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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
Memory
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).
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
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.
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.
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.
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
(@).
Differences in Language
Learning
Family poverty
• Research shows a strong correlation
between academic achievement and
socioeconomic status
− language exposure
− adult expectations
− macrosystem resources
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
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
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
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
In the United States
NAEP: an ongoing, nationally
representative measure of U.S. children’s
achievement in reading, math, etc.
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
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.
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