Developmental Imagination: Teaching Students to Think Like a Developmentalist

The purpose of the undergraduate lifespan course (often required for psychology, education, and nursing majors) might be to teach students to think like a developmentalist. Students often fail to transfer the vast curriculum to their multiple professional domains. Moreover, students frequently maintain mechanistic assumptions, not grasping the essence of developmental science. Lifespan courses should be taught from a relational developmental systems metatheory to reflect current developmental science. This article explains that need, and offers a pedagogical strategy to build critical thinking and inquiry skills. The goal is to equip students to transfer and apply this knowledge to their diverse professional domains and future lives. Advancing the teaching of developmental science is key to advancing the field. We propose five thinking maxims specific to human development that can be explicitly interwoven in the lifespan curriculum to help students learn to think like a developmentalist. These are: Sensitivities vary; combinations differ; risks and protections interact; effects lag and cascade; and context matters. These maxims are supported by developmental science and can be easily infused in the course (e.g. through lecture slides, assignments) to help students complete the course with a pocket guide to lifespan development that they will carry lifelong.