Chapter 12 - Cognitive Development, Middle Childhood

Question 1

Concrete operational stage

Answer 1

Piaget’s middle childhood stage, which extends from about 7 to 11 years. Compared with early childhood, thought is more logical, flexible, and organized.

Question 2

Decentration

Answer 2

Focusing on several aspect of a problem and relating them, rather than centering on just one.

Question 3

Reversibility

Answer 3

The capacity to think through a series of step and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point.

Question 4

Seriation

Answer 4

The ability to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length or weight

Question 5

transitive inference

Answer 5

The ability to seriate mentally, seen in concrete operational children.

Question 6

Cognitive maps

Answer 6

Children’s mental representations of spaces, such as a classroom, school, or neighborhood. Children at the end of middle childhood better grasp the notion of scale, making things proportional to one another.

Question 7

Limitations of concrete operational thought

Answer 7

• works poorly when it comes to things they cannot see directly - abstract ideas.
• does not take into account the gradual acquiring of knowledge - a continuum of acquisition

Question 8

Rehearsal

Answer 8

Repeating information for memory strategy

Question 9

Organization

Answer 9

Grouping related items together

Question 10

ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder)

Answer 10

Involves inattention, impulsivity, and excessive motor activity, resulting in academic and social problems

Question 11

Elaboration

Answer 11

Creating a relationship, or shared meaning, between two or more pieces of information that are not members of the same category.

Question 12

Recursive thought

Answer 12

The ability to view a situation from at least two perspectives - that is, to think simultaneously about what two or more people are thinking, a form of perspective taking.

Question 13

Cognitive self-regulation

Answer 13

The process of continuously monitoring progress toward a goal, checking outcomes, and redirecting unsuccessful efforts.

Question 14

Whole-language approach

Answer 14

An approach in research that argued that from the beginning, children should be exposed to text in its complete form - stories, poems, letters, posters, and lists - so that they can appreciate the communicative function of written language.

Question 15

Phonics approach

Answer 15

An approach in research that argued that children should first be coached on phonics - the basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds. Only after mastering these skills should they get more complex reading material.

Question 16

Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence

Answer 16

Suggested by Sternberg, theory is made up of three broad, interacting intelligences: 1) analytical intelligence, or information processing skills; 2) creative intelligence, the capacity to solve novel problems; and 3) practical intelligence, application of intellectual kills in everyday situations. Intelligent behavior involves balancing all three intelligences to achieve success in life according to one’s personal goal and the requirements of one’s cultural community.

Question 17

Analytical intelligence

Answer 17

• consists of information processing components that underlie all intelligent acts.
• not represented well on intelligence tests.

Question 18

Creative intelligence

Answer 18

• creative, outside-the-box thinking way of approaching problem solving
• application of information processing skills in very effective ways
• usually high performers

Question 19

Practical intelligence

Answer 19

• goal-oriented activity aimed at adapting to, shaping, or selecting environments
• these individuals adapt their thinking to fit with desires and everyday life demands.

Question 20

Theory of multiple intelligences

Answer 20

Suggested by Howard Gardner, this theory defines intelligence in terms of distinct set of processing operations that permit individuals to engage in a wide range of culturally valued activities. Dismissing the idea of general intelligence, Gardner proposes at least eight independent intelligences.

Question 21

List of Gardner’s 8 Intelligences

Answer 21

• Linguistic
• Logio-mathematical
• Musical
• Spatial
• Bodily-kinesthetic
• Naturalist
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal

Question 22

Linguistic intelligence

Answer 22

Sensitivity to osunds, rhythms, and meaning of words and the functions of language

Question 23

Logico-mathematical

Answer 23

Sensitivity to, and capacity to detect, logical or numerical patterns; ability to handle long chains of logical reasoning.

Question 24

Musical

Answer 24

Ability to produce and appreciate pitch, rhythm (or melody), and aesthetic quality of the forms of musical expressiveness

Question 25

Spatial

Answer 25

Ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately, to perform transformations on those perceptions, and to re-create aspects of visual experience in the absence of relevant stimuli.

Question 26

Bodily-kinesthetic

Answer 26

Ability to use the body skillfully for expressive as well a goal-directed purposes; ability to handle objects skillfully.

Question 27

Naturalist

Answer 27

Ability to recognize and classify all varieties of animals, minerals, and plants.

Question 28

Interpersonal

Answer 28

ability to detect and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and intentions of others.

Question 29

Intrapersonal

Answer 29

Ability to discriminate complex inner feelings and to use them to guide one’s own behavior; knowledge of one’s own strengths, weaknesses, desires, and intelligences.

Question 30

Flynn effect

Answer 30

IQs have increased steadily from one generation to the next

Question 31

Stereotype anxiety

Answer 31

The fear of being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype - can trigger anxiety that interferes with performance.

Question 32

Dynamic assessment

Answer 32

An innovation consistent with Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, the adult introduces purposeful teaching into the testing situation to find out what the child can attain with social support.

Question 33

Metalinguistic awareness

Answer 33

The ability to think about language as a system

Question 34

Traditional classrooms

Answer 34

The teacher is the sole authority for knowledge, rules, and decision making and does most of the talking. Student are relatively passive - listening, responding when called on, and completing teacher-assigned tasks. Their progress is evaluated by how well they keep pace with a uniform set of standards for their grade.

Question 35

Constructivist classroom

Answer 35

Encourages students to construct their own knowledge. Although constructivist approaches vary, many are grounded in Piaget’ theory, which views children as active agent who reflect on and coordinate their own thoughts, rather than absorbing those of others. A glance inside a constructivist classroom reveals richly equipped learning centers, small groups, and individuals solving self-chosen problems, and a teacher who guides and supports in response to children’s needs. Student are evaluated by considering their progress in relation to their own prior development.

Question 36

Social-constructivist classroom

Answer 36

Children participate in a wide range of challenging activities with teacher and peers, with whom they jointly construct understandings. As children appropriate (take for themselves) the knowledge and strategies generated through working together, they become competent, contributing members of their classroom community and advance in cognitive and social development.

Question 37

Reciprocal learning

Answer 37

A teacher and two to four students form a cooperative group and take turns leading dialogues on the content of a text passage. Within the dialogues, group members apply four cognitive strategies: questioning, summarizing, clarifying, and predicting.

Question 38

Communities of learners

Answer 38

Classrooms where teachers guide the overall process of learning, but no other distinction is made between adult and child contributors. All participate in joint endeavors and have the authority to define and resolve problems.

Question 39

Educational self-fulfilling prophecies

Answer 39

When children adopt teachers’ positive or negative views and start to live up to them.

Question 40

Cooperative learning

Answer 40

When small groups of classmates work toward common goals - by considering one another’s ideas, appropriately challenging one another, providing sufficient explanations to correct misunderstandings, and resolving differences of opinion on the basis of reasons and evidence.

Question 41

Inclusive classrooms

Answer 41

When students with learning difficulties learn alongside typical students in the regular educational setting for part or all of the school day - a practice designed to prepare them for participation in society and to combat prejudices against individuals with disabilities.

Question 42

Learning disabilities

Answer 42

Had by 5-10 percent of school-age children, when they have a great difficulty with one or more aspects of learning, usually reading. as a result, their achievement is considerably behind what would be expected on the basis of their IQ

Question 43

Gifted

Answer 43

Children who display exceptional intellectual strengths.

Question 44

Creativity

Answer 44

The ability to produce work that is original yet appropriate, something that others have not thought of that is useful in some way. A component of a “gifted” child

Question 45

Divergent thinking

Answer 45

The generation of multiple and unusual possibilities when faced with a task or problem

Question 46

Convergent thinking

Answer 46

Contrasted sharply with divergent thinking, this sort of thinking emphasizes involving arriving at a single correct answer and is emphasized on intelligence tests.

Question 47

Talent

Answer 47

Outstanding performance in a specific field.