Human Growth
and
Development
Chapter Twelve
The School Years:
Cognitive Development
PowerPoints prepared by Cathie Robertson, Grossmont College
Revised by Jenni Fauchier, Metropolitan Community College
Building on Piaget and
Vygotsky
• Concrete Operational Thought
– Piaget’s 3rd stage
– children reason logically about the
things and events that they
perceive
• Vygotsky did not believe the child was
a socially isolated learner
– instruction by others is crucial
Logical Principles
•
•
•
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Classification
Identity
Reversibility
Reciprocity
• Classifying Objects, Ideas, and People
– Classification—process of organizing things
into groups according to some shared
property
– Children have an understanding categories
can be any of the following:
• hierarchical
• overlapping
• separate
– Children that can categorize can analyze
problems, derive correct solutions, and ask
follow-up questions
• Identity, Reversibility, and
Reciprocity
– identity—the idea that certain
characteristics of an object remain the same
even if other characteristics change
– reversibility—the idea that sometimes an
object that has been changed can be
returned to its original state by reversing
the process by which it was changed
– Reciprocity occurs when 2 things change in
opposite ways in order to balance each other
out; e.g., conservation experiment with liquid
• Identity, Reversibility, and
Reciprocity
– all three concepts are relevant to
mathematical processes
– these concepts can be (but are not
always) applied to everyday social
encounters
Logic and Culture
• Piaget’s ideas still remain logical
– research shows that sometimes older
children may make mistakes when
applying new logic
• Vygotsky’s premise is that, added to
Piaget’s ideas, the social cultural
context of learning is important
• Most research in U.S. and England
– but in Brazil, research has shown that
street children who do not attend
school can still think in complex ways,
and that a special relationship exists
between thinking and experience
Moral Development
• Focus is on Kohlberg’s theory
– built on Piaget’s theory and
research, theory describes moral
developmental stages
Kohlberg’s Stages
• Kohlberg studied responses of
subjects presented with ethical
dilemmas to see
– how a person reasons determine
stage of moral development
Kohlberg’s Stages, cont.
• Kohlberg found 3 levels of moral
reasoning
• I. Preconventional: Middle Childhood
– these first 2 stages of moral thinking
relate to preoperational thought, in
being egocentric
• emphasis on getting rewards and
avoiding punishment
Kohlberg’s Stages, cont.
• II. Conventional: End of Middle
Childhood, Beginning of Adolescence
-these 2 stages relate to
concrete operational thought,
in referencing observable
practices in community
• emphasis on social rules
Kohlberg’s Stages, cont.
• III. Postconventional : Adolescence
and Adulthood
– these 2 stages similar to formal or
postformal thought, which includes
ideas and ideals
• emphasis on moral principles
Kolhberg’s Critics
• Kohlberg’s basic scheme has been
replicated, but his ideas have been
widely criticized
• Three Major Criticisms
– flawed research methods
– hierarchy biased in favor of Western
elite
– moral development of women ignored
Kohlberg’s Critics, cont.
• Criticism 1: Methodology: To avoid
Kohlberg’s cumbersome methodology,
James Rest devised Defining Issues
Test (DTI)— a questionnaire that
measures moral thinking by asking
people to read various dilemmas and
then rank 12 statements as possible
resolutions for each statement
- DIT confirms validity of Kohlberg’s three levels
Kohlberg’s Critics, cont.
• Criticism 2: Cultural Differences
- research suggests that in non-Western
cultures, preeminent values are different
from western ones, making it harder for nonWesterners to score at Kolberg’s
preconventional level
- research suggests that Kohlberg’s hierarchy
may underestimate reasoning capacity of
some school-age children in some cultures
Kohlberg’s Critics, cont.
• Criticism 3: Gender Issues
• Carol Gilligan (1982)
– females develop more of a morality of
care—a reluctance to judge right and
wrong in absolute terms because they
are socialized to be nurturant,
compassionate, nonjudgmental
– males develop more of a morality of
justice—a tendency to emphasize justice
over compassion, judging right and wrong
in absolute terms
Information Processing
• Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories in
relation to moral development
– both recognize ages 7 to 11 are time for
moral growth
– children eager to develop moral values in
stages (Kohlberg, inspired by Piaget)
– or in response to cultural norms
(Vygotsky and Gilligan)
Information Processing
• Information Processing Theory
- processes by which the mind
• analyses
• stores
• retrieves
• Mind is like a computer
- capacity can be upgraded with
development
Memory
• Sensory memory aka sensory
register—stores incoming stimulus
for split second then sends it on
– sensations become perceptions
• Working (short-term) memory—
where your current, conscious mental
activity occurs
• Long-term memory—stores
information for minutes, hours, days,
months, years
Speed of Processing
• Older children are quicker thinkers
than younger children
• Thinking speed continues to increase
throughout adolescence
• Automatization helps free up
thoughts for speed of processing
Knowledge Base
• Knowledge base—broad body of
knowledge in a particular subject area
that makes it easier to master new
learning in that area
• Connections between bits of
information improve as the knowledge
base expands
Control Processes
• Control processes—regulate the
analysis and flow of information
within the system
– helped by maturation of prefrontal
cortex
Selective Attention
• Selective attention—ability to
concentrate on relevant information
and disregard distractions
• Memory and thought depend on this
ability
- focusing on what needs to be
remembered
• Improved control
– emotional regulation shows it
Metacognition
• “Thinking about one’s thoughts”
• Older children approach cognitive
tasks more strategically and
analytically
The Pragmatics of
Language
• Pragmatics—using language fluently
in many types of situations; from
play through school years,
distinguished by
– logic
– memory
– ability to make connections
between one bit of knowledge and
another
Teaching and Learning
• Worldwide, many ideological debates
swirl around the content and practice
of elementary education
• A review of practices in 5 cultures
found
– discrepancy between “expressed
claim and observed reality”
Which Curriculum?
• Intended curriculum—content
political and educational leaders
decide to endorse
• Implemented curriculum—what
teachers and school administrators
actually offer
• Attained curriculum—what students
actually learn
Which Curriculum, cont.
• Hidden curriculum—unspoken and
often unrecognized lessons children
learn in school
– organization and schedule arise
from hidden curriculum
• e.g., classroom size
The Reading Wars
• Phonics
• Whole language
• “Reading Wars”—clashes over these
two methods of teaching children to
read
Phonics Versus Whole
Language
• Phonics approach—teaching reading
by requiring children to learn the
sounds of each letter before they
begin to decipher simple words
Phonics Versus Whole Language,
cont.
• Whole-language approach—teaching
reading by encouraging children to
develop all their language skills—
talking and listening, reading and
writing—all with the goal of
communication
The Socioeconomic Divide
• Language development, reading
attainment correlate with
socioeconomic status
– the lower the family income, the less
developed a child’s vocabulary and grammar
• Crucial factor seems to be actual exposure
to language (children exposed to language at
home will have larger vocabularies)
• vocabulary size the best predictor of school
achievement and overall intelligence
The Math Wars
• Math and science are key areas in
which children should be ready for
the challenges of the future
– gains in U.S. have faded
• Traditionally taught through rote
learning
– children came to hate math taught
this way
The Math Wars, cont.
• New curriculum developed that
teaches
– concepts, problem solving,
estimating, and probability
– this approach may be working
• proportion of 4th graders who
were “proficient” doubled (26%)
The Math Wars, cont.
• Technology is another area of
controversy
– Specifically, computers
– digital divide—gap between rich and poor
in computer access
– students in U. S. twice as likely to use
computers in math and science than
students in other nations . . . but our
math and science scores relatively low
Bilingual Education
• Learning a 2nd language
– best time to be taught it is in
middle childhood
Various Approaches
• Total immersion—approach that
teaches a second language in which
instruction occurs entirely in that
language and the learner’s language is
not used at all
Attitudes and
Achievement
• Success or failure in 2nd language
learning seems to lie in the attitude of
– teachers
– parents
– the larger community
• Additive bilingualism—both languages
valued and used
• Semilingual—neither language learned
well