Wood et al (Topic 4 cognitive dev & education role of tutoring) Flashcards
cognitive development in children
information processing, problem solving, perceptual ability and learning language.
Most cognitive development occurs between birth and adolescence, is linked to how children are educated.
Background: Piaget
Developed universal theory of cognitive development.
Claimed children are born with basic set of abilities.
Knowledge and cognition evolves through a series of stages, changes at each stage are accomplished by a set of cognitive processes. Universal stages= everyone goes through them.
Invariant= everyone goes through in same order.
Piaget also emphasized importance of schemas in cognitive development- ‘schema’= set of linked mental representations of the world which we use to understand & respond to situations. Described as child ages, their schemas become more numerous & elaborate.
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
1- sensorimotor stage 0-2
2- pre-operational stage 2-7
3- concrete operational stage 7-11
4- formal operational stage 11+
Background: Vgotsky
Also interested in how child’s cognition develops.
He believed cultural context had influence on behaviour & learning ( nurture ) opposite to Piaget. Argued concepts, language, attention and memory are functions originating in a given culture, i.e through interacting with people.
Acquired through guided learning & development as child interacts with others.
Claimed children require social interaction to develop higher mental processes.
Zone of proximal development
ZPD is area of cognitive dev a child can reach with help of MKO (more knowledgeable other) with better understanding/ higher ability.
Scaffolding
When working with an older MKO, level & type of support offered is gradually reduced and altered until individual could perform task unaided.
Aim of Wood et al’s research
To see if children responded to ‘tutoring’ when they had a problem to solve, and to look at how this changed with different age groups.
Research method
CONTROLLED OBSERVATION
EVENT SAMPLING- record behaviour as and when it happens.
Lab setting- Artificial environment
No IV
Slightly controlled by researcher
Harvard University.
Ps were observed as they tried to complete building task with intervention and guidance from tutor, ps were observed in individual sessions lasing 20mins - 1 hour.
Sample
-30 children
-All from USA
-mix of middle & lower class
-parents responded to volunteer advert
-Split evenly into 3 groups
-10 x 3 year olds
-10 x 4 year olds
-10 x 5 year olds
-Even number of boys and girls in each group
The pyramid
Tutor given task of teaching children how to build 3D pyramid made of 21 blocks.
Designed to be fun, complex, interesting, within easy reach of every child’s skills.
Had 6 levels with top block being square.
Each layer composed of 4 equal size blocks made of 2 locking pairs, fitted together by hole and peg.
Procedure: start
Child invited to play with blocks for 5 mins, get used to them.
Tutor would take 2 of smallest blocks, demonstrate how to connect, if child had connected alone in ‘free-play’, tutor would say “make some more like that”.
Procedure cont
Tutor (female) used as many standardised instructions as she could, although she could give individual help if necessary, showed child how to put pair of blocks together, then ask child to do same.
Child was left to own devices as much as possible, tutor only intervened when child stopped constructing or struggled.
Tutor first used verbal instruction before mor edirect intervention, success / failure determined tutor’s next level of instruction.
Child responded in 1 of 3 ways to tutor- how did tutor respond to each?
1- If child ignored tutor and continued with play- tutor again presented how to join & position 2 blocks to form correct pair.
2- If child took up blocks tutor had just assembled and manipulated them the tried to assemble pieces for self but overlooked key feature- tutor would verbally draw attention to fact construction was incomplete, e.g if selected pieces themself and put together wrong, tutor would ask to compare to her construction and make similar.
3- If child tried to make something with blocks for construction in way more or less similar to tutor method e.g by putting pegs in hole- tutor would correct any errors.
Scoring system
Was developed based on how successfully child assembled blocks and different types of interventions made by tutor.
All behaviours were categorised.
Inter-rater reliability
94% inter-rater reliability was achieved.
RESULTS
-Took 15 acts of pair constructions to make correct pyramid.
more than 75% of these acts were unassisted for 5 year olds compared to 50% for 4 year olds and 10% for 3 year olds. (older child needs less assistance)
-3 year olds took apart as many as they put together, whereas older children less likely to deconstruct what they assembled, 3 year olds did however mostly reconstruct again without instruction to do so, more likely to reassemble correct constructs, not incorrect ones, showing ability to recognise correct outcomes.
-3 year olds paid little attention to verbal instruction, rejected tutor instruction on 11 occasions (median) compared to 4-5 year olds who always accepted assistance.
-Number of direct interventions drops by half from 3 year olds to 4 year olds then drops half again with 5 year olds.
Differing roles of tutor
3 year olds- attracted them to task, demonstrated and provided tempting material.
4 year olds- verbal prods and corrections used, remind them of task requirements, correct efforts as they seek to carry on.
5 year olds- confirmed and checked constructions, children have more firmly in their minds the nature of task.
Tutor conformity to the rules
In 478 opportunities tutor conformed to pre-set rules/ procedure 86% of the time, majority of her ‘errors’ was with 4 year old by offering more help than rules allowed.
Conclusions
-Increasing age= greater likelihood of task success, and improvement in achievement of more complex aspects of task.
-Level & type of support needed by children differed across age groups in line with tutors changing support with increased ability- example of scaffolding.
Process of ‘scaffolding’ proposed in relation to interventions by tutors
1) Recruitment: get learner interested in task.
2) Reduction in degrees of freedom: simplify task, reduce number of steps needed for completion.
3) Direction maintenance: keep learner motivated despite distractions, encourage.
4) Marking critical features: highlight important features of task, or those incorrect.
5) Frustration control: strategies to make problem-solving less stressful.
6) Demonstration: model correct outcome learner expected to imitate.
Methodological issues
-Briefing child about study difficult because children reason differently to adults.
-Adults may have biased way of behaviour, so collecting and interpreting behaviour difficult.
-Difficult for adult to put mind set in same as child’s.
-Lacks reliability, difficult to replicate and create comparison data as flexible procedure was used to fit child’s responses.
-Strategies to improve learning difficult to measure as all based around abstract concepts- i.e learning, memory cannot be physically observed.
Methodological issues- strengths
Flexible procedure to fit in with child’s responses= more ecologically valid
Ethics
Children not exposed to any physical or emotional distress.
Informed consent important in use of children.
However, when adult is present, may feel obliged to continue even when don’t want to.
Ethnocentrism
Potential bias in interpretation
30 children ages 3-5 all from USA, assume findings might readily be applied to children in other countries, other children may not respond similarly to scaffolding of learning, children of similar ages in different countries may not perform same way as those in this study.
Nature vs Nurture
Idea of collaborative learning- scaffolding of tasks in particular, highlights need for interaction with others to aid learning process (nurture)
Tuto in study interacted with each child on individual basis, considered specific needs to enable learning of how to complete task.
It was found as age increased so did their ease with task completion of constructing pyramid (nature) cognitive abilities develop with maturation and are innate (Piaget suggested).
Piaget stages of development= nature
Vygotsky states help of MKO aids development (nurture).
Although we are born as ‘natural problem solvers’ and our cognitive abilities develop gradually as we age, role of tutor/ expert is important in assisting this process.
Wood found as we age we are able to accept and act upon advice given by tutors; we cognitively advance as result of nature, subsequently nurture becomes more important.
Suggests collaborative learning & scaffolding rely on nature and nurture- tutors interacted with child, and age of children effected construction abilities, suggests nature role.
Free will vs determinism
Supports free will instead of idea our behaviour is controlled, or determined by factors e.g biology. Interaction between children and tutor needed to be individualised as each child responded differently regardless of their age. Therefore age did not determine ability to complete task, other factors such as how co-operative the child wanted to be, or shyness, influences behaviour also.
Psych as a science
Observations are unscientific & open to bias in way behaviour interpreted.
Unscientific as does not establish cause + effect, instead describes nature of interaction between child and tutor.
Does not test a hypothesis nor establish cause and effect relationship between scaffolding & learning, simply was observation describing unique nature of interactions between children and one female tutor qualitatively.
Further experimental research would need to be conducted to establish if social interaction, in particular scaffolding, improves cognitive development in children.
However Wood used multiple observers to reduce bias, increasing inter-rater reliability which improves its scientific status.
Usefulness
Piaget helped encourage schools to provide stimulating learning environments so children can heighten learning through discovery play.
Scaffolding has been greatly influential in educational settings, provides encouragement for tailoring teaching to every students’ individual needs.
