Cognitive Development

1. Cognitive Development A Look at How Students Think Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

2. Do any of these sound familiar? • “So…which is the right answer?” • “What exactly do you want from us?” • “Well, if there is no right answer, then my opinion is just as valid as yours.” Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

3. If so, it’s not surprising… • And it’s not necessarily because the students have been given wrong answers… • Or, because you’ve been confusing or unclear… • Rather…your students’ cognitive development may not have reached a level appropriate to what you are expecting from them Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

4. Cognitive Development • What is Cognitive Development? • Why is it important to understand? • Perry’s model of Cognitive Development • Other models • References Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

5. What is Cognitive Development? • Cognitive development is a process through which people develop more sophisticated methods of understanding or perceiving information, opinions, theories, or facts. • In a sense…it describes the intellectual transition a person makes from being able to deal with a black and white world, to one with many shades of gray. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

6. Why is it important to understand? • Provides insight into student perspectives • Helps instructors appreciate how students understand or perceive information • Allows instructors to appropriately tailor information or questions • Current level • Beyond Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

7. Why is it important to understand? • Concepts appropriately beyond the current cognitive level result in: • disequilibrium followed by • accomodation • Going too far can cause frustration. If too great, the student may leave. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

8. Perry’s Model • Perry’s model is concerned with: • How students move from a dualistic (black and white) view of the universe to a more relativistic (shades of gray) view • How students develop commitments within the relativistic world • Perry’s model includes four separate stages which are broken down into nine individual positions Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

9. Perry’s Model: The Positions • Stage 1: Dualism • Position 1 – Basic Duality • Position 2 – Dualism: Multiplicity Prelegitimate • Stage 2: Multiplicity • Position 3 – Early Multiplicity • Position 4 – Complex Dualism and Advanced Multiplicity Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

10. Perry’s Model: The Positions • Stage 3: Relativism • Position 5 – Relativism • Position 6 – Relativism: Commitment Foreseen • Stage 4: Commitment • Positions 7, 8 and 9 – Levels of Commitment Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

11. Stage 1 – Dualism • Students learn how to learn • There are right answers and wrong answers. • Learning is information exchange. • Knowledge is quantitative and the right answers are dispensed by authorities. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

12. Position 1: Basic Duality • World view is dualistic – right versus wrong • Authorities know all of the answers • Men identify with authority. Women do not. • Instructor should teach correct answers. Failure to do so indicates the instructor is bad. • Conflicts with multiplicity result in accommodation by modifying position 1 and moving to position 2. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

13. Position 2: Multiplicity Prelegitimate • Multiplicity exists, but basic dualistic view maintained • There is a right and wrong. • Multiple views are either wrong or “the authority is playing games to make us figure out the right answer” • Since authorities can be wrong, the absolute answers are independent of authority, and consequently some authorities are smarter than others. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

14. Position 2: Multiplicity Prelegitimate • Engineering students in this position can solve problems • Closed-end • Single correct answer Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

15. Stage 2 – Multiplicity • Students learn to think independently and improve their ability to think analytically. • There are conflicting answers, so one must trust their inner voice, not authority. • A continuum exists such that diverse views can be accepted when the answer is unknown. • All opinions are valid. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

16. Position 3: Early Multiplicity • Multiplicity unavoidable – even in hard sciences/engineering • Still one right answer, but it may be unknown by authority • Gap widens between authority and the one truth Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

17. Position 3: Early Multiplicity • Realization begins that knowledge in some areas is “fuzzy” • Conflict arises – how can instructor evaluate student’s work if the answer is not yet known? • “What do they want?” • In engineering few opportunities exist, outside of design classes, to move to positions 3 or 4 Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

18. Position 4: Complex Dualism and Advanced Multiplicity • Tries to retain dualistic view, but understands that variety of opinion legitimately exists • Conforms to “what authority wants” by learning independent intellectual thought • Learns that independent-like thought will earn good grades Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

19. Position 4: Complex Dualism and Advanced Multiplicity • May oppose authority’s wants in areas where multiplicity is important • Engineer in position 4 can generate clever, creative solutions to problems. • May lack vision and ability to prioritize. • Many engineers with advanced degrees are in positions 3 and 4 Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

20. Stage 3 – Relativism • Individual recognizes the need to support opinions • Rationale for beliefs takes into account questioning as well as a contextual basis for positions taken. • Knowledge is viewed more qualitatively. • Knowledge is contextually defined, based on evidence and supporting arguments. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

21. Position 5: Relativism • Student now sees everything as relative • Relativism is now the common characteristic and absolutes are the exceptions. This is the reverse of position 4. • Relativistic thought becomes habitual without being noticed. • Students in a relativistic position advances beyond the “all opinions are equal” stage by using evidence to develop positions which are more likely. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

22. Position 6: Relativism – Commitment Foreseen • Student can see the need for commitment, but has not yet made it • Commitment is a mature decision made after one has accepted that the world can be viewed as relativistic and has seen all of the possibilities Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

23. Position 6: Relativism – Commitment Foreseen • Previous decisions recalled and examined from a detached viewpoint. • Commitments can be made in a variety of areas such as career, religion, marriage, politics, values, etc. • Major commitments are not to be rushed. Student may stay in position 6 for a while. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

24. Stage 4 – Commitment • Student finds the sense of identity searched for elsewhere. • Knowledge learned from others integrated with personal experience and thought. • Making choices in a contextual world. • Initiates the ethical development of the thinker Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

25. Positions 7, 8 and 9: Levels of Commitment • Positions 7 through 9 are levels of commitment beginning initially in position 7. • Positions represent degrees of development and depth. Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

26. Other Cognitive Development Models • Baxter Magolda's Model of Epistemological Reflection • Belenky's Epistemological Perspectives from Which Women Know and View the World • Sinnott’s Complex Postformal Thought Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

27. References • Wankat, Phillip C., Oreovicz, Frank S., Teaching Engineering, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, Chapter 14. • www.cs.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/perry.positions.html • www.ericfacility.net/ericdigest/ed284272.html • www.new.towson.edu/iact/main_files/cognitive.htm • admin.vmi.edu/ir/sid.htm Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

28. References • academic.pg.cc.md.us/~wpeirce/MCCCTR/perry~1.html • arl.cni.org/newsltr/193/ld.html • english.ttu.edu/kairos/2.1/features/brent/perry.htm Gateway Engineering Education Coalition