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Samuel, J. and Bryant, P. (1984) Asking only one question in the conservation experiment

Samuel, J. and Bryant, P. (1984) Asking only one question in the conservation experiment.

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Samuel, J. and Bryant, P. (1984) Asking only one question in the conservation experiment

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  1. Samuel, J. and Bryant, P. (1984) Asking only one question in the conservation experiment • BackgroundSamuel and Bryant's experiment is one of many studies which have attempted to challenge Piaget's theory of cognitive development through criticising his methods. It is important that we firstly understand Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

  2. Samuel, J. and Bryant, P. (1984) Asking only one question in the conservation experiment • Piaget believes that it is not just the amount of knowledge which distinguishes a young child from an older child. There is actually a qualitative difference in their thoughts.

  3. Piaget thought that intellectual development happened in stages, and that a child would only go on to the next stage once it had completely mastered the first one. Each stage is seen as a kind of 'building block' for the next stage to rest on. Development of Intellect

  4. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development Piaget outlined four stages of cognitive development, and gave approximate ages at which children reached those stages. He stressed, though, that these ages are only averages; individual children might go through the stages at a different speed but they would always go through the stages in the same order.

  5. 1. Sensory motor stage (birth to 2 years) During this stage the child gains understanding of its environment by using its senses in combination with movement. Sensory Motor Stage

  6. Pre-Operational Stage • 2. Pre-operational stage (2 years to about 7 years). • During this stage the child becomes able to represent objects or events by symbols or signs. The child is now able to use language and express ideas.

  7. Pre-Operational Stage • Piaget devised numerous tests which highlighted the errors children make with certain problems. These errors demonstrated the different quality of thought children have in different stages. One of the most well known tests Piaget used to show the limitations of child thinking in the pre-operational stage was the conservation experiment.

  8. Conservation Tasks - Volume • In one of his conservation tests Piaget demonstrated that if you show a child two beakers of water, one of which is tall and thin, the other short and fat, and ask the child which beaker contains the most water, the pre-operational child (i.e. child under 7) will say 'the tall one', even though they both contain the same amount of water.

  9. Conservation Tasks - Volume

  10. Conservation Tasks - Volume • Piaget argued that this is because the child has not developed the ability to conserve volume, which does not develop until the child is in the concrete operational stage. Conservation of volume is the ability to realise that something may have the same volume, even though it is a different shape.

  11. Conservation Tasks - Mass • Similarly he demonstrated that if you roll a piece of clay into a ball, show it to a pre-operational child and then roll it into a sausage shape, the child will say that there is more clay in the sausage shape. “Are they the same?” “Are they the same?” Roll one of the play dough balls into a sausage shape

  12. Conservation Task - Number • Piaget also demonstrated that, if you present a pre-operational child with a row of five buttons spread out and a row of five buttons close together, the child will say that the spread-out row contains more buttons “Are they the same?” “Are they the same?”

  13. What is conservation? • Piaget argued that the inability to conserve is due to the child's failure to understand that things remain the same (constant) despite changes in their appearance (how they look). Piaget believes this is an example of centration. The pre-operational child has not decentred and is therefore centring on just one dimension. For example, the child is centring on just one dimension of the beaker, usually its height, and so fails to take width into account

  14. Concrete Operational Stage • 3. Concrete operational stage (7 to around 11 years) • During this stage the child is able to use more sophisticated mental operations. For example, the child is said to have decentred. Decentring simply means being able to take account of more than one aspect of a situation. However the child is still limited in a number of ways, for example, they tend to think about the world in terms of how it is, and find it hard to speculate on how it might be.

  15. Formal Operational Stage • 4. Formal operational stage (12 years and above). This stage is mainly governed by formal logic and abstract thought and is the most sophisticated stage of thinking. “What would happen if there was no sun?” • “Dog is to hair as bird is to feathers” • If all animals have four legs, and if this table has four legs, then is this table an animal?

  16. Summary • Piaget – children’s thinking is qualitatively different to adults. • Children’s intellect develops through stages. • 4 stages – Sensory Motor, Pre-Operational, Concrete Operational and Formal Operational. • Conservation Tasks used.

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