Piaget’s
Pre-operational Stage
2-7 years of age
(Jean Piaget 1896-1980)
Revised: February 29, 2012
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Review time out and time in article
Piaget’s Preoperational Child (2-7
years) (Second Stage)
Piaget – Cognitive Stage Theorist
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Cognitive Development-processing of information
Key features
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Not able to use logic
Intuitive Thought
Use symbols or mental representation
Absence of sensory or motor cues
Symbol, object, thought, or word
 represent something not physically present
Refer past & future events
More flexibility & planning in problem solving
Magical Thinking Years!!!
Learn best – Play, Active Exploration, Hands-on Learning
Immature Aspects of
Preoperational Thought (Piaget)
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Ability to reason – developing
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Flaws or immature aspects
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Centration
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Inability to decenter
Irreversibility
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Fail to understand action can be reversed
Immature Aspects of Preoperational
Thought (Piaget)
(Flaws or errors continued)
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Focus on states rather than transformations
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Fail to understand significance of transformation
between states
Conservation/two things are equal altered
appearance
Transductive reasoning
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Do not use deductive or inductive reasoning
Immature Aspects of Preoperational
Thought (Piaget)
(Flaws or errors continued)
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Egocentrism
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Assume everyone else thinks, perceives,
and feels as they do.
Animism
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Attribute life to inanimate objects
(defined Sir Edward Taylor,
anthropologist, 1871)
Immature Aspects of Preoperational
Thought (Piaget)
(Flaws or errors continued)
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Inability to distinguish appearance from reality
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Confuse what is real with outward appearance
Teachers-Understanding preoperational thinkers Insights, perspectives and patience
Language
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Acquire new words rapidly
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Age two – 50 to 400 words
Between 3 & 5 years, 50 new words per month
Age three – 1000 words
Age six – 8-14,000 words
Reference to past & future
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Forming past & future tenses, plurals
Language (continued)
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Acquire grammatical rules of their language
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Error called overregularization may occur
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Use correct syntax
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Overuse basic rules of language
How words should be ordered to convey a particular meaning
Rule of syntax – order of words – phrase or sentence
Economic Poverty
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Below average development of language
Over represented among children with reading difficulties.
Research, middle-class three-year-olds approximately twice
vocabulary same-aged children from lower income families
Gender Identity – Preschool Age
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Develops early
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Awareness-one’s femaleness or maleness
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Tied to self-concept
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Gender constancy
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realization gender stays the same regardless of how one looks
or behaves.
Gender Identity – Preschool Age
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Sex-appropriate toys
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Gender segregation increases
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“Boys” & “girls” toys (trucks, dolls)
Play same-sex peers
Anti-bias Approach
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Address stereotypes, social justice
Preoperational-Social Interactions
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Increasingly reciprocal, coordinated, more complex
Experiment in everyday & imaginary roles
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Engage in play!
Reflected in play – stages
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Least to most socially complex
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Nonsocial activity (onlooker and solitary)
Parallel play
Associative play
Cooperative play
Advances in cognition,
perspective taking, and
communication skills
Differences in Children
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Most typical development
Some significant delays & differences
Identified – developmental disabilities
Child with a disability
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First and foremost a child
All children are typical in many ways
Instead of ‘disabled child’, ‘child with a disability’
Vygotsky’s
Sociocultural Theory
(Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934)
Vygotsky
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Developing his theories same time as Piaget
(20’s & 30’s)
Theories incomplete – death at young age
Social interaction - fundamental role development of cognition
Like Piaget, children learn best through play!!
Emphasis-studied cultures and societies
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How they approach problem solving
Zone of Proximal Development
Level at which a child
can almost but not
fully perform a task
independently, but
can do so with the
assistance of
someone more
competent such as a
parent, teacher or
even older child.
Vygotsky
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Video on Zone of Proximal Development
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http://youtu.be/Zu-rr2PRNkE
Scaffolding
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Supports learning & problem solving
Encourages independence & growth
Simple to complex skill building
Scaffold removed when child can do job alone
Four Stages of Life
 You
believe in Santa Claus.
 You don’t believe in Santa Claus.
 You are Santa Claus.
 You look like Santa Claus.
Learning Styles
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Student Learning
– Identify & understand own learning style
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Differences between learning styles
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Develop strategies for classroom learning
 Make most of your strengths
 Compensate for areas you want to improve
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Current Future Teachers
 How best to present curriculum
 Learn best-play, hands-on active exploration (kinesthetic
learner)
Visual Learners (Learn through
seeing):
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Need to see teacher's body language & facial
expression
Prefers sitting at the front of
the classroom
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May think in pictures
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Prefers visual displays
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including: diagrams, illustrated textbooks, overhead
transparencies, videos, flipcharts and handouts.
Auditory Learners (learn through
listening):
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Verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through &
listening to others
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May interpret underlying meanings of speech through:
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listening to tone of voice, pitch, speed
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Written information
–meaning when heard
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Prefer reading text aloud
& using a tape recorder
Kinesthetic (Tactile) Learners (Learn
through, moving, doing and
touching):
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Hands-on approach
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Prefer actively exploring the physical world
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Hard to sit still for long period
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May be distracted by need for:
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Activity
Exploration
Learning Styles
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Reflect on the following questions to discover
insights about your learning style:
1.
How could knowing your learning style be of benefit to
you personally?
2. How can it be helpful in your interactions with others?
3. How do you think this could help you in your studies?
4. How do you think this could help you during lectures?
5. How do you think this could help you when taking notes?
6.
After identifying your learning style, is there anything
your instructor might do differently in presenting
information each week to help you learn the
information?
(Two questions extra credit on mid-term!)