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SUBJECT CODE : ECG 222 SUBJECT TITLE : Child Growth & Development PROGRAMME : BACHELOR OF EDUCATION STUDENT’S NAME : ESTHER PONMALAR A/P R.JEYASINGAM MATRIC NO. : E 30103120065 ACADEMIC FACILITATOR : MDM ONG SIU GEK 1 ASSIGNMENT JANUARY 2013

Ecg 222 Child Development Esther Ponmalar Jeyasingam e30103120065

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Page 1: Ecg 222 Child Development Esther Ponmalar Jeyasingam e30103120065

SUBJECT CODE : ECG 222

SUBJECT TITLE : Child Growth & Development

PROGRAMME : BACHELOR OF EDUCATION

STUDENT’S NAME : ESTHER PONMALAR A/P R.JEYASINGAM

MATRIC NO. : E 30103120065

ACADEMIC

FACILITATOR

: MDM ONG SIU GEK

LEARNING CENTRE : AeU JOHOR BAHRU

A) Introduction

1

ASSIGNMENT

JANUARY 2013

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i) A Brief Description Of The Children

In order to get to know the children for my task on Piaget’s conservation, I had come up

with a simple information questionnaire for the parents to fill. This is for my information,

in order to get to know the child better. It will also be easy when I conduct the task on the

two children.

Student Information Questionnaire

Please take a few minutes to answer these important questions. Please return the questionnaire by 18th February, Monday 2013

Child’s Full Name: KISHAN KUMAR NAIR A/L NAVIN KUMAR

Name for School: TADIKA SERI MERCU, TAMAN SUTERA

Birth Date: 31 OGOS 2013 4 years 4 months

Siblings and Ages: 1. ROSHAN KUMAR NAIR 8 years 8 months

2. TANIA NAIR 6 years 2 months

3. TANISHA NAIR 1 year 3 months

Does your child have any physical/health problems? No

What types of activities does your child enjoy? Drawing and Cycling

What do you consider to be your child’s strengths?

Ability to look after his younger sister.

What do you consider to be your child's weaknesses?

Watching television and love for sweet things

How would you describe your child’s attitude toward school?

He loves and looks forward going to school

Please describe your child's homework routine. (Where, when, how) He does his homework at home with the guidance of his father or mother. Does his homework in the afternoon between 4.00-5.30 pm

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Student Information Questionnaire

Please take a few minutes to answer these important questions. Please return the questionnaire by 18th February, Monday 2013

Child’s Full Name: TANIA NAIR A/L NAVIN KUMAR

Name for School: S K TAMAN SUTERA, JOHOR BAHRU

Birth Date: 2 NOVEMBER 2006 6 years 2 months

Siblings and Ages: 1. ROSHAN KUMAR NAIR 8 years 8 months

2. KISHAN KUMAR NAIR 4 years 4 months

3. TANISHA NAIR 1 year 3 months

Does your child have any physical/health problems? No

What types of activities does your child enjoy? Reading, Drawing, Colouring

What do you consider to be your child’s strengths? Helping simple chores

around the house, responsibility, caring and loving to her younger siblings.

What do you consider to be your child's weaknesses? Talking confidently

How would you describe your child’s attitude toward school?

She loves and looks forward going to school

Please describe your child's homework routine. (Where, when, how)

She does her homework at home by herself. She only asks help from her parents when she

cannot do it. Does her homework in the afternoon between 4.00-5.30 pm

ii) Preoperational Level

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“The principle of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are

capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.”

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget’s prominent work is, his theory on the four stages of cognitive development.

The Preoperational stage is the second of the four stages of cognitive development.

Cognitive Development Stages

Stage Age Description

Preoperational 2-6 or 7 Self-oriented, Egocentric

The preoperational stage is the period between toddlerhood (18-24months) and early

childhood (7 years). Much of Piaget's focus at this

stage of development is focused on what children could

not yet do.

The Preoperational child lacks the concept of

conservation. As shown in Figure 1, a child is

presented with two rows of coins that contain the same

number of coins. While one row is lengthened without

any change in the number of coins, the Preoperational child Figure 1

states that the rows are not the same. The appearance of the objects gives the wrong impression

about them. The child’s decisions are dominated by its perceptions.

The following information of preoperational stage is a summary from Piaget (1973, p. 36).

The child in the preoperational stage is not yet able to think logically. With the acquisition of

language, the child is able to represent the world through mental images and symbols, but in

this stage, these symbols depend on his own perception and his intuition. The preoperational

child is completely egocentric. Although he is beginning to take greater interest in objects and

people around him, he sees them from only one point of view: his own. This stage may be the

age of curiosity; pre-schoolers are always questioning and investigating new things. Since they

know the world only from their limited experience, they make up explanations when they don’t

have one.

iii) Concrete Operational Level

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The third stage of Jean Piaget’s cognitive development is the concrete operational.

Cognitive Development Stages

Stage Age Description

Concrete Operational 6 or 7 – 11 or 12 More than 1 view point

No abstract problems

Consider some outcomes

The Concrete Operational stage is between the ages of 7 and 11 years. During this time,

children gain a better understanding of mental operations. Children begin to thinking logically

about concrete events, but have difficulty in understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.

The important processes during this stage are: decentring, reversibility, conservation,

serialisation, classification and elimination of egocentrism.

The following information of concrete operations is a summary from Piaget (1973, p. 36).

The primary characteristic of concrete operational thought is its reversibility. The child can

mentally reverse the direction of his or her thought. A child knows that something that he can

add, he can also subtract. He or she can trace her route to school and then follow it back home.

Conservation is another of the concrete operational stage. Piaget defines conservation as the

ability to see that objects or quantities remain the same despite a change in their physical

appearance.

Let’s look at an example in Figure 2. Two glasses are sitting on the table.  The glasses are

equal in size and shape.  Both glasses are filled with the same amount of water. One of the

glasses of water is poured into a taller, glass making the water level rise in the tall glass. The

Concrete-Operational student can reason out the

situation, even though the taller glass shows a

higher water level. The ability to mentally picture

an action being carried out in reverse is essential

and to imagine the water being poured back into

the original beaker and knowing it is the same

volume.

Figure 2

iv) Goals Review

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Piaget's most famous task was presented to Tania aged 7 and Kishan age 5. These two children

are siblings from my school. Tania is in 1 Dinamik and Kishan is in the school kindergarten.  I

called and asked the mother if I could come and speak with each of them individually (but with

her present) for a university assignment. I conducted the task on Kishan first and then on Tania.

I used the coins, water and plastisin task with both the children.

This task or assignment started from the 19th of February till the 21st of February 2013. A

period of 3 days of recording was done with these two children. Due to their tight schedule and

school, I manage to record Piaget’s task with them. At first, I was very nervous and

apprehensive because I had no knowledge of recording on the ipad,. After Day 1, the recording

became much easier to handle and the children were more at ease with me.

The Question: Is there a difference between a preoperational child and a concrete-operational

child.

The Hypothesis: There is a difference in the way the children reason about the questions. 

TASK 1: NUMBER CONSERVATION

Kishan: The other task is on visual representation, where Kishan age 5 misunderstands "less

than" or "more than". When two rows containing equal amount of coins placed in front of him

and one row was spread farther apart than the other, Kishan thought that the row spread farther

contained more coins. Children in the preoperational stage lack this logic.

Interpretation: Initially, Kishan knew these two rows had same number. He did not realize

these two rows are still the same number even though it has been moved. He was confused and

did not have the ability to understand this task. A pre-operational child, like Kishan, lacks the

understanding that things look different and can change while still maintaining the same

properties they see what they see, with little ability to infer the meaning behind what they see.

  Tania: Showing to Tania age 7 the two rows of coins and moving the coins by lengthening it.

Tania immediately could understand that it still had the same number of coins in both the rows.

Interpretation: Being a concrete-operational child I notice she could immediately deduce

that the two rows of coins were the same. Even with the slight shifting of the coins, she

counted it and knew that row 1 and row 2 had the same amount of coins.

TASK 2: LIQUID CONSERVATION

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Kishan: Two identical beakers containing the same amount of liquid were presented to Kishen

aged 5, Figure 3. He noticed that the beakers had the same amount of liquid. When one of the

beakers was poured into a taller and thinner container, Kishan who is 5 years old said that the

two beakers no longer contain the same amount of liquid, and the taller beaker holds the larger

quantity. He simply focused on the height and width of the beaker compared to the general

concept.

Interpretation:   When I was conducting this task, I

can see how the child without the ability to

connect and reverse the events thinks the wider

beaker had less water. Kishan’s reference to the

height of the water indicates concept

of irreversibility was a new one for him. The same

beaker situation, Kishan did not realize that the

water can be poured from one beaker to another

and still be the same amount of water. Figure 3

Tania When I showed Tania aged 7 the two beakers, she agreed that they had equal amounts of

water. Then I poured the water into a tall thin beaker. Tania felt that the tall container had the

same amount as the beaker. When I asked for her reason "why" they had the same, she said,

"Well, they still fill up the same."

Interpretation: Tania age 7, a concrete -operational child answered correctly. In this task I

notice that she knew both beakers had the same amount of water and even when poured into

the taller beaker, she knew it held the same amount

of water. She could understand that when water is

poured into a different shaped beaker, the quantity

of liquid remains the same, even though its

appearance had changed. She also had the ability to

connect and reverse the task

Figure 4

TASK 3: MASS CONSERVATION

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Kishan: I got out the plasticene and tried to make two equal pieces. Kishan agreed that they

had the same amount in each. I squashed one down flat. I asked him first if they had the same

amount in each and he said no. When asked why he thought that the one that was squashed

down was smaller.

Interpretation: He seemed to be focusing on the size of

the plasticene. I was expecting this response, but I was

surprised at which one he said had less. I guess that from

my vantage point higher up it looked like the flattened

one had more, but from his view, it looked again like the

round one had less. He had watched me squash the

plastisin, but he was focused on the transformation of the

plastisin. He also depended on his visual skills to make

the judgment. He did not use logic to answer the

questions. Figure 5

Tania  I did the plastisin task on Tania. She was more involved in getting the task set up,

because she wanted to roll the clay into balls. She agreed that both balls of plastisin were the

same amount. When I flatten the second one and asked her if they had the same amount in

them, she said, “Yes” I asked her why she thought this was so. She immediately took the

flatten plastisin and made it back into a round ball, and she said “see they are the same, only

different shape.”

Interpretation: I was really surprised at this outcome because I had expected her to think like

a preoperational child. I thought that she was just starting to understand the concepts

of centration and irreversibility and would not be able to do it.

Figure 6

Summary on the Conservation Task

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Based on the answers provided by these children, the Hypothesis of “difference" is accepted.

There appears a minor difference in the reasoning. There is a difference between a pre-

operational child and a concrete operational child. A concrete operational child becomes less

egocentric but able to think reversibly. They use logic to complete their tasks; whereas, a

preoperational child bases their thoughts and ideas on the appearance of the objects. Piaget

proposes that children around the age of 7 years start to make the transition to Concrete

Operational Thought, where they rely on logic more than perception. This transition allows

them to understand the concept of conservation.

Basically, the difference between the concrete-operational stages is when the child is able to

complete the tasks that they were unable to complete in the preoperational stage. 

This concept of conservation is something I had never even thought of doing. It is just

something I think people take for granted, how their minds work. It was interesting to have

done the reading and watch them come up with their answers because of the issue

of irreversibility and centration and static thought. 

B) Data analysis and Collection

i) Explanation on the Task

Piaget had 7 Conservation task. In this assignment we were asked to do 3 of that task. They

were as follows;

1. Number Conservation

2. Liquid Conservation

3. Mass Conservation

Number Conservation

Material:

14 pieces of fifty cents coin

Method:

Arrange two rows of coins in front of the child, as shown in Figure 7, two rows of fifty

cents each. Test for conservation of number and reasoning. Ask the child if he or she knows

that the first row has more coins, the second row has more coins, or if the rows have the

same number of coins. Record the child’s response.

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Figure 7

Now spread only the second row of coins evenly, as shown in Figure 8, with a couple of

inches between each coin. Once spread the coins out, ask the child if the first row has more

coins, if the second row has more coins, or if the rows have the same number of coins.

Record the child’s response. Ask the child to explain his or her decision. Repeat steps 1–2

with each child.

Figure 8

Liquid Conservation

Material:

2 cups of the same size

1 long funnel class

Coloured water

Method:

In a jug of water put some liquid colouring. Set up and fill the glasses, as shown in Figure

9. Use the measuring cup to add equal amounts of water from the jug to both of the same-

sized water cups.

Think about what you want to say to the child. You need to say the same thing to each

child. Write down a script to help you remember.

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Invite one of child to the table. Ask the child to look at the cups in front of him or her. Ask

the child if he or she thinks that the amount of liquid in the two cups, cup A and cup B, is

the same. Record the child’s response.

Figure 9

Now say that you are going to pour the liquid from one of the cups, cup A, into the long

funnel, Figure 10. Carefully pour all of the liquid from the cup into the funnel, in front of

the child. Move cup B to the side and place the funnel next to cup B.

Now ask the child if he or she thinks that the funnel has more liquid, if cup B has more

liquid, or if both have the same amount of liquid. Record the child’s response. Ask the child

to explain his or her answer. Repeat steps 1 – 5 with each child.

Figure 10

Mass Conservation

Material:

Plastisin

Method:

Shape the plasticene into two same size of ball shape, Figure 11. Ask the child whether the

ball is of the same size.

Then, flattened one of the ball Figure 12. Ask the child, which is more, the ball or the flat

shape. Record the child’s response. Ask the child to explain his or her answer.

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Figure 11

Figure 12

ii) Sample of the Recorded conversation

Task 1 Number Conservation

The researcher shows the children two rows of coins. The child agrees that two rows have the

same number of coins. The researcher increases the length of the coins by having some space

in between the coins, in the second row. The researcher asks whether each row is still has the

same amount of coins. This task was carried out on both these children separately.

Researcher: What‘s your name?Kishan: My name is Kishan. Researcher: How old are you?Kishan: I am 5 years old.Researcher: Kishan, does this row has more coins or this row has more coins or are they the

same?Kishan: starts counting and says, they are the same. There are 7.

The researcher creates space between the coins and asks the child again.

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Researcher: Does this row have more coins or this row has more coins or are they the same?Kishan: points to the second row and says, this row has more coins (the row that has

been stretched out)Researcher: Why?Kishan: it is more like long and bigger.

The task is than repeated to Tania, aged 7 with the same set of questions.

Researcher: Does this row have more coins or this row has more coins or are they the same?Tania: The same

When the researcher stretches the coins and asks her again.

Researcher: Are the number of coins the same?Tania: Yes the same.Researcher: Why?Tania: I counted the coins, there are 7 here and 7 here.

Task 2 Liquid Conservation

The researcher fills two glasses of the same size and shape to the same level of water. The child agrees each glass has the same amount of water. Next, the researcher pours the water into a taller glass and asks the child is it the same amount of water or more. This task was carried out on both these children separately.

Researcher: I have 2 cups here with water and is there more in this one or this one or do you think they are the same.

Kishan: Same

Then, the researcher pours the glass of water from one of the glasses into a taller glass.

Researcher: How about if I pour the juice into this glass. Now do you think this one has

more or this one has more or are they the same.

Kishan: (points to the taller glass and says) this one has more.

Researcher: Why do you think that this is more?

Kishan: Because it is higher than this one.

Researcher: Now what happens if I pour it back here (pour back into its original glass)

Kishan: They are the same.

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At this point, he opened his eyes wider and just couldn’t fathom the task that he had just done.

He asked me to do it again; he still could not comprehend it and tells me it’s like magic.

The task is than repeated to Tania, with the same set of

questions. When the researcher asks; Figure 13

Researcher: Which one has more?

Tania: They are same.

Researcher: Why?

Tania: Because you poured this water (points to small cup) into this glass, so it is the same. Figure 13

Task 3 Mass Conservation

The final task, the researcher presents to the child with two identical balls of plasticene. The child agrees that each ball has the same amount of plasticene. The researcher flattens one ball and asks the child whether the ball still has the same amount of plasticene. This task was carried out on both these children separately.

Researcher: Are these two plasticene the same?

Kishan: Yes, same

Then the researcher flattens one of the balls.

Researcher: Is this two plasticene the same?

Kishan: No, this is bigger (points to the ball of plasticene)

The task is than repeated to Tania, with the same set of questions. When the researcher asks; Figure 14

Researcher: Are these two plastisin the same?

Tania: Yes, same

Then the researcher flattens one of the balls.

Researcher: Is this two plasticene the same?

Tania: Yes the sameFigure 14

Researcher: Why?

Tania: It is the same plastisin but different shape.

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C) Interpretation

i) Differences between the 5 year old and the 7 year old

It was interesting to note that Piaget’s theory is valid even in this modern technology era. Using his conservation task in numbers, liquid and mass made some of the task an interesting find. We could use this basic conservation in our everyday teaching and learning process to access some children.

In the first number conservation task, Tania aged 7, gave the correct answer that both the rows of coins were the same. Kishan aged 5, stated that the stretched row had more coins. Piaget argues that the inability to conserve is due to the child's failure to understand that things remain the same despite changes in their appearance. Piaget believes this is an example of centration.  The pre-operational child has not decentred and is therefore centring on just one dimension.  

In the second task, Tania was able to identify the volume of the glasses to be the same while Kishan immediately pointed to the taller glass in having more water. Children in the concrete operational stage gain the abilities of conservation (number, area, volume, orientation) and reversibility.  Their thinking is more organized and rational.  They can solve problems in a logical fashion, but are typically not able to think abstractly or hypothetically.

They understand that when water is poured into a different shaped glass, the quantity of liquid remains the same, even though its appearance has changed.  Five-year-old children would think that there was a different amount because the appearance has changed. Such a child lacks conception of the quantity of liquid. Not having this concept, the child has no way to realize that some things stay the same when liquid is poured from one vessel to another. A preoperational child does not yet have this concept or schema.

In the final task The younger child, Kishan, identifies two equal balls of plasticene equal, but then says the one ball, when flatten out, is larger than the other ball. Tania, the 7 year old, knows that the dough just change shape, not volume. This child recognizes a relationship between the ball when it is a ball, then when it is flatten out.

Older children can recognize that nothing was taken away or added. These developmental advances allow the child to think much more logically, exercise more advanced rules and moral judgments, and learn on a deeper conceptual level. Truly effective learning can only happen when the child and the teacher engage in a partnership in which the teacher provides the appropriate building material for the child to learn more elaborate mental constructions. There must be a match between the curriculum and the child's current understanding capabilities.

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ii) Interpret about the children’s minds

Piaget’s view of how children's minds work and develop has been enormously influential, particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of the mind in children.

He proposed that children's thinking does not develop entirely smoothly: instead, there are certain points at which it "takes off" and moves into completely new areas and capabilities.

All the conservation experiments are variations on a theme. The word conservation means preserving. To come up with the correct answer in a conservation experiment, the child must preserve something in his or her mind. That "something" is an awareness of quantity, mass, number, area, or some other abstract characteristic of reality. That was Piaget's point. He described himself as studying the construction of reality in the child.

In this task of conservation, we see Kishan aged 5 a preoperational child, being a bit disturbed and confused about the liquid conservation task. He has difficulties in understanding conservation liquid. He could not see that the water were the same. Tania, aged 7, a concrete-operational child could see that the water was still the same. The concrete-operational child has the ability to see the reversibility in the mind. They are able to interpret the task correctly.

To successfully do the mass conservation task Piaget says you must be in concrete operational level, this task looks at matter. Tania still identified that they were the same in mass, but Kishan did not. He identified that the fattened plasticene ball had more mass and was larger; this thought process is identical with the thought of a preoperational child. At this stage it is clear with the harder tasks Kishan is still in a preoperational mind process, and Tania is in concrete operation thought

In this task the children were asked to identify two rows of coins, both had the same number. Both children agreed that it is the same amount of coins in each row. Then one row of coins were lengthen. Tania said that there was no change, but Kishan identified that the top row had more “because it is longer”. This answer is the predicted answer that a child who is in preoperational mind would give. Tania is proving that she is in concrete operational thought. This task has to do with number according to Piaget. To do this task successfully a child must be thinking in a concrete operational mind.

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iii) Why 5 year olds not successful with 7 year old

Kishan, 5 years old

The responses given throughout the tasks has proven that he thinks in a preoperational level, but in some tasks he is thinking in a late stage of preoperational level. Overall he is in preoperational level but is in the late stages. In some of the tasks he shows thinking in concrete level which goes against Piaget thinking and theories.

Tani, 7 years old

Tania throughout the tasks has proven she is in the concrete operational stage of Piaget’s theories. Tania is more developmentally advanced in all the tasks, and according to Piaget she should be, because of her age and is different in thinking.

Piaget’s theories aren’t the best because it’s age related. Just because a child is older he/she has to be thinking differently. You can get children who are smart at a young age. Kishan shows some great answers for some of the tasks. In those tasks he seems to be thinking in concrete operational thought. I feel Piaget’s theory is good because it works on the principal that a child can develop according to his/her peers and environment.

Piaget focused most of this task in the child's thinking, identifying a number of mental tasks which children seem unable to do. These include the inability to decentre, conserve, and understand serialisation and to carry out the tasks.

Children in the preoperational stage are able to focus on only one aspect or dimension of problems. For example, suppose you arrange two rows of coins in such a way that a row of 7 coins is longer than a row of 9 coins, the preoperational children can generally count the coins in each row and tell you the number contained in each.  However, if you ask which row has more, they will likely say that it is the one that makes the longer line, because they cannot simultaneously focus on both the length and the number. The ability to solve this and other "conservation" problems signals the transition to the next stage.

So, why 5 year old are not successful compared with children of 7 years old because:

1. The ability to understand the changes in the appearance of the materials.

2. ‘Centered’ thinking, the child notice the change in the level of water and the flatten plasticene.

3. Thinking is focused on self rather than transformation. Egocentric.

4. Cannot comprehend irreversible thinking.

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iv) What duties are difficult for a child?

The phase of 5-year-old development has some emotional extremes and contradictions. At this age, many children are still in the toddlerhood/preschool years and the "big kid" phase of development to come. I notice in Kishan these qualities of a 5-year-old. He shows much more self-control, such as sitting for longer periods of time in the classroom and listening to his teacher's instructions. Apart from this, he sees a friend who is in distress and say, "I'm sorry you are sad." 5 year olds will declare anything what they are thinking. Independence on wanting his way of doing things.

The difficulty part is understanding certain concepts, like reversibility, the famous classic example from Wikipedia, a preoperational child upset by the amount of ice-cream given in a large bowl but when switched to a smaller bowl he was pleased. The amount was not changed but their thought process allows them to think they see more in quantity. Egocentrism and the inability to understand conservation or use logical thinking are all the difficult for a 5 year old.

D) Conclusion

Piaget proposed that all children progress through a series of cognitive stages of development, just as they progress through a series of physical stages of development.

After observing children closely, Piaget proposed that cognition developed through the stages from birth through the end of adolescence. By stages he meant a sequence of thinking patterns with four key features:

1. They always happen in the same order.

2. No stage is ever skipped.

3. Each stage is a significant transformation of the stage before it.

4. Each later stage incorporated the earlier stages into itself. Each stage is correlated with an age period of childhood, but only approximately.

Piaget's views of cognitive development have broad implications for educational institutions charged with fostering such development. The child is viewed as an active seeker of knowledge. The teacher is a facilitator of the opportunities for such cognitive growth. The teacher provides the physical materials that can be experimentally manipulated. Such materials can be simple: Blocks, stones, bottle caps, and plastic containers all can be classified, immersed in water, thrown into fire, dropped, thrown, or balanced. Facilitating peer relationships and cooperation in playing games is also helpful in encouraging social role-taking and moral development.

The teacher may nudge the student toward cognitive advancement by presenting a problem slightly more complex than that already comprehended by the student. A student who understands conservation of number may be ready for problems involving the conservation of

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length, for example. The teacher, however, does not reinforce correct answers or criticize incorrect ones. Piaget does not totally reject the focus of traditional education. He however maintains and understands the physical and social relationships.

Children in the preoperational stage, like Kishan, lack understanding of relational terms, such as darker, larger, and harder. Further, they lack seriation -the ability to arrange objects in order from large to small. They lack  understanding that the physical attributes of an object remain unchanged even though their appearance has changed.

Example, Kishan, was shown two identical lumps of clay. One lump is then flattened into a large pancake as the child watches. Asked whether the two lumps still contain the same amount of clay, he answered no.

Similar findings result when children of this age watch water from a tall, thin container being poured into a shorter but wider one. When asked whether a second tall container and the new shorter one contain the same amount of water, at this stage children again answer no.

During this stage, this lasts until about the age of eleven, many important cognitive skills emerge. Children gain an understanding of concrete terms and seriation. They come to understand reversibility and the fact that many physical changes can be undone by reversing the original action

.

They also begin to make greater use of categories in describing and thinking about the physical world. When asked to sort various objects, children like Kishan’s age will often do so in terms of colour or size. Older children will place the objects in more complex categories. For example, they will categorize bananas, oranges, apples, and pineapples as fruits, despite major variations in colour, shape, and size.

Finally, when children reach the stage of concrete operations, they begin to engage in logical thought. Example, I asked Tania, "Why did you and your mother go to the shop?" she replied, "Because my mother want some milk for the baby" Preoperational children, in contrast, might say, "Because afterwards, we came home."

Throughout preschool and primary school, (these are the preoperational and concrete- operational levels), children continue to grow and mature in fascinating and profound ways.

Cognitively, children's thinking skills advance and transform as they enter Piaget’s Conservation task, you will enter into the stage development and master a variety of cognitive operations associated with that stage. They become masters of concrete thinking, able to mentally represent and then mentally manipulate those things they can touch and see. They become more able to think in a purposeful, voluntarily manner, to maintain attention to tasks, and to generally take in, process, remember, and utilize information.

References:

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From a book

a) Rashid, Noriati A., Boon P. Ying, and Sharifah Fakhriah S. Ahmad. Murid dan Alam Belajar. N.p.: Oxford Fajar Sdn Bhd, 2012. 49-53. Print.

b) Sang, Mok S. Perkembangan Kanak Kanak. 3rd ed. Selangor: Penerbitan Multimedia Sdn Bhd, 2012. 79-89. Print.

c) Piaget, J. (1973). Main Trends in Psychology. London: George Allen & Unwin.

From Webpage:

a) http://psychology4a.com/cognitive_development.htm

b) http://faculty.weber.edu/tlday/human.development/conserv-GOOD.html

c) http://www2.ohlone.edu/people/mmcdowell/ecs300/piagetiantasks.pdf

d) http://www.simplypsychology.org/concrete-operational.html

e) http://open.jorum.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/770/Items/ ED209_1_section17.html

From Online Journal:

a) http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0040802

b) http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/piaget.html

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