Task 1

Question 1

Developmental theories…

Answer 1

… provide framework for understanding important phenomena
… raise crucial questions about human nature
… lead to a better understanding of children

Question 2

What does Piaget’s theory focus on?

Answer 2

focuses on continuity/discontinuity and the active child

Question 3

What do Information-Processing theories focus on?

Answer 3

focus on mechanisms of change

Question 4

Piaget’s theory

- fundamental assumption

Answer 4

children are mentally active as well as physically active from the moment of birth and their activity greatly contributes to their own development

Question 5

Piaget’s theory

- dominant metaphor

Answer 5

“child as a scientist” –> children learn many important lessons on their own

Question 6

Piaget’s theory

- fundamental assumptions

Answer 6

(1) from birth onwards, children are mentally active as well as physically, activity greatly contributes to own development
(2) learn most important lessons on their own
(3) children are intrinsically motivated to lear and do not need rewards from adults to do so

Question 7

Piaget’s theory

- two basic processes

Answer 7

(1) Organization: tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent schemas
(2) Adaptation: tendency to respond to demands of the environment in ways which meet one’s goals

Question 8

Piaget’s theory: central developmental issues

- nature and nurture

Answer 8

believed that both interact to produce cognitive development

• nurture: experience children encounter
• nature: maturing brain and body; ability to perceive, act, learn from experience; tendency to integrate observations to knowledge

Question 9

Piaget’s theory: central developmental issues

- sources of continuity

Answer 9

(1) Assimilation: interpreting new ideas or experiences to fit existing schemes
(2) Accommodation: changing existing schemes to fit new ideas or experiences
(3) Equilibration: balancing assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding

Question 10

Piaget’s theory: central developmental issues

- sources of discontinuity

Answer 10

(1) Qualitative change: different ages think in qualitatively different ways
(2) Broad applicability: type of thinking characteristic of each stage, influences children’s thinking across diverse topics and contexts
(3) Brief transitions: period in which children are between two stages
(4) Invariant sequence: everyone progresses though stages in same order without skipping any of them

Question 11

Piaget’s theory: stages

- stage 1: sensorimotor stage

Answer 11

Birth - 2 years: intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor abilities

• sensorimotor intelligence develops tremendously
• simple reelles and perceptual abilities as foundation of intelligence
• live largely in here and now -> intelligence is bound to immediate perceptions and actions
• lack of object permanence
• A-not-B error: tendency to reach for hidden objects where they last found them

Question 12

Piaget’s theory: stages

- stage 1 –> substages

Answer 12

(1) Birth - 1st month: Reflexive Schemes
- newborn reflexes
(2) 1 - 4 months: Primary Circular Reactions
- simple motor habits centered around own body
(3) 4 - 8 months: Secondary Circular Reactions
- repeat interesting effects in surroundings
(4) 8 - 12 months: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions
- intentional, goals-directed behavior, object permanence
(5) 12 - 18 months: Tertiary Circular Reactions
- explore properties of objects through novel actions
(6) 18 - 24 months: Mental Representations
- internal depictions of objects or events; differed imitation

Question 13

Piaget’s theory: stages

- stage 2: preoperational stage

Answer 13

2 - 7 years: children become able to represent the world through language, mental imager, and symbolic thought

• language
• memory and imagination (past and future)
• symbolic representations
• animism: child believes objects have feelings
• egocentrism: only own point of view
• centration: focus on single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event to the exclusion of other relevant but less striking features
• no conservation (of: number, mass, liquid, weight)

Question 14

Piaget’s theory: stages

- stage 3: concrete operational stage

Answer 14

7 - 12 years: becoming able to think logically and not just intuitively

• classify concrete objects and understand events influenced by more than one factor
• start reasoning logically
• advanced reasoning limited to concrete situations
• concepts of math, height, etc.
• decentration
• understanding of concepts, but not how they relate to each other

Question 15

Piaget’s theory: stages

- stage 4: formal operational stage

Answer 15

12 years and beyond: think systematically and reason about what might be, as well as what is

• understand politics, ethics, science fiction
• scientific reasoning
• think abstractly and reason hypothetically
• understanding that there are different ways to look at something
• thinks stage is not universal and not all adolescents reach it

Question 16

Piaget’s theory:

- staicase model

Answer 16

• sharp and regular transitions from phase to phase with no overlap
• discontinuous/stepwise change: one phase ends, the next begins
• not constantly developing

Question 17

Piaget’s theory:

- weaknesses

Answer 17

(1) stage transitions: not as consistent
(2) infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget thought
(3) theory underestimates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development
(4) theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children’s thinking and about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth
(5) kids in pre-operational stage: often understand skills from concrete operational phase

Question 18

Vygotsky’s theory:

- views

Answer 18

Children’s nature: kids as social learners; intent on participating in activities that happen to be prevalent in their local setting
Children as Teachers and Learners: inclination to teach and to learn from teaching
Children as Products of Their Culture: processes same in all societies, but content varies greatly
- continuous, quantitative changes
- thought as internalized speech

Question 19

Vygotsky’s theory: central developmental issues

- Intersubjectivity

Answer 19

= mutual understanding that people share during communication

• communication requires focus on same topic, and also on each other’s reaction to whatever is being communicated
• joint attention: social partners intentionally focus on a common referent int he external environment -> increase children’s ability to learn from other people

Question 20

Vygotsky’s theory: central developmental issues

- Social Scaffolding

Answer 20

= process in which more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own

• capable of working at higher levels than without help
• helping children from autobiographical memories

Question 21

Information-Processing Theories

Answer 21

• cognitive growth as continuous, in small increments that occur at different times on difficult tasks
• overlapping-waves theory = at any age, children use multiple strategies and with age and experience, rely increasingly on more advanced strategies
• better way to measure development would be measuring cognitive functions

Question 22

Article - Cognitive Variability (Siegler)

Answer 22

• children’s thinking: highly variable at every level of analysis
• variability in how children develop -> also different types of variability
• little homogeneity -> a lot of variability
  
  • Piaget’s stages impossible; people go back and forth in different strategies; not only one direction