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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Understanding child development: from synapse to society by Utrecht University

4.6
stars
284 ratings

About the Course

In this course, we dive into the topic of child development. You will learn that child development is complex and is influenced by a surprisingly rich number of factors at many different levels of organization. You will see that development can be studied in various domains and at various levels of understanding, from different angles and disciplines. Importantly, you will come to understand that processes within and between the various domains and levels of organization continuously interact to shape development. This implies that understanding development requires taking an interdisciplinary approach. In order to help you organize your thinking about this complexity you will learn more about the developmental systems approach and theories related to that. We will look, amongst other things, at the brain and motor development, cognitive, language and social-emotional development and all the factors that have an influence on development. To illustrate how an interdisciplinary approach helps to understand child development you will see how researchers from various disciplines and backgrounds study child development at Utrecht University. These scientists will give a look in their field of knowledge and their collaboration with colleagues, to illustrate how the theory you will learn translates to practice. In sum, we invite you to follow us on a journey to understand child development from synapse to society!...

Top reviews

RR

Feb 19, 2020

excellent explanation of the subject. But....... not at all easy... if you want to choose this one, you should be ready to spend more time than prescribed... surely...

HAD FUN LEARNING

VN

Mar 17, 2021

This was an amazing time for me learning about child development . Really an eye opener to aquire more knowledge about children , their behavior and just how they see the world .

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1 - 25 of 92 Reviews for Understanding child development: from synapse to society

By Irina S

Apr 4, 2019

The content of the course is very good, however, I highly recommend you not to buy a Certificate. The assignments of this course are graded by peers. That's what happen to me in the end: I did all the assignments on time, but in the end of the course there were no people to check it. As it is recommended in FAQ, I've written in the forum for 3(!) times asking people to grade it. There were about 5(!) moderators, but no one paid attention. Even though I did all the required work, I didn't get the Certificate, that I really need. Your final result basicly depend on other people's mood (not even teachers, just the students). So don't waste you money, just listen to the content.

By GEORGIANNA R

Mar 18, 2019

I was looking to boost up my childcare profile. I learned a great deal of new areas relating to how child development is studied. I would recommend this course to anyone looking to learn more about child development processes.

By Avigail C

May 12, 2020

I completed the course, but it barely scratched the surface and instead focused on introducing topics and showing examples of research that the university is conducting rather than going more in depth. It felt like an advertisement for the university rather than a course with the goal of educating.

By Zahra T

Feb 21, 2020

It was mostly like a encyclopedia! The professor does't teach, It's like he is reading a summery of a textbook very fast.

By Rose F M

Oct 14, 2018

I have absolutely loved this course. Challenging but accessible. Every week has been engaging. I enjoyed the variety of research papers, video lectures and interviews.

By Thomas G

Jun 6, 2020

Challenging but very interesting, well informed, entertaining, and covering for real development "from synapse to society". I thought the title would be too ambitious, or that the aspects of development covered would be too superficially approached considering this ambition. But I was wrong. This is a really good introduction to child development, especially for those who seek to understand it from various disciplinary perspectives, or, to sum it up by using the teacher's own words: understanding how development is influenced "by various factors, at various levels of organization, both within and outside the individual child".

By ratnakar r

Feb 19, 2020

excellent explanation of the subject. But....... not at all easy... if you want to choose this one, you should be ready to spend more time than prescribed... surely...

HAD FUN LEARNING

By Sylvana C v Z

Jan 27, 2020

I had great difficulties following this course, as it lacks of images. It is too much spoken words and it would really have helped if the lessons had more images to explain and show the content. Also I had difficulties following and understanding Dr. Huijber through the course, because of his way of speaking (really dutch-version of english) very annoying :(

By Vernesia n

Mar 18, 2021

This was an amazing time for me learning about child development . Really an eye opener to aquire more knowledge about children , their behavior and just how they see the world .

By Neha K

Oct 7, 2019

Thank you Utrecht University and Coursera ! Its my good luck to study with Dr. Huijding, i would appreciate if he will make another course on child psychology too. This course helped me to see a big picture of child development. Child development cannot be understood in isolation, it is influenced by various factors. I learned so many new facts, terms and theories related to this topic . And now I feel confident that i know right approach to understand child development.

By Gulus G

May 7, 2018

“Development from synapse to society” -reflecting its name very well- fulfilled my expectations. The fact that it combines subjects like the human brain development, media literacy, sociocultural theory, language development and the relationship between emotions and culture provided me with answers to many questions in my mind. This course makes it clear that development cannot be understood without combining researches in several fields of knowledge.

By Natalie G

Feb 28, 2018

The professor gives a lot of detailed information quickly in the lectures and also lets us see interviews with researchers to assist in the learning. We read good papers too throughout the week which are interesting. The difficulty of the course is just right and the knowledge we gain from the course is fantastic. You feel like you are actually learning the information rather than just gaining facts for a quiz.

By Felicity G

Mar 12, 2020

The course led me through the stages of child development and enabled an appreciation of how complex it is. I learned that environment and genetics are intertwined and that it is imperative that we collaborate with experts in other disciplines if we want a deeper understanding of the journey from synapse to society. Thank you Utrecht University for showing us the way.

By Ramila G

May 11, 2020

This course is simply amazing! I enjoyed receiving such complete, interesting, and significant information. All parts of the course are interconnected. Video interviews allow you to plunge into the development of the child completely. These videos are very informative and the work of the University of Utrecht is wonderful.

By Latha K

Jun 1, 2020

The journey of understanding child development though challenging and engaging I enjoyed learning the theories facts,interviews,videos ,research work which were linked with each other.This course was very much informative.

By Tofail A

Sep 27, 2019

Present world is competitive. People don not have time to think about children. This is mostly time demanded to me. I am thankful to be a part of it...

By Eva

Sep 13, 2018

It's a really helpful course to lead you understand develomental psychology.

By Priyanka C

Jun 7, 2020

Systematic content, amazing videos! Very helpful research articles. The assignments are well planned. Very well designed course content. A thank you to all the professors. A great learning experience! Highly recommended.

By jorge e r g

Mar 19, 2019

I think it is an excellent course to understand a little more the development of our children. As a teacher I think it is a foundation to understand and support our students in their training process.

By Ramya R

May 13, 2020

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to this course. It was very well designed and it was informative in easy way..

By Stynke D

Oct 6, 2019

the course was very interesting, and I gain knowledge that I can use in my job as a pediatric Physiotherapist.

By Khadija O A

Aug 17, 2017

It was very interesting and I really enjoyed this course. Thank you very much.

By Sneha C

Jun 7, 2020

It has helped greatly in understanding child development on different levels.

By novayuandini g p

Mar 20, 2019

Amazing course, I learn a lot about child development in the past 6 weeks!

By Ana P S J

Jun 6, 2020

Great course, I´d definitely would take another one from this university