Unit 2 Flashcards
Why have developmental theories?
- provide framework for understanding phenomena
- raise crucial questions about human nature
- lead to a better understanding of children
If a kid under 8 months old is grabbing your glasses - according to Piaget what could you do to make them stop?
-put them behind your back
What is object permanence?
!
-mentally represent objects
if an object is covered a baby does not realize it exists
Do babies at 7 months old lack the motivation or reaching skills to retrieve a hidden objects?
-no -Yuko Munakata - placed object under transparent cover - babies reached for the toy = motivation & reaching skills
Do babies from 6-8 months old lack the memory to grab a hidden object? Adele Diamond
*
- as they get older remember for longer seconds - however it does show at 5 seconds (for 8 months old) they seem to forget -&6months old when allowed to reach immediately were successful, 7 months at 2 seconds
- so proves could eb memory or that they do not know it exists?
What are the possible reasons why object permanence happens? Are they correct?
- lack in motivation
- lack in memory skills
- lack in reaching abilities
- simply don’t get that it continues to exist
-proof for memory and existence
b/c they do have reaching skills and motivation
What did Piaget do?
-started field of cognitive development
What did Piaget believe children were? Passive? When do they start?
- no
- active
- little scientists – meaning they test things out, discover and experiment in the world to teach themselves and push their development forward - intrinsically motivated to learn, don’t need rewards
- mentally active from birth
What does constructivist mean to Piaget?
!
- children construct knowledge for themselves in response to experience
- generating hypotheses, performing experiments, and drawing conclusions
What is assimilation?
!
the process by which people translate incoming information into a form that fits concepts they already understand
What is accommodation?
!
the process by which people adapts current knowledge structures in response to new experiences
What is equilibration?
!
the process by which children (or other ppl) balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understand
-3 phases -equilibrium (don’t need to change) -disequilibrium (new info shows understanding is inadequate, confused) -more advanced equilibrium (updated, better understanding)
What is continuity?
- assimilation
- accommodation
- equilibration
What are the qualities of discontinuity?
- intellectual leaps
- qualitative change
- broad applicability
- brief transition periods
- invariant sequence - everyone progresses through the stages the same
To a 5yr old who is naughtier? someone who broke a cookie jar by accident or someone who stole a cookie? at 8?
- someone who broke the jar by accident
- morality as consequence of behaviour at 8 years old the opposite, about intent
Sensorimotor stage?
!
-birth - 2 years
-perceive & explore
-fundamental concepts - space, time, & causality - here & now - intelligence bound by immediate perceptions & actions
-at end can form mental representations & repeat other’s behaviours
-own body –> world around them
-accomplishments –> adapting to enviro & object permanence
gaps = representing the world mentally (vs. sensory)
Preoperational stage?
!
2-7 years
- represent experiences in language & mental imagery (symbolic representation @ 2) - remember experiences for longer
- sophisticated concepts -but can’t perform certain mental operations (ex. centration, until 7)
- egocentrism earlier on until 5
- centration until 7 -conservation is understood 5-8, but 4-5 year olds fail
- wins = symbolic representation, & thinking about objects not present
- gaps = logical rules, reversibility, conservation, centration, egocentrism, classification
Concrete Operational?
!
7-12 years old
- can reason logically about concrete objects and events - cannot think abstractly or generate systematic scientific experiments to test their beliefs
- wins = mental logic, reversibility, conservation, egocentrism, classification
- gaps = lack reasoning about abstract concepts
Formal Operational?
!
- 12+
- think abstractly nd hypotheticals -can perform systematic scientific experiments and draw appropriate conclusions from them -even if they’re different from what they believed before
- wins = can reason about abstract , can do hypotheticals, can test hypotheses logically & with a system
What age is the boy if he can’t take another’s perspective in the three mountains task?
- 2-4?
- 4 year olds can’t do it
- 3-5 when egocdntrism -piaget thought until 7
How old is the boy if he thinks the row of 5 coins spaced is more than the other 5 coins?
- 4-5??
- 2-7
How old is the boy if he fails the volume centration task?
-5-6??
What age if you just started to solve the balance-scale problem?
-7/8
Is the formal operational stage universal?
-no not everybody reaches it
In what ways to children learn best according to Piaget?
-by interacting with the environment, mentally & physically
What are the weaknesses of Piaget?
!
- underestimated cognitive competence
- object permanence timeframe
- understates social world to cognitive development (focusses only on active)
- stage model - it’s more variable than that
- doesn’t describe ‘how’
- accurate descriptions of behaviour may not be accurate to their understanding
When does object permanence start? Piaget and actually
- piaget thought 8 months
- actually 3 months (looking time)
How old is the boy who sees a ball of clay change shape and thinks it has more or less than before? (conservation of solid quantity?)
-6-7??
What are sociocultural theories?
- interpersonal context - cognitive development takes place through interactions between children & other ppl
- acquire what is valued by their culture
- guided participation
Overlap so far - Piaget & his stages - Vygotsky & sociocultural theories
blah
What is guided participation?
more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable individuals to perform the activity at a higher level than they could on their own
-any shared activity
What is social scaffolding?
!
- type of guided participation
- process through which those w/ expertise organize the physical & social environment to help children learn
- temporary framework -task above their level but not too above
- cultural tools like symbols & values etc.
- adjust level of support to fit learner
- breaking something down into smaller parts
- more cognitive
What did Vygotsky think?
- children as social learners intertwined w/ ppl who help them
- specific to time & places (unlike piaget who said stages universal)
- they change gradually -continuous
- w/in broader social environment
- focused on language & thought (together)
What did Vygotsky think of language?
- intertwined w/ thought
- thought is internalized speech that others make to children
- then controlled by own private speech outloud -then controlled by internalized private speech (thought) -underground
- private speech at ages 4-6
When is private speech most evident?
4-6
What age do humans want to start and teach?
1 years old
-can direct someones gaze to something
What is intersubjectivity w/ language? When does it start? What is needed?
mutual understanding that ppl share during communication -effective communication – have to focus on same topic & on each other’s reaction to the information being communicated
- evidence of intersubjectivity at infancy -age 6months
- Joint attention! is needed
Two groups of kids are discussing a new imaginary game in the playground. One group the two kdis are arguing. The other group has agreed on a set of rules. How old is the last group?
- preschool to elementary school age
- (or whoever’s the oldest)
What is Vygostsky’s ideal method for kids to learn?
- jigsaw puzzle
- divide into small groups & focus on a specific topic – at the end new groups are formed and the kids teach the others in the group on what they researched
- had cognitive and motivation benefits -& problem solving -& mutual respect and responsibility
Discontinuous or Continuous
-Vygotsky & piaget?
- piaget = stage/discontinuity
- Vygotsky = continuous, growth
What is cognitive development?
- how we learn, solve problems, understand and use language, explain ourselves, form beliefs
- how cognition changes through development
Who is Jean Piaget?
! = in both readings and slides
- first guy thinking about cognitive development
- 1896-1980
- naturalistic observation w/ his kids
- constructivist
- child as scientist
- active
What are schemas?
- understanding is organized
- ex. our organized understanding/thinking of what constitutes a pet
- ex. Remy w/ Koala’s
What happened with Remy & Mickey Mouse?
- tried to assimilate mickey mouse into her schema of koala’s
- disequilibrium when parents told her no
- then accommodated it as something different than koala
- equilibrium
What are piaget’s stages?
- fundamental stages - during you think qualitatively different about the world at different stages
- sensorimotor satge -0-2 years
- preoperational stage 2-7years
- concrete operations-7-12
- formal operations stage 12+
- all universal - can’t skip a step -gradual, qualitative shift
What is conservation?
understanding that physical properties do not change despite changes in form or appearance
What is centration? Examples?
- part of conservation
- focus on one aspect
- ex. the thinner glass, spaced out pennies, or sharing of the graham crackers
What is reversibility?
-some things that change can be returned to it’s original form
Who can’t understand reversibility?
- kids in preoperational stage
- 2-7 years
What is egocentrism?
inability to see others viewpoints - focus on their own perspective - fail to see the perspectives of others - hard to accommodate to the views of others
What is classification?
have a hard time understanding how things are classified - according to logic - example - flowers is a broader category than yellow flowers
-wouldn’t be able to classify them in that logical way??
At what stage do they understand reversibility, egocentrism, classification, conservation?
Concrete operational stage
A kid can talk to me about going to the doctor but when I asked him about health care he couldn’t explain it. What Piaget stage is he in?
Concrete operational
If I told a kid that hypothetically he could break a glass with a feather & when asked what would happen w/ the glass if I hit it with a feather, he said ‘nothing’ but the next year he said ‘it would break’ what were his ages?
11
then 12
What culture is better at conservation of mass tasks than others? Why?
Mayan
-understand pottery/clay
At what age do kids grow out of egocentrism? Piaget & actual
Piaget - said 7
-seems sooner @ 3-5 - simplified tests, pointing etc.
Who was Lev Vygotsky?
- 1896-1934
- russian - cut off from West -didn’t know Piaget
- he said quantitative experience - gaining more over time
- children as social learners from capable members of culture
When and where does learning through social collaboration take place?
-Zone of Proximal Development
What is the Zone of Proximal Development?
- range of tasks too difficult to do on your own, but which are possible with the help of a skilled other - tasks are too out of reach
- with help, range of tasks grow
- during social interactions -culture - shared goals
Are all scaffolding techniques the same?
No they vary across cultures
-ex. USA & Turkey more verbal -Gestures -Turkey & Guatemala -& touches/gazes -Guatemala & India
What did Vygotsky say was the most important tool for cognitive development?
- language
- gives learners access to others’ knowledge
- private speech & self-directed language help them to learn
What was Vygotsky’s legacy?
!
- emphasis on culture
- role of teaching
- impact on educational setting (lots of scaffolding, structure, breaking projects down)
What were the criticisms of Vygotsky?
- overemphasized language - (scaffolding is different in diff cultures)
- undervalues role of biology
- vague on mechanisms of cognitive change - how
Do Piaget & Vygotsky believe in nature & nurture?
- I think they both believe in both
- but they both focus on nurture & don’t talk about nature too much
Piaget inspired school?
- teachers have hands off approach
- different stations - (for diff stages)
- kids explore
- pretend play - sensory objects
- lots of freedom & choices
- doesn’t try to impose new skills before kids are ready
Vygotsky inspired school?
- teachers aid the students
- break down projects
- teacher assistants, parent volunteers, peer mentors etc.
- jigsaw method - kids teach each other
- assisted discovery –> help learning
- reciprocal teaching –> teach each other (take turns teaching)
- cooperative learning (peers collaborate to common goal) (also jigsaw)
Similarities between Piaget & Vygotsky?
- both focus on child & gives them credit
- children as active learners
Differences btw Piaget & Vygotsky?
- Piagte - learning through self disovery
- Vygotsky - through social collaboration
- piaget - discontinuous
- Vygotsky - continuous
- P - universal processes of development -Vy - development as culturally situated
- Vy - language as key to learning -P language and thoughts as unrelated
