Theories of development 1: piaget

Question 1

Piagets theory

Answer 1

he proposed a constructivist theory of cognitive development
he believed children are active learners who construct their own knowledge through interacting with their own environment. They make hypotheses and test them (like a scientist)

Question 2

4 stages of Piagets cognitive development theory

Answer 2

1- sensorimotor
2 - pre operational
3 - concrete operational
4 - formal operational
to move through the stages they need to organise schemas more and more proficiently. They will want to adapt to their environment
(accommodation and assimilation allow this)

Question 3

Schema

Answer 3

mental representation or set of rules that enable children to interact with their world through defining a particular category of behaviours; they develop through experience and become more complex

Question 4

how do we change our schemas?

2 processes

Answer 4

1 = assimilation - the integration of new input into existing schemas, leading to more consolidated knowledge
2 = accommodation - the adjustment of an existing schema due to new input (this can happen when we want to avoid disequlibrium

Question 5

sensorimotor stage

• age?
• key milestones?

Answer 5

0-2yrs old
infants conquer sensory motor system, but they are v egocentric
milestones:
1 - object permanence - develops at end of 1st year, it enables the development of mental representation
2 - mental representations- building blocks of pretend play and memory. In order to hold it in your mind you have to have a mental pic or idea
3 - self-awareness - infants begin to develop self-recognition eg. know own arms and legs

Question 6

pre-operational

• age?
• key milestones?

Answer 6

2 substages:

1) pre-conceptual substage = 2-4 yrs
- egocentrism reduces - 3 mountains task = inabililty to acknowledge another persons perspective
- able to mentally represent ideas and objects - this enables pretend play
- reduction in animism - the idea that if it moves its alive
2) intuitive thought sub-stage (4-7yrs)
- symbolic thought
- conservation - appearance of objects may change but the number or amount can stay the same (don’t have this skill for liquids and solids yet)
- can systematically order and classify items

Question 7

concrete operational

• age?
• key milestones?

Answer 7

7-12 yrs
children become more flexible and can focus on multiple things at once
1- metacognition begins to develop -ability to think about thinking
2 - children can conserve, classify and categorise in multiple domains eg. number, weight and height using strategies like compensation. They also understand reversibility (if an item changes, the change can be undone = shows mass must’ve remained constant)
compensation = observation that a narrow object needs to be filled more to equal a wider glass.
3- cause-effect relationships more understood
4- thinking is still ‘concrete’ - not abstract eg. can only solve problems based on present objects

Question 8

formal operational

• age
• key milestones

Answer 8

12+yrs
children become able to reason hypothetically (without objects present)
can reason with verbal hypotheses and deduce conclusions from abstract statement

Question 9

Positives about theory?

Answer 9

• gave us 1st insight into childrens minds, developing new methods and encouraging more cog. dev. research
• huge impact on education = child-centred learning
• many findings replicated with new methods

Question 10

Limitations>

Answer 10

stages and ages of memory are not all accurate - Danner and Day - abstract learning can take longer to develop, but also be sped up with training
- some tasks too advanced and not child friendly = could’ve led to underestimation of skills
-the idea that children shouldn’t be taught something before a certain time has been disputed
examples:
-Bower - young infants may have object permanence in some situations (showed surprise when object disapperared)
- Meltzoff and moore - infants could do facial expression after 24 hour delay = can form mental representations
- Hughes - policeman doll study - showed children can pass egocentric tasks earlier when materials are more suited to child (also, Borke modified 3 mountains to a sesame street character and they found it easier)
-conservation can be achieved earlier when the task instructions are simplified -McGarrigle and Donaldson - naughty teddy used = children answered correctly