Dennis M. Mclnerney

Dennis is a veteran academic who has been a primary teacher, secondary teacher, teacher trainer, as well as professor specialising in educational and developmental psychology. He has had senior positions in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Dennis is well published and has a number of authored and edited books including Educational psychology: Constructing learning (sixth edition, Pearson, Australia); Helping kids achieve their best (Information Age Publishing, USA), and Publishing your psychology’ research: A guide to writing for journals in psychology and related fields (Allen & Unwin and Sage, Australia and USA).

He is also editor of two research monograph series, Advances in self research and Research on sociocultural influences on motivation and learning (both Information Age Publishing, USA), and publishes widely in refereed journals and book chapters. Dennis is an honorary professor at the Australian Catholic University and an honorary professor at the Education University of Hong Kong.

David W. Putwain

David started his career as a teacher of psychology, sociology and personal, social and health education, and worked in a number of secondary schools and sixth form colleges in England.

Having completed a PhD, David took up a position at Edge Hill University in 2006 where he established an undergraduate programme in educational psychology, before moving to his current position at Liverpool John Moores University in 2016. David has co-authored a number of pedagogical texts, revision guides and articles on A level psychology (Taylor & Francis, Nelson-Thornes, Letts, and Philip-Allan), and has published widely on research into the psychological factors that influence learning and achievement.

There are many excellent developmental psychology texts available, but there are few that take teaching and learning as their specific focus.

Developmental psychology texts are often quite encyclopedic, and readers can be overwhelmed. In this text we have selected material that we believe is of most relevance to students preparing to be teachers across the broad spectrum from early childhood through to early adulthood. Our selection is based on our extensive practical experience of teaching, learning, and researching, with a clear focus on effective education.

Key themes in the text are:

• Heredity and environment, with a particular emphasis on how this information is useful for understanding normal development as well as special learning needs.

• Physical and motor development from early childhood to early adulthood, with a special emphasis on features that separate the different growth stages, and developmental health issues of relevance to teachers.

• Cognition and cognitive development from early childhood through to early adulthood, with an emphasis on contemporary approaches such as metacognition.

• Psychometric intelligence, alternative views of intelligence, and creativity.

• Contemporary views of intellectual development, particularly information processing.

• Personal, social and moral development from early childhood through to early adulthood, with particular emphasis on contemporary themes of importance.

We have developed each theme in an educational context so that the links between the information, teaching and learning are clear and explicit. We have also situated these themes within a research context so that the reader can critically evaluate research findings as well as be inspired and enthused to conduct research.

Developmental and Educational Psychology for Teachers (PDF)