this complexity you will learn more about the developmental systems approach and theories related to that. We will look, amongst other things, at the brain and motor development, cognitive, language and social-emotional development and all the factors that have an influence on development.
To illustrate how an interdisciplinary approach helps to understand child development you will see how researchers from various disciplines and backgrounds study child development at Utrecht University. These scientists will give a look in their field of knowledge and their collaboration with colleagues, to illustrate how the theory you will learn translates to practice.
In sum, we invite you to follow us on a journey to understand child development from synapse to society!
The Modules of Understanding Child Development
Enroll via Coursera
This course takes approximately 28 hours to complete and is free of charge. You can enroll via the course page on coursera.