Part IV

1. Part IV Chapter Twelve Cognitive Development: The School Years Building on Theory Language Teaching and Learning Prepared by Madeleine Lacefield Tattoon, M.A.

2. Building on Theory Theories of cognition in school-age children have been used to structure education.

3. Building on Theory • Piaget ‘s: Concrete Operational Though • term for the ability to reason logically about direct experiences and perceptions

4. Building on Theory • An Example: Classification • the logical principle that things can be organized into groups (or categories or classes) according to some characteristic they have in common

5. Building on Theory • identity • the logical principle that certain characteristics of an object remain the same even if other characteristics change • reversibility • the logical principle that a thing that has been changed can sometimes be returned to its original state by reversing the process by which it was changed

6. Building on Theory • The Role of Instruction • Vygotsky regarded instruction by others crucial • teachers and peers provide the bridge between the child’s developmental potential and the necessary skill and knowledge • in the zone of proximal development, other people are crucial • Cultures (tools, customs, people) teach people

7. Building on Theory • Cultural Variations • patterns of cognition are apparent worldwide • demands of the situation • learning from other sellers • daily experience

8. Building on Theory • Information processing • the view of cognition as comparable to the functioning of a computer and as best understood by analyzing each aspect of that functioning---sensory data input, connections, stored memories, and output

9. Building on Theory • Memory • Sensory Memory • the component of the information-processing system in which current conscious mental activity occurs--also called short-term memory • Long-term Memory • the component of the information-processing system in which virtually limitless amounts of information can be stored indefinitely

10. Building on Theory • Control processes • mechanisms (including selective attention, metacogniton, and emotional regulation) that combine memory, processing speed, and knowledge to regulate the analysis and flow of information within the information-processing system • Metacognition • “thinking about thinking,” or the ability to evaluate a cognitive task to determine how best to accomplish it, and then to monitor and adjust one’s performance on that task

11. Language • language advances rapidly before middle childhood • by age 6 children have mastered most of the basic vocabulary and grammar of their first language

12. Language • school-age children can learn up to 20 new words a day • increases in logic, flexibility, memory, speed of thinking, metacognition, and connections between facts enhance the learning of first and second languages

13. Teaching and Learning • school-age children are: • great learners • develop strategies • accumulate knowledge, • apply logic, and think quickly • universally children are given responsibility and instruction at about age 7 • the age when their bodies and brains are ready • 95% of children are in school by age 7

14. Teaching and Learning • Curriculum • everywhere children are taught to read, write, and do arithmetic • when, how, to whom, and whether second-language instruction should occur varies form nation to nation • religious instruction is another major variable—some public school teach

15. Teaching and Learning • No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 • a U.S. law passed by Congress in 2001 that was intended to increase accountability in education by requiring standardized tests to measure school achievement. Many critics, especially teacher, say the law undercuts learning and fails to take local needs into consideration.

16. Teaching and Learning • Reading First • a federal program that was established by the No Child Left Behind Act and that provides states with funding for early reading instruction in public schools, aimed at ensuring that all children learn to read well by the end of the third grade

17. Teaching and Learning • Hidden Curriculum • the unofficial, unstated, or implicit rules and priorities that influence the academic curriculum and ever other aspect of learning in school

18. Teaching and Learning Iranian girls acting out a poem they have memorized from their third-grade textbook

19. Teaching and Learning • Education Wars and Assumptions • adults differ in their beliefs about what children should learn, and how

20. Teaching and Learning • Japanese Education

21. Teaching and Learning • The Reading Wars • phonics approach • teaching reading by first teaching the sounds of each letter and of various letter combinations

22. Teaching and Learning • The Math Wars • mathematic instruction in the U.S. has become problematic • economic development depends on science and technology • many children hate math – • U.S. students are weaker in math than students in other nations • how to teach math does not always benefit children