Cherub Ami Ruiz
Developmental Psychology
May 26, 2008
Assignment: Term Paper
Developmental Theoretical Perceptive: As a Guide in Child Development
1. There are no clear cut solutions as to guide and teach how children as noted in my
previous assignments and class discussions. However, in analyzing a child’s cognitive
development, one must ask this question: Is cognitive development in children dependent
on their level of understanding? Is it influenced by the complexity of societal interactions
with children? In other words, should cognitive development be left solely to the
individual initiative of the child or should adults provide supportive guidance and
teachings? Personally, I believe that societal and cultural influences impact greatly on the
cognitive development of an individual. The resources that provide appropriate and
quality education may be scarce or abundant, depending on how society values child
education. Furthermore, I do not agree with Piaget that the levels of cognitive
development are constant or the same, universally. In addition, I propose that points from
both Piaget’s theory on active learning and Vygosky’s scaffolding should be taken
together to explain the cognitive development in these children. In active learning, the
teaching methods may involve actual experiments, problem solving, field work and other
mind-stimulating activities. The tools to be learned are geared to stimulate the child’s
interest to enhance learning as a challenge or a mental adventure instead of being
routinely and mechanical. I also think that educators should have more to encourage the
children other than initiating active learning and providing supervision. These teachers
1
have acquired higher mental functioning and wisdom, empowering them to be qualified
as guide to children to achieve success. Scaffolding may come into play; when the child’s
level of understanding is tested by allowing him to perform a given task with no
assistance. If the child’s performance is below par, the educator provides maximum
assistance or “scaffold” while performing the task again with the child to achieve success.
As the teaching progresses, the child’s level of cognitive maturity advances and the
assistance provided by the educator is gradually tapered down to minimized effort.
Finally, the child is assigned to perform the same task independently, expecting that this
time, the outcome of the performance is positive.
2. Piagetian theoretical perspective tends to conform to a predetermined epigenesist’s way
of thinking. His theory suggests that children are only able to develop cognitively based
on already built schemas at a given level of development. This unidirectional theory
implies that the genetic activity which is the pre-existing knowledge (schemas) that the
child has, will determined his functional activity and cognitive maturation. Hence,
cognitive development depends solely on the child’s schema: that one his own, the child
can actively construct his comprehension of the world. According to Piaget, children are
like “little scientists”, very active and curious creatures that are constantly in quest of
making a sense of their world. In their pursuit of discovering their surrounding, they
organize their schemas through adaptation to become abstract thinkers. As they grow,
Children adapt to their world by constant accommodation and assimilation.
Accommodation is the process of modifying old schemas while assimilation would
involve integrating new information into existing structures. To Piaget, a child’s
2
cognitive development is universal and follows the same route of maturity regardless of
his cultural and biological background.
In contrast, Vygotskian developmental perceptive align with a probabilistic
epigenesist viewpoint. It stresses that cognitive development in children relies mainly on
the socio-cultural dynamics of the child’s external environment. Therefore, the child
develops cognitively through his social interactions. Vygotsky was an activitist who
studied human activities through the use of a mediator (e.g. tools and mental
representation or a physical entity). The society or cultural encompasses one’s ability to
determine what kind of tools that may be available to him. He believed that learning leads
to development when the child mastered the use of tools he is provided with. He also
elaborates that activities may shifts depending based on the dominant goals in ones life
and the tools available to access these goals. Tools that are internally orientated such as
symbols and mental representation are created to control forgetfulness (memory) of the
mind. The rest constitute the external tools designed to master and reconstruct ones
physical environment.
Piagetian theoretical perception also leans towards a continuity theorist view. It
explains that, old cognitive structures or schemas in children are not discarded with age
but rather developed by incorporating or modifying other schemas into it. In other words,
the schemas built at an early age of infancy would determine the child’s understandings
of his world. He proposed four main cognitive developmental stages that each child must
undergo. The first stage, development of sensori-motor schema, develops from birth to
two years old. Within this stage are six sub-stages as follows: a. Reflective Activity Stage
(birth – 1month) where early schemas are modified and formed based on reflex deeds
3
such as sucking, looking and grasping; b.Primary Circular Reactions (1- 4months)
involves repeating behaviors that resulted in interesting self-centered outcomes; c.
Secondary Circular Reactions (4- 8 months) which entails repetition of behaviors that
resulted in interesting outcomes in the external environment. During this time, the child
begin to search for objects that have been dropped or are partially hidden from his view;
d. Coordination of Secondary Schemas (8- 12 months) where the child combine his
actions to achieve a goal and search for hidden objects; e. Tertiary Circular Reactions
(12- 18 months) where the child experiments with different actions to achieve a specific
goal or observe the outcome. He may have the capacity to follow visible displacement of
objects; f. Invention of New Means through Mental Combination (18- 24 months)
involving mental representation and imitation of certain behaviors. The child is able to
deduce the location of hidden objects without visual cues. When the child has satisfied
these tasks, he proceeds to the next stage: Pre-operational stage.
The Preoperational child two to seven years old and can perform semiotic functions.
With semiotic functions, the child is able to use symbols to represent ideas. The child
may be able to mimic people’s reactions with distinct precision. The preoperational
thinker, however, maybe misled by his perceptions of what is actually happening. This
encourages egocentrism and the child is unable to separate his observations from other
people’s views. At this stage, the child lacks the mental capacity of reversibility. Hence,
the child cannot overturn activities or perform simple conversion.
Mentally, upon completion of the second stage, the child moves on to the third:
Concrete Operational Stage 7-11 year’s kids. In this period, the child is able to
understand the concept of conservation; the child understands that despite physical
4
transformation of objects to another form, some attribute remained the same: volume,
number length or mass. The child can also comprehend the concept compensation in
which two dimensions can replace each other. It involves the capacity of reversibility in
one’s thinking and establishing relationships between objects. Furthermore, he can tell
time, space, morals, family values, numbers, and class and quantity concepts.
The final stage is called the Formal Operational Stage (11years and older). At this
stage, Piaget believes that the child’s thinking is both logical and abstract. The child can
systematically deduce, evaluate and generate possible solutions to a given problem.
According to Piaget, knowing the cognitive developmental stage of the child helps to
know what challenges could be presented to them.
In addition, active learning provides deeper and more lasting understanding than
learning mechanically by memorization (chew and pour). Therefore, Piaget urges
educators to provide children with hands-on learning experiences to enhance their
comprehension of subjects such as mathematics and science.
Vygotsky suggested that the zone of proximal should be adopted in teaching and
learning to monitor the progress of the learner.
Vygotsky theory also differs from Piaget’s theory as it sides with a discontinuity theorist
perception. This is evidenced in his view that human beings change their activities in
accordance to their dominant or leading goals. Therefore, the tools used to execute one goal
will not necessarily be needed for the other. He proposed that there are two main mental
function needed to be develop cognition. The first, the Lower or Elementary Functions, are
performing directly, unconsciously and involuntarily. These functions include reactive
attention, associative memory and sensory-motor thoughts. These activities are regulated by
5
the external environment and one has no control over. The second is the Higher Mental
Functions which activities are preformed with focused attention, deliberate memory and
symbolic thought. These higher functions are self-regulated and within ones control.
1. According to Piagetian developmental perceptive, there is no relationship between
instruction (teaching-and-learning) and development. He explained that, the educator has
a higher stage of cognitive development than the child; therefore, instructions from him
would confuse the child and delay or obstructs his development. Piaget advises that the
best thing for an educator to do is to provide supervision while allowing the children to
initiate active learning on their own. The educator can also encourage children to
socialize more with their peers; Piaget believed that peers with the same level of
cognitive development can enhance faster development in themselves while they
challenge (development of cognitive conflict) one another. In Piaget’s book, cognitive
development is an individual affair and cannot be taught. The child alone can initiate selflearning unconsciously in his own time and pace.
On the other hand, Vygotsky emphasized that, the essential relationship between
instruction and development. His view stressed the importance of society in developing the
cognition of the child.
Together, these two theorists have presented viable points of view to promote the
ultimate development of the mental capacity of the children. Taking the best of both
worlds
3) Case study I: Protagonist in Push
6
Precious Johnson was a teenager, born in Harlem. She lived in a shelter home with her
mother, a dependant on welfare. She was surrounded by drug dealers, addicts and alcoholics.
Her parents were child molesters and abusers. Her parents were not married but have an off
and on relationship. She was molested physically, sexually, emotionally and psychologically
by both of her biological parents. This resulted in her having two kids by her father. She had
issues learning at conventional formal school. She cannot keep up with conventional
education. She felt like a fish out of water both at school and at home. She resulted to
bullying and acting out in class.
The role of education (teaching and learning)
At the onset, at the conventional or traditional educational set-up, ps 146, education played it
a negative role in Precious’s cognitive development. There was no positive adult guidance in
her case. . She developed inferiority complex and felt incompetent at that school. Her parents
were such losers and full of hostility that she begun to internalize these negative behaviors
also.
Later at teach one each one, learning became personally meaningful to precious. Miss
Rain and her class put a positive spin in precious’s cognitive development. Precious learned
the essence of learning and goal setting and became a totally different person. She gradually
took control of her life and situation and made the best out of it
Case Study II: Antonio Ruiz
Antonio Ruiz was born in the Bronx. High school drop- out, poor reading and writing skills but
he is an excellent chef. Emotionally insecure and does not believe in unconditional love. He
adores his mother but despise his dad. He keeps to himself a lot but can be very open.
The role of education (teaching and learning)
7
Education to him was domesticating and pointless. It felt like a waste of time because no matter
how hard he tried, it seemed as if he was the only one who was not grasping teaching materials.
He hated mathematics and writing. He turned to cooking because it made more sense to him.
Cooking captured his interest and he could always tell when he had done something wrong. He
can dissemble any electrical appliances and then assemble them back. He enjoyed the challenges
such activities brings. He was not learning through just hearing or reading but was also learning
through direct practices or hands on. He is a loner because he had learnt from experience as a
protective shield or survival technique. In Antonio’s case, education must be through active
learning and the material being taught must be practical and mentally stimulating.
8