Cognitive development

Cognitive development

1. Piaget's cognitive theory

   • A01
     • Schemas
       • Schemas are a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that represent a group of related concepts based on previous experiences and used to generate future expectations
       • When a child is born it has a few innate schemas. An example of such a schema is a mental representation of the human face, as it is assumed that when babies are born they can determine the difference between a humans face from all other objects they see. From birth onwards a child's schemas develop based on interactions with the environment. New experiences lead to new schemas being developed.
     • Assimilation
       • The process of fitting new experiences into existing schemas without making them change or create new ones.
       • A child tries to understand any new information in terms of their existing schemas of the world. E.g: a baby who is given a new toy car to play with my suck on that toy in the same way as a dummy. Assimilation, therefore, involves the incorporation of new information into pre-existing schemas
     • Accomodation
       • The process of adjusting existing schemas or creating new schemas because of new, conflicting information that creates disequilibrium.
       • Accommodation occurs when a child's existing schema does not appear to allow new information to fit into it. For example ; a child may have the schema 'new fur & four legs =dog' every new creature with four legs and fur will be assimilated into the schema of a dog but when an adult sees an animal with four legs and fur a 'cat' the current schema is challenged. This child recognise the animal has new fur and four legs but its tail does not wag, which doesn't fit the schema of a dog so a new schema must be formed for a cat.
     • The motivation to learn
       • Piaget found that we are motivated to learn when new information from the environment does not fit into our existing schemas. This leads to an unpleasant sensation of disequilibrium and to escape this sensation we have to adapt by exploring and learning till we understand it by either gathering new information to allow them to assimilate to the schema or create a new schema so we can understand. This allows the the child to return to a state of equilibrium which is the preferred mental state.
   • A03
     • Application in education
       • Piaget's idea by actively exploring the environment and forming their own individual mental representations of the worlds revolutionised the 1960's classroom of sitting in rows copying from the board. This has been replaced by activity orientated classrooms in which children actively engage in tasks that allow them to construct their own understanding of the curriculum. So his theory must be valid as it has had applications in wider society.
     • Piaget may have underplayed the role of other people
       • Piaget did not believe children learn best on their own, he saw other people as important sources of information however, other people were not the main focus of his theory, and he saw learning as what happens in the mind of the individual. This conflicts other theories of learning and cognitive development that found other people as essential in learning, in particular Vygotsky who saw learning as a social process Suggesting Piaget's theory ignores some influential factors on cognitive development
     • Support for children's individual representation of the world
       • Piaget believed children form their own mental representations of the world and so even children who have similar learning experiences will develop their own individual representation. This hypothesis is supported by HOWE, who studied 8 - 12 year olds in groups and discuss movements of objects down a slope. They were assessed on the topic prior to the investigation and after. Following the investigation the children were found to have increased their own levels of knowledge and understanding however the children did all come to the same conclusion and pick up on the same facts