Which is the correct match?

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Which is the correct match?
How did you solve this problem?
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Todays session
You are learning about... You are learning to...
Piagets concrete operational stage Tests of transitive logic class inclusion Compare and criticise ways of investigating childrens cognition
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The Concrete Operational Stage

• Operations refer to logical thought processes.
  These include
• Conservation
• Reversibility
• Seriation
• Transitivity
• Class inclusion

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Seriation and Transitivity

• Bob is taller than his sister Katie. She is
  taller than their other sister Rachel
• Put these children in order of height
• Bob ? Katie ? Rachel (seriation)
• Is Bob taller or shorter than Rachel?
• Katie is taller than Rachel, Bob is taller than
  Katie therefore Bob is taller than Rachel
  (transitivity)

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What do you think concrete means?
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Which is the odd one out?
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Odd one out

• How did you decide which was the odd one out?
• Why is it that we can have more than one correct
  answer to this problem?

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Class Inclusion

• Piaget Szeminska (1941)
• 20 wooden beads eighteen brown, two white

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• Three questions
• Are the beads all wooden?
• Are there more brown beads or white beads?
• Are there more brown beads or wooden beads?
• What sort of error do you think an 8-year old
  might make on this task? Why?

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Class Inclusion Piaget Szeminska (1941)

• Questions 1 2 require an understanding of two
  separate classes of objects
• Question 3 requires an understanding of
  overlapping and super/subordinate classes (e.g.
  brown beads are also wooden beads)

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Brown beads
White beads
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White beads
Brown beads
Errors in this task suggests the child may still
not be able to decentre they can only think
about one aspect of an object (in this case
class) at a time
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Donaldson (1978)

• Three black and one white cow, all lying down
  sleeping.

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Donaldson (1978)

• 6 year-olds asked
• Are there more black cows or more cows?
• Are there more black cows or more sleeping cows?
• Do you think there was a difference in the number
  of correct responses? Why (not?)

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Question correct responses
Black cows vs. cows 25
Black cows vs. sleeping cows 48
What implication do these findings have for
Piagets account of child development?
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Why do children like playing with Lego?
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Homework

• Look at the Toys R Us website (www.toysrus.co.uk)
  and pick a toy that you think would be suitable
  for a child aged anywhere from 2-11
• Design an advert for the toy, aimed at parents
  interested in pushing their children
• Make sure you explain what cognitive features the
  toy will help develop