Lecture 4-Part I-AGB-2023.pptx

2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Learning, thinking, reasoning, remembering communicating. Cognitive Development  Focuses on how children learn and process information.  The development of the thinking and organizing systems of the brain.  Involves language, mental imagery, thinking, reasoning, problem so...

2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Learning, thinking, reasoning, remembering communicating. Cognitive Development  Focuses on how children learn and process information.  The development of the thinking and organizing systems of the brain.  Involves language, mental imagery, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and memory development.  Learning:  a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience. 3 Jean Piaget  Do children think and develop cognitively like adults?  It was believed that they did until a Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, observed his own children and some others and concluded that in many respects children do not think or reason like adults.  Jean Piaget:  Swiss  child psychologist 1896 – 1980. Believed that children are not miniature adults 4 5 Perspectives of Cognitive Development  Structural-functional approach  Information processing approach Structural-functional approach  Developed by Jean Piaget  According to Piaget, “intelligence” has two components: structures and functions.  He believed that psychological structures- the child’s organized way of making sense of experience- change with age.  He referred to these specific structures as schemes.  His approach can also be seen as a constructivist approach, whereby children construct an understanding of the world based on the effects of their behaviours. 6 Structural-functional approach  Structures are involved in the processing of information such as schemas  Schema: organized mental representation of the world that is adaptive and formed by experience  Functions help a child adapt to his or her environment.  Unlike structures, which change with age, functions remain the same throughout development.  Piaget believes that at each stage of development a child uses a qualitatively different form of intelligence. 7 Information processing approach  An approach which has moved beyond the framework described by Piaget.  Focuses on quantitative changes in basic information processing systems like memory, attention, and learning.  This approach suggests that the child becomes a faster, more efficient processor of information, as the child grows these functions get better.  They believe we are born with certain cognitive abilities that grow and develop into better cognitive abilities. 8 Piaget: The Two most basic functions  Adaptation- involves building schemas through direct interaction with the environment.  Consists of two complementary processes:  assimilation  accommodation.  Organization- takes place internally. Once children form new schemas, they start to rearrange them, linking them with others.  Initially, these schemas operate independently but with development they are organized into an integrated behavior. 9 Assimilation and Accommodation  Assimilation:   Accommodation:   Through assimilation we use our current schemes to interpret the external world. It occurs when we incorporate new information into an existing schema. Changing or revising an existing schema as a result of new experiences. We create new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing that our current ways of thinking do not fit the environment completely. It makes the child’s beliefs more compatible with experience. Successful assimilation and accommodation results in equilibration which is a balance between one’s experience in the world and their thoughts about it 10 Assimilation and Accommodation 11 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development  Sensorimotor stage (Birth-2 years)  Preoperational stage (2 years-7 years)  Concrete Operational stage (7 years-11 years)  Formal Operations stage (12 years and up) 12 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development  Sensorimotor Stage:   Preoperational Stage:   The child begins to represent the world with words and images. These words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical action. Concrete Operational Stage:   The infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions: progressing from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward end of the stage. The child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets. Formal Operational Stage:  The adolescent reasons in more abstract idealistic and logical ways. 13 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development 14 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development 15 Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory He underestimated:  the cognitive talents of infants and young children, e.g., Object permanence.  young children's understanding of conservation (the notion that a certain quantity will remain the same despite the adjustment of the container, shape, or apparent size).  the importance of social interactions between children and caregivers in the children’s cognitive development.  Children’s underlying competence; since most of his data was achieved through reports and reflection from children 16 Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory  Gives little attention to the impact of language development.  Biased Sampling:  His work was also based primarily on his own children and other sophisticated Westernized children  Cognitive development appears to be more continuous than stage-like  Cognitive development does not appear to be as general as he proposed, e.g., a 1yr old may have some preoperational abilities 17 Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory  Children actively construct their knowledge  Social interaction and culture guide cognitive development  Learning is based upon inventions of society  Knowledge is created through interactions with other people and objects in the culture  Less skilled persons learn from the more skilled Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)  Vygotsky felt the acquisition of knowledge was active and socially constructed rather than passive.  He believed that social interaction played a vital role in cognitive development firstly on a social level (between child and the world) and then on a individual level (Internally). Lev Vygotsky cont..  Vygotsky believed children were born with elementary mental functions that are transformed into higher mental functions by the influence of culture.  Lower functions are innate.  Higher functions are voluntary, but controlled by other functions. Lev Vygotsky...  Culture teaches children both what and how to think, through the acquisition of knowledge via intellectual tools.  Since much of what children learn is through interaction Vygotsky believed isolation was inappropriate...guidance by a another is usually most beneficial.  Woods et al described this process as scaffolding  The support given by a significant other, e.g., teacher, parent or even peer. Zone of proximal development (ZPD)  This is the distance between a child's current and potential abilities.  The assumption behind this theory is that instruction is to stimulate those functions which lie waiting in the ZPD.  “What a child can do with help today, he can do independently tomorrow” Evaluation of Vygotsky. × ×   Little scientific evidence. Too much emphasis on social interaction. However! Bridges the gap between social and cognitive approaches Helps to understand how to actively help learners reach their potential…it has more educational application. Piaget vs.Vygotsky. Similarities & Differences. Jean Piaget Lev Vygotsky Learning is… Solitary Social What drives development…? Maturation, conflict Enjoyment from others, motivates more learning. Role of language… Thought drives language Language drives thought Role of biology… Maturation dictates pace of cognitive development Elementary functions are innate. Child is active… Child actively organises cognitive schemas to maintain equilibrium. Child is active in providing feedback to the parent/instructor.  Putting it all together… Vygotsky believed in power of the community  Piaget was a product of individualist society.  Piaget’s child: Introvert  Vygotsky’s Child: Extrovert.  But both place cognition at the centre of learning (not unlike Pavlov/Freud) & both see the complex interactionist character of development. Applying the theories to education...Piaget.  Readiness:  The child needs to be ready & have reached a level of maturation before other skills can be gained.  Discovery Learning:  Activities planned to allow learners to experience assimilate and accommodate language thus allowing them to discover themselves.  Role  To of teacher: act as facilitator not instructor. Applying the theories to education...Vygotsky.  Learning as collaboration:    Learning together rather than as individuals promotes critical thinking & interest. Zone of proximal Development (ZPD)  Importance of the more knowledgeable other i.e., teacher or friend.  ZPD encompasses the tasks that learners cannot perform on their own but can with help form the MKO. Scaffolding:  Begin with full support, gradually remove support as abilities and confidence increase.