Talya Rosensweig
Dr. Schnall
11/11/10
Development
A Swiss scientist, by the name of Piaget established that children psychologically
develop in different stages. He says that children are not blank slates to be written on, rather
they are individuals whom build and construct their knowledge. They actively put together
information from the world around them on their own. Piaget believed that children go through
different stages of development which are characterized by certain cognitive traits. He talked
about the pre-operational stage, which he sees as the first stage, ranging from age two through
age seven. First, he discussed the ability for children in this age group to use and understand
symbols.
Second, he discussed the concept of egocentrism. This is the concept that a child is not
capable of perceiving anybody else’s perspective. The child can only perceive their own
perspective on the world. For example, if a child is playing hide-and-go-seek and he closes his
eyes, then, he thinks he is hidden because he is unable to see himself. He will also conclude that
it must be that nobody else can see him either.
Children in this age range will have a hard time with conservation problems. They
cannot understand that basic properties of objects, such as volume, will remain the same, even
if the outer or physical appearances change. They would genuinely not be able to realize that
when taking a liquid from a tall glass, and pouring it into a smaller glass, the amount of liquid
does not change. They would feel that the shorter glass has less liquid, even though they
witnessed the liquid being poured, and saw that it was the same amount. These limitations are
due to centration. Centration is the concept that children at this age can only focus on one
aspect of the situation at a time. They are centered around one specific aspect to such an
extent, that they disregard all the other factors involved. Another cause centration is that
children focus on the static endpoints of situations. This means that, they look at the begining
and at the end, but that they do not focus on the middle actions.
A crucial aspect of being a teacher is understanding the students. If a teacher can
understand the strengths and weaknesses of their students, the teacher could use them to
teach the students in a tailored method, designed for the classroom, and their set of individual
students. Part of this concept is understanding the stage that your students have reached
developmentally. If they are in the pre-operational stage, it is advisable to use concrete
examples or props, and to use visual aids. When teaching a lesson to a class, it is best to
illustrate it by physically drawing the main ideas, acting it out, or using video clips. This will help
the material “come alive” to your students.
The next of Piaget’s developmental stages is the concrete operational stage. This stage
includes children from age eight through twelve. Children in this stage are more limited in their
understanding to tangible, real life situations. At this stage, children can understand the concept
of class inclusion, this means that they have a more advanced idea of classification. They realize
that some classes or sets of objects are also sub-sets of a larger class. They are also able to use
inductive logic, which is reasoning based on their own individual experiences, and to apply this
thinking to general principles. They can also use deductive logic; which is reasoning in which a
person starts with a general principle and uses it to come to a specific outcome or observation.
At this stage, they are capable of using transitive inference, meaning, they can understand
logical relationships and use this way of thinking to find answers.
If a teacher who understands that the students have entered the concrete operational
stage, would use word problems in order to illustrate a math lesson. The students in concrete
operational stage will be able to use their transitive inference in order to solve the word
problems.
Children in the concrete operational stage, also understand the concept of horizontal
decalogue, which is the concept of shifting an item from one level to the next. In this stage, the
children’s mental operations are still tied to concrete ideas. If the materials being taught are not
concrete, they might not be successfully learned. Therefore, when teaching concrete
operational aged students, it is best to use concrete, tangible items and ideas. When teaching
history, it might be advisable to use a time line. When teaching navi, it might be advisable to
have a song about the nevuahs. In science, a teacher might want to utilize physical experiments
demonstrating the ideas that the class is learning. At this stage, a teacher might want to take the
class on field trips, so that they can see and experience the ideas that are being discussed in
class. it would be best to keep the ideas simpler(not too complex) and more familiar.
The next of Piaget’s stages is the Formal operational stage. This stage takes place from
the age of twelve to the age of sixteen. Children at this age can use deductive logic which
involves abstract thinking. This is logic which begins with a premise, and gives the children the
ability to derive a logical outcome. They can develop a hypotheses, and they can develop
experiments by imaging what might be possible to expect. This age group, children have a naïve
idealism. These children can suddenly think of an ideal world (now that they can think in
abstract terms). They can come up with ideas that are different then what they simply see
around them. Children at this age are capable of solving systematic problem solving. For
example, they can understand conservation problems, they are no longer egocentric, and they
can understand the factors that go into the pendulum problem. At this stage, students are
capable of understanding abstract concepts such as truth, and justice.
The formal operational stage comes with a different type of egocentrism. It involves
adolescent egocentrism. Which means having an imaginary audience. This is when adolescents
believe that other people are just as concerned with his or her thoughts as they themselves.
They constantly think to themselves “ what are other people thinking of me?”. They also believe
in a personal fable. Which means that they believe that their newfound ability to think
abstractly is unique and is limited only to themselves. They do not think that it is possible for
anybody else to understand them, because they are unique and different from all others. This
concept of a personal fable, makes the adolescent feel invulnerable, so that nothing bad could
potentially harm them or happen to them.
During the formal operational stage, a teacher is able to use materials and perspectives
from all of the past stages, but should use more sophisticated examples. It would still be helpful
to use concrete visual aids, charts, and illustrations to portray the concepts being learned in
class.
In 1896, Lev Vygotsky, a Russian scientist developed a concept called scaffolding. This is
the idea that a teacher or older child models experiences for a younger child. For example, they
model social speech or they demonstrate a task. Also, he says that in order to be an effective
teacher, a teacher must think about what a student’s next stage is. What can the student
achieve if the teacher helps him? The key, according to Vygotsky, is for the teacher to provide
materials and demonstrations which go past the students current capabilities in order to
develop their student’s potential. A teacher is able to provide the proper education materials
which go a bit past the students current capabilities, so that the student is constantly striving to
do more and better then he is currently capable of doing.