Cognitive Development

Cognitive Development

• - Paiget
• - Vygotsky- Language development, scaffolding, collaboration in learning

Piaget

• 2 main theories- Stage specific instruction and Discovery learning
• -Stage Specific instruction- AO1- This identifies different abilities children have at different stages in their development, which is very useful to educators. Lessons and instructions can be shaped so that all children are able to access the learning, this is called stage specific instruction. Also known as the child's readiness to learn, at the right stage, the child is ready to learn a new skill.
• Evaluation- AO2- Burns and Sibley (2000)- Support stage specific instruction indicating children learn best when activities are carefully designed to match their stage of development.
• Brainerd (1983)- Investigated readiness to learn and found once again Piaget had underestimated children. He took 4 year old's and carefully instructed them on a task for those in the concrete operational stage of development. He found that 4 year old's could perform this task well.
• Egan suggested that just because one child understands something explained a certain way doesn't mean another will so instruction is useful but we need to be prepared to change out instructions so all learners understand.
• -Discovery Learning- AO1- Piaget thought of a child as an explorer and they should discover for themselves rather than be a passive learner. They find what they are naturally good at and that means classrooms should be set up so the child has the option to explore different activities.
• Evaluation- AO2- Cross cultural research shows that discovery learning may not be universal. Many Asians do very well accidemically and as a whole better than many other cultures when they do not use discovery learning. Stigler (1987)- Defended Piaget saying comparison based on discovery learning doesn't work as Asian cultures spend considerably more time teaching on certain areas which may be why they out perform other cultures.
• De Jong and Van Joolinen (1998)- discovery learning in computer based environments is very important, reviewing the available literature on discovery learning being very effective when children and young adults were required to solve computer based problems. Discovery learning becomes less and less effective as tasks become harder and then a facilitator is needed.

Piaget

• Key components of learning-
• 1) Schema- A building block of information.
• 2) Assimilation- Adding new info to an existing schema.
• 3) Accommodation- The process of creating a new schema.
• 4) Disequillibrium- You try to add to schemas unsuccessfully.
• 5) Equillibrium- The feeling of successful assimilation and accommodation.

Piaget's Stage Specific Theory

• 1) Sensory Motor
• 2) Pre-Operational
• 3) Concrete Operational
• 4) Formal Operations
• Stage 1- Sensory Motor- 0 to 2 years
• Chief Characteristic- Object Permanence. 10 month old baby, shake the rattle, hide the rattle behind a white screen. Children over 9 months continued to reach for the rattle, below 9 months did not.
• Bowers and Wishart- Children below 9 months were distracted by the screen. Children distracted by the rattle, Instead turn lights off and use infrared cameras. Found babies as young as 2 months were able to show object permanence and so younger than Piaget thought.
• Stage 2- Pre-operational- 2 to 7 years
• Chief Characteristic- Egocentricism. 3 mountain study- Children see the mountains from 2 different points of view. Point 1 is theirs and point 2 is the adults, they were then asked to choose a picture which shows the adult's point of view. Those under 7 always chose their own picture as they were unable to see from anyone else's point of view.
• Hughes- Study of 2 to 5 year olds. 1 police man, hide the boy from the police man, 2 policeman and then hide the boy. Only able to hide the boy from both policemen after the age of 5 as unable to see from someone else's point of view eg the two policemens.
• Stage 3- Concrete Operational- 7 to 11 years (Chief Characteristic- Conservation)
• Stage 4- Formal Operations- 12+ years (Chief Characteristic- Inferential Reasoning)

Vygotsky

• -Believed that cognitive development occurred in stages, also put emphasis on cultures effect on language and cognitive development. He also emphasised the role of social interaction in development, he believes that the richer a culture the horse is brought up in the greater the knowledge and the level of cognitive development.
• - Language Development
• 1) Pre- intellectual speech: 0-3 years.
• -Before two years language is spate from thinking, and language is due to conditioning. If a child makes a particular sound that is similar to a word they receive a lot of praise for the word and so then will begin to repeat it. They learn to use words to express simple feelings and control those around them.
• 2) Egocentric speed: 3-7 years.
• -By age 3 most children are beginning to use language to problem solve, a child will often talk out loud when performing a task not because they are trying to communicate but because they are not yet able to carry out inner speech.
• 3) Inner Speech: 7 years on wards.
• -Language is used more effectively to understand the culture around them, children no longer need to speak out loud to solve problems and inner speech is established.

Vygotsky

• - The zone of Proximal Development-
• The difference between the abilities you can perform on your own and then what you can perform with the aid of a more knowledgeable other.
• -The More Knowledgeable Other-
• Teacher, Parents or peer, it's someone who knows more than you and is able to support you through scaffolding.
• -Evaluation-
• 1) Hubbard et al (2003)- Believed language influences the way we think. Researched individuals who had synthaesesia. Although this is rare Hubbard et al show the way we use language influences our thinking. Using the two shapes he asked the Ps to name them either a kiki or a bouba. 98% of participants named the sharp edged object a kiki and the rounded shape a bouba, we all therefore have the bias of associating objects with certain sounds.
• 2) McNoughton (1990)- Investigated the effect of assistance during the ZPD on later performance. They looked at jigsaws, and children were observed with their mothers putting the jigsaw together and noted the level of difficulty they could achieve. They also closely monitored the mother's helping behaviour. The next session the children worked alone. The ability of the children was found to be lower on their own than when their mothers helped, what the children could do with help is known as the ZPD and as the children can do more with help this was seen as evidence for the ZPD assumptions of the theory.

Vygotsky

• -Scaffolding-
• AO1- Scaffolding means as an educator one does not need to wait until a child appears ready to move on intellectually that the child can be supported in their instability as they enter the ZPD, scaffolding eventually allows them to wokr on their own.
• -Bransford (2000)- syas there are 6 stages to scaffolding: 1) Motivate, get the child's interest. 2) simplify, make the task more manageable.
• 3) Maintain focus, keep the child focused on the task. 4) Point out performance, clearly identify the difference between the child's performance and their desired performance. 5) Reduce frustration, be supportive. 6) Demonstrate, show the child how they should be performing.
• AO2- Olsen and Pratt (2000)- advice the type of instruction given during scaffolding should be slightly beyond the level that the child can acheive alone. If the support is far too advanced than where the child is at then they wont be able to complete the work and may become frustrated.
• McNoughton jigsaw study here to show how mother helps their child when the puzzle was just out of their reach and assisted them.
• Corner at al (1997)- investigated the importance of the quality of scaffolding in a study of 2 year olds. The children were supported in their problem solving by their fathers, the researcher each time rated the quality of the scaffolding they observed. They found scaffolding was effective at developing a child but the quality determined how far a child could develop. Following these children it showed that those with quality scaffolding excelled further than those with less focused scaffolding.

Vygotsky

• -Group work in education-
• AO1- Vygotsky believed working together was an important part of education, giving children the opportunity to use their language skills to talk to one another to develop their ideas and concepts.
• AO2- Gokhale (1995)- Shows collaborative work helps uni students understand the concept of 'critical thinking'. The research involved a comparison between individual workers and the workers in the group. All students were given a lecture and handed out a work sheet, half were told to work on the sheet collaboratively and half alone. All were then tested on their understanding of the topics. The results were clear showing those who had worked collaboratively performed much better. The group workers also reported that working with others had stimulated their thinking.