Modern Theories of development

Question 1

Piaget (1896-1980)

Answer 1

Cognitive development theory has been the most influential

Developed a stage theory of child development to adulthood

Question 2

The 4 main stages

Answer 2

1. Sensorimotor intelligence: birth-2 years
2. Preoperational thought: age 2-7 years
3. Concrete operations: age 7-11 years
4. Formal operations: age 11-adulthood

Question 3

The stages theory

Answer 3

Each stage contains of many phases which describe the progressions in details

And can only go to the stage through successful completion of the phases

Question 4

Piaget’s cognitive development theory has been the most influential across different domains

Answer 4

such as informing educational policy and practice

Question 5

1. Sensorimotor intelligence

Answer 5

Developed object permanence: knowing that even when something has disappeared from view, it has not necessarily actually disappeared

Question 6

2. Preoperational thought

Answer 6

Children thought is egocentric: understanding the world only from their own perspective and finding it difficult to understand the point of view of another person

Question 7

Criticism of Piaget’s theory

Answer 7

Stage model is too restricted

Overestimate the cognitive ability of adults

Underestimate ability of children

Question 8

Stage model is too restricted

Answer 8

Not necessarily achieve proficiency in each stage at exactly the age that Piaget describe

Question 9

Overestimate the cognitive ability of adults

Answer 9

Not everyone acquires the mathematics skills and uses them in every day life

Question 10

Underestimate ability of children

Answer 10

Children in stage 2 do consider others perspective

Question 11

Vygotsky (1896-1934): Sociocultural theory

Answer 11

Combined the biological nature with the social-historical influences from family, friends and society

Question 12

Sociocultural theory of development (Vygotsky, 1978b)

Answer 12

Children develop as a result of biological determined, but as well as the social interactions

Without contact with other people, we do not progress through the primitive patterns of thinking

Social interaction is the key, we need to interact with others to build on our abilities and skills

Question 13

Vygotsky proposed the concept of scaffolding

Answer 13

Describe how adults and older children try to advance the child’s abilities by correcting their language use (basically teaching them skills)

Question 14

Zone of proximal development

Answer 14

The gap between our pre-existing knowledge and what we can accomplish with helping others

The area where the most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given that allow the child to develop skills they will then use on their own which develop higher mental functions

Question 15

Neo-Piagetian theory

Answer 15

Recent interpretation of Piaget’s theory in an information-processing framework that places greater emphasis on cognitive processes than maturation

Focuses on the cognitive processes

Question 16

Information-processing theory

Answer 16

The likening is human cognition to the working structures of a computer

with input, processing, memory, output, etc.

that helps us conceptualised what is happening in the brain

Question 17

Growth in capacity

that is how well children can use their limited memory capacity

involves four stages

Answer 17

Encoding

Strategies: free up mental capacity,

Automatisation: leads to central conceptual structures

Generalisation

Question 18

In strategies:

Assimilation leads to accommodation

Answer 18

Assimilation: process new information into what we already know (existing knowledge)

Accommodation: revision of older knowledge structures to take account of new information

Question 19

Central conceptual structure

Answer 19

A well-formed mental scheme of a concept like a horse that can be generally applied to all horses and requires a little more assimilation until we experience a zebra for the first time

Question 20

Criticism

Answer 20

Didn’t take into account of biological aspects

Little emphasis on the social or cultural influences of cognition

Question 21

Information-processing theories do offer applications to many educational settings

Answer 21

Helps to explain the difficulties in reading and problem solving tasks is due to the limited memory

Question 22

Evidence for Vygotsky and the ZPD: Freund (1990) asked children to place furniture in particular areas in a dolls house

they were in two different conditions: either play with their mother before they attempt to play by themselves or work on the task by themselves

In other words: one is only allowed to play by themselves, another one has guidance

Answer 22

Found that those who had previously worked with their mother (ZPD) showed the greatest improvement compared with their first attempt at the task

The conclusion being that guided learning within the ZPD led to greater understanding/performance than working alone (discovery learning).