Developmentally Appropriate Pedagogy

Teaching, research, training, and coaching that both reflect and contribute to the evolving understanding of intercultural communication are collectively known as developmentally appropriate pedagogy. Grounded in constructivist assumptions about learning, developmental pedagogy is experiential and holistic. As it has evolved, such pedagogy has continued to explore and test intercultural communication’s assumptions, and its evolution, in theory and practice, has accompanied intercultural communication’s increasing focus on outcomes and on the elaboration of training and coaching practices designed to help learners achieve these outcomes.

This entry briefly traces the emergence and evolution of developmental pedagogy, outlines the differences between behaviorist and constructivist assumptions about learning, and identifies common applications of developmental pedagogy in intercultural training and coaching.