Theories and Concepts Betsy McLaurin Eastern Gateway Community College EDU220 Educational Psychology Professor Jessie Clark January 30, 2022 PIAGET’S THEORY Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, children go through four stages of mental growth. 1. Sensorimotor Intelligence, from birth to age 2. Children learn through touching, looking and listening 2. Preoperational Thinking, from ages 2 to 7. imaginative activities are encouraged through dramatic play 3. Concrete Operational Thinking, from ages 7 to 11. Children begin to represent objects and ideas in a more logical way 4. Formal Operational Thinking, from age 11 on. Children are able to reason about more abstract ideas MATH LESSON Lesson Focus: Learn Multiplication Materials Needed: Counters and worksheet Learning Objective: Children will be able to understand basic multiplication facts Activity: Hands on activity using counters to master skills. Use counters to make groups to teach multiplication. Example: 3 groups of 2 makes 6. Equation: 3X2=6 Give students a multiplication fact sheet to work in pairs to come up with the answers. Assessment: Give the children a homework paper to add circle counters to their math facts showing they learned the lesson. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL THINKING: REVERSIBILITY-Ability to think about the steps in any order Only the concrete operational child can recall and describe all of the steps in any sequence. Lesson Focus: Children will be able to put a story in order Materials Needed: Book, worksheet with order Learning Objective: The children will be able to read a story and put the pictures in order from last to first and vice versa Activity: Goldilocks and the Three Bears Assessment: Test the children with another story to see if they are able to put ir in the correct order 1,2,3 or 3,2,1 FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE Hypothetical reasoning: In order to manage thoughts that vary in multiple ways at the same time, a child must do so totally in their heads. The formal-operational child learns to problem solve and develops cognitive skills in all logical combinations. Lesson Focus: Children will learn how to think and try to guess your opponents moves. Materials Needed: Checkers Boards and Chess Boards Learning Objective: They will learn how to play the games. Develops a sense of perspective. Enhances memory. Focus is increased. Enhances the creative process. Enhances planning abilities. Self-awareness is increased. Children tend to think very concretely and specifically in earlier stages, and begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions. Activity: They will get into pairs and play checkers or chess. Assessment: Have a tournament at the end of the week. References Seifert, K., & Sutton, R. (2009). Chapter 3. In Educational Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 41– 50), The Global Text Project.
