Topic 4 Cognitive development and education

Question 1

Wood et al - the role of tutoring in problem solving

Answer 1

Aim
To see if children responded to tutoring when they had a problem to solve, and to look at how this changed with age.

Participants
30 children from Massachusetts, USA.
Their parents had responded to adverts asking for volunteers.
They were mostly middle or lower class.
An equal number of 3, 4 and 5 year olds with an even number of boys and girls in each group.

Task
Children were tested individually for between 20 minutes and an hour.
The children had to put together a wooden pyramid made up of 21 blocks that interlocked together in 6 layers consisting of 4 blocks each.
The task was designed to be difficult enough that children could understand it, but not complete on their own.

Procedure
1. The child comes in and is seated at a table with the blocks. The child has 5 minutes to play with them without instruction.
2. A tutor would then, using as many standardised instructions as she could (although she could give individual help if necessary) show the child how to put a pair of blocks together. She would then ask the child to do the same.
3. The child then had to try and construct the pyramid. The tutor would try to let the child do it on their own, only giving them demonstrations when needed. The tutor also had to try and keep the child on task in case they stopped.

Result
unassistant act - 3 yr old 10% , 4 yr old 50%, 5 yr old 75%
would reassemble correctly constructed pyramid, not construct incorrectly constructed pyramid – understand before to produce one

Role of tutor
- The youngest children (3 years) needed the most help with the tutor having to show them how to complete the task rather than learning by verbal instruction. They were also the group most likely to require intervention (as go off task and needed the tutor to keep them motivated), but also ignored by the tutor the most.
- The middle age group (4 years) needed the tutor to verbally prompt and correct mistakes they made. The tutor was a verbal prodder and corrector.
- The eldest group (5 years) needed the least help. They were the most independent and only really needed the tutor as a confirmer or checker of constructions as to whether what they were doing was correct. Had a better understanding of the task themselves.

conclusion
key ideas for teachers and tutors to help scaffold effectively: (6)
-Recruitment – keep learners interested in the task.
-Reduction in degrees of freedom – help the learners reduce the number of possible outcomes, as it helps learners see the correct solution quicker.
-Direct maintenance – keep learners motivated by providing them with feedback, and moving them on to the next part of the task once the stage has been accomplished.
-Marking critical features – highlight areas that are important to completing the task or which are incorrect in the learner’s solution
-Frustration control – try to make the task less stressful as having a tutor with them, but also trying to make sure learners are independent.
-Demonstration – model a solution and allow the learner to imitate when needed.

Question 2

piaget - four stages of cognitive development

Answer 2

develope schema : assimilation (take in info), accomodation (change to fit info)
thinking –> language
1. sensorimotor (0-2)
physical sensation + object permanence
2. pre- concrete operational (3-6)
lack conservation + egocentric + role play game
3. concrete operational (7-11)
reasoning ability on physical object + conserve + not egocentric
4. Formal operational (11+)
formal reasoning + argument + abstract thinking

Discovery learning - teacher provide environment child explore independently
stage are invariant
born with reflex (grasp object)

Question 3

Vygotsky - zone of proximal development

Answer 3

development of thinking and its role on learning
cognitive development aries out of social interaction in a guided learning environment
skill reach by more knowledgeable other
language is a procesursor for learning (language –> thinking)
more effective than discovery learning

Question 4

bruner - presenting of information

Answer 4

language is a key tool to develop in stimulating environment

1. enactive (0-1)
   actual object to play
   no internalizaed schema/ representation of object
2. ionic (1-6)
   object represent by picture
3. symbolic (7+)
   word/ formulae represent object

e.g. object – pic in book – word

mko provide interesting / stimulating environment
teacher guide / support learner for themselves

Question 5

mnemonics and level of processing

Answer 5

method of loci - associate location with info
acronyms - take first letter of each word to form word or sentences
rhymes - deeper meaning , learn spelling

shallow processing
- structural - processing how object look
- phonemic - how it sounds
- graphenic - letter in word
- orthographic - shape

deep/ semantic processing
- relating object
- meaning
- importance

memorize practise (LTM)
- maintanence rehersal (repeat)
- elaborate (analyse deeper)
- distinctiveness (ability to tell apart)

Craik and Tulving
recognize 60 words from 180
Structural / visual processing: ‘Is the word in capital letters or small letters?
Phonemic / auditory processing: ‘Does the word rhyme with . . .?’
Semantic processing: ‘Does the word go in this sentence . . . . ?
result
Participants recalled more words that were semantically processed compared to phonemically and visually processed words.
conclusion
Semantically processed words involve elaboration rehearsal and deep processing which results in more accurate recall. Phonemic and visually processed words involve shallow processing and less accurate recall.