What is the connection between??

1. What is the connection between?? Lev Vygotsky Jean Piaget

2. Three Main Areas Development of thinking Development of moral understanding Development of social cognition Unit 3 - Topics in PsychologyCognition & Development

3. AQA ‘A’ Exam Board Specification Wording.. Development of thinking • Theories of cognitive development, including Piaget &Vygotsky • Applications of these theories to education. Development moral understanding • Theories of moral understanding (Kohlberg) and/or prosocial reasoning (Eisenberg). Development of social cognition • Development of the child’s sense of self, including Theory of mind (Baron-Cohen) • Development of children’s understanding of others, including perspective-taking (Selman) • Biological explanations of social cognition, including the role of the mirror neuron system

4. 1. Development of thinking

5. Overview • Cognitive development is the study of how our mental activities develop. Research has raised many issues including the difference in the way adults and children think; are the differences due age or experience? Or are they learned or innate? You will study three theories that try to explain this process.. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky

6. Before Jean PIAGET …

8. Jean PIAGET

9. Worksheet 1. Development of Thinking Piaget Background • Jean Piaget (1896-1980) • Best known Psychologist (after Freud!) • Trained in Zoology • Worked on Childrens Intelligence Tests As a result-produced Stage Theory of Cognitive Development in response to children’s consistent test errors at key ages video

10. PIAGET Structure of the intellect • “Schema” – “a psychological structure that represents everything a child knows about objects or actions-built up from basic reflexes/experience” • “Assimilation” -Process of fitting new information or experiences into existing schemas • “Equilibration”, i.e. equilibrium/disequilibrium” - between new/old experiences, i.e. new schema formation-heart of adaptation process… • “Accommodation”- process of changing existing schemas when new information cannot be assimilated – thereby creating new ones

11. How do you learnThrough schemas ? New experience Existing schema challenged? NOYES Disequilibrium experienced Assimilation Accommodation New schema formed Equilibrium achieved

12. Process in action According to Piaget intellectual growth involves three fundamental processes: assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration. Assimilation-accommodation Assimilation involves the incorporation of new events into pre-existing cognitive structures. Accommodation means existing structures change to accommodate to the new information. This dual process, assimilation-accommodation, enables the child to form schema.

13. Equilibration (equilibrium-disequilibrium) Equilibration involves the person striking a balance between himself and the environment, between assimilation and accommodation. When a child experiences a new event, disequilibrium sets in until he is able to assimilate and accommodate the new information and thus attain equilibrium. There are many types of equilibrium between assimilation and accommodation that vary with the levels of development and the problems to be solved. For Piaget, equilibration is the major factor in explaining why some children advance more quickly in the development of logical intelligence than do others

14. Activity – group poster presentations- prop demos StageProps Group 1- Sensorimotor Stage 0-2 years paper + toy Group 2- Pre-Operational Stage 2-7 years mountains + cars - Pre-conceptual 2-4 years pre concepts + animism - Intuitive Stage 4-7 years egocentrism Group 3 - Concrete Operational Stage 7-11 years counters + beakers Group 4- Formal Operational Stage 11 years + beakers

15. For info ..

16. PIAGET’S COGNITIVE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years) Pre-Operational Stage (2-7 years) Pre-conceptual (2-4 years) Intuitive Stages (4-7 years) Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years) Formal Operational Stage (11+ years)

17. Sensorimotor Stage (cont.) • Object permanence’- realization that objects exist even if they are out of sight - Piaget suggests that up to 8 months infants do not search for objects that are hidden from view . But then 1year oldsdo look • video

18. Evaluation However.. • Bower (1981) showed that 5 month old babies would show surprise if an object hidden behind a screen was not there when the screen was lifted This research suggests that it’s not the age that is important but the issue of it happening at all • Bower suggests that Piaget may have underestimated what infants could do

19. Pre-Operational Stage(2-7 years) “Daddy’s car!” Pre-conceptual (2-4 years) • Between the ages of 2 and 4 children begin to develop basic schemas for example if daddy has a blue car, every blue car is Daddy’s car. • Children also begin to give objects lifelike qualities, this is called animism. • When children are between 4 and 7 years old they begin to base their knowledge on what they feel is true, but they can’t explain the underlying principles.

20. Intuitive Stage (4-7yrs) • Children base their knowledge of what they feel or sense is true but they cannot explain the underlying principles • Egocentrism - child finds it hard to understand the perspective of another

21. Intuitive Stage (4-7yrs) --- 3 Mountain Task --- • Doll placed in various positions • Child asked to say what the doll could see

22. Intuitive Stage (cont.) --- 3 Mountain Task --- Results • Children said the scene would look the same as their own viewpoint. This was the case wherever the doll was positioned.

23. Evaluation Intuitive Stage ( 4-7yrs) Policeman Task (Hughes, 1975) • Child asked to hide a doll from two policemen. • Then asked if policeman could see the doll from various positions

24. Policeman Task (Hughes, 1975) Results • Unlike Piaget, Hughes found that 90% of children aged 3-5 could take another person’s perspective -when they understood the task • More realistic task (hiding from someone) than 3 mountains test. • Could DECENTRE

25. Concrete Operational Stage ( 7-11 yrs) • Intuition replaced by use of logical rules • Children’s understanding still limited by using actual ‘concrete’ world • Difficulty in considering hypothetical or abstract ideas • Two important features of this stage ….

26. Concrete Operational Stage(7-11 years) • Transitivity- The ability to recognize logical relationships among elements in a serial order (for example, If A is taller than B, and B is taller than C, then A must be taller than C). • Classification—the ability to name and identify sets of objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic • Decentering—where the child takes into accounts points of view, other than their own. It is crucial for developing future relationships • Reversibility—the child understands that numbers or objects can be changed, then returned to their original state. For this reason, a child will be able to rapidly determine that if 4+4 equals t, t−4 will equal 4

27. Conservation—understanding that quantity, length or number of items is unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of the object or items. • Elimination of Egocentrism—the ability to view things from another's perspective (even if they think incorrectly). For instance, show a child a comic in which Jane puts a doll under a box, leaves the room, and then Melissa moves the doll to a drawer, and Jane comes back. A child in the concrete operations stage will say that Jane will still think it's under the box even though the child knows it is in the drawer. • Children in this stage can, however, only solve problems that apply to actual (concrete) objects or events, and not abstract concepts or hypothetical tasks.

28. 1. Classification Ability to be able to order a set of items in terms of dimensions like height, width or both. e.g. when given dolls of different height, the child can arrange them in height order

29. 2. Transivity Ability to recognise logical relationships within a series e.g. if Joe is taller than Sue, and Sue is taller than Bethan, then it follows that Joe is taller than Bethan

30. 2. Transivity (cont.) • Piaget used Conservation tasks to test this ability.. Examples of Conservation involving number & volume video Transformation Beakers Counters

31. SummaryConcrete –Operational Stage Thinking is becoming ‘operational’ • Decline of egocentric thought • Begin to think logically • Decline in animism • Therefore, they can cope with conservation, and seriation

32. Evaluation Concrete Operational Stage Demand Characteristics Rose & Blank (1974) suggested that by asking two questions- one before and one after- the transformation, children may think “ if the question is being asked again, even though nothing has changed, perhaps there is another answer” ‘Naughty Teddy’ (McGarrigle & Donaldson 1974) Used a ‘naughty teddy’ glove puppet to ‘accidentally’ spread out one row of beads. Children’s ability to conserve was much improved compared to Piaget’s methodology.

33. However… Moore & Frye (1986) proposed that the children were so absorbed by the ‘naughty teddy’ that they did not even notice any transformation. This was tested by seeing what would happen if a counter was added or removed. When asked the children replied that no change had taken place, suggesting that the teddy was indeed a distraction.

34. Formal Operational Stage (11+ yrs) • Capable of abstract and systematic thought demonstrated by… Beaker Problem (Piaget & Inhelder, 1956) Participants given four beakers of colourless liquids and asked to find which combination will produce yellow liquid. Older children used abstract deductive reasoning

35. Evaluation Formal Operational Stage • Dasen (1994) claimed that only a thirdof adults ever reach this stage • Piaget assumed everyone reached this level of abstract reasoning. He worked extensively with highly intelligent children (non-representative sample ) so his results may not be universally true, i.e. Low external validity

36. Evaluation

37. Overall Evaluation Internal validity • Piaget underestimated children’s abilities • He did not distinguish between competence(what a child is capable of doing) and performance(how a child performs on a particular task). His studies tested performance. • Piaget assumed that a child who failed a task lacked the underlying cognitive structures needed to succeed on that task-subsequent research (mentioned earlier) suggested that a child may have these competencies earlier than he suggested.

38. Overall Evaluation • Piaget’s stages are too prescriptive • Practice improving performance Piaget stated that if a person is not biologically ready to move on to the next stage of development then no amount of practice will get them there. However…Bryant & Trabasso (1971) trained children under 7 to cope with logical mental rules

39. Overall Evaluation However… Support • Smith et al (1998) suggested that Piaget’s ‘stages’ were connected to biologically regulated cognitive changes that occur during development. They conducted cross-cultural research and replicated Piaget’s findings

40. Summary • Piaget produced the first comprehensive theory of cognitive development • Theory extensively developed • Large influence on educational practice • Generated large body of research

41. Key Points Innate, stage theory, i.e. maturation and ‘readiness’ learning process involving; schemas / equilibrium-disequilibrium accommodation / assimilation Outline stages (key features)

42. Piaget’s Stages- CLIPS Clip 1- Sensorimotor & Object Perm. Clip 2 - Egocentrism Clip 3- Conservation Clip 4- Reasoning

43. IT Activity-Role playPsychology video camera & your mobile phone cameras Piaget Stages – “Staged” Observation • In groups, you are going to go plan, rehearse then act out role plays for the key features of Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development • These will be filmed using the psychology video cameras • Then return to the classroom and these will then be uploaded and shown to the class next lesson..

44. Activity Page 147 textbook 1. Description 200 words (worth 8 marks) 2. 8 criticisms with two IDA-each to be about 50 words 4. 600 word answer to; “Discuss Piaget’s theory of cognitive development” (8+16 marks)

45. Potential exam question “Discuss Piaget’s theory of cognitive development” (8 + 16 marks)

46. 2 ways to write these ..

47. Essay Plan 1 Definition of cognitive development Describe Piaget’s theory • Innate, stage theory, i.e. maturation and ‘readiness’ with learning process involving; schemas / equilibrium-disequilibrium accommodation / assimilation • Outline stages (key features) Evaluation Weaknesses- Hughes (1975) ‘policeman task’ • McGarrigle & Donaldson ‘naughty teddy’ • Rose & Blank ‘Demand characteristics’ • Moore & Frye ‘Not naughty teddy’ • Dasen (1994) ‘not everybody reaches formal stage’ Support- Smith et al (1998) suggested that Piaget’s ‘stages’ were connected to biologically regulated cognitive changes Overall- Piaget’s stages are too prescriptive • IDA – deterministic + nature vs nurture , i.e. biological approach so it supports nature • Guilty of measuring performance not competence.

48. Or ..Plan 2 A01 Definition of cognitive development and how Piaget’s theory is this Describe Piaget’s theory- Innate, stage theory, i.e. maturation and ‘readiness’ with learning process involving; schemas / equilibrium-disequilibrium accommodation /assimilation Outline stages (key features) & evaluate as you go.. Stage 1- Describe then evaluate - Bower (object permanence) Stage 2- Describe then evaluate - Hughes (1975) ‘policeman task’ Stage 3- Describe then evaluate - McGarrigle & Donaldson ‘teddy’ - Rose & Blank ‘Demand characteristics’ - Moore & Frye ‘Not naughty teddy’ Stage 4- Describe then evaluate - Dasen (1994) ‘not everybody reaches’ Overall evaluation at the end.. - Smith et al (1998) suggested that Piaget’s ‘stages’ were connected to biologically regulated cognitive changes.. - Piaget’s stages are too prescriptive so unreliable… • Guilty of measuring performance not competence…. • IDA – deterministic + nature vs nurture , i.e. biological approach so it supports nature A02 A03

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