Cognitive Development Flashcards
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
A strength is Piaget’s ideas revolutionised teaching/can be applied to learning…
However…
- in old classrooms (1960’s) children sat copying text but in Piaget’s activity-oriented classrooms children construct their own understanding, E.g. investigate physical properties of sand.
- at A level, discovery learning may be flipped lessons where students read up on content and form their own basic mental representation of the topic prior to learning
- this shows how Piaget inspired approaches may facilitate the development of individuals mental representations of the world (useful)
- however, no firm evidence to suggest his teaching ideas are more efficient than others- input from teacher may be the key. Value of his theory to education may have been overstated (similar to a weakness point)
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
A strength is research support…
- Howe et al put 9-12 year olds in groups to discuss how objects move down a slope
- they found that the level of children’s knowledge and understanding increased after discussion.
-Crucially though, the children reached different conclusions and picked up different facts about movement down a slope - this means that children formed their own individual representations of the topic as Piaget would have predicted
- increases validity
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
A weakness is contradicting evidence…
- there is no firm evidence that children learn better using discovery learning
- in a recent review Lazonder and Harmsen concluded that discovery learning with considerable input from the teacher was most effective way to learn but it seems the input from others and not the discovery learning is the crucial element of this effectiveness
- value of his theory to education may have been overstated
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
A weakness is Piaget underestimated the role of other people
- Piaget saw learning as an individual process (although recognised people be important as sources of information)
- this contrasts with other theories such as Vygotsky’s theory that says individuals help aid learning (as knowledge first exists between the learner and someone with more knowledge) which there is strong evidence to support this
- means Piaget’s theory may be an incomplete explanation for learning as it neglects the role of other people in learning
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
Identify and describe the first stage of Piaget’s stages of development
sensorimotor stage(0-2 years)
- baby’s early focus is on physical sensations and developing some basic physical co-ordination (also develops an understanding other people are separate objects and acquire some basic language)
- develop object permanence at 8 months
-(before 8 months immediately switch attention away from it object when out of sight, after continue to look for it. Suggests understand objects still exist when removed from view)
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
Identify and describe the 2nd stage of Piaget’s stages of development
pre-operational(2-7 years)
- toddler mobile and can use language but still lacks reasoning ability
- haven’t achieved/developed conservation and class inclusion and are egocentric
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
How was conservation tested
- pouring water from wider glass into tall, thin glass
- asking children if the two glasses held the same amount of liquid
- pre-operational said no (as looked different) so unable to to understand quantity remains constant even when appearance of liquid objects changes
(Piaget)
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
How was egocentrism tested
- Three mountains task (Piaget and Inhelder)
- each mountain had a different feature: a cross, a house or snow
- pre-operational children tended to find it difficult to select a picture that showed a view other than their own
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
How was class inclusion tested
- Using a picture of 5 dogs and 2 cats
- “Are there more dogs or animals?”
- pre-operational children tend to respond that there are more dogs (Piaget and Inhelder)
- they cannot simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class and animal class
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
Identify and describe the 3rd stage of Piaget’s stages of development
concrete operations stage (7-11years)
- children have mastered conservation and are improving on egocentrism and class inclusion
- but only able to reason or operate on physical objects in their presence(concrete operations)
- means they struggle to reason about abstract ideas and imagine objects and situations they cannot see
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
Identify and describe the 3rd stage of Piaget’s stages of development
formal operations stage (11+ years)
- abstract reasoning develops: being able to think beyond the here and now. Children can now focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted it’s content.
- E.g. can process syllogisms “All yellow cats have two heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. How many heads does Charlie have?”. The answer is 2 but younger children are distracted by the fact cats don’t have two heads
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
A strength is any research support
-
Sensorimotor / Object permanence:Piaget (1963) allowed children to play with a toy (a ball) which he then covered with a blanket, finding children under 8 months wouldn’t search for the toy but children over 8 months would search for the toy demonstrating the older children realised the ball still existed.
Pre-operational / Egocentrism Piaget and Inhelder (1956) sat children Infront of a model of three mountains each was unique (snowy, with a cross, with a hut) and placed a doll on the opposite side. Found children older than 7 could “decenter” and pick the correct image that showed the dolls view, however younger children could not.
Pre-operational /Beaker conservation task Piaget (1965) water was moved from one of two identical beakers to a thinner and taller beaker, seven year olds failed in conservation, saying there was now more water in the new beaker.
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
A strength is Piaget’s research has significant implications for educational practice
for example there may be little use in role play before children are no longer egocentric, also when to teach different aspects of mathematics is dependant on stage
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
A weakness is Piaget’s conservation research was flawed
- Piaget’s method may have led children to believe that something must’ve changed or why would the researcher change the appearance and then ask them if it was the same
- McGarrigle and Donaldson used a ‘naughty teddy’ who accidentally rearranged the counters
- 72% of the children under 7 said the number remained the same
- this means that children aged 4-6 could conserve, as long as they weren’t put off by the way they were questioned
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
A weakness is class inclusion ability is questioned
- Siegler and Svetina found that when 5-year-olds received feedback that pointed out subsets, they did develop an understanding of class inclusion
- this was contrary to Piaget’s belief that class inclusion wasn’t possible until a child had reached the necessary intellectual development at 7 years of age.
- This again means that Piaget underestimated the cognitive abilities of young children
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
A weakness is the assertions about egocentrism aren’t supported…
However…
- Hughes found that even at 3 and 1/2 years a child could position a boy doll in a model building with two intersecting walls so that the doll couldn’t be seen by a police man doll
- they could do this 90% of the time
- 4 year olds could do this 90% of the time when there were two police officers to hide from
- suggests the manner of Piaget’s studies and tasks led him to underestimate children’s intellectual abilities
however - in all the studies outlined in the limitations, the criticisms relate to the age at which a particular ability appears.
- The sequence of the stages is not challenged and Hughes evidence shows that there is progression
- therefore the core principles of Piaget’s stages remain unchallenged but the methods he used meant the timing of his stages was wrong
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development:
A weakness is not generalisable to everyone/domain general and domain specific…
- Piaget believed that cognitive development is a single process (domain-general) so different abilities develop in a tandem, which is the basis of teaching children in age groups
- however, the existence of learning difficulties such as autism, in which some abilities develop much faster than others/separately, suggests cognitive development is domain-specific
- therefore, it appears that development is best seen as domain-specific which may have implications for education
Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development:
A strength is research support for ZPD…
- Roazzi and Bryant asked one group of 4-5 year old to estimate the number of sweets in a box
- most failed to give a close estimate
- a second group of 4-5 year olds were guided by older (expert) children and then mastered the task
- means that children can develop more advanced reasoning with help from a more expert individual
- increases validity
Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development:
A strength is real world application of Vygotsky’s ideas…
However…
- his ideas have been influential in education in the 21st century (educational techniques such as group work, peer tutoring and individual adult assistance are all based on his ideas. Increasingly used in the 21st century)
- Van Keer and Verhaeghe found that 7 year olds tutored by 10 year olds, in addition to their whole class teaching progressed further in reading than control group who only had class teaching
- this means Vygotsky‘s theory has real-world value in education so is useful
however - in China classes of 50 children learn effectively in lecture-style classrooms with few individual interactions with peers and tutors.
- this means Vygotsky may have overestimated the importance of scaffolding in learning (can also say it doesn’t apply across cultures and so theory is ethnocentric)
