Cognitive Development
An overview
• Piaget’s cognitive development theory
• Stages of cognitive development and basic
characteristics
• Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective
• Their Contribution to teaching and learning
• Implications of cognitive developmental changes for
teaching and learning
Objectives
• Categorize stages of cognitive development and its implications for
teaching-learning.
• Evaluate cognitive developmental theories of Piaget and Vygotsky.
Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Piaget, a Swiss psychologist,
described logical thinking and
reasoning about complex situations
as the highest form of cognitive
development. He grounded his
investigations in the individual
child's manipulation and
interaction with objects in his or her
particular environment.
The concept of cognitive structure is central to
his theory.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Key concepts
•
The developing child’s rational thinking and
stages of thought are emphasized.
•
Thoughts are the central focus of development,
the primary determinants of children’s actions.
Piaget stressed that children actively construct their
worlds through two processes
Processes of construction
Organization
Assimilation
(incorporate new info.)
Adaptation
Accommodation
(adjust to new info.)
Equilibration
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
1. Sensorimotor Thought (birth – 2 years)
The infant is able to organize and coordinate sensations
with
physical movements.
Characteristics:
• Children are egocentric.
• Children begin to distinguish their actions as causes
(casuality).
• They achieve object permanence.
• Children are able to represent the world through
language.
What could be some implications for Teachers
and Parents?
• Provide multiple objects of various sizes, shapes,
and colours.
• Talk to children and be sensitively responsive
to them.
In general, anything can be the most exciting
plaything an infant can experience.
2. Preoperational Thought (2 – 7 yrs. - Preschool)
A transition from primitive to more sophisticated use of
symbols.
The child does not yet think in an operational way.
Sub-stage of Preoperational Thought
Symbolic thought
Symbolic function
(2 – 4 yrs.)
Intuitive thought
(4 – 7 yrs.)
Egocentrism
Animism
Characteristics
• Centration/ Centering: It is most clearly evidenced in their
lack of conservation
• Children begin to use symbols, such as language, but are
not able to manipulate them.
• Transductive reasoning or reasoning from particular to
particular in a non-logical manner
• Irreversibility or inability to reverse their thinking
• They are intuitive rather than logical at this stage.
• realism (ability to slowly distinguish and accept the real world)
• artificialism (assumption that everything is a product of
human creation)
Implications for Teachers and Parents
• Provide opportunities for interactions with adults,
other children, and materials as they learn through
active explorations
• Encourage manipulation of materials, provide hands-on
experiences, engage in activities such as:
(a) deferred imitation
(imitating animals, activities etc. that are seen earlier)
(b) symbolic play (pretend play, e.g. pretending to sleep)
(c) drawing;
(d) role-plays, etc.
3. Concrete Operational Thought
(7 – 11 yrs., middle & late childhood)
It is made up of operations, mental actions that are reversible.
The child shows conservation and classification skills.
Characteristics:
• Skill of Reversibility
• Classification skills
• Logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought
• Ability to understand the number concept (the meaning of
numbers)
Implications for Teachers and Parents
• Children at this stage are capable of representational
thought, but only with the concrete and or tangible.
They cannot grasp abstract subtleties.
• It is a good idea to use classification games and
activities.
4. Formal Operational Thought
(11/12 plus, adolescence and beyond)
More abstract, idealistic and logical thinking appears at this
stage.
Piaget believed that adolescence become capable of using
hypothetical-deductive reasoning.
Characteristics:
Adolescent egocentrism - manifested through:
•Imaginary audience (belief that others are
as preoccupied with them as they are)
•Personal fable (a sense of personal uniqueness
and indestructibility).
Implications for Teachers and Parents
• Provide
as many concrete examples before
asking students to formulate general principles.
• Encourage discussions and reasoning.
•
Remember many adolescents and adults never
reach the stage of formal operations.
Vygotsky’s Theory
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)
•
argued that human development occurs in a
socio-cultural context.
• zone of proximal development (ZPD)
• scaffolding
• language and thought develop independently
and then merge.
Implications for teaching
• Use ZPD and scaffolding
• Encourage use of private speech