7Cognitive Developmental Approaches

1
7Cognitive Developmental Approaches

• Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development
• Applying and Evaluating Piagets Theory
• Vygotskys Theory of Cognitive Development
• Summary

2
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Piagets theory is a general, unifying story of
  how biology and experience sculpt cognitive
  development.
• Adaptation involves adjusting to new
  environmental demands.
• Piaget stressed that children actively construct
  their own cognitive worlds.

3
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Processes of Development
• Schemes Actions or mental representations that
  organize knowledge.
• Behavioral schemes characterize infancy.
• Mental schemes develop in childhood.
• Two processes are responsible for how children
  use and adapt their schemes
• Assimilation Incorporating new information
  into existing schemes.
• Accommodation Adjusting schemes to fit new
  information and experiences.

4
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• To make sense out of their world, children
  cognitively organize their experiences.
• Organization Piagets concept of grouping
  isolated behaviors into a higher-order, more
  smoothly functioning cognitive system the
  grouping or arranging of items into categories.
• Equilibration A mechanism to explain how
  children shift from one stage of thought to the
  next. The shift occurs as children experience
  cognitive conflict or disequilibrium in trying to
  understand the world.

5
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive
  development sensorimotor, preoperational,
  concrete operational, and formal operational.
• Sensorimotor Stage (birth to about 2 years of
  age) Infants construct an understanding of the
  world by coordinating sensory experiences with
  physical, motoric actions. There are six
  substages
• Simple reflexesPiagets first sensorimotor
  substage corresponds to the first month after
  birth. The basic means of coordinating sensation
  and action is through reflexive behaviors, such
  as rooting and sucking, which infants have at
  birth.

6
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Piagets Four Stages of Cognitive Development

7
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (continued)
• First habits and primary circular reactionsthe
  infant coordinates sensation with habits and
  primary circular reactions. (1 to 4 months of
  age)
• Habit A scheme based on a reflex that has become
  completely separated from its eliciting stimulus.

8
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (continued)
• Internalizations of schemes
• infants mental functioning shifts from a purely
  sensorimotor plane to a symbolic plane, and they
  develop the ability to use primitive symbols.
• Symbol An internalized sensory image or word
  that represents an event.

9
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (continued)
• Object Permanence The Piagetian term for one of
  the infants most important accomplishments
  understanding that objects and events continue to
  exist even when they cannot directly be seen,
  heard, or touched.
• Understanding of Causality Piaget was very
  interested in infants knowledge of cause and
  effect.

10
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Using the Violation of Expectations Method to
  Study Object Permanence in Infants

11
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• The Infants Understanding of Causality

12
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Evaluating Piagets Sensorimotor Stage
• Researchers believe that infants see objects as
  bounded, unitary, solid, and separate from their
  background, possibly at birth or shortly
  thereafter, but definitely by 3 to 4 months of
  age.
• The data do not always support Piagets claim
  that certain processes are crucial in stage
  transitions.
• A-not-B error The mistake made by infants of
  selecting a familiar hiding place (A) rather than
  a new hiding place (B) as they progress into the
  fourth substage, does not show up consistently.

13
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Evaluating Piagets Sensorimotor Stage
  (continued)
• Researchers believe that Piaget wasnt specific
  enough about how infants learn about their world
  and that infants are more competent than Piaget
  thought.

14
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• The preoperational stage stretches from
  approximately 2 to 7 years of age. It is a time
  when children begin to represent the world with
  words, images, and drawings. Stable concepts are
  formed, mental reasoning emerges, egocentrism
  begins strongly then weakens, and magical beliefs
  are constructed.
• Operations Internalized actions that allow
  children to do mentally what before they could
  only do physically.
• Preoperational Thought

15
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Preoperational Thought (continued)
• Symbolic Function Substage
• The first substage of preoperational thought,
  occurring roughly between the ages of 2 and 4. In
  this substage, the young child gains the ability
  to represent mentally an object that is not
  present.
• Egocentrism The inability to distinguish between
  ones own and someone elses perspective.
• The Three Mountains Task was used to study
  egocentrism.

16
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• The Three Mountains Task

17
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Symbolic Function Substage (continued)
• Animism A facet of preoperational thought, the
  belief that inanimate objects have lifelike
  qualities and are capable of action.

18
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Preoperational Thought (continued)
• Intuitive Thought Substage
• The second substage of preoperational thought,
  occurring approximately between 4 and 7 years of
  age. Children begin to use primitive reasoning
  and want to know the answers to all sorts of
  questions.
• Centration The centering of attention on one
  characteristic to the exclusion of all others.
• Conservation The awareness that altering an
  objects or substances appearance does not
  change its basic properties.

19
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Some Dimensions for Conservation Number, Matter,
  and Length

20
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Concrete Operational Thought
• In this stage, which lasts approximately from 7
  to 11 years of age, logical reasoning replaces
  intuitive reasoning as long as the reasoning can
  be applied to specific or concrete examples.
• Concrete operations Reversible mental actions on
  real, concrete objects.

21
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Concrete Operational Thought (continued)
• Conservation involves recognizing that the
  length, number, mass, quantity, area, weight, and
  volume of objects and substances are not changed
  by transformations that merely alter their
  appearance.

22
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Concrete Operational Thought (continued)
• Classification
• Concrete operational children can divide things
  into sets and subsets and understand their
  relationship.
• Seriation Ordering stimuli along a quantitative
  dimension (such as length).
• Transitivity The ability to reason about and
  logically combine relationships.

23
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Formal Operational Thought
• Adolescents thought becomes more abstract,
  logical, and idealistic between 11 and 15 years
  of age.
• Formal operational thought is more abstract than
  a childs thinking it is full of idealism and
  possibilities.
• Hypothetical-deductive reasoning The
  adolescents cognitive ability to develop
  hypotheses about ways to solve problems and
  systematically deduce which is the best path to
  follow in solving the problem.

24
Applying and Evaluating Piagets Theory

• Piaget and Education
• Piaget provided a sound conceptual framework from
  which to view learning and education.
• Take a constructivist approach.
• Facilitate rather than direct learning.
• Consider the childs knowledge and level of
  thinking.
• Use ongoing assessment.
• Promote the students intellectual health.
• Turn the classroom into a setting of exploration
  and discovery.

25
Applying and Evaluating Piagets Theory

• Evaluating Piagets Theory Contributions
• Children are active, constructive thinkers.
• His careful observations of children
  demonstrated inventive ways to discover how they
  act on and adapt to their world.
• Children need to make their experiences fit
  their schemes and simultaneously adapt their
  schemes to experience.
• Cognitive change is likely to occur if the
  context is structured to allow gradual movement
  to the next higher level.

26
Applying and Evaluating Piagets Theory

• Evaluating Piagets Theory Criticisms
• Some cognitive abilities emerge earlier than
  Piaget thought others may appear later.
• Some concrete operational concepts do not appear
  in synchrony.
• Some children who are at one cognitive stage can
  be trained to reason at a higher cognitive stage.
• Culture and education exert stronger influences
  on childrens development than Piaget believed.

27
Applying and Evaluating Piagets Theory

• Evaluating Piagets Theory (continued)
• Neo-Piagetians
• Emphasize how children use attention, memory, and
  strategies to process information
• A more accurate portrayal of childrens thinking
  requires attention to childrens strategies, the
  speed at which they process information, the
  particular task involved, and the division of
  problems into smaller, more precise steps.

28
Vygotskys Theory of Cognitive Development

• The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
• Vgotskys term for the range of tasks that are
  too difficult for children to master alone but
  that can be mastered with the guidance and
  assistance of adults or more-skilled children.

29
Vygotskys Theory of Cognitive Development

• Scaffolding
• Changing the level of support over the course of
  a teaching session in which a more-skilled
  individual (teacher or more advanced peer of the
  child) adjusts the amount of guidance to fit the
  childs current performance.

30
Vygotskys Theory of Cognitive Development

• Language and Thought
• Vygotsky (1962) believed that young children use
  language not only for social communication but
  also to plan, guide, and monitor their behavior
  in a self-regulatory fashion.
• Private speech, an important tool of thought
  during the early childhood years, represents an
  early transition in becoming more socially
  communicative (Piaget considered private speech
  to be egocentric and immatureresearch supports
  Vygotskys view).

31
Vygotskys Theory of Cognitive Development

• Evaluating Vygotskys Theory
• Vygotskys Social Constructivist Approach
  Emphasizes the social contexts of learning and
  the construction of knowledge through social
  interaction.
• Vygotsky emphasized collaboration, social
  interaction, and sociocultural activity.
• The end point of cognitive development differs
  depending on which skills are most valued by the
  culture.
• Piaget emphasized childrens need to explore
  their world Vygotsky felt that students need
  many opportunities to learn with a more-skilled
  person.

32
Vygotskys Theory of Cognitive Development

• Evaluating Vygotskys Theory Criticisms
• He overemphasized the role of language in
  thinking.
• His emphasis on collaboration and guidance has
  potential pitfalls.