Child development does not take place in a vacuum, instead, the context around the child impacts their actions and development. Schools are uniquely placed to influence children’s development due to their key role in their lives and the time spent at school.
One way of viewing child development is through the Bioecological Model of Human Development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2007). This model considers the impact of social contexts, structural conditions and political factors on children’s school experiences and the role they play in mediating their development (Bronfenbrenner & Evans, 2000). It highlights the importance of the environmental factors around a child that influence their development from those closest to them (family, teachers) to more indirect factors (government education policies).
Bioecological Model of Human Development
The Bioecological Model is marked by four key aspects: process, person, context, and time (Tudge et al., 2022).
- Process – this focuses on the interactions between people and their environment, which take place over time. Some examples that are relevant to school include CYP and staff relationships or interactions, staff training and teaching
- Person – this relates to the individual child and further details are included in the diagram below.
- Context – this describes four interrelated systems that mark the environments that influence development and are further explained below.
- Time – this relates to changes in the environment throughout the child’s lifetime, for instance, changing cultural attitudes, historical events, and life transitions like moving abroad.
Cultural context
This relates to broader societal attitudes and ideologies, e.g., cultural norms, and societal views of education.
Greater environment
This relates to aspects that indirectly influence the child’s development e.g., what is happening within the school more broadly, or in their parents’ workplace.
Interactions and connections
This layer considers the interactions that happen within the child’s immediate environment, e.g., relationships between parents and school, and relationships between the child and their teachers.
Immediate environment
This is the first layer around the child and relates to aspects that have direct contact with them and influence their day-to-day life, e.g., home life, school environment and peers.
Child
This includes their individual characteristics, e.g., age, ethnicity or other features that affect how others view or treat them. Also, their psychological resources along with their skills, experiences, and individual motivations that influence their responses to situations.
How can the Bioecological Model be applied in school settings?
This Model is flexible and provides a way of thinking about how individual traits and surrounding environmental factors influence and interact with one another as part of an ongoing process of child development.
The example below shows how the Model has been applied in the case of a Year 6 boy who is experiencing literacy difficulties.
References
Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P.A. (2007). The bioecological model of human development. In W. Damon & R.M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology. Vol. 1: Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 793–828). John Wiley.
Bronfenbrenner, U. and Evans, G. W. (2000), Developmental Science in the 21st Century: Emerging Questions, Theoretical Models, Research Designs and Empirical Findings. Social Development, 9(1), 115-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00114
Tudge, J. R. H., Merçon-Vargas, E. A., Liang, Y., & Payir, A. (2022). The Importance of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory for Early Childhood Education. In L. E. Cohen & S. Waite-Stupiansky (Eds.), Theories of Early Childhood Education: Developmental, Behaviorist and Critical (2nd ed.). Routledge.
