Human Growth and

Development

Chapter Twelve The School Years:

Cognitive DevelopmentPowerPoints prepared by Cathie Robertson, Grossmont CollegeRevised by Jenni Fauchier, Metropolitan Community College

Building on Piaget and Vygotsky

• Concrete Operational Thought– Piaget’s 3rd stage– children reason logically about the

things and events that they perceive• Vygotsky did not believe the child was a

socially isolated learner– instruction by others is crucial

Logical Principles

• Classification• Identity• Reversibility• Reciprocity

• Classifying Objects, Ideas, and People– Classification—process of organizing things

into groups according to some shared property

– Children have an understanding categories can be any of the following:•hierarchical•overlapping•separate

– Children that can categorize can analyze problems, derive correct solutions, and ask follow-up questions

• Identity, Reversibility, and Reciprocity – identity—the idea that certain characteristics of an

object remain the same even if other characteristics change

– reversibility—the idea that sometimes an object that has been changed can be returned to its original state by reversing the process by which it was changed

– Reciprocity occurs when 2 things change in opposite ways in order to balance each other out; e.g., conservation experiment with liquid

• Identity, Reversibility, and Reciprocity– all three concepts are relevant to

mathematical processes– these concepts can be (but are

not always) applied to everyday social encounters

Logic and Culture

• Piaget’s ideas still remain logical– research shows that sometimes

older children may make mistakes when applying new logic

• Vygotsky’s premise is that, added to Piaget’s ideas, the social cultural context of learning is important

• Most research in U.S. and England– but in Brazil, research has shown

that street children who do not attend school can still think in complex ways, and that a special relationship exists between thinking and experience

• Focus is on Kohlberg’s theory– built on Piaget’s theory and

research, theory describes moral developmental stages

Moral Development

Kohlberg’s Stages

• Kohlberg studied responses of subjects presented with ethical dilemmas to see – how a person reasons determine

stage of moral development

Kohlberg’s Stages, cont.

• Kohlberg found 3 levels of moral reasoning

• I. Preconventional: Middle Childhood– these first 2 stages of moral

thinking relate to preoperational thought, in being egocentric •emphasis on getting rewards and avoiding punishment

• II. Conventional: End of Middle Childhood, Beginning of Adolescence

- these 2 stages relate to concrete operational thought, in referencing observable practices in community

•emphasis on social rules

Kohlberg’s Stages, cont.

• III. Postconventional : Adolescence and Adulthood

– these 2 stages similar to formal or postformal thought, which includes ideas and ideals

•emphasis on moral principles

Kohlberg’s Stages, cont.

Kolhberg’s Critics• Kohlberg’s basic scheme has been

replicated, but his ideas have been widely criticized

• Three Major Criticisms – flawed research methods

– hierarchy biased in favor of Western elite

– moral development of women ignored

Kohlberg’s Critics, cont.

• Criticism 1: Methodology: To avoid Kohlberg’s cumbersome methodology, James Rest devised Defining Issues Test (DTI)— a questionnaire that measures moral thinking by asking people to read various dilemmas and then rank 12 statements as possible resolutions for each statement - DIT confirms validity of Kohlberg’s three levels

• Criticism 2: Cultural Differences- research suggests that in non-Western

cultures, preeminent values are different from western ones, making it harder for non-Westerners to score at Kolberg’s preconventional level

- research suggests that Kohlberg’s hierarchy may underestimate reasoning capacity of some school-age children in some cultures

Kohlberg’s Critics, cont.

Kohlberg’s Critics, cont.

• Criticism 3: Gender Issues• Carol Gilligan (1982)

– females develop more of a morality of care—a reluctance to judge right and wrong in absolute terms because they are socialized to be nurturant, compassionate, nonjudgmental

– males develop more of a morality of justice—a tendency to emphasize justice over compassion, judging right and wrong in absolute terms

• Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories in relation to moral development– both recognize ages 7 to 11 are time

for moral growth– children eager to develop moral

values in stages (Kohlberg, inspired by Piaget)

– or in response to cultural norms (Vygotsky and Gilligan)

Information Processing

Information Processing

• Information Processing Theory- processes by which the mind

•analyses•stores•retrieves

• Mind is like a computer- capacity can be upgraded with

development

• Sensory memory aka sensory register—stores incoming stimulus for split second then sends it on– sensations become perceptions

• Working (short-term) memory—where your current, conscious mental activity occurs

• Long-term memory—stores information for minutes, hours, days, months, years

Memory

• Older children are quicker thinkers than younger children

• Thinking speed continues to increase throughout adolescence

• Automatization helps free up thoughts for speed of processing

Speed of Processing

• Knowledge base—broad body of knowledge in a particular subject area that makes it easier to master new learning in that area

• Connections between bits of information improve as the knowledge base expands

Knowledge Base

• Control processes—regulate the analysis and flow of information within the system– helped by maturation of

prefrontal cortex

Control Processes

• Selective attention—ability to concentrate on relevant information and disregard distractions

• Memory and thought depend on this ability- focusing on what needs to be

remembered• Improved control

– emotional regulation shows it

Selective Attention

• “Thinking about one’s thoughts”

• Older children approach cognitive tasks more strategically and analytically

Metacognition

The Pragmatics of Language

• Pragmatics—using language fluently in many types of situations; from play through school years, distinguished by– logic– memory– ability to make connections between

one bit of knowledge and another

Teaching and Learning

• Worldwide, many ideological debates swirl around the content and practice of elementary education

• A review of practices in 5 cultures found

– discrepancy between “expressed claim and observed reality”

Which Curriculum?

• Intended curriculum—content political and educational leaders decide to endorse

• Implemented curriculum—what teachers and school administrators actually offer

• Attained curriculum—what students actually learn

• Hidden curriculum—unspoken and often unrecognized lessons children learn in school

– organization and schedule arise from hidden curriculum

•e.g., classroom size

Which Curriculum, cont.

• Phonics• Whole language• “Reading Wars”—clashes over

these two methods of teaching children to read

The Reading Wars

• Phonics approach—teaching reading by requiring children to learn the sounds of each letter before they begin to decipher simple words

Phonics Versus Whole Language

• Whole-language approach—teaching reading by encouraging children to develop all their language skills— talking and listening, reading and writing—all with the goal of communication

Phonics Versus Whole Language, cont.

The Socioeconomic Divide• Language development, reading

attainment correlate with socioeconomic status– the lower the family income, the less developed a

child’s vocabulary and grammar

• Crucial factor seems to be actual exposure to language (children exposed to language at home will have larger vocabularies)

• vocabulary size the best predictor of school achievement and overall intelligence

• Math and science are key areas in which children should be ready for the challenges of the future

– gains in U.S. have faded

• Traditionally taught through rote learning

– children came to hate math taught this way

The Math Wars

• New curriculum developed that teaches

– concepts, problem solving, estimating, and probability

– this approach may be working

•proportion of 4th graders who were “proficient” doubled (26%)

The Math Wars, cont.

The Math Wars, cont.

• Technology is another area of controversy

– Specifically, computers

– digital divide—gap between rich and poor in computer access

– students in U. S. twice as likely to use computers in math and science than students in other nations . . . but our math and science scores relatively low

• Learning a 2nd language

– best time to be taught it is in middle childhood

Bilingual Education

• Total immersion—approach that teaches a second language in which instruction occurs entirely in that language and the learner’s language is not used at all

Various Approaches

• Success or failure in 2nd language learning seems to lie in the attitude of– teachers– parents– the larger community

• Additive bilingualism—both languages valued and used

• Semilingual—neither language learned well

Attitudes and Achievement