Cycle of Development
Welcome to this section of the site which is dedicated to the Cycle of Development. As you will discover through the video teachings and accompanying materials, this is a model that I find really valuable in educational work. Whilst I have been directly involved in developing its use in the educational context, it seems to have an amazing tendency to be revised and adapted in a myriad of ways. Details of how others have used the model are included in the links and references below.
The Cycle of Development offers a way of understanding how people grow up, not simply in linear, chronological terms, but through a series of cycles over the course of a lifetime. It’s a great model for thinking about child development, but it becomes really powerful when thinking about how individuals, groups and organisations develop. It is without doubt an optimistic idea about development, based on the principle that because we grow up through a cyclic process there are always opportunities to ‘grow up again’. For some this may be quite a challenge, although it is aligned with the TA principle; Anyone can Change. Besides, what kind of model of development do we want our educators to have, if it is not an optimistic one?
The Cycle of Development model has been used in TA for over 30 years. It has undergone several revisions, most notably during the 1990s when it was adapted for more mainstream application by Jean Clarke and Connie Dawson (Growing Up Again, 1996). In education Trudi Newton, Emma Bradshaw and Giles Barrow initially developed the model further so that it became increasingly relevant for professionals working in the general field of education, (Walking the Talk, 2004). This brought the model into a range of contexts including schools - primary, special, secondary phases – nurseries, parent education, youth service, social welfare and community education.
Since the initial introduction of the model into the UK education context, further initiatives have been developed. Within TA Steve Russell has created a IT-based profiling tool and comprehensive resource based on the Cycle of Development, (behaviourwall.com 2011). Initially trialed in primary schools, the resource has been extended to secondary and specialist contexts.
Outside of TA, there have been significant advances in neuroscience which support the basis of the Cycles model. Why Love Matters, S. Gerdhart provides a comprehensive account of brain development in the early years and links with the quality of care. Gerdhart’s research is further supported by A General Theory of Love, Lewis et al. However, the emphasis in both of these excellent accounts is on the importance of the early years in forming character, resilience and a survival template found universally across cultures and communities, (in TA terms early script formation).
To establish a more thorough and broader understanding of development that extends beyond infancy, readers need to look to other works which account for neurological development in adolescence. Why are they so Weird, B Strauch (2003) and more recently Blakemore & Frith’s The Learning Brain, (2005) discuss in more detail the huge changes that take place in the teenage brain. They identify several factors that trigger a re-vamp of the synaptic connections formed in early childhood. These are in effect filtered for usefulness in the context of major hormonal and psychological changes. The plasticity of the brain in infancy appears to be re-visited during the teenage years, indicating a second opportunity to re-form a sense of belonging, exploration, thinking and identity.
You will find pages for each of the core stages in the cycle of development model and an interactive page which we will use during the on-line session. There are notes on distinctive features of the model and some ideas for how it has been applied in educational work, as well as a reflection sheet to consider individual learners.