What do children know about the physical world and understand about their social relationships. These and many other questions motivate the research of our outstanding faculty in this area. This exciting specialization allows a student to become expert in such areas as thinking, problem-solving, language development, argumentation, aggression, moral development, and mathematical and scientific reasoning.
Students can also focus on instructional design and educational technology.
The CDI faculty believe that we can only understand the process of schooling if we understand the child as well as the school's interaction with the child. Students in our doctoral program learn about both, taking courses in Education as well as across campus. One of the wonderful things about studying in this area at the University of Delaware is the abundance of faculty on this campus whose work is concerned with developmental and instructional issues. The atmosphere for students working in the Cognition, Development, and Instruction area is very exciting given the confluence of individuals and programs to which students have ready access. This program is designed to produce researchers who can contribute to our knowledge base about human development, education, and instruction in either a college or university setting or the private and public sectors.