1. Chapter 12- Middle Childhood: Cognitive Development
The Developing Person Through the Life Span, 8e by Kathleen Stassen Berger
Chapter 12- Middle Childhood:
Cognitive Development
PowerPoint Slides developed by
Martin Wolfger and Michael James
Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington
Reviewed by Raquel Henry
Lone Star College, Kingwood

2. Building on Theory Piaget and School-Age Children
Concrete operational thought- the ability to reason logically about direct experiences and perceptions.
Classification- things can be organized into groups (or categories or classes) according to some characteristic they share.
Transitive inference- the ability to figure out (infer) the unspoken link (transfer) between one fact and another.

3. Building on Theory
Seriation - The idea that things can be arranged in a series.
crucial for understanding the number sequence.
The research does not confirm a sudden shift between preoperational and concrete operational thought.
School-age children can use mental categories and subcategories more flexibly, inductively, and simultaneously than younger children.

4. Building on Theory Vygotsky and School-Age Children
Vygotsky regarded instruction as essential.
Children are "apprentices in learning" as they play with each other, watch television, eat dinner with their families, and engage in other daily interactions.
Language is integral as a mediator, a vehicle for understanding and learning.

5. International Contexts
Vygotsky believed that cultures teach
Brazilian peddlers are skilled in math even though they have not been schooled
children’s understanding of arithmetic depends on context
culture affects the methods of learning

6. Building on Theory Information Processing
Like computers people take in information and then:
−seek specific units of information
−analyze the information
−express their conclusions
The brain’s gradual growth confirms the information-processing perspective.
Requires memory

7. Memory
Sensory memory- Incoming stimulus information is stored for a split second to allow it to be processed. (Also called the sensory register.)
Working memory- Current, conscious mental activity occurs. (Also called short-term memory.)
Long-term memory- Virtually limitless amounts of information can be stored indefinitely.

8. Memory

9. Building on Theory
Working memory improves steadily and significantly every year from age 4 to 15 years.
The capacity of long-term memory is virtually limitless by the end of middle childhood.
Memory storage (how much information is deposited in the brain) expands over childhood, but more important is retrieval (how readily stored material can be brought into working memory).
Need “Language” A-head and Vocabulary, Differences in Language Learning

10. Information Processing
Metacognition- "Thinking about thinking"; the ability to evaluate a cognitive task in order to determine how best to accomplish it, and then to monitor and adjust one’s performance on that task.
Knowledge base- a body of knowledge in a certain area that makes it easier to master new information in that area

11. Building on Theory
Control processes -Mechanisms (selective attention, emotional regulation) that combine memory, processing speed, and knowledge to regulate the analysis and flow of information within the system.

12. Language
By age 6, children know most of the basic vocabulary and grammar of their first language, and many speak a second or even a third language.
Some school-age children learn as many as 20 new words a day and apply grammar rules they did not use before.

13. Adjusting Vocabulary to the Context
Pragmatics- the practical use of language that includes the ability to adjust language communication according to audience and context.
This advances quite a bit in middle childhood.
Shy children who are good at pragmatics cope better with social pressures of school than those who are not as adept.

14. Adjusting Vocabulary to the Context
The school-age child can switch from one manner of speaking, or language code, to another.
Each code differs in tone, pronunciation, gesture, sentence length, idiom, grammar, and vocabulary.
Sometimes people switch from the formal code (used in academic contexts) to the informal code (used with friends).
Many children use a third code in text messaging, with numbers (411), abbreviations (LOL), and emoticons

15. Differences in Language Learning
Family poverty
Research shows a strong correlation between academic achievement and socioeconomic status
− language exposure
− adult expectations
− macrosystem resources

16. Teaching and Learning Differences by nation:
literacy & math are valued everywhere
curriculum varies by nation & community
evident in results of tests, subjects taught & power of parents, teachers, etc.
Hidden curriculum- The implicit rules and priorities that influence the academic curriculum and every other aspect of learning in school

17. Teaching and Learning Learning a Second Language
Immersion - all subjects are taught in the child’s second language
Bilingual schooling- Subjects are taught in the child’s original and second languages
ESL- children who do not speak English are taught together in an intensive class to learn basic English so they can be mainstreamed later

18. Teaching and Learning
Religious education: in some nations, public schools teach religion; in others, it is only in private schools
International testing: about 50 nations
−PIRLS: every 5 years, reading ability
−TIMSS: science and math achievement

19. In the United States
U.S. children tend not to do well on international tests
No Child Left Behind Act (2001): a U.S. law intended to increase accountability in education by having states qualify for federal money based on standardized tests

20. In the United States
NAEP: an ongoing, nationally representative measure of U.S. children’s achievement in reading, math, etc.

21. Reading Wars, Math Wars, and Cognitive Theory
Phonics approach - Teaching reading by first teaching the sounds of each letter and letter combinations.
Whole-language approach - Teaching reading by encouraging early use of all language skills-talking, listening, reading, and writing

22. Reading Wars, Math Wars, and Cognitive Theory
Historically, math was taught by rote; children memorized number facts, such as multiplication tables, and filled page after page of workbooks.
In reaction to this approach, many educators, inspired by Piaget and Vygotsky, sought to make math instruction more active and engaging- less a matter of memorization than of discovery.

23. Who Determines Educational Practice?
Charter schools - funded and licensed by states or districts and private sponsors, run as a public school but has its own standards.
Voucher - allows parents to choose the school for the child (private or public) with all or part of the cost being paid by the local government