Cognitive Development Theories, etc.
PIAGET’S LEARNING THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
According to Piaget, some students are just not ready to learn the concept that you may
want to teach. For example, you may want to teach the causes of the Civil War and
begin by asking your students why thy think the war broke out in 1861. But suppose
your students responded with, “When is 1861?” Obviously their concept of time is
different from your own. They may think, for example, that in time they may become the
same age of an older sibling, or they may confuse the present with the past. The point is
they are just not ready to learn this concept.
Underlying Piaget’s theory is the assumption that we constantly strive to make sense of
the world. HOW DO WE DO THIS? Piaget says we make sense of the world in four
ways:
1. Biological maturation or the unfolding of biological changes that are generally
programmed in each human at conception. Parents and teachers have little
impact on this cognitive development, except to be sure that children are well
nourished and healthy. Piaget refers to this unfolding as four stages of cognitive
development. These stages include:
a. Sensorimotor (0-2 years) – where the child begins to make use of
imitation, memory, and thought. It is here that the child recognizes that
objects do not cease to exist when they are hidden and begins their
growth from reflex actions to goal-directed activity.
b. Preoperational (2-7 years) – where the child gradually develops use of
language and ability to think in symbolic form. It is here that the child is
able to think operations through logically in one direction; however, the
child has great difficulty seeing another’s point of view.
c. Concrete Operational (7-11 years) – where the child is able to solve
hands-on problems in logical fashion. Where they understand laws of
conservation and they are able to classify and seriate. It is here that a
child understands reversibility.
d. Formal Operation (11-adult) – where the child is able to solve abstract
problems and becomes more scientific in their thinking. It is this stage
where the young person develops concerns about social issues.
2. Activity or the ability to act on the environment and to learn from it. When a
child’s coordination is reasonably well developed, for example, they may play on
a seesaw and from that experienced learn the concept of balance. As the child
explores, tests and observes, he/she eventually organizes information and is
likely to alter his/her own thinking process at the same time.
3. Social Transmission where the child learns from others and receives the
knowledge offered by our culture. The amount that children or anyone, for that
matter, can learn from social transmission varies according to their stage of
cognitive development.
4. Equilibration, or the act of seeking balance. Piaget assumes that all people
search for balance between their cognitive schemes and the information they
receive from the environment. If the scheme does not produce balance, then
disequilibrium exists, and the person becomes uncomfortable. This motivates
the person to seek a solution to the problem and continue their search until
equilibration is achieved.
How teachers use Piaget’s Theory:
Teachers can use Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to understand students’
thinking and to match instructional strategies to students’ abilities. His theory can also
be very helpful in understanding how children make sense out of their world and how
teachers can establish conditions where children construct their own knowledge. His
theory, however, has been criticized because children and adults often think in ways that
are inconsistent with the notion of invariant stages. It also appears that Piaget
underestimated a child’s cognitive abilities and underestimated cultural factors in child
development. These critics often point to work of Vygotsky as an example of a theory of
cognitive development that does include the important role of culture.
VYGOTSKY’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Vygotsky placed much or emphasis than Piaget on the role of culture, schooling and
especially language in cognitive development. In fact, Vygotsky believed that language
in the form of private speech (talking to yourself) guides cognitive development. In his
theory, students talk themselves through problems and learning tasks. Like Bruner, he
believed in scaffolding or supporting the learner during the learning task with clues,
reminders, encouragement, breaking the problem down into steps, providing examples
or anything else that would aid the student to grow in independence. For Vygotsky,
assisted learning was more than a method; it was the foundation upon which the student
built higher mental processes such as problem solving. Like Piaget, he believed that
conditions where students are seeking balance and resolution to a problem enhances
learning. He called this condition the AONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT; Piaget
would have labeled it disequilibration. The difference is that Vygotsky and Bruner would
have provided much more timely, appropriate guidance and support from teachers and
other students called scaffolding and assisted learning.
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS FOR LEARNING
Maslow suggested that humans have a hierarchy of needs ranging from lower-level
survival and safety to higher level needs for intellectual achievement, learning, and what
he called “self-actualization.” This is the term that Maslow used for self-fulfillment, the
realization of one’s human potential.
Maslow’s Hierarchy in Ascending Order:
1. physiological needs
2. safety needs
3. belonging and love needs
4. esteem needs
5. need to know and understand
6. aesthetic needs
7. self-actualization needs
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BRUNER’S DISCOVERY LEARNING
Bruner emphasized the importance of understanding the structure of the subject being
studied, the need for active learning as the basis for true learning. He suggests that
teachers can nurture intuitive thinking and discovery learning by encouraging students to
make guesses based on incomplete data and then confirm or disprove the guesses
systematically. After learning about ocean currents and shipping industry, for example,
students would be shown old maps of three harbors and asked which one became a
major port. Students would then check their answers through research. While this may
sound like constructivism, it is not. Bruner is very careful to label his theory GUIDED
DISCOVERY especially for students in secondary schools.
In guided discovery, the teacher provides direction, has objectives, and expects students
to end up where she intends. She readily responds to their questions and, in the end
provides the correct answers for her students. The point is that students are presented
with intriguing questions, baffling situations, or interesting problems: Why does the flame
go out when covered? Why does this pencil bend when placed in water? In stead of
explaining how to solve the problem, the teacher provides material and encourages
students to make observations, form hypotheses, and test solutions. Feedback must be
given at the optimal time along with teacher reinforcement.
DAVID AUSUBEL’S RECEPTION LEARNING
Ausubel’s view of learning offers an interesting contrast with Bruner’s Discovery
Learning theory. According to Ausubel, students learn through reception rather than
discovery. Concepts, principles, laws, rules, and values are presented and understood,
not discovered. He stresses that teachers should present a highly organized and
focused lesson if students are to learn well. He also stresses, what he calls, Meaningful
Verbal Learning of ideas and information in a carefully organized context which
demonstrates how the ideas, concepts and information relates. Rote memorization is
not considered meaningful learning.
His theory of teaching is called Expository Teaching. This is where teachers present
materials in a carefully organized, sequenced, and somewhat finished form and students
thus receive the material in the efficient way. Unlike Bruner, Ausubel believes that
learning should proceed, not inductively but deductively – from the general to the
specific.
ADVANCED ORGANIZERS
Optimal learning occurs when there is a fit between what the student already knows and
what is to be learned. To make this fit more likely, Ausubel says the teacher should
always begin with an ADVANCED ORGANIZER. This is an introductory presentation of
the concept being taught and the context in which it will be taught. This presentation
should be broad enough to encompass all the information that will follow. The function
of the Advanced Organizer is to provide scaffolding for the new information. Textbooks
often contain advanced organizers.
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MADELINE HUNTER’S DIRECT INSTRUCTION FOR LEARNING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Clear and specific objectives
Set and focus
Content (concepts, laws and law-like principles, rules, values)
Checking for understanding
Guided Practice
Independent Practice
Evaluation
BARAK ROSENSHINE’S DIRECT INSTRUCTION MODEL FOR LEARNING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Academic focus
Teacher directed
Group instruction
Demonstration-practice-feedback
Teach to mastery
BENJAMIN BLOOM’S TAXONOMY FOR LEARNING
Bloom accounts for the variance between students that are learning and students who
are not in his model. He then provides taxonomy of learning. This taxonomy can be
used to help teachers write objectives, make assignments, and to ask questions. By
changing the very form, the teacher moves her objective, assignment, and questions
from lower order to higher order. This taxonomy, from lower to higher order, is below:
1. Knowledge
2. Comprehension
3. Applications
4. Analysis
5. Synthesis
6. Evaluation
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WEINER’S THEORY OF ATTRIBUTION LEARNING
Students attribute their success or failure to three dimensions: locus (internal or
external), stability (stays the same or can change), and responsibility (whether the
person can control the cause or not), He classifies these dimensions as:
1. Internal or external
2. Stable or unstable
3. Controllable or uncontrollable
Whatever the label, a sense of control, choice as self-determination is critical if people
are to feel intrinsically motivated. When students come to believe that events and
outcomes in their lives are mostly uncontrollable, they have developed learned
helplessness. This learned helplessness appears to cause three types of student
deficits:
1. motivational
2. cognitive
3. affective
ATTRIBUTION AND STUDENT MOTIVATION
Most students try to explain their failure to themselves. When a successful student fails,
they often make internal-controllable attributions: they misunderstood the directions, or
simply lacked the background knowledge, or did not study hard enough.
MOTIVATIONAL PROBLEMS arise when students attribute failure to stable
uncontrollable causes. These students may become resigned to failure, depressed and
almost helpless – what the teachers usually call UNMOTIVATED. These students
respond to failure by focusing even more on their own inadequacy; their attitude toward
schoolwork may deteriorate even farther. Apathy is the logical reaction to failure if
students believe the causes of their failure are stable, unlikely to change, and beyond
their control.
ATTRIBUTION AND ACHIEVEMENT
1. Mastery Oriented – high need for achievement, low fear of failure
2. Failure Avoiding – high fear of failure
3. Failure Accepting – expectation of failure
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GAGNE’S CONDITIONS FOR LEARNING
Verbal information - Relate new material to learner’s framework
Provide meaningful context
Provide imagery
Give clues for effective retrieval
Intellectual Skills Stimulate recall of prerequisite skills
Provide applications
Provide novel situations
Cognitive Strategies - Describe the strategy
Demonstrate the strategy
Provide opportunities for practice
Motor Skills Provide mental rehearsal and demonstration
Repetition with correction
Attitudes Provide respected model(s)
Enact positive behavior
When learner enacts, provide reinforcement
GAGNE’S INSTRUCTIONAL EVENTS
1. Gaining attention
2. Informing learner of the object
3. Stimulate recall of prior learning
4. Provide learning content
5. Elicit performance
6. Provide feedback
7. Assess performance
8. Provide retention and transfer
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HOWARD GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE LEARNING THEORY
In 1983, Howard Gardner of Harvard wrote a book entitled, Frames of Mind: The Theory
of Multiple Intelligences. In this book, Gardner outlines his theory of multiple
intelligences. There are two fundamental propositions central to MI-Theory: (1)
Intelligence is not fixed. We have the ability to develop the intellectual capacity of our
students. (2) Intelligence is not unitary. There are many ways to demonstrate
intelligence. There is not just general intelligence, but rather multiple intelligences.
Everyone has each intelligence and a unique pattern of multiple intelligence. His theory,
of course, conflicts with mainstream psychological theory of intelligence. Mainstream
theory assumes a relatively fixed I.Q. throughout life within a standard error of
measurement and argues for a general intelligence.
Gardner set out in search of multiple intelligences. He believed that for anything to be
considered intelligence, it had to meet three conditions. An intelligence must include:
1. Skills enabling individuals to resolve genuine problems.
2. The ability to create an effective product.
3. The potential for finding of creating problems.
Gardner originally selected several intelligences that met these conditions, and has
recently added an eighth, the Naturalist.
The eight intelligences identified by Gardner include:
1. Verbal/Linguistic
2. Body/Kinesthetic
3. Logical/Mathematical
4. Visual/Spatial
5. Musical/Rhythmic
6. Interpersonal
7. Intrapersonal
8. Naturalist
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WILLIAM GLASSER’S CHOICE THEORY
While not specifically a theory of learning, Glasser’s Choice Theory fits into the category
or learning environment as it affects learning. He believes that we have disenfranchised
students in schooling – we “do school” to kids. His recommendations are that we reenfranchise students by giving them much more choice in their educational endeavors.
This does not imply that student have a free-for-all in their choice of curriculum but rather
that within the standard or district-required curriculum, teachers find ways to provide
meaningful choice activities for students. In this way cooperative learning as well as
consideration of theories such as Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences attain more
prominence in the classroom. He categorizes teachers as “boss teachers” or “lead
teachers.”
Boss teachers use rewards and punishment to coerce students to comply with rules
and complete required assignments. Glasser calls this “leaning on your shovel” work.
He shows how high percentages of students recognize that the work they do – even
when their teachers praise them – is such low-level work.
Lead teachers, on the other hand, avoid coercion completely. Instead, they make the
intrinsic rewards of doing the work clear to their students, correlating any proposed
assignments to the students’ basic needs. Plus, they only use grades as temporary
indicators or what has and hasn’t been learned, rather than a reward. Lead teachers will
“fight to protect” highly engaged, deeply motivated students who are doing quality work
from having to fulfill meaningless requirements.
Glasser’s list of basic needs which dictate student behavior (and adult behavior as well)
are:
1. basic needs
2. love and belonging
3. fun
4. freedom
5. power
He feels that, in order for students to be successful and engaged learners, teachers
need to recognize these needs and find strategies and methods to structure activities
that will satisfy them in the classroom (as they are often satisfied in extra-curricular
activities).
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