Cognitive development and education (Cognitive)

Background

What is cognitive development? Remember that cognition is mental processes that take place in our thoughts. Processes like memory, attention and perception all make up cognition. Cognitive development is the way thinking changes as a individual grows from a baby to an adult. Most cognitive development occurs from birth to adolescence. Many researchers have had different ideas about how cognition develops in a person. [CE] Bullet points appear on a click

Piaget Piaget was a Swiss biologist who based his ideas on clinical interviews he had with children. From his interviews, Piaget notices certain similarities children showed at different ages. He developed an idea of ‘schema’, which is a mental framework we use to organise our thoughts. A new infant might have identified dogs as being small, having four legs and a tail. This is the infant’s schema for a dog. When the infant sees a large dog for the first time, this doesn’t fit into the existing schema the child had before so the child has to add ‘can be small or large’ into their schema. This process is called assimilation (taking in new information) and accommodating (changing the schema to fit in this new information). If a child sees a cat for the first time, the child must make a new mental framework or schema for what a cat is. [CE] Bullet points appear on a click

Stages of cognitive development Piaget said that children move through stages of cognitive development that allow them to think in a more complex way as they grow up. He suggested that all children go through these stages in the same way, and in the same order. Sensorimotor stage (0–2 years) Children gain knowledge by their physical interactions with the world (touch, taste, etc.). The child develops object permanence (realising that objects exist in the world even when they can’t see them). At the end of the stage the child starts acquiring language and is able to use symbols (e.g. a picture of a rabbit) to represent the real object. Pre-operational stage (3–6 years) Memory and imagination is now used more often as the child can develop their use of symbols to represent objects. However, the child shows egocentrism – the belief that what a child sees is the same as what everyone else can see. Concrete operational stage (7–11 years) The child loses their egocentric view and can start to think logically. The child understands concepts like conservation (the knowledge that you can change an object’s size, without changing it’s mass, e.g. knowing that if you squash a ball of play dough flat, it still has the same amount of play dough in it even though it is flat). Formal operational stage (11–adult) People can think logically and abstractly using symbols to represent abstract concepts (e.g. representing the idea of infinity). [CE] Bullet points appear on a click

Vygotsky One critic of Piaget’s ideas was Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist who claimed that Piaget’s theories ignore the importance of social and cultural factors on a child’s development. Vygotsky believed language was a key to enable learning while Piaget did not place as much emphasis on it. One of his key ideas, the zone of proximal development (ZPD), suggests that children learn through interaction with a knowledgeable other (i.e. a parent or teacher). This carer can guide the child through their cognitive development by providing a stimulating environment. Unlike Piaget, who claimed that all children develop in the same way, Vygotsky suggested that children will develop differently depending upon their ‘knowledgeable other’. Seemingly supporting this theory, research by Freund (1990) found that when given the task of putting furniture in the correct rooms of a doll house, children who worked with their mother (a more knowledge other) showed more improvement on the task than those who worked alone. [CE] Bullet points appear on a click

Bruner Bruner’s ideas of cognitive development were based on the child’s ability to be creative and think for themselves. Like Vygotsky, Brunner thought language was a key concept in cognitive development. However, like Piaget, Bruner also thought there were stages of cognitive development. Enactive stage (0–1 year) The child needs to physically touch and see objects in order to understand them. Iconic stage (1–6 years) Objects no longer need to be actually there but can be represented by a picture or icon. Symbolic stage (7 years onwards) Words and numbers can represent the object. Bruner thought that when teaching children about new concepts, you should guide children through the three stages in order to help them understand it. For example, how can you use Bruner’s stages to teach a child about how water turns to ice when it is frozen and melts again when hot? Once again Bruner’s theory emphasised the importance of a stimulating environment to help children be more motivated to learn, while Piaget claimed that nature was more important in a child’s development. [CE] Bullet and numbered points appear on a click

Task Piaget Bruner Vygotsky Summarise each theory Complete a venn diagram

Perry Perry also proposed stages of cognitive development, although his were more focused on college students. He claimed that as students learn, they move from dualist thinking (a right or wrong approach to learning) to relativist thinking (the understanding that there are lots of points of view that all can be valid). Perry claimed that there were nine positions of thinking. Students move through each of these nine positions in order (see next slide). However, unlike the other theories, Perry proposed that these stages or positions are cyclical, and once students had learned one concept moving through all nine positions they moved back to position one when they learned a new concept. [CE] Bullet points appear on a click

Perry’s nine point scheme of intellectual development Position Assumptions Student’s task Dualism 1 and 2 My tutor tells me what is right and what is wrong. Learn the right solutions. Multiplicity 3 and 4 Different tutors have different opinions. Everyone has a right to their own opinion. Learn how to find the right solution. Relativism 5 and 6 There are no right and wrong answers but some answers might be better than others. Learn to evaluate solutions. Commitment 7, 8 and 9 What is important is what I think not what others think even if others think differently to me. Student realises that learning is an ongoing, evolving activity. Explain using the Lion King! Or batman

Task Plan a lesson to teach a topic to a year 7 class Refer to Bruner, Vygotksy and Piaget to provide a rationale