2. Four Views of Learning and Development

DEŜSIGNERS of programs for children, in deciding upon goals, objectives, means of implementation, and evaluation techniques, have obviously used various sets of guidelines. Disciplines such as history, sociology, and political science traditionally have influenced the choices made in program planning and implementation. The ASCD Early Childhood Education Council, however, decided to examine programs primarily through the rubrics of developmental psy chology and/or child development. These disciplines ' have been concerned with under standing, describing, and predicting human behaviors, particularly learning, and have coexisted with developments in the broad field of psychology. Whatever these fields have been or may be, developmental psychology and child de velopment can now provide the framework for understanding the study of man. Also, it is from the context of the study and theorizing of psychologists that many pro gram developers seem to draw most content. As Michael Scriven has pointed out, much of psychology has been common sense through the ages and, in contrast to other disciplines, many psychological problems, if not always solved, have been identified and discussed. This does not mean that we do not have