Chapter Six: Off to School

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Chapter SixOff to School
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6.1 Cognitive DevelopmentLearning Objectives

• What are the distinguishing characteristics of
  thought during Piagets concrete-operational and
  formal-operational stages?
• What are some of the limitations of Piagets
  account of thinking during the formal-operational
  stage?
• How do children use strategies to improve
  learning and remembering?
• What is the role of monitoring in successful
  learning and remembering?

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More Sophisticated Thinking

• Piagets Version
• The Concrete-Operational Period
• School-age children can perform mental
  operationsactions that can be performed on
  objects or ideas that have a consistent result
• Thinking is bound to the concrete, here and now.
  Cannot deal effectively with abstract or
  hypothetical

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More Sophisticated Thinking (Cont)

• The Formal Operational Period
• Around 11 years, children can reason abstractly
• Adolescents may use deductive reasoning
• Formal operations children understand that a
  hypothetical situation may not correspond to a
  real-world problem

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Cognitive Development

• Comments on Piagets View
• Adolescents who are in the formal operational
  stage may not always reason at that level
• Adolescents thinking is often egocentric and
  irrational
• Other theorists have pointed out that cognitive
  development continues after reaching the formal
  operational stage, contrary to Piagets
  description

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Information-Processing Strategies for Learning
and Remembering

• Most human thinking takes place in working memory
  where only a small number of thoughts or ideas
  are stored for a short time
• Information may be transferred to long-term
  memory, which is permanent and unlimited in
  capacity

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Memory Strategies

• 7- to 8-year-olds use rehearsal in which they
  repeatedly name the thing to be remembered
• As children mature, they develop strategies that
  are useful for specific situations such as
  organization and elaboration
• Even older children may sometime use an
  ineffective strategy in a situation

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Metacognition

• Monitoring
• Gradually, children learn about their own memory
  processes and begin to evaluate them
• Elementary children can often identify
  information which they have not learned, but do
  not focus their attention on learning it
• Metamemory A childs understanding of memory
• Metacognitive Knowledge Awareness of ones own
  cognitive processes
• Cognitive Self-regulation Selecting strategies
  and monitoring adequately

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Effective learning involves understanding the
goals of task, selecting an appropriate strategy,
and monitoring the effectiveness of the chosen
strategy.
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6.2 Aptitudes for School Learning Objectives

• Why were intelligence tests first developed?
  What are their features?
• How well do intelligence tests work?
• What is the nature of intelligence?
• How and why do test scores vary for different
  racial and ethnic groups?
• How do heredity and environment influence
  intelligence?

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Theories of Intelligence

• Psychometricians are specialists trained in
  psychological measurement in areas such as
  intelligence and personality
• Such professionals administer tests to large
  groups of people to look for common factors that
  may explain abilities

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Theories of Intelligence (Cont)

• Analysis has led to different conclusions about
  intelligence such as
• Spearman claimed intelligence is a general factor
  (g-factor) that affects all aspects of ability
• Thurstone believed that intelligence was actually
  many (7) different and distinct abilities

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The Hierarchical View of Intelligence

• Carroll postulated that intelligence may have
  different levels
• Factor g is the top category, with 8
  subcategories below

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Hierarchical theories of intelligence have
different levels that range from general
intelligence (g) to very specific skills.
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Gardners Multiple Intelligences

• Based on Piaget and information-processing
  theories
• Recognizes 9 types of intelligences
• Emphasizes that development is not simultaneous
  in all areas
• Takes into consideration that the brain has
  different regions that have specific abilities

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9.1 Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences

• Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
  ("number/reasoning smart")
• Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
• Musical intelligence ("music smart")
• Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
• Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
• Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
• Other Intelligence( spiritual, existential and
  moral intelligence) Existential intelligence (the
  capacity to raise and reflect on philosophical
  questions about life, death, and ultimate
  realities)

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Emotional Intelligence

• Daniel Goleman
• The ability to use ones own and others emotions
  effectively for solving problems
• Perceiving emotions accurately
• Regulating ones emotions

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Sternbergs Theory of Successful Intelligence

• How do people achieve personal goals?
• Analytic ability One analyzes problems and comes
  up with solutions
• Creative ability Involves dealing adaptively
  with new situations and problems
• Practical ability Understanding what will work

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Sternbergs Triarchic Theory

• Contextual subtheory(Practical)--this involves
  the ability to grasp, understand and deal with
  everyday tasks
• Experiential subtheory(Creative)-this involves
  insights, synthesis and the ability to react to
  novel situations and stimuli.
• Componential subtheory(Analytical)--this reflects
  how an individual relates to his internal world.
  e.g. as measured by Academic problem solving
  analogies and puzzles,

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Why Intelligent People Fail Sternberg (1986)

• Sternberg (1986) believes that conventional
  intelligence tests tell us little about
  performance in everyday life and suggest a number
  of reasons why so-called intelligent people fail
• lack of motivation
• lack of impulse control
• lack of perseverance
• fear of failure
• procrastination (delay)
• inability to delay gratification (reward)
• too little/too much self-confidence
• Remember Sternberg suggests that if intelligence
  properly defined and measured it MUST translate
  into real-life success (Sternberg, 1986)

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Binet and the Development of Intelligence Testing

• In 1904 the French government asked Alfred Binet
  and Theophile Simon to develop a method for
  identifying children who could not learn in
  traditional ways
• Binet Simon developed a test to measure
  childrens mental age, or the level at which they
  solved problems
• This first intelligence test was believed to
  distinguish between bright and dull children

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The Stanford Binet

• Lewis Terman at Stanford University adapted Binet
  Simons test
• Terman created the intelligence quotient (IQ)
  which compared the mental age to the
  chronological age of children
• IQ MA/CA X 100

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Intelligence Testing

• IQ tests no longer use the MA/CA comparison for
  computation of IQ
• Today, childrens performance on tests are
  compared with data of other children their age
• An IQ of 100 denotes average performance. Above
  100 is above average. Below 100 indicates less
  than average performance

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Contemporary IQ Tests

• The Stanford Binet V- The current (2003) version
  of Binets test
• The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children- 4th
  Edition (WISC-IV)
• The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd
  Edition (K-ABC-II)

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Do Tests Work?

• Two Issues in Evaluating IQ Tests
• Reliability Are the scores on IQ tests
  consistent?
• Studies show scores on modern tests are
  relatively stable when repeatedly administered
• Validity Do IQ tests really measure
  intelligence?
• IQ tests are moderately good predictors of
  performance in school and work

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Increasing Validity With Dynamic Testing

• IQ tests traditionally measure the current level
  of knowledge and certain skills
• Dynamic testing involves direct observation of a
  child learning new material
• Based on Vygotskys concept of the zone of
  proximal development and scaffolding
• Dynamic testing is new and still under evaluation

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Hereditary and Environmental Factors

• IQ scores are affected by both heredity and
  environment
• Heredity influences both IQ scores and changes
  that occur during development
• Adopted childrens IQs where more similar to
  biological parents than adoptive parents
• Environmental influence is seen in the fact that
  childrens IQ scores have risen over the past
  century

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As adopted children get older, their IQ score
becomes more like their biological parents IQ
score.
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The Impact of Interventions

• Studies show Head Start is effective in
  increasing test scores
• Studies of other intervention programs suggest
  that intervention works in increasing IQ scores
  and reading and math levels
• While intervention is expensive, the economic and
  social consequences of poverty and unemployment
  cannot be overlooked

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The Impact of Ethnicity and Social Class

• Studies show differences in scores among ethnic
  groups
• Asian Americans have highest scores, followed by
  European Americans, Hispanic Americans, and
  African Americans
• These differences are impacted by socioeconomic
  status. However, economic disadvantage does not
  fully explain the difference

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A Role for Genetics?

• While differences in IQ scores are observed
  between ethnic groups, heredity does not
  adequately explain these differences
• Most researchers agree that environmental
  influences are major factors in these differences
• The content of tests may reflect the cultural
  bias of the test-makers. Culture-fair
  intelligence tests are constructed to include
  only items that are common to many cultures

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Culture-fair intelligence tests are designed to
minimize the impact of experiences that are
unique to some cultures or to some children
within a culture.
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A Role for Genetics? (Cont)

• Test-taking skills have an impact on test scores.
  Test-taking skills may be different due to
  experience with taking standardized tests, which
  can reflect cultural differences
• Scores on IQ tests are intended to predict
  performance in academic achievement. While they
  are successful to a certain degree, children with
  low scores can be successful in school

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Stereotype Threat

• Belief that a group lacks ability or skill in a
  domain
• Membership in the group
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

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6.3 Special Children, Special NeedsLearning
Objectives

• What are the characteristics of gifted and
  creative children?
• What are the different forms of mental
  retardation?
• What is a learning disability?
• What are the distinguishing features of
  hyperactivity?

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Gifted and Creative Children

• Traditionally, an IQ score of 130 or higher was
  considered gifted
• Today, definitions of giftedness are also likely
  to include talents in art, music, writing, and
  dance
• Exceptional talent seems to partly stem from a
  love of the subject, inspiring instruction from
  an early age, and parents who support and nurture
  a childs talent

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Creativity Is Different from Giftedness

• Creativity is often linked to divergent thinking,
  or thinking in novel or unusual directions
• Intelligence is more often associated with
  convergent thinking in which a specific
  conclusion is drawn from information given

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Children With Mental Retardation

• Mental retardation is defined as substantially
  below-average intelligence and adaptive behavior.
  IQ below 70 on standardized tests
• 25 of mental retardation results from some
  biological or physical problem and is called
  organic mental retardation
• Familial mental retardation includes the lower
  end of the normal range of intelligence

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Types of Mental Retardation

• Four levels of mental retardation
• Mild
• Moderate
• Severe
• Profound
• More extreme forms (severe profound) are
  usually organic

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Learning Disabilities

• A child with a learning disability must have
• Difficulty in one or more academic subject
• Normal intelligence
• The disability is not caused by some other
  condition (e.g., poor instruction, sensory
  deficits)
• Roughly 5 of school-aged children have learning
  disabilities. Reading disability is the most
  common

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Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

• Characteristics include overactivity,
  inattention, and impulsivity
• 3-5 of school-age children are diagnosed with
  ADHD
• Boys outnumber girls by 31
• No evidence ADHD is caused by food allergies,
  sugar, or poor home life
• Strong hereditary and biological components