Phil Cerullo
Professor Mcgall
Educational Psychology
Fall 2010
Chapter 2
1. Please provide a few words or an example for the following:
a. Development- orderly and adaptive changes we go through from conception to
death.
b. Physical development- changes in the body structure and function over time
c. Personal development-changes in personality over time
d. Social Development- changes in how we relate to others other time
e. Cognitive Development- changes in mental processes; mental processes become
more complex and sophisticated over time
f. Maturation- genetically programmed, naturally occurring changes over time
2. Briefly discuss/complete the following:
a. What is the current view on nature versus nurture?- This debate has raged over
2000 years with researchers on both sides arguing that one was more important
than the other. New research emphasizes coactions between nature and nurture.
Each of the two shapes and influences the other, and both play a role in our
development.
b. Continuity- Continuity would be a continuous process that would include gradual
improvements that would lead to the adding and increasing of abilities.
Continuous change or quantitative change means progress and change are steady.
c. Discontinuity- The other side of the argument. Discontinuity is a qualitative
change process that includes leaps and bounds to new stages, where abilities
change. There are level periods but you would ascend to the next stage and the
new abilities all at once.
d. Timing: sensitive periods- The debate over timing was between critical periods
and later experiences. New research has found that sensitive periods are the best
way to understand timing. Sensitive periods are times when a person is especially
ready for or responsive to certain experiences, but the experience can still occur
after the sensitive period, just at a slower rate. For example, children have the
capacity to learn 2 or more languages before the age of 6, but adults can also learn
a new language, but it takes more time and hard work.
e. Beware of either/or; Today, most psychologists see human development, learning,
and motivation as a set of interacting and coating contexts, from internal and
external factors.
3. What are the 3 general principals of development?
a. The three general principals of development are that people develop at different
rates, development is relatively orderly, and development takes place gradually.
4. Provide one or a few words to describe the following:
a. Cerebellum-coordinates movement; maybe involved in higher cognitive functions
such as learning.
b. Hippocampus- critical in recalling new information and recent experiences and
memories
c. Amygdala- directs emotions and emotional memories
d. Thalamus- involved in our ability to learn new information; particularly verbal
e. Reticular formation- plays a role in attention and arousal. It blocks some
messages, while sending others to higher brain systems
f. Cerebral Cortex- Largest area of the brain, allows for complex problem solving
and language
Neuron cells send out long arm and branch-like fibers called axons and dendrites to
connect with other neuron cells and share information by releasing chemicals that jump
tiny space called synapse, between the fiber ends transmit information to mussels, glands,
or other neurons: dendrites receive information and transmit it to the neuron cells
themselves.
5. As we develop and adapt to our environment neuron synapse are oversupplied and
pruned. Only those neurons that are used will survive, and unused neurons will be
pruned.
Two kinds of over production and pruning processes take place. Please discuss or give an
example:
a- Experience-expectant- The synapses are overproduced in certain parts of the
brain during certain developmental periods, and await stimulation. An
example would be the visual and auditory cortex, which has a abundance of
synapses that await stimulation when the child is born. This process is used
for normal development
b- Experience-dependent- Synaptic connections are formed based on the
experiences of the individual. New synapses form in response to neural
activity in very localized areas. This process is involved in individual
learning.
Stimulating environments may help in the pruning process in early life. Should we
encourage parents to provide extra stimulation and expansive toys for young children?
A- Research has shown that extra stimulation will not necessarily improve
development for children who are already receiving adequate and typical
amounts of stimulation. Thus we should not be encouraging parents to provide
extra simulation or to buy expensive toys for their children. Research has
shown that pots and pans, blocks, books, and water all provide adequate and
excellent stimulation.
What is mycelination? What is it responsible for? When does it mostly occur?
A- Mycelination is the coating of axon neuron fibers with an insulating fatty
covering. Mycelin coating makes message transmission faster and more
efficient. Mycelination happens quickly in the early years of development, but
continues gradually into adolescence. Mycelination is also responsible for
growth in brain size, which explains why a child’s brain grows rapidly during
the first five years.
6. The cerebra cortex develops more slowly than other parts of the brain. The part of the
cortex that controls physical motor movements matures first then the areas that control
complex senses such as vision and hearing and last, the frontal lobe that controls higherorder thinking processes. The temporal lobes of the cortex that play a major role in
emotions and language do not develop fully until the high school years and could be later.
Different areas of the cortex seem to have different functions….(but) to accomplish more
complex functions such as speaking or reading, the various areas of the cortex must
communicate and work together.
7. What is lateralization? Plasticity?
a. Lateralization is the specialization of the two hemispheres of the brain. Each half
of the brain controls the opposite side of the body and each of the two halves is
more efficient and productive in performing certain tasks. The right side, for
example, greatly affects emotions and special reasoning, while the left side
controls many aspects of language.
b. Plasticity is the brain’s tendency to remain somewhat adaptable and flexible. The
brains of young children show more plasticity and can somewhat overcome
damage to the left side of the brain and still allow for language development.
**Remember both sides of the brain must be used, though one side may be more efficient
at a task than another but tasks require both sides to work together. The jury is still out on
many of the so called “Brain-Based Programs”**
8. What did Piaget conclude are the two invariant tendencies?
a. Piaget concluded that the two invariant tendencies are organization, which is the
combining, arranging, recombining, and rearranging of behaviors and thoughts
into coherent systems, and adaptation, which is adjusting to the environment.
9. Give an example of
a. Assimilation- One example of assimilation would be a young child, who knows
what a doggy is, who sees a cow and pronounces doggy. The child is attempting
to place the new stimulus of the cow into the existing schema (category) of
doggy.
b. Accommodation- Accommodation occurs when a person must change existing
schemes to respond to a new situation. If a new stimulus cannot fit into a schema,
a new schema is created. An example would be when a child creates a truck
schema instead of calling all trucks, buses, and other vehicles cars.
c. Equilibrium is the act if searching for balance. If we create a certain scheme or a
certain category and it makes sense to us and it works, then equilibrium occurs. If
the scheme makes us feel uncomfortable or does not work in the situation,
disequilibrium is occurring. When we are in a sense of disequilibrium, we
constantly attempt to use assimilation and accommodation to find a solution and
obtain equilibrium.
10. Please provide an example of the qualitative differences in thinking and also provide a
name and give the age of someone you know for each of Piaget’s four stages:
a. Sensorimotor- In this stage the child’s thinking involves seeing, hearing, moving,
touching, and tasting. Infants also develop object permanence, which is the
opposite of out of sight out of mind, meaning that a child understands that objects
exist in the environment whether they are able to see it or not. If a parent holds a
spoon to the child and then takes it away, a child who has mastered object
permanence will still reach for the spoon knowing that it has not disappeared from
the world. Children also begin to develop goal-directed actions, which are
deliberate actions towards a goal. For example a child can learn that if he hits a
drum, a noise will be made. One child I know is Landon who is about one and a
half.
b. Preoperational- This is the stage before children fully master logical mental
operations. Operations are actions a person carries out by thinking them through
instead of literally performing the actions. The ability to form and use symbols is
a major accomplishment of this stage. The ability to work with symbols and
represent actions or objects mentally is semiotic functions. This can be used in
playing pretend. Reversible thinking, thinking backwards, is difficult for children
in this stage. Children can think operations through logically in one direction.
Children have difficulty with conservation, the principal that the amount or
number of something remains the same even if the arrangement or appearance is
changed (water in two different glasses). Children in this stage are also egocentric
and view the world from their point of view. Ryan is in the preoperational stage
and is 5 years old.
c. Concrete-operational- During this stage children will be able to solve concrete or
hands on problems in a logical fashion, understand the laws of conservation, will
be able to classify and seriate, and will understand reversibility. Children
recognize the logical stability of the physical world. Children, as mentioned, can
now solve problems with conservation, but they require three basic aspects of
reasoning; identity, compensation, and reversibility. Identity is the principal that a
person or object remains the same over time and keeps the same identity.
Compensation is the principal that changes in one dimension can be offset by
changes in another, such as pouring water from a short glass into a taller glass.
Reversibility is the ability to start at the end of a task and work backwards to get
back to the starting point. Children in this stage also master classification, which
is grouping objects into categories or sets, and from there they will find out that a
set can fit into another set. Children also master seriation, which is the process of
making an orderly arrangement from large too small or vice versa. Lauren is in
this stage and is nine years old.
d. Formal Operational- This is the final stage of Piaget’s theory and this stage
presents individuals with abstract and hypothetical problems that cannot be solved
concretely. Individuals become more scientific in thinking and develop concerns
about social issues such as identity. Formal operations are mental tasks involving
abstract thinking and coordination of a number of variables. Thinking can shift
from what is to what might be. They can demonstrate hypothetico-deductive
reasoning, which is a problem solving strategy in which an individual begins by
identifying all the factors that might affect a problem and then deduces and
systematically evaluates the solutions. Deduction is taking a general assumption
and placing it on specific instances. They can also use induction, and abstract
thinking such as algebra (f+4=8F) or writing, what are some metaphors in the
poem. During this stage, adolescent egocentrism is present, is the assumption that
everyone shares their ideas, feelings, concerns, and beliefs. They also create an
imaginary audience, (everyone was laughing at me) Nickolas is fourteen and is in
this stage.
Do you believe you have reached the formal stage?
I do believe I have reached the formal stage of Piaget’s cognitive development. I
feel I can adequately use the correct form of reasoning, either deduction or
induction in a given situation. Similarly to Piaget’s beliefs, I feel I have reached
the formal stage in certain areas but not all of them. I feel I can use formal
operations in mathematics up to a certain point, being pre-calculus. I can use
formal operations in English and can infer and pull out themes and other
information from works of literature and can create my own point of view in
poetry. I do not think I have the formal operations needed for science. I can think
about the hypothetical and answer what if questions.
Please look at all the guidelines for teaching in the various stages!!
11. What do Neo-Piagetian Theories integrate into their approach?
a. Neo-piagetian theories integrate findings about attention, memory, and strategy
use with Piaget’s insights about children’s thinking and the construction of
knowledge, which is taken from the information processing theory.
12. Briefly discuss some limitations of Piaget’s Theory Stages
a. Underestimating abilities- Newer research has demonstrated that Piaget may have
underestimated the abilities of children, especially the younger ones. His
problems may have been to confusing or too difficult. Reseach has shown that
pre-schoolers knew more about the concept of number than Piaget might have
believed. Piaget’s theory does not explain why some children, like prodigies, can
use advanced thinking at a young age, such as a young expert mathematician. We
may be born with a greater store of cognitive tools than Piaget thought.
b. Cognitive Development and culture- Piaget may have been correct about the
sequence of stages, but the age ranges for the stages seem to vary by culture and
country. Western children have been found to move to the next stage about two or
three years earlier than non-western children. Culture also plays a role in the way
that children perceive tasks. For example, a child in one culture might group
different items together than a child from another culture due to the beliefs life
style of the culture.
Vygotsky believed that human activities take place in cultural settings. Social interactions
are more than simple influences on cognitive development—they actually create our
cognitive structures and thinking processes.
What does Vygotsky mean by co-cognitive development?
Co-cognitive development means that higher processes are constructed through
shared experience.
What are the differences between Piaget and Vygotsky on the importance of social
interaction in cognitive development?
Piaget based his ideas on our need to transform disequilibrium into a state of
equilibrium. Piaget felt that cognitive conflict motivated change. He felt the most
important interactions were the ones with peers. Piaget also did not find private speech
helpful and labeled it as egotistic speech. Vygotsky on the other hand, felt that cognitive
ability grew out of social interactions and apprenticeships with people who were more
capable or more advanced in their thinking, such as parents or teachers. Vygotsky was
also a proponent of private speech, which he felt was essential for learning and cognitive
development.
13. Vygotsky believed that all higher order mental processes, such as reasoning and problem
solving, are co-constructed by psychological tools/cultural tools. What are some cultural
tools?
a. Some cultural tools would include calculators, spell-check programs on word
processors, graph paper, rulers, and literary analysis books, such as cliff notes.
14. Briefly discuss the difference between how Vygotsky and Piaget view Private speech
a. Vygotsky placed more emphasis than Piaget on the role of learning and language
in cognitive development. Noticing children talking while playing, Piaget called
this collective monologue, a form of speech in which children in a group talk but
do not really interact or communicate. He thought this process was egotistic and
supported his views that children cannot see the world from another’s perspective.
He thought the least socialized children used private/egotistic speech. Vygotsky
thought Private speech was important in cognitive development. Private speech is
children’s self-talk, which guides their thinking and actions, these verbalizations
are internalized as silent inner speech. He thought private speech could help
children self-regulate, or the ability to plan, monitor, and guide one’s own
thinking and problem solving. Private speech can help children monitor their
behaviors and solve problems effectively, and at some point private speech will
become silent inner speech.
15. Please provide an example of a child’s learning using figure 2.4, label each part including
the magic middle.
a. One example of a child’s learning would be having a child learn multiplication. If
the teacher attempted to just explain multiplication without the child being
exposed to it would be what the learner is not ready or able to learn. If the
instructor realizes multiplication is too difficult and decides to do more practice
with addition and subtraction, this would be an example of what the learner
already knows and would be boring. If the educator used a scaffolding technique
where an extension of addition could be used to explain multiplication would be
an example of a magic middle technique. (2X5 would be 2+2+2+2+2)
16. Briefly discuss
a. Private speech and the zone- The zone of proximal development is the phase at
which a child can master a task if given appropriate help and support. A child who
utilizes private speech can receive less scaffolding support and then they can
internalize the private speech to inner speech. For example if a person is trying to
remember how to do a math problem. The child may think… “How do I solve
this? Addition will not work, nor will subtraction. What was that problem Mrs.
Smith showed us…oh yeah multiplication with cubes. If I have that many cubes
and that many people How many would I have…oh yeah the answer is 34.
b. Differences in Piaget and Vygotsky on the role of learning and developmentPiaget thought development was an active construction of knowledge and learning
was the passive formation of associations. He believed that cognitive
development had to come before learning because the child had to be ready to
learn. Vygotsky believed that learning was an active process that does not have to
wait for readiness. He viewed learning ad a tool in development, learning had the
potential to pull development up to higher levels and social interaction is a key to
learning.
17. What are the limitations of Vygotsky’s theory?
a. One limitation of Vygotsky’s theory is that he may have gone to far in
highlighting the role of culture and social processes in cognitive development.
Vygotsky did not detail the cognitive processes underlying developmental
changes. What processes allow a child to venture into social activities, while
others cannot? Vygotsky’s theory is also filled with general ideas. He passed
away before he could expand or elaborate on his views.
18. Piaget believes that the main goal of education should be to help children learn how to
learn and education should form not furnish the minds of students. If we understand
children’s thinking we can then match teaching to student’s current knowledge and
abilities (cognitively and developmentally appropriate lessons)
a. What did Robbie Case 1985 suggest about teaching? Robbie’s case suggests you
observe your students carefully as they try to solve problems. You should try to
determine what logic they use and how you think they are viewing the problem.
Ask them what strategies they are using. Are they using guess and check or do
they know how to solve the problem logically. It is suggested that students are the
best sources of information about their own thinking.
b. What is Hunt’s “problem of the match?”- Hunt’s problem of the match is that
students should neither be bored by work that is too easy nor left behind by
concepts that are too difficult to understand. Disequilibrium must be kept just
right to lead to a conceptual change in knowledge.
c. What is differentiated instruction? Differentiated instruction is using multi-level
lessons. This will allow students to be introduced to a topic together and then
work individually on activities based on their learning needs. This could be either
learning potential or by different learning modalities (VARK)
d. What was Piaget’s fundamental insight about how individuals construct their own
understanding?- Piaget believed that learning was a constructive process. He
believed active experience should include mental manipulation as well as physical
manipulation. This idea would help children to switch dimensions in their
classifications and center on another aspect of the situation. All students need to
interact with teachers and peers to challenge and test their thinking, as well as to
receive feedback and on how others solve the problems. Concrete experiences
provide the raw materials for thinking.
19. For Vygotsky briefly discuss
a. The role of adults and peers- Vygotsky believed that the child is not alone in thw
world of discovery. Parents, family members, teachers, and peers assist children
in discovery. Adults and peers use scaffolding, support for learning and problem
solving that eventually grows smaller and smaller until the child can become an
independent learner.
b. Assisted learning- Children should not be expected to reinvent or rediscover
knowledge already available in the culture. Teachers should use assisted learning,
which is guided participation, in which help is provided in the initial stages of
learning, but is soon diminished as students gain independence. Walking through
the steps of solving a problem, doing parts of the problem, giving detailed
feedback, allowing revisions, or asking refocusing questions are all forms of
assisted learning.
c. Teaching and the magic middle- This idea would most likely be supported by
both Piaget and Vygotsky. The magic middle is the area where students are
neither bored nor frustrated. Sometimes having a child work with another student
is a positive method because they both benefit from the exchange of explanations,
elaborations, and questions. Dialogue and discussion are important and successful
avenues to learning.
**Please look at guidelines for applications of Vygotsky’s ideas**
20. What did Luis Moll learn in their attempt to create a better way to teach children of
working class Mexican American families?
a. Moll utilized cultural funds of knowledge, which is knowledge that families and
communities members have acquired in many areas that can be used for the basis
of teaching. They found the funds of knowledge to be in agriculture, economics,
medicine, household management, mechanics, science, and religion. The teachers
then based their assignments on these funds and the students became more
engaged, while teachers were educated on their student’s lives.
21. What factors are involved in language development?
a. The factors involved in language development are biological, cultural, and
experimental. Children need to read the intentions of others in order to acquire
words and concepts of their language (pragmatics) and must find patterns in how
people use language to construct grammar.
22. Look at the milestones table 2.4. Most of the sounds of a native language have been
mastered by age 5. Define:
a. Expressive language- are the words a person can speak and are the words that can
be spoken to another person
b. Receptive language- the words that a person can understand in spoken or written
words.
c. Bilingual- speaking two languages and dealing appropriately with the two
different cultures. There vocabulary for each language is usually smaller than a
child who is only speaking one language, yet both combine equals what a onelanguage child knows.
d. Grammar- the rules of language and of sentence structure. Grammar is sometimes
overregularized, which is when a rule of grammar or syntax is used where the rule
does not apply. (I ated an apple)
e. Syntax- The order of words in phrases or sentences
f. Pragmatics- The rules for when and how to use language to be an effective
communicator in a particular culture. The social rules of language. (voice,
sarcasm)
g. Metalinguistic Awareness- understanding about one’s own use of language. Being
aware of what you may say before you say it. (Thinking about speaking)
23. Children can be fully bilingual with two languages
a. What are some benefits of being bilingual- Students have higher and greater
cognitive development and metalinguistic understanding. Speaking two languages
can be a benefit in the business world as well.
b. What is balanced bilingualism?- Balanced bilingualism is being equally fluent in
both languages.
c. Second-language learning—pronunciation critical period- The earlier people learn
a second language, the more the pronunciation will be more native. After
adolescence it is difficult to learn a language without speaking with an accent.
24. What is emergent literacy?
a. Emergent literacy is the skills and knowledge that are the foundation for the
development of reading and writing. These are mostly learned in the pre-school
years. The most important skills include those related to understanding sounds
and codes such as knowing letters have names, that words are made up of sounds,
knowledge of syntax, receptive language, and the ability to tell and understand
stories.
b. What related activities help build a foundation of emergent literacy? Two related
activities are conversations with adults that develop knowledge about language
and joint readings, which are using books as supports for talk about sounds,
words, and pictures.
25. According to Woolfolk what are some convergences garnered from Piaget, Vygotsky,
and recent researchers on cognition and the brain?
a. Some convergences are teaching to the magic middle, cognitive development
requires both physical and social stimulation, children need to be mentally,
physically, and linguistically active to develop, challenge with support will keep
students engaged but not fearful, and that children in social environments with
more adult-produced, child-directed speech (complex and vocabulary) will
acquire language more rapidly.