Defination Essay: Piaget's concrete operational stage
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CHAPTER
2
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
TEACHERS CASEBOOK: Symbols and Cymbals
The provincial curriculum guide calls for a unit on poetry, including lessons on
symbolism in poems. You are concerned that many of your grade 5 students may not
be ready to understand this abstract concept. To test the waters, you ask a few
students to describe a symbol.
Its sorta like a big metal thing that you bang together. Tracy waves her hands
like a drum major.
Yeah, Sean adds, my sister plays one in the high school band.
You realize they are on the wrong track here, so you try again. I was thinking of
a different kind of symbol, like a ring as a symbol of marriage or a heart as a symbol
of love, or . . .
You are met with blank stares.
Trevor ventures, You mean like the Olympic torch?
And what does that symbolize, Trevor? you ask.
Like I said, a torch. Trevor wonders how you could be so dense.
CRITICAL THINKING
What do these students reactions tell you about childrens thinking?
How would you approach this unit?
What would you do to listen to your students thinking so that you could
match your teaching to their level of thinking?
How would you give your students concrete experience with the concept of
symbolism?
How will you decide if the students are developmentally ready for this material
OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES
What is going on with Trevor? In this chapter, you will find out. We begin with a definition of
development and three issues that have intrigued psychologists who study it: nature versus
nurture, continuity versus discontinuity, and critical versus sensitive periods for development.
Next, we look at general principles of human development that most psychologists affirm.
To understand cognitive development, we begin by studying how the brain works, and then
we explore the ideas of two of the most influential cognitive developmental theorists, Jean
Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Piagets ideas have implications for teachers about how their
students think and what they can learn. We will consider criticisms of his ideas as well. The
work of Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, highlights the important role teachers and
parents play in the cognitive development of the child. Vygotskys theory is becoming more
and more influential in the field of child development. By the time you have completed this
chapter, you should be able to:
2.1 Provide a definition of development that takes into account three agreed-upon
principles and describe three continuing debates about development, along with
current consensus on these questions.
2.2 Summarize some current research on the physical development of the brain and
possible implications for teaching.
2.3 Explain the principles and stages presented in Piagets theory of cognitive development.
2.4 Explain the principles presented in Vygotskys theory of development.
2.5 Discuss how the ideas of Piaget and Vygotsky influence current educational research
and practice.
A DEFINITION OF DEVELOPMENT
In the next few chapters, we will explore how students develop, and we will encounter
some surprising situations. In this chapter, you will learn why the following children
behave in peculiar ways:
Leah, a 5-year-old, is certain that rolling out a ball of clay into a snake makes more clay.
A 9-year-old child in Geneva, Switzerland, firmly believes that it is impossible to be Swiss
and Genevan at the same time, insisting, Im already Swiss, I cant also be Genevan.
Jamal, a very bright elementary school student, cannot answer the question, How
would life be different if people did not have to sleep? because he insists, People
have to sleep!
A young girl who once said her feet hurt suddenly begins to refer to her foots hurting,
then describes her footses, before she finally returns to talking about her feet.
A 2-year-old brings his own mother to comfort a friend who is crying, even though the
friends mother is available too.
What explains these interesting events? You will soon find out, because you are enter-ing
the world of child and adolescent development.
The term development in its most general psychological sense refers to certain
changes that occur in human beings (or animals) between conception and death. The term
is not applied to all changes, but rather to those that appear in orderly ways and remain
for a reasonably long period of time. A temporary change caused by a brief illness, for
example, is not considered a part of development. Human development can be divided
into a number of different aspects. Physical development, as you might guess, deals with
changes in the body. Personal development is the term generally used for changes in an
Development Orderly, adaptive
changes that humans (or animals)
go through from conception to
death.
Physical development Changes
in body structure that take place
as one grows.
Personal development Changes
in personality that take place as
one grows.
2
24 PART 1 STUDENTS
individuals personality. Social development refers to changes in the way an individual
relates to others. And cognitive development refers to changes in thinking, reasoning, and
decision making.
Many changes that occur during development are simply matters of growth and matu-ration.
Maturation refers to changes that occur naturally and spontaneously, and that are,
to a large extent, genetically programmed. Such changes emerge over time and are rela-tively
unaffected by environment, except in cases of malnutrition or severe illness. Much
of a persons physical development falls into this category. Other changes are brought
about through learning, as individuals interact with their environment. Such changes make
up a large part of a persons social development. What about the development of thinking
and personality? Most psychologists agree that in these areas, both maturation and interac-tion
with the environment (or nature and nurture, as they are sometimes called) are impor-tant,
although they may disagree about the amount of emphasis to place on each. Nature
versus nurture is one of three continuing discussions in theories of development.
Three Questions Across the Theories
Because there are many different approaches to research and theory, as you saw in Chap-ter
1, there are some continuing debates about key questions surrounding development.
What is the Source of Development? Nature Versus Nurture. Which is more important
in development, the nature of an individual (heredity, genes, biological processes, mat-uration,
etc.) or the nurture of environmental contexts (education, parenting, culture,
social policies, etc.)? This debate has raged for at least 2000 years, and has had many
labels along the way, including heredity versus environment, biology versus culture,
maturation versus learning, and innate versus acquired abilities. In earlier centuries,
philosophers, poets, religious leaders, and politicians argued the question. Today scientists
bring new tools to the discussion as they can map genes or trace the effects of drugs on
brain activity, for example (Gottlieb, Wahlsten, & Lickliter, 2006). Even in scientific expla-nations,
the pendulum has swung back and forth between nature and nurture (Cairns &
Cairns, 2006; Overton, 2006).
Today the environment is seen as critical, but so are biological factors and individual
differences. In fact, some psychologists assert that behaviours are determined 100% by
biology and 100% by environmentthey cannot be separated (Miller, 2002). Current views
emphasize complex coactions (joint actions) of nature and nurture. For example, a child
born with a very easygoing, calm disposition will likely elicit different reactions from
parents, playmates, and teachers compared to a child who is often upset and difficult to
soothe; this shows that individuals are active in constructing their own environments. But
environments shape individuals as wellif not, what good would education be? So today,
the either/or debates about nature and nurture are of less interest to educational and
developmental psychologists. As a pioneering developmental psychologist said over 100
years ago, the more exciting questions involve understanding how both causes work
together (Baldwin, 1895, p. 77).
Social development Changes
over time in the ways in which
one relates to others.
Cognitive development Gradual,
orderly changes by which mental
processes become more complex
and sophisticated.
Maturation Genetically
programmed, naturally
occurring changes over time.
Coactions Joint actions of
individual biology and
environmenteach shapes and
influences the other.
What is the Shape of Development? Continuity Versus Discontinuity. Is human devel-opment
a continuous process of adding to and increasing abilities, or are there leaps or
moves to new stages when abilities actually change? A continuous process would be like
gradual improvement in your running endurance through systematic exercise. A discon-tinuous
change (also called qualitative) would be like many of the changes that occur in
humans during puberty, such as the ability to reproducean entirely different ability.
Qualitative changes are contrasted with purely quantitative change, such as an adolescent
growing taller.
You can think of continuous or quantitative change like walking up a ramp to go higher
and higher. Progress is steady. A discontinuous or qualitative change is more like walking
up stairsthere are level periods, then you move up to the next step all at once. Piagets
theory of cognitive development, described in the next section, is an example of qualitative,
discontinuous change in childrens thinking abilities. But other explanations of cognitive
development based on learning theories emphasize gradual, continuous quantitative change
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Timing: Is It too Late? Critical Periods and Earlier versus Later Experiences. Are
there critical periods when certain abilities, such as language, need to develop? If those
opportunities are missed, can the child still catch up? These are questions about timing
and development. Many earlier psychologists, particularly those influenced by Freud,
believed that early childhood experiences were critical, especially for emotional/social
and cognitive development. Does early toilet training really set all of us on a particular
life path? Probably not. More recent research shows that later experiences are powerful,
too, and can change the direction of development (Kagan & Herschkowitz, 2005). Most
psychologists today talk about sensitive periods, not critical periods. There are times
when a person is especially ready for or responsive to certain experiences. Also, early
experiences, particularly those that have an adverse impact, can have long-term conse-quences
for development.
Beware of Either/Or. As you might imagine, the debates above proved too compli-cated
to be settled by splitting alternatives into either/or possibilities (Griffins & Gray,
2005). Today, most psychologists see human development, learning, and motivation as
a set of interacting and coacting contexts, from the inner biological structures and pro-cesses
that influence development, such as genes, cells, nutrition, and disease, to the
external factors of families, neighbourhoods, social relationships, educational and health
institutions, public policies, time periods, historical events, and so on. So the effects of
a childhood disease on the cognitive development of a child born in the sixteenth cen-tury
to a poor family and treated by bloodletting or leeches will be quite different from
the effect of the same disease on a child born in 2018 to a wealthy family and given the
best treatment available for the time period. Throughout the rest of this text, we will try
to make sense of development, learning, motivation, and teaching without falling into
the either/or trap.
General Principles of Development
Although there is disagreement about what is involved in development and about the way
it takes place, there are a few general principles that almost all theorists would support.
1. People develop at different rates. In your own classroom, you will have a whole range
of examples of different developmental rates. Some students will be larger, better
coordinated, or more mature in their thinking and social relationships. Others will be
much slower to mature in these areas. Except in rare cases of very rapid or very slow
development, such differences are normal, and are to be expected in any large group
of students.
2. Development is relatively orderly. People develop certain abilities before others. In
infancy, they sit before they walk, babble before they talk, and see the world through
their own eyes before they can begin to imagine how others see it. In school, they
master addition before algebra, Harry Potter before Shakespeare, and so on. But
orderly does not necessarily mean linear or predictablepeople might advance,
stay the same for a period of time, or even go backward.
3. Development takes place gradually. Very rarely do changes appear overnight. A stu-dent
who cannot manipulate a pencil or answer a hypothetical question may well
develop this ability, but the change is likely to take time.
THE BRAIN AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
If you have taken an introductory psychology class, you have read about the brain and
nervous system. You probably remember that there are several different areas of the brain,
and that certain areas are involved in particular functions. For example, the feathery look-ing
cerebellum coordinates and orchestrates balance and smooth, skilled movementsfrom
the graceful gestures of a dancer to the everyday action of eating without stabbing
yourself in the nose with a fork. The cerebellum may also play a role in higher cognitive
functions such as learning. The hippocampus is critical in recalling new information and
recent experiences, while the amygdala directs emotions. The thalamus is involved in our
25
Sensitive periods Times when a
person is especially ready for or
responsive to certain experiences
26 PART 1 STUDENTS
FIGURE 2.1
REGIONS OF THE BRAIN
Cerebrum
Corpus Callosum
Frontal Lobe
Temporal Lobe
Hypothalamus
Pituitary Gland
Amygdala
Pons
Spinal
Pons
ulla Oblongata
Spinal Cord
Medulla Oblongata
Parietal Lobe
Basal Ganglia
Thalamus
Occipital Lobe
Cerebellum
Hippocampus
ability to learn new information, particularly if it is verbal. Figure 2.1 shows the various
regions of the brain.
Advances in brain imaging techniques have allowed scientists remarkable access to
Functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) An MRIis an
imaging technique that uses a
magnetic field along with radio
waves and a computer to create
detailed pictures of the inside of
the body. A functional MRI uses
the MRI to measure the tiny
changes that take place in the
brain during brain activity.
Event-related potential (ERP)
Measurements that assess
electrical activity of the brain
through the skull or scalp.
Positron emission tomography
(PET) A method of localizing and
measuring brain activity using
computer-assisted motion
pictures of the brain.
Neurons Nerve cells that store
and transfer information.
Neurogenesis The production of
new neurons.
Synapses The tiny space
between neurons; chemical
messages are sent across
these gaps.
the functioning brain. For example, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows
how blood flows within the brain when children or adults do different cognitive tasks.
Event-related potential (ERP) measurements assess electrical activity of the brain through
the skull or scalp as people perform activities such as reading or learning vocabulary
words. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans can track brain activity under different
conditions.
Lets begin our look at the brain by examining its tiny componentsneurons, synapses,
and glial cells.
The Developing Brain: Neurons
A newborn babys brain weighs about one pound, or 454 grams, barely one-third of the
weight of an adult brain. But this infant brain has billions of neurons, the specialized nerve
cells that accumulate and transmit information (in the form of electrical activity) in the
brain and other parts of the nervous system. Neurons are a greyish colour, so they some-times
are called the grey matter of the brain. One neuron has the information processing
capacity of a small computer. That means the processing power of one 3-pound (1.4-kilogram)
human brain is likely greater than all the computers in the world. Of course, computers
do many things, like calculate square roots of large numbers, much faster than humans
can (Anderson, 2010). These incredibly important neuron cells are tinyabout 30 000
could fit on the head of a pin (Sprenger, 2010). Scientists once believed that all the neurons
a person would ever have were present at birth, but now we know that the production of
new neurons, neurogenesis, continues into adulthood (Koehl & Abrous, 2011).
Neuron cells send out long arm-and branch-like fibres called axons and dendrites
to connect with other neuron cells. The fibre ends from different neurons do not actually
touchthere are tiny spaces between them, about one billionth of a metre in length, called
synapses. Neurons share information using electrical signals and by releasing chemicals
that jump across the synapses. Axons transmit information out to muscles, glands, or other
neurons; dendrites receive information and transmit it to the neuron cells themselves.
Communication between neurons by these synaptic transmissions is strengthened or
weakened, depending on patterns of use. So the strength of these synaptic connections
is dynamicalways changing. This is called synaptic plasticity, or just plasticity, a very
important concept for educators, as you will see soon. Connections between neurons
become stronger with use or practice and weaker when not used (Dubinsky, Roehrig, &
Varma, 2013). Figure 2.2 shows these components of the neuron system (Anderson, 2010)
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
FIGURE 2.2
A SINGLE NEURON
Each neuron (nerve cell) includes dendrites that bring in messages and an axon that sends out
messages. This is a single neuron, but each neuron is in a network with many others.
Axon sends messages
to other cells
Neuron
Myelin cover on the
axon accelerates
transmission of
impulses
27
Dendrites receive
messages from
other neurons
Axon
In the synapse,
neurotransmitters
carry information
between neurons
Neurotransmitters
Source: Pearson Education, Inc.
Synapse Dendrite
At birth, each of the childs 100 to 200 billion neurons has about 2500 synapses.
However, the fibres that reach out from the neurons and the synapses between the fibre
ends increase during the first years of life, perhaps into adolescence or longer. By ages 2
to 3, each neuron has around 15 000 synapses. Children this age have many more syn-apses
than they will have as adults. In fact, they are oversupplied with the neurons and
synapses that they will need to adapt to their environments. However, only those neurons
that are used will survive. Unused neurons will be pruned. This pruning is necessary
and supports cognitive development. Researchers have found that some developmental
disabilities are associated with a gene defect that interferes with pruning (Bransford,
Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Cook & Cook, 2014).
Two kinds of overproduction and pruning processes take place. One is called
experience-expectant because synapses are overproduced in certain parts of the brain
during specific developmental periods, awaiting (expecting) stimulation. For example,
during the first months of life, the brain expects visual and auditory stimulation. If a
normal range of sights and sounds occurs, then the visual and auditory areas of the brain
develop. But children who are born completely deaf receive no auditory stimulation and,
as a result, the auditory processing area of their brains becomes devoted to processing
visual information. Similarly, the visual processing area of the brain for children blind
from birth becomes devoted to auditory processing (Nelson, 2001; Neville, 2007).
Experience-expectant overproduction and pruning processes are responsible for general
development in large areas of the brain and may explain why adults have difficulty with
pronunciations that are not part of their native language. For example, the distinction between
the sounds of r and l is important in English but not in Japanese, so by about 10 months,
Japanese infants lose the ability to discriminate between r and l those neurons are pruned
away. As a result, Japanese adults learning these sounds require intense instruction and
practice (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Hinton, Miyamoto, & Della-Chiesa, 2008)
28 PART 1 STUDENTS
The second kind of synaptic overproduction
and pruning is called experience-dependent. Here,
synaptic connections are formed based on the indi-viduals
experiences. New synapses are formed in
response to neural activity in very localized areas of
the brain when the individual is not successful in
processing information. Again, more synapses are
produced than will be kept after pruning. Experi-ence-dependent
processes are involved in individual
learning, such as mastering unfamiliar sound pro-nunciations
in a second language you are studying,
or developing an ear for music.
Stimulating environments may help in the prun-SUPPORTING
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT Studies of the brain indicate that
stimulating environments and meaningful interactions with parents and
teachers likely support better brain development.
ing process in early life (experience-expectant
period) and also may support increased synapse
development in adulthood (experience-dependent
period) (Cook & Cook, 2009). In fact, animal studies
have shown that rats raised in stimulating environ-ments
(with toys, tasks for learning, other rats, and
human handling) develop and retain 25% more syn-apses
than rats that are raised with little stimulation.
Even though the research with rats may not apply directly to humans, it is clear that
extreme deprivation can have negative effects on human brain development. Perhaps the
best examples of this come from studies of children raised in institutions or orphanages
(Nelson et al., 2007; Twardosz, 2012). But extra stimulation will not necessarily improve
development for young children who are getting adequate or typical amounts (Byrnes &
Fox, 1998; Kolb & Whishaw, 1998). So spending money on expensive toys or baby educa-tion
programs probably offers more stimulation than is necessary. Pots and pans, blocks
and books, and sand and water all provide excellent stimulationespecially if accompa-nied
by caring conversations with parents or teachers.
In Figure 2.2, it appears that there is nothing between the neurons but air. Actually,
the spaces are filled with glial cells, the white matter of the brain. There are trillions of
these cellsthey greatly outnumber neurons. Glial cells appear to have many functions,
such as fighting infections, controlling blood flow and communication among neurons,
and providing the myelin coating (see Figure 2.2) around axon fibres (Ormrod, 2012).
Myelination, the coating of axon neuron fibres with an insulating fatty glial covering, influ-ences
thinking and learning. This process is something like coating bare electrical wires
with rubber or plastic. This myelin coating makes message transmission faster and more
efficient. Myelination happens quickly in the early years, but continues gradually into
adolescence, with the childs brain doubling in volume in the first year of life and doubling
again around puberty (Anderson, 2010).
Glial cells The white matter of
the brain. These cells greatly
outnumber neurons and appear
to have many functions, such as
fighting infections, controlling
blood flow and communication
among neurons, and providing
the myelin coating around axon
fibres.
Myelination The process by
which neural fibres are coated
with a fatty sheath called myelin
that makes message transfer
more efficient.
The Developing Brain: Cerebral Cortex
Lets move from the neuron level to the brain itself. The outer 1/8-inch-thick (3.18-milli-metre)
covering is the cerebral cortexthe largest area of the brain. It is a thin sheet of
neurons, but it is almost 3 square feet (0.28 square metres) in area for adults. To get all
that area in your head, the sheet is crumpled together with many folds and wrinkles
(Anderson, 2010). In humans, this area of the brain is much larger than it is in lower
animals. The cerebral cortex accounts for about 85% of the brains weight in adulthood
and contains the greatest number of neurons. The cerebral cortex allows the greatest
human accomplishments, such as complex problem solving and language.
The cortex is the last part of the brain to develop, so it is believed to be more sus-ceptible
to environmental influences than other areas of the brain (Gluck, Mercado, &
Myers, 2008; Schacter, Gilbert, & Wenger, 2009). Parts of the cortex mature at different
rates. The region of the cortex that controls physical motor movement matures first, then
the areas that control complex senses such as vision and hearing, and last, the frontal lobe
Stephen
McBrady/PhotoEdit,
In
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
FIGURE 2.3
A VIEW OF THE CEREBRAL CORTEX
This is a simple representation of the left side of the human brain, showing the cerebral cortex.
The cortex is divided into different areas, or lobes, each having a variety of regions with different
functions. A few of the major functions are indicated here.
Body movement
and coordination
Frontal
lobe
Body sensation
Parietal
lobe
Visual
cortex
29
Auditory
cortex
Temporal
lobe
Occipital
lobe
that controls higher-order thinking processes. The temporal lobes of the cortex that play
major roles in emotions, judgment, and language do not develop fully until the high school
years and maybe later.
Different areas of the cortex seem to have distinct functions, as shown in Figure 2.3.
Even though different functions are found in particular areas of the brain, these special-ized
functions are quite specific and elementary. To accomplish more complex functions
such as speaking or reading, the various areas of the cortex must communicate and work
together (Anderson, 2010; Byrnes & Fox, 1998).
Another aspect of brain functioning that has implications for cognitive development
is lateralization, or the specialization of the two hemispheres of the brain. We know that
each half of the brain controls the opposite side of the body. Damage to the right side of
the brain will affect movement of the left side of the body and vice versa. In addition,
certain areas of the brain affect particular behaviours. For most of us, the left hemisphere
of the brain is a major factor in language processing, and the right hemisphere handles
much of our spatial-visual information and emotions (nonverbal information). For some
left-handed people, the relationship may be reversed, but for most left-handers, and for
females on average, there is less hemispheric specialization altogether (Anderson, 2010;
OBoyle & Gill, 1998). The brains of young children show more plasticity (adaptability)
because they are not as specialized or lateralized as the brains of older children and adults.
Young children with damage to the left side of the brain are somewhat able to overcome
the damage, which allows language development to proceed. Different areas of the brain
take over the functions of the damaged area. But in older children and adults, this com-pensation
is less likely to occur after damage to the left brain hemisphere.
These differences in performance by the brains hemispheres, however, are more
relative than absolute; one hemisphere is just more efficient than the other in performing
certain functions. The left and right hemispheres process language differently, but simul-taneously
(Alferink & Farmer-Dougan, 2010, p. 44). Nearly any task, particularly the
complex skills and abilities that concern teachers, requires simultaneous participation of
many different areas of the brain in constant communication with each other. For exam-ple,
the right side of the brain is better at figuring out the meaning of a story, but the
left side is where grammar and syntax are understood, so both sides of the brain have
to work together in reading. Remember, no mental activity is exclusively the work of a
Lateralization The specialization
of the two hemispheres (sides) of
the brain cortex.
Plasticity The brains tendency to
remain somewhat adaptable or
flexible
30 PART 1 STUDENTS
single part of the brainso there is no such thing as a right-brained student unless that
individual has had the left hemisphere removeda rare and radical treatment for some
forms of epilepsy.
Adolescent Development and the Brain
The brain continues to develop throughout childhood and adolescence. During adoles-cence,
changes in the brain increase individuals abilities to control their behaviour in
both low-stress and high-stress situations, to be more purposeful and organized, and to
inhibit impulsive behaviour (Wigfield, Byrnes, & Eccles, 2006). But these abilities are not
fully developed until the early 20s, so while adolescents may seem like adults, at least
in low-stress situations, their brains are not fully developed. Adolescents often have trou-ble
avoiding risks and controlling impulses. This is why adolescents brains have been
described as having high horsepower, poor steering (Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development [OECD], 2007, p. 6).
One explanation for this problem with avoiding risks and controlling impulses looks
to differences in the pace of development for two key components of the brainthe
limbic system and the prefrontal cortex of the brain (Casey, Getz, & Galvan, 2008). The
limbic system develops earlier; it is involved with emotions and reward-seeking/novelty/
risk-taking/sensation-seeking behaviours. The prefrontal lobe takes more time to develop;
it is involved with judgment and decision making. As the limbic system matures, adoles-cents
become more responsive to pleasure seeking and emotional stimulation. In fact,
adolescents appear to need more intense emotional stimulation than either children or
adults, so they are set up for taking risks and seeking thrills. Risk taking and novelty
seeking can be positive factors for adolescent development as young people coura-geously
try new ideas and behavioursand learning is stimulated (McAnarney, 2008).
But their less mature prefrontal lobe has not yet learned to say, Whoathat thrill is too
risky! So in emotional situations, thrill seeking wins out over caution, at least until the
prefrontal lobe catches up and becomes more integrated with the limbic system in late
adolescence. Then risks can be evaluated in terms of long-term consequences, not imme-diate
thrills (Casey et al., 2008; Smith, Xiao, & Bechara, 2012). In addition, there are
individual differences: Some adolescents are more prone than others to engage in risky
behaviours.
Teachers can take advantage of their adolescent students intensity by helping them
devote their energy and passion to areas such as politics, the environment, or social
causes (Price, 2005) or by guiding them to explore emotional connections with char-acters
in history or literature. Connections to family, school, community, and positive
belief systems help adolescents put the brakes on reckless and dangerous behaviours
(McAnarney, 2008).
Other changes in the neurological system during adolescence affect sleep. We all
have an internal clock that influences sleep cycles among other things. Before puberty
this internal clock is set such that most children naturally fall asleep around 8 or 9 p.m.
During puberty, it appears this clock is reset, delaying the time at which teens feel tired
and making it difficult for them to get to sleep early. Teenagers need about nine hours
of sleep per night, but one study, published in the Journal of School Health (Noland,
Price, Dake, & Telljohann, 2009) indicated most adolescents get less than that. Over time,
sleep deprivation can have serious consequences (e.g., teens may experience difficul-ties
concentrating and learning, mood swings, behaviour problems, and drowsy driv-ing).
Some parents and advocates argue high school should begin later in the day to
be more in sync with teenagers internal clocks. Other strategies include establishing
regular bedtime routines; curbing daytime naps and caffeinated drinks; and winding
down in the eveninglimit socializing and unplug as bedtime approaches (Mayo
Clinic Staff, 2013).
Putting It All Together: How the Brain Works
What is your conception of the brain? Is the brain a culture-free container that holds
knowledge the same way for everyone? Is the brain like a library of facts or a compute
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
filled with information? Do you wake up in the morning, download what you need for
the day, and then go merrily on your way? Is the brain like a pipe that transfers informa-tion
from one person to anothera teacher to a student, for example? Kurt Fischer (2009)
offers a different view, based on neuroscience research. Knowing is actively constructing
understandings and actions. Knowledge is based in our activities:
When animals and people do things in their worlds, they shape their behavior. Based
on brain research, we know that likewise they literally shape the anatomy and physiol-ogy
of their brains (and bodies). When we actively control our experience, that experi-ence
sculpts the way that our brains work, changing neurons, synapses, and brain
activity. (p. 5)
All experiences sculpt the brainplay and deliberate practice, formal and informal
learning (Dubinsky et al., 2013). Earlier, you encountered the term plasticity, which
describes the brains capacity for constant change in neurons, synapses, and activity.
Cultural differences in brain activity provide examples of how interactions in the world
shape the brain through plasticity. For example, in one study, when adult Chinese
speakers added and compared Arabic numerals, they showed brain activity in the motor
(or movement) areas of their brains, whereas adult English speakers performing the
same tasks showed activity in the language areas of their brains (Tang et al., 2006).
One explanation is that Chinese children are taught arithmetic using an abacusa
calculation tool that involves movement and spatial positions. As adults, these individu-als
retain a kind of visual-motor sense of numbers (Varma, McCandliss, & Schwartz,
2008). There are also cultural differences in how languages affect reading. For example,
when they read, native Chinese speakers activate additional parts of their brain associ-ated
with spatial information processing, probably because Chinese is written with
graphic characters, rather than an alphabet. But Chinese speakers also activate these
spatial areas of the brain when they read English, demonstrating that reading profi-ciency
can be reached through different neural pathways (Hinton, Miyamoto, &
Della-Chiesa, 2008).
Thanks to plasticity, the brain is ever changingshaped by activity, culture, and
context. We build knowledge as we do things, manipulating objects and ideas mentally
and physically. As you can imagine, educators have looked for ways to apply neuroscience
research to their instruction. This has led to vigorous debate between the enthusiastic
educational advocates of brain-based education and the skeptical neuroscience research-ers
who caution that studies of the brain do not really address major educational ques-tions.
Many publications for parents and teachers have useful ideas about the brain and
education, but beware of suggestions that oversimplify. The jury still is out on many of
these brain-based programs (Beauchamp & Beauchamp, 2013). See the Point/Counter-point
on the next page for a slice of this debate.
So what can teachers learn from neuroscience? We turn to this next.
Neuroscience, Learning, and Teaching
There are many popular neuromyths about the brain, as you can see in Table 2.1. We have
to be careful about what we encounter in the media.
It is not a myth that teaching can change the organization and structure of the brain.
For example, individuals who are deaf and use sign language have different patterns of
electrical activity in their brains than people who are deaf and do not use sign language
(Varma, McCandliss, & Schwartz, 2008). What are some other effects of instruction on the
brain?
Instruction and Brain Development. Several studies have shown differences in brain
activity associated with instruction. For example, the intensive instruction and practice
provided to rehabilitate stroke victims can help them regain functioning by forming new
connections and using new areas of the brain (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000;
McKinley, 2011). In another example, Margarete Delazer and her colleagues (2005) com-pared
students brain activity as they learned new arithmetic operations, either by just
memorizing the answers or by learning an algorithm strategy. Using functional magnetic
3
32 PART 1 STUDENTS
TABLE 2.1 Myths About the Brain
COMMON MYTHS
1. You use only 10% of your brain.
2. Listening to Mozart will make children
smarter.
3. Some people are more right brained,
and others are more left brained.
4. A young childs brain can only manage to
learn one language at a time.
5. You cant change your brain.
6. Damage to the brain is permanent.
7. Playing games like Sudoku keeps your
brain from aging.
8. The human brain is the biggest brain.
9. Alcoholic beverages kill brain cells.
TRUTH
1. You use all of your brain. That is why
strokes are so devastating.
2. Listening will not, but learning to play a
musical instrument is associated with
increased cognitive achievement.
3. It takes both sides of your brain to do
most things.
4. Children all over the world can and do
learn two (or more) languages at once.
5. Our brains are changing all the time.
6. Most people recover well from minor brain
injuries.
7. Playing Sudoku makes you better at
playing Sudoku and similar games. Physical
exercise is a better bet to prevent decline.
8. Sperm whales have brains five times
heavier than those of humans.
9. Heavy drinking does not kill brain cells but
it can damage the nerve ends called
dendrites, and this causes problems with
communicating messages in the brain. This
damage is mostly reversible.
10. The adolescents brain is the same as that
of an adult.
10. There are critical differences between
adolescents and adults brains: Adolescents
brains have high horsepower, but poor
steering (Fischer, 2009).
Source: Based on Aamodt & Wang (2008); K. W. Fischer (2009); Freeman (2011).
resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers found that students who simply memorized
answers showed greater activity in the area of the brain that specializes in retrieving
verbal information, whereas the students who used a strategy showed greater activity in
the visual-spatial processing portion of the brain.
Fischer (2009) described a dramatic case of two children who each had one brain
hemisphere removed as a treatment for severe epilepsy. Nicos right hemisphere was
removed when he was 3, and his parents were told he would never have good visual-spatial
skills. With strong and constant support and teaching, Nico grew up to be a
skilled artist! Brookes left hemisphere was removed when he was 11. His parents
were told he would lose his ability to talk. Again, with strong support, he regained
enough speaking and reading ability to finish high school and attend community
college.
The Brain and Learning to Read. Brain imaging research is revealing interesting differ-ences
among skilled and less skilled readers as they learn new vocabulary. For example,
one imaging study showed that less skilled readers had trouble establishing high-quality
representations of new vocabulary words in their brains, as indicated by event-related
potential (ERP) measurements of electrical activity of the brain. When they encountered
the new word later, less skilled readers brains often did not recognize that they had seen
the word before, even though they had learned the words in an earlier lesson. If words
you have learned seem unfamiliar later, you can see how it would be hard to understand
what you read (Balass, Nelson, & Perfetti, 2010)
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
In another study, Bennett Shaywitz and his colleagues
(2004) studied 28 children (ages 6 to 9) who were good
readers and 49 children who were poor readers. Differences
in the brain activity of the two groups were visible on fMRIs.
The poor readers underused parts of their brains left hemi-sphere
and sometimes overused their right hemispheres.
After over 100 hours of intensive instruction in lettersound
combinations, reading ability improved; the brains of the
poor readers started to function more like those of the good
readers and continued this functioning a year later. Poor
readers who received the standard school remediation did
not show the same changes in brain function.
Reading is not innate or automaticevery brain has
to be taught to read (Frey & Fisher, 2010). Reading is a
complex integration of the systems in the brain that rec-ognize
sounds, written symbols, meanings, and sequences,
and then connect with what the reader already knows.
This has to happen quickly and automatically (Wolf et al.,
2009). Will brain research help us teach reading more
effectively? Judith Willis (2009), a neurobiologist who
became a science teacher, cautions that: Neuroimaging
and the other brain monitoring systems used for reading
research offer suggestive rather than completely empirical
links between how the brain learns and metabolizes oxygen or glucose, conducts electric-ity,
or changes its cellular density. (p. 333).
Although the strategies for teaching reading that are consistent with brain research
are not completely new, the research may help us understand why these strategies work.
What are some suggested strategies? Use multiple approaches that teach sounds, spelling,
meanings, sequencing, and vocabulary through reading, writing, discussing, explaining,
drawing, and modelling. Different students may learn in different ways, but all need prac-tice
in literacy.
Emotions, Learning, and the Brain. Finally, another clear connection between the brain and
classroom learning is in the area of emotions and stress. For an example, lets step inside a
high school math classroom described by Hinton, Miyamoto, and Della-Chiesa (2008, p. 91).
Patricia, a high school student, struggles with mathematics. The last few times she answered
a mathematics question she got it wrong and felt terribly embarrassed, which formed an
association between mathematics . . . and negative emotions . . . . Her teacher had just
asked her to come to the blackboard to solve a problem. This caused an immediate trans-fer
of this emotionally-charged association to the amygdala, which elicits fear. Meanwhile,
a slower, cortically-driven cognitive appraisal of the situation is occurring: she remembers
her difficulty completing her mathematics homework last night, notices the problem on
the board contains complicated graphs, and realizes that the boy she has a crush on is
watching her from a front-row seat. These various thoughts converge to a cognitive con-firmation
that this is a threatening situation, which reinforces her progressing fear response
and disrupts her ability to concentrate on solving the mathematics problem. (Hinton,
Miyamoto, & Della-Chiesa, 2008).
In Chapter 7 you will learn about how emotions can become paired with particular
situations; and in Chapter 12, you will see that anxiety interferes with learning, whereas
challenge, interest, and curiosity can support learning. If students feel unsafe and anxious,
they are not likely to be able to focus attention on academics (Sylvester, 2003). But if stu-dents
are not challenged or interested, learning suffers too. Keeping the level of challenge
and support just right is a challenge for teachers. And helping students learn to regulate
their own emotions and motivation is an important goal for education (see Chapter 11) .
Simply put, learning will be more effective if educators help to minimize stress and fear
at school, teach students emotional regulation strategies, and provide a positive learning
environment that is motivating to students (Hinton, Miyamoto, & Della-Chiesa, 2008).
33
BRAIN RESEARCH AND READING Brain research may help us under-stand
why strategies for teaching reading are or are not effective.
Gorillaimages/Shutterstoc
34 PART 1 STUDENTS
POINT/COUNTERPOINT Brain-Based Education
Educators are hearing more and more about brain-based education, the importance of early stimulation for
brain development, the Mozart effect, and right-and left-brain activities. In fact, based on some research
findings that listening to 10 minutes of Mozart can briefly improve spatial reasoning (Rauscher & Shaw, 1998;
Steele, Bass, & Crook, 1999), a former governor of Georgia established a program to give a Mozart CD to
every newborn. The scientists who had done the work could not believe how their research had been applied
(Katzir & Par-Blagoev, 2006). Apparently, the governor had confused experiments on infant brain develop-ment
with studies of adults and Mozart (Pinker, 2002). Are there clear educational implications from the neu-roscience
research on the brain?
No, the implications are not clear. Catherine and
Miriam Beauchamp (2013) note that the application of neu-roscience
to education actually has been plagued by misap-plications
because the findings have been treated in
isolation, without attention to knowledge from other disci-plines
such as cognitive science or educational psychology
that place the findings in context. To further complicate the
problem of misapplication, educators and neuroscience
researchers have different meanings for learning, and do
not have an appreciation for each others realityneuroscientists
do not understand schools, and educators do not have a back-ground
in neurobiology.
John Bruer, president of the James S. McDonnell Founda-tion,
has written articles that are critical of the brain-based educa-tion
craze (Bruer, 1999, 2002). He notes that many so-called
applications of brain research begin with solid science, but then
move to unwarranted speculation, and end in a sort of appealing
folk tale about the brain and learning. He suggests that for each
claim, the educator should ask, Where does the science end and
the speculation begin? For example, one claim that Bruer ques-tions
is the notion of right-brain, left-brain learning.
Right brain versus left brain is one of those popular ideas
that will not die. Speculations about the educational signifi-cance
of brain laterality have been circulating in the educa-tion
literature for 30 years. Although repeatedly criticized
and dismissed by psychologists and brain scientists, the
speculation continues. David Sousa devotes a chapter of
How the Brain Learns to explaining brain laterality and pres-ents
classroom strategies that teachers might use to ensure
that both hemispheres are involved in learning . . . . Now lets
consider the brain sciences and how or whether they offer
support for some of the particular teaching strategies Sousa
recommends. To involve the right hemisphere in learning,
Sousa writes, teachers should encourage students to gener-ate
and use mental imagery . . . . . What brain scientists cur-rently
know about spatial reasoning and mental imagery
provides counter examples to such simplistic claims as these.
Such claims arise out of a folk theory about brain laterality,
not a neuroscientific one . . . . . Different brain areas are spe-cialized
for different tasks, but that specialization occurs at a
finer level of analysis than using visual imagery. Using
visual imagery may be a useful learning strategy, but if it is
useful it is not because it involves an otherwise underutilized
right hemisphere in learning. (Bruer, 1999, pp. 653654)
Ten years later, Kurt Fischer (2009), president of the Interna-tional
Mind, Brain, and Education Society, lamented
Expectations for neuroscience and genetics to shape educa-tional
practice and policy have exploded far beyond what is
merited by the state of the emerging field of MBE [mind body
education] and the level of knowledge about how brains and
genetics function . . . Many neuromyths have entered popu-lar
discoursebeliefs about how the brain and body work that
are widely accepted but blatantly wrong (OECD, 2007b).
Most of what is put forward as brain-based education builds
on these scientifically inaccurate myths: The one small way
that neuroscience relates to most brain-based education is
that the students have brains. There is no grounding for these
claims in the young field of neuroscience. (Fischer, 2009)
No teacher doubts that the brain is important in learning.
As Steven Pinker (2002), professor of psychology at Harvard Uni-versity,
observed, does anyone really think learning takes place
STOP & THINK As a teacher, you do not want to fall for overly simplistic brain-based teach-ing
slogans. But obviously, the brain and learning are intimately relatedthis is not a surprise.
So how can you be savvy about neuroscience as a teacher (Murphy & Benton, 2010)?
Lessons for Teachers: General Principles
What can we learn from neuroscience? One overarching idea is that teachers and students
should transform the notion of learning from using your brain to changing your brainembracing
the amazing plasticity of the brain (Dubinsky et al., 2013). Here are some
general teaching implications drawn from Driscoll (2005), Dubinsky and colleagues
(2013), Murphy and Benton (2010), Sprenger (2010), and Wolfe (2010):
POINT
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
somewhere else, like the pancreas? But knowing that learning
affects the brain does not tell us how to teach. All learning affects
the brain: . . . this should be obvious, but nowadays any banality
about learning can be dressed up in neurospeak and treated like
a great revelation of science (2002, p. 86). Virtually all of the so-called
best practices for brain-based education are simple
restatements of good teaching based on understandings of how
people learn, not how their brains work. For example, we have
known for over 100 years that it is more effective to learn in many
shorter practice sessions as opposed to one long cramming ses-sion.
To tie that fact to building more dendrites does not give
teachers new strategies (Alferink & Farmer-Dougan, 2010). Finally,
Richard Haier and Rex Jung (2008) look to the future: Someday,
we believe that our educational system will be informed by neu-roscience
knowledge, especially concerning intelligence, but how
we get from here to there remains unclear (p. 177).
Yes, teaching should be brain-based. Articles in popu-lar
magazines such as Newsweek assert, . . . its naive to say
that brain discoveries have no consequences for understand-ing
how humans learn (Begley, 2007). Do scientists agree? In
their article Applying Cognitive Neuroscience Research to
Education in Educational Psychologist, Tami Katzir and
Juliana Par-Blagoev (2006) conclude, When applied cor-rectly,
brain science may serve as a vehicle for advancing the
application of our understanding of learning and develop-ment.
. . . Brain research can challenge common-sense views
about teaching and learning by suggesting additional systems
that are involved in particular tasks and activities
(Katzir & Par-Blagoev, 2006, p. 70). If we are to guard against
overstating the links between brain research and education,
then we should not ask if, but instead how best to teach
neuroscience concepts to pre-service teachers (Dubinsky
et al., 2013, p. 325). A number of universities, including
Cambridge, Harvard, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, the
University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Southern California,
Beijing Normal University, and Southeast University in Nanjing, have
established training programs for educators in brain-education
studies (Dubinsky et al., 2013; Fischer, 2009; Wolfe, 2010). Other
educational psychologists have called for a new professional
specialtyneuro-educators (Beauchamp & Beauchamp, 2013).
Brain research is leading to much better understandings
about learning disabilities. For example, neuroscience studies of
people with reading disabilities have found that these individuals
may have trouble with sounds and sound patterns or with retriev-ing
the names of very familiar letters, so there may be different
bases for reading disabilities (Katzir & Par-Blagoev, 2006).
There are examples of applying knowledge of brain research
to education. A reading improvement product called FastForword
was developed by two neuroscientists, Dr. Michael Merzenich and
Dr. Paula Tallal, and is in use today in classrooms around the country
(see http://www.scilearn.com/results/success-stories/index.php). It
specifically uses discoveries in neural plasticity to change the brains
ability to read the printed word (Tallal & Miller, 2003).
In his presidential address for the First Conference of the
International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, Kurt Fischer, a
developmental psychologist and Harvard professor, noted,
The primary goal of the emerging field of Mind, Brain, and
Education is to join biology, cognitive science, development,
and education in order to create a sound grounding of edu-cation
in research. The growing, worldwide movement needs
to avoid the myths and distortions of popular conceptions of
brain and genetics and build on the best integration of
research with practice, creating a strong infrastructure that
joins scientists with educators to study effective learning and
teaching in educational settings. (Fischer, 2009, pp. 316)
Fischer makes the point that we can go from understanding
how the brain works to understanding cognitive processes, and
then to developing educational practices. But jumping directly
from knowledge about the brain to educational practices prob-ably
involves too much speculation.
BEWARE OF EITHER/OR
Schools should not be run on curricula based solely on the biol-ogy
of the brain. However, to ignore what we do know about the
brain would be equally irresponsible. Brain-based learning offers
some direction for educators who want more purposeful,
informed teaching. At the very least, the neuroscience research
is helping us to understand why effective teaching strategies,
such as distributed practice, work.
Resources: OCED. (2007). Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science. Podcast. http://www.oecd.org/document/60/0,3343,en_2649_
35845581_38811388_1_1_1_1,00.html.
35
1. Human capabilitiesintelligence, communication, problem solving, and so onemerge
from each persons unique synaptic activity overlaid on his or her genetically
endowed brain anatomy; nature and nurture are in constant activity together. The
brain can place some limits on learning in the form of genetic brain anomalies in
neural wiring or structure, but learning can occur through alternate pathways in the
brain (as Nico and Brooke demonstrated). So, there are multiple ways both to teach
and to learn a skill, depending on the student.
2. Many cognitive functions are differentiated; they are associated with different parts of
the brain. So learners are likely to have preferred modes of processing (e.g., visual or
verbal) as well as varying capabilities in these modes. Using a range of modalities for
instruction and activities that draw on different senses may support learningfor exam-ple,
using maps and songs to teach geography. Assessment should be differentiated, too.
COUNTERPOINT
36 PART 1 STUDENTS
3. The brain is relatively plastic, so enriched, active environments and flexible instruc-tional
strategies are likely to support cognitive development in young children and
learning in adults.
4. Some learning disorders may have a neurological basis; neurological testing may
assist in diagnosing and treating these disorders, as well as in evaluating the effects
of various treatments.
5. The brain can change, but it takes time. Teachers must be consistent, patient, and
compassionate in teaching and reteaching in different ways, as Nicos and Brookes
parents and teachers could tell you.
6. Learning from real-life problems and concrete experiences helps students construct
knowledge and also gives them multiple pathways for learning and retrieving infor-mation.
7. The brain seeks meaningful patterns and connections with existing networks, so
teachers should tie new information to what students already understand and help
them form new connections. Information that is not linked to existing knowledge
will be easily forgotten.
8. It takes a long time to build and consolidate knowledge. Numerous visits in different
contexts over time (not all at once) help to form strong, multiple connections.
9. Large, general concepts should be emphasized over small specific facts so that stu-dents
can build enduring, useful knowledge categories and associations that are not
constantly changing.
10. Stories should be used in teaching. Stories engage many areas of the brainmemories,
experiences, feelings, and beliefs. Stories also are organized and have a
sequencebeginning, middle, endso they are easier to remember than unrelated
or unorganized information.
11. Helping students understand how activity (practice, problem solving, making connec-tions,
inquiry, etc.) changes their brain and how emotions and stress affect attention
and memory can be motivating, leading to greater self-efficacy and self-regulated
learning (we talk more about this in Chapter 11). One important message to students
is that they are responsible for doing what it takes to change their own brains; you
have to work (and play) to learn.
For the rest of the chapter, we turn our attention to several major theories of cogni-tive
development, the first offered by biologist-turned-psychologist, Jean Piaget.
PIAGETS THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget was a real prodigy. In fact, in his teens, he published so
many scientific papers on molluscs (marine animals such as oysters, clams, octopuses,
snails, and squid) that he was offered a job as the curator of the mollusc collection at the
Museum of Natural History in Geneva. He told the museum officials that he wanted to
finish high school first. For a while, Piaget worked in Alfred Binets laboratory in Paris
developing intelligence tests for children. The reasons children gave for their wrong
answers fascinated him, and this prompted him to study the thinking behind their
answersthis question intrigued him for the rest of his life (Green & Piel, 2010). He con-tinued
to write until his death at the age of 84 (Miller, 2011).
During his long career, Piaget devised a model describing how humans go about
making sense of their world by gathering and organizing information (Piaget, 1954, 1963,
1970a, 1970b). We will examine Piagets ideas closely because they provide an explanation
of the development of thinking from infancy to adulthood.
STOP & THINK Can you be in Montreal, Quebec, and Canada at the same time? Is this a
difficult question for you? How long did it take you to answer?
According to Piaget (1954), certain ways of thinking that are quite simple for an adult,
such as the Montreal question above, are not so simple for a child. For example, do you
remember the 9-year-old child at the beginning of the chapter who was asked if he coul
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
be Genevan? He answered, No, thats not possible. Im already
Swiss, I cant also be Genevan (Piaget, 1965/1995, p. 252). Imag-ine
teaching this student geography. The student has trouble with
classifying one concept (Geneva) as a subset of another (Switzer-land).
There are other differences between adult and child think-ing.
Childrens concepts of time may be different from your own.
They may think, for example, that they will someday catch up to
a sibling in age, or they may confuse the past and the future. Lets
examine why.
Influences on Development
Cognitive development is much more than the addition of new
facts and ideas to an existing store of information. According to
Piaget, our thinking processes change radically, though slowly,
from birth to maturity because we constantly strive to make sense
of the world. Piaget identified four factorsbiological maturation,
activity, social experiences, and equilibrationthat interact to
influence changes in thinking (Piaget, 1970a). Lets briefly exam-ine
the first three factors. Well return to a discussion of equilibra-tion
in the next section.
One of the most important influences on the way we make
37
STUDYING CHILDRENS THINKING Jean Piaget was a Swiss
psychologist whose insightful descriptions of childrens think-ing
changed the way we understand cognitive development.
sense of the world is maturation, the unfolding of the biological
changes that are genetically programmed. Parents and teachers have little impact on this
aspect of cognitive development, except to ensure that children get the nourishment and
care they need to be healthy.
Activity is another influence on cognitive development. With physical maturation
comes the increasing ability to act on the environment and learn from it. When a young
childs coordination is reasonably developed, for example, the child may discover princi-ples
about balance by experimenting with a seesaw. Thus, as we act on the environmentas
we explore, test, observe, and eventually organize informationwe are likely to alter
our thinking processes at the same time.
As we develop, we also interact with the people around us. According to Piaget, our
cognitive development is influenced by social transmission, or learning from others.
Without social transmission, we would need to reinvent all the knowledge already offered
by our culture. The amount people can learn from social transmission varies according to
their stage of cognitive development.
Maturation, activity, and social transmission all work together to influence cognitive
development. How do we respond to these influences?
Basic Tendencies in Thinking
As a result of his early research in biology, Piaget concluded that all species inherit
two basic instincts, or invariant functions. The first of these tendencies is toward
organizationthe combining, arranging, recombining, and rearranging of behaviour
and thoughts into coherent systems. The second tendency is toward adaptation, or
adjusting to the environment.
Organization. People are born with a tendency to organize their thinking and knowl-edge
into psychological structures or schemes. These psychological structures are our
systems for understanding and interacting with the world. Simple structures are continu-ally
combined and coordinated to become more sophisticated and thus more effective.
Very young infants, for example, can either look at an object or grasp it when it comes in
contact with their hands. They cannot coordinate looking and grasping at the same time.
As they develop, however, infants organize these two separate behavioural structures into
a coordinated higher-level structure of looking at, reaching for, and grasping the object.
They can, of course, still use each structure separately (Flavell, Miller, & Miller, 2002;
Miller, 2002).
Organization Ongoing process
of arranging information and
experience into mental systems
or categories.
Adaptation Adjustment to the
environment.
Bill
Anderson/Science
sourc
38 PART 1 STUDENTS
Piaget gave a special name to these structures: schemes. In his theory, schemes are
the basic building blocks of thinking. They are organized systems of actions or thought
that allow us to mentally represent or think about the objects and events in our world.
Schemes may be very small and specific, for example, the sucking-through-a-straw scheme
or the recognizing-a-rose scheme. Or they may be more general, for example, the drinking
scheme or the categorizing-plants scheme. As a persons thinking processes become more
organized and new schemes develop, behaviour also becomes more sophisticated and
better suited to the environment.
Adaptation. In addition to the tendency to organize their psychological structures, peo-ple
also inherit the tendency to adapt to their environment. Two basic processes are
involved in adaptation: assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation takes place when people use their existing schemes to make sense of
events in our world. Assimilation involves trying to understand something new by fitting
it into what we already know. At times, we may have to distort the new information to
make it fit. For example, the first time many children see a raccoon, they call it a kitty.
They try to match the new experience with an existing scheme for identifying animals.
Accommodation occurs when a person must change existing schemes to respond to a
new situation. If data cannot be made to fit any existing schemes, more appropriate structures
must be developed. We adjust our thinking to fit the new information, instead of adjusting
the information to fit our thinking. Children demonstrate accommodation when they add the
scheme for recognizing raccoon to their other systems for identifying animals.
People adapt to their increasingly complex environments by using existing schemes
Schemes Mental systems or
categories of perception and
experience.
Assimilation Fitting new
information into existing
schemes.
Accommodation Altering
existing schemes or creating new
ones in response to new
information.
Equilibration Search for mental
balance between cognitive
schemes and information from
the environment.
Disequilibrium In Piagets theory,
the out-of-balance state that
occurs when a person realizes
that his or her current ways of
thinking are not working to solve
a problem or understand a
situation.
whenever these schemes work (assimilation) and by modifying and adding to their
schemes when something new is needed (accommodation). In fact, both processes are
required most of the time. Even using an established pattern, such as sucking through a
straw, may require some accommodation if you are used to a straw of a different size or
length. If you have tried drinking juice from box packages, you know that you have to
add a new skill to your sucking schemedo not squeeze the box or you will shoot juice
through the straw, straight up into the air, and into your lap. Whenever new experiences
are assimilated into an existing scheme, the scheme is enlarged and changed somewhat,
so assimilation involves some accommodation (Mascolo & Fischer, 2005).
There are also times when neither assimilation nor accommodation is used. If people
encounter something that is too unfamiliar, they may ignore it. Experience is filtered to
fit the kind of thinking a person is doing at a given time. For example, if you overhear a
conversation in a foreign language, you probably will not try to make sense of the
exchange unless you have some knowledge of the language.
Equilibration. According to Piaget, organizing, assimilating, and accommodating can be
seen as a kind of complex balancing act. In his theory, the actual changes in thinking take
place through the process of equilibrationthe act of searching for a balance. Piaget
assumed that people continually test the adequacy of their thinking processes in order to
achieve that balance. Briefly, the process of equilibration works as follows. If we apply a
particular scheme to an event or situation and the scheme works, equilibrium exists. If
the scheme does not produce a satisfying result, disequilibrium exists, and we become
uncomfortable. This motivates us to keep searching for a solution through assimilation
and accommodation, and thus our thinking changes and moves ahead. Of course, the level
of disequilibrium must be just right or optimaltoo little and we are not interested in
changing, too much and we may be discouraged or anxious and not change.
Four Stages of Cognitive Development
Now we turn to the actual differences that Piaget hypothesized for children as they grow.
Piaget believed that all people pass through the same four stages in exactly the same order.
These stages are generally associated with specific ages, as shown in Table 2.2, but these
are only general guidelines, not labels for all children of a certain age. Piaget noted that
individuals may go through long periods of transition between stages and that a person
may show characteristics of one stage in one situation, but characteristics of a higher o
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
TABLE 2.2 Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development
STAGE
Sensorimotor
39
APPROXIMATE AGE CHARACTERISTICS
02 years Learns through reflexes, senses, and
movementactions on the environment.
Begins to imitate others and remember
events; shifts to symbolic thinking. Comes
to understand that objects do not cease to
exist when they are out of sightobject
permanence. Moves from reflexive actions
to intentional activity.
Preoperational Begins about the time
the child starts
talking, to about 7
years old
Develops language and begins to use symbols
to represent objects. Has difficulty with
past and futurethinks in the present.
Can think through operations logically in
one direction. Has difficulties
understanding the point of view of
another person.
Concrete operational Begins about grade 1,
to early
adolescence, about
11 years old
Formal operational Adolescence to
adulthood
Can think logically about concrete (hands-on)
problems. Understands conservation and
organizes things into categories and in
series. Can reverse thinking to mentally
undo actions. Understands past,
present, and future.
Can think hypothetically and deductively.
Thinking becomes more scientific. Solves
abstract problems in logical fashion. Can
consider multiple perspectives, and
develops concerns about social issues,
personal identity, and justice.
Source: Fischer, K. W. (2009). Mind, brain, and education: Building a scientific groundwork for learning and teaching.
Mind, Brain, and Education, 3 , 216.
lower stage in other situations. Therefore, knowing a students age is never a guarantee of
knowing his or her level of cognitive development (Orlando & Machado, 1996).
Infancy: The Sensorimotor Stage. The earliest period is called the sensorimotor stage,
because the childs thinking involves the major senses of seeing, hearing, moving, touch-ing,
and tasting. During this period, the infant develops object permanence, the under-standing
that objects in the environment exist whether they perceive them or not. This is
the beginning of the important ability to construct a mental representation. As most
parents discover, before infants develop object permanence, it is relatively easy to take
something away from them. The trick is to distract them and remove the object while they
are not lookingout of sight, out of mind. The older infant who searches for the ball
that has rolled out of sight is indicating an understanding that objects still exist even when
they are not in view (Moore & Meltzoff, 2004). Some researchers suggest that infants as
young as 3 to 4 months may know that an object still exists, but they do not have either
the memory skills to hold on to the location of the object or the motor skills to coordi-nate
a search (Baillargeon, 1999; Flavell, Miller, & Miller, 2002).
A second major accomplishment in the sensorimotor period is the beginning of logi-cal,
goal-directed actions. Think of the familiar container toy for babies. It is usually plastic,
has a lid, and contains several colourful items that can be dumped out and replaced. A
6-month-old baby is likely to become frustrated trying to get to the toys inside. An older
child who has mastered the basics of the sensorimotor stage will probably be able to deal
with the toys in an orderly fashion. Through trial and error, the child will slowly build a
container toy scheme: (1) get the lid off; (2) turn the container upside down; (3) shake
if the items jam; (4) watch the items fall. Separate lower-level schemes have been organ-ized
into a higher-level scheme to achieve a goal.
Sensorimotor Involving the
senses and motor activity.
Object permanence The
understanding that objects have
a separate, permanent existence.
Goal-directed actions Deliberate
actions toward a goal
40 PART 1 STUDENTS
The child is soon able to reverse this action by refilling the container. Learning
to reverse actions is a basic accomplishment of the sensorimotor stage. As we will
soon see, however, learning to reverse thinkingthat is, learning to imagine the
reverse of a sequence of actionstakes much longer.
Early Childhood to the Early Elementary Years: The Preoperational Stage. By
the end of the sensorimotor stage, the child can use many action schemes. However,
as long as these schemes remain tied to physical actions, they are of no use in recall-ing
the past, keeping track of information, or planning. For this, children need what
Piaget called operations, or actions that are carried out and reversed mentally rather
than physically. At the preoperational stage the child has not yet mastered these
mental operations but is moving toward mastery (so thinking is preoperational).
According to Piaget, the first type of thinking that is separate from action
Family Circus 2002 Bil Keane, Inc/King
Features Syndicate
involves making action schemes symbolic. The ability to form and use symbolswords,
gestures, signs, images, and so onis thus a major accomplishment of the
preoperational period and moves children closer to mastering the mental operations
of the next stage. This ability to work with symbols, such as using the word horse
or a picture of a horse or even pretending to ride a horse to represent a real horse that
is not actually present, is called the semiotic function. In fact, the childs earliest use of
symbols occurs during pretending. Children who are not yet able to talk will often use
action symbolspretending to drink from an empty cup or touching a comb to their hair,
showing that they know what each object is for. This behaviour also shows that their
schemes are becoming more general and less tied to specific actions. The eating scheme,
for example, can be used in playing house. During the preoperational stage, there is also
rapid development of that very important symbol system, language. Between the ages of 2
and 4, most children enlarge their vocabulary from about 200 to 2000 words.
As the child moves through the preoperational stage, the developing ability to think
Operations Actions that a person
carries out by thinking them
through instead of literally
performing them.
Preoperational The stage of
development before a child
masters logical mental
operations.
Semiotic function The ability to
use symbolslanguage, pictures,
signs, or gesturesto represent
actions or objects mentally.
Reversible thinking Thinking
backward, from the end to the
beginning.
Conservation Principle that some
characteristics of an object
remain the same despite changes
in appearance.
Decentring Focusing on more
than one aspect at a time.
Egocentric Assuming that
others experience the world
the way you do.
about objects in symbolic form remains somewhat limited to thinking in one direction
only, or using one-way logic. It is very difficult for the child to think backward, or imag-ine
how to reverse the steps in a task. Reversible thinking is involved in many tasks that
are difficult for the preoperational child, such as the conservation of matter.
Conservation is the principle that the amount or number of something remains the
same even if the arrangement or appearance is changed, as long as nothing is added and
nothing is taken away. You know that if you tear a piece of paper into several pieces, you
will still have the same amount of paper. To prove this, you know that you can reverse
the process by taping the pieces back together. Here is a classic example of difficulty with
the principle of conservation. Leah, a 5-year-old, is shown two identical glasses, both short
and wide in shape. Both have exactly the same amount of coloured water in them. She
agrees that the amounts are the same. The experimenter then pours the water from one
of the glasses into a taller, narrower glass and asks, Now, does one glass have more water,
or are they the same? Leah responds that the tall glass has more because It goes up more
here (she points to the higher level on the taller glass).
Piagets explanation for Leahs answer is that she is focusing, or centring, attention
on the dimension of height. She has difficulty considering more than one aspect of the
situation at a time, or decentring. The preoperational child cannot understand that
increased diameter compensates for decreased height, since this would require taking into
account two dimensions at once. Thus, children at the preoperational stage have trouble
freeing themselves from their own perceptions of how the world appears.
This brings us to another important characteristic of the preoperational stage. Preop-erational
children, according to Piaget, are very egocentric; they tend to see the world and
the experiences of others from their own viewpoints. Egocentric, as Piaget intended it, does
not mean selfish; it simply means that children often assume that everyone else shares
their feelings, reactions, and perspectives. For example, if a little girl at this stage is afraid
of dogs, she may assume that all children share this fear. The 2-year-old at the beginning
of this chapter who brought his own mother to comfort a friend who was crying, even
though the friends mother was available, was simply seeing the situation through his own
eyes. Very young children centre on their own perceptions and on the way the situatio
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 41
Helping Families Care for Preoperational Children
GUIDELINES
Encourage families to use concrete props and visual aids
whenever possible.
Examples
1. When family members use words, such as part, whole,
or one-half, encourage them to demonstrate using objects
in the house, such as cutting an apple or pizza into parts.
2. Let children add and subtract with sticks, rocks, or coloured
chips. This technique also is helpful for early concrete-operational
students.
Make instructions relatively shortavoid introducing too
many steps at once. Use actions as well as words.
Examples
1. When giving instructions, such as how to feed a pet, first
model the process, then ask the child to try it.
2. Explain a game by acting out one of the parts.
Help children develop their ability to see the world from
someone elses point of view.
Examples
1. Ask children to imagine how your sister felt when you broke
her toy.
FAMILY AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
2. Be clear about rules for sharing or use of material. Help
children understand the value of the rules, and help them
develop empathy by asking them to think about how they
would like to be treated. Avoid long lectures on sharing or
being nice.
Give children plenty of hands-on practice with the skills that
serve as building block for more complex skills such as reading
comprehension or collaboration.
Examples
1. Provide cut-out letters or letter magnets for the refrigerator
to build words.
2. Do activities that require measuring and simple
calculationscooking, dividing a batch of popcorn equally.
Provide a wide range of experiences to build a foundation for
concept learning and language.
Examples
1. Take trips to zoos, gardens, theatres, and concerts;
encourage storytelling.
2. Give children words to describe what they are doing,
hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling.
appears to them. This is one reason it is difficult for these children to understand that your
right hand is not on the same side as theirs when you are facing them.
Research has shown that young children are not totally egocentric in every situation,
however. Even at age 2, children will describe more details about a situation to a parent
who was not present than they will provide to a parent who experienced the situation
with them. So young children do seem quite able to take the needs and different perspec-tives
of others into account, at least in certain situations (Flavell, Miller, & Miller, 2002).
And in fairness to young children, even adults can make assumptions that others feel or
think as they do. For example, have you ever received a gift that the giver loved but was
clearly inappropriate for you? The Family and Community Partnerships Guidelines pro-vide
ideas for working with preoperational thinkers and for guiding families in supporting
the cognitive development of their children.
Later Elementary to the Middle School Years: The Concrete Operational Stage. Piaget
coined the term concrete operations to describe this stage of hands-on thinking. The basic
characteristics of the stage are the recognition of the logical stability of the physical world;
the realization that elements can be changed or transformed and still conserve many of
their original characteristics; and the understanding that these changes can be reversed.
Look at Figure 2.4, which shows examples of the different tasks given to children to
assess conservation and the approximate age ranges when most children can solve these
problems. According to Piaget, a students ability to solve conservation problems depends
on an understanding of three basic aspects of reasoning: identity, compensation, and
reversibility. With a complete mastery of identity, the student knows that if nothing is
added or taken away, the material remains the same. With an understanding of compensation,
the student knows that an apparent change in one direction can be compensated for by
a change in another direction. That is, if the liquid rises higher in the glass, the glass must
be narrower. And with an understanding of reversibility, the student can mentally cancel
Concrete operations Mental
tasks tied to concrete objects
and situations.
Identity The principle that a
person or object remains the
same over time.
Compensation The principle that
changes in one dimension can be
offset by changes in another
dimension.
Reversibility A characteristic of
Piagetian logical operationsthe
ability to think through a series of
steps, then mentally reverse the
steps and return to the starting
point; also called reversible
thinking
42 PART 1 STUDENTS
FIGURE 2.4
SOME PIAGETIAN CONSERVATION TASKS
In addition to the tasks shown here, other tasks involve the conservation of number, length, weight, and
volume. These tasks are all achieved over the concrete-operational period.
Suppose you
start with this
(a)
conservation
of mass A
B
B
(b)
conservation
of weight
A B
Roll out
clay
ball B
Take
(c)
conservation
of volume
A
(d)
conservation
of continuous
quantity
A
(e)
conservation
of number
B C
A
B
Break
candy bar
B into
pieces
B
clay ball
out of
water
and
roll out
clay ball B
Pour
water
in beaker
A into
beaker C
AB C
A
B
A B
Which beaker has more liquid,
B or C?
When I put the clay back
into the water beakers,
in which beaker will
the water be higher?
A B
Roll out
clay
ball B
Then you change
the situation to this
The question you
would ask a child is
A Which is bigger,
A or B?
Which will weigh more,
A or B?
Which is more candy?
A or B
Source: Woolfolk, A., & Perry, N. E. (2015). Child Development. Pearson Education, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
out the change that has been made. Leah apparently knew it was the same water (iden-tity),
but lacked compensation and reversibility, so she was still moving toward
conservation.
Classification Grouping objects
into categories.
Another important operation mastered at this stage is classification. Classification
depends on a students abilities to focus on a single characteristic of objects in a set (for
example, colour) and group the objects according to that characteristic. More advanced
classification at this stage involves recognizing that one class fits into another. A city can
be in a particular province and also in Canada. As children apply this advanced classifica-tion
to locations, they often become fascinated with complete addresses, such as this
one: Lee Jary, 5116 Forest Hill Drive, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, North America,
Northern Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Universe.
Classification is also related to reversibility. The ability to reverse a process mentally
now allows the concrete-operational student to see that there is more than one way t
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
classify a group of objects. The student understands, for example, that buttons can be
classified by colour and then reclassified by size or by the number of holes they have.
Seriation is the process of making an orderly arrangement from large to small or vice
versa. This understanding of sequential relationships permits a student to construct a
logical series in which A , B , C (A is less than B is less than C) and so on. Unlike the
preoperational child, the concrete-operational child can grasp the notion that B can be
larger than A but smaller than C.
With the abilities to handle operations such as conservation, classification, and seri-ation,
the student at the concrete-operational stage has finally developed a complete and
very logical system of thinking. However, this system of thinking is still tied to physical
reality. The logic is based on concrete situations that can be organized, classified, or
manipulated. Thus, children at this stage can imagine several different arrangements for
the furniture in their rooms. They do not have to solve the problem strictly through trial
and error by actually moving the furniture. However, the concrete-operational child is not
yet able to reason about hypothetical, abstract problems that involve the coordination of
many factors at once. This kind of coordination is part of Piagets next and final stage of
cognitive development.
In any grade you teach, knowledge of concrete-operational thinking will be helpful.
See Guidelines: Teaching the Concrete Operational Child for ideas. In the early grades,
students are moving toward this logical system of thought. In the middle grades, this
system is in full flower, ready to be applied and extended by your teaching. Students in
high school and even adults still commonly use concrete-operational thinking, especially
in areas that are new or unfamiliar.
High School and University: The Formal-Operational Stage. Some students remain at
the concrete-operational stage throughout their school years, even throughout life. How-ever,
new experiences, usually those that take place in school, eventually present most
students with problems that they cannot solve using concrete operations.
STOP & THINK You are packing for along trip, but you want to pack light. How many different
three-piece outfits (pants, shirt, jacket) will you have if you include three shirts, three pants, and
three jackets (assuming of course that they all go together in fashion perfection)? Time yourself
to see how long it takes to arrive at the answer.
What happens when a number of variables interact, as in a laboratory experiment
or the problem just posed in the Stop & Think feature? Then a mental system for control-ling
sets of variables and working through a set of possibilities is needed. These are the
abilities that Piaget called formal operations.
At the level of formal operations, the focus of thinking can shift from what is to what
might be. Situations do not have to be experienced to be imagined. You met Jamal at the
beginning of this chapter. Even though he is a bright elementary school student, he could
not answer the question, How would life be different if people did not have to sleep?
because he insisted, People have to sleep! In contrast, the adolescent who has mastered
formal operations can consider contrary-to-fact questions. In answering, the adolescent
demonstrates the hallmark of formal operationshypothetico-deductive reasoning. The
formal thinker can consider a hypothetical situation (people do not have to sleep) and
reason deductively (from the general assumption to specific implications, such as longer
workdays, more money spent on lighting, or new entertainment industries). Formal opera-tions
also include inductive reasoning, or using specific observations to identify general
principles. For example, the economist observes many specific changes in the stock mar-ket
and attempts to identify general principles about economic cycles from this
information.
Using formal operations is a new way of reasoning that involves thinking about
thinking or mental operations on mental operations (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). For
example, the child using concrete operations can categorize animals by their physical
characteristics or by their habitats, but a child using formal operations can perform
Seriation Arrangement of
objects in sequential order
according to one aspect, such as
size, weight, or volume.
Formal operations Mental tasks
involving abstract thinking and
coordination of a number of
variables.
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
A formal-operations problem-solving
strategy in which an
individual begins by identifying all
the factors that might affect a
problem and then deduces and
systematically evaluates specific
solutions.
4
44 PART 1 STUDENTS
Teaching the Concrete-Operational Child
GUIDELINES
Continue to use concrete props and visual aids, especially
when dealing with sophisticated material.
Examples
1. Use timelines in history lessons and three-dimensional
models in science lessons.
2. Use diagrams to illustrate hierarchical relationships, such
as branches of government and the agencies under each
branch.
Continue to give students a chance to manipulate and test
objects.
Examples
1. Set up simple scientific experiments like the following
involving the relationship between fire and oxygen. What
happens to a flame when you blow on it from a distance? (If
you do not blow it out, the flame gets larger briefly, because
it has more oxygen to burn.) What happens when you cover
the flame with a jar?
2. Have students make candles by dipping wicks in wax, weave
cloth on a simple loom, bake bread, set type by hand, or do
other craftwork that illustrates the daily occupations of
people during the pioneer period.
Make sure that presentations and readings are brief and well
organized.
Examples
1. Assign stories or books with short, logical chapters,
moving to longer reading assignments only when
students are ready.
2. Break up a presentation, giving students an opportunity to
practise the first steps before introducing the next steps.
Use familiar examples to explain more complex ideas.
Examples
1. Compare students lives with those of characters in a story.
For example, after reading Island of the Blue Dolphins (the
true story of a girl who grew up alone on a deserted island),
ask, Have you ever had to stay alone for along time? How
did you feel?
2. Teach the concept of area by having students measure two
rooms in the school that are different sizes.
Give opportunities to classify and group objects and ideas on
increasingly complex levels.
Examples
1. Give students slips of paper that each have one sentence
written on them and ask the students to group the sentences
into paragraphs.
2. Compare the systems of the human body to other kinds of
systems: the brain to a computer, the heart to a pump. Break
down stories into components, from the broad to the
specific: author; story; characters, plot, theme; place, time.
Present problems that require logical, analytical thinking.
Examples
1. Discuss open-ended questions that stimulate thinking,
such as Are the brain and the mind the same thing?
How should the city deal with stray animals? What is
the largest number?
2. Use sports photos or pictures of crisis situations (Red Cross
helping in disasters, victims of poverty or war, senior citizens
who need assistance) to stimulate problem-solving
discussions.
second-order operations on these category operations to infer relationships between
habitat and physical characteristicssuch as understanding that the physical characteristic
of thick fur on animals is related to their arctic habitats (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006). Abstract
formal-operational thinking is necessary for success in many advanced high school and
college or university courses. For example, most math is concerned with hypothetical situ-ations,
assumptions, and givens: Let x 5 10, or Assume x2 1 y2 5 z2, or Given two
sides and an adjacent angle . . . . Work in social studies and literature requires abstract
thinking, too: What did Woodrow Wilson mean when he called the First World War the
war to end all wars? What are some metaphors for hope and despair in Shakespeares
sonnets? What symbols of old age does T. S. Eliot use in The Waste Land? How do
animals symbolize human character traits in Aesops fables?
The organized, scientific thinking of formal operations requires that students system-atically
generate different possibilities for a given situation. For example, if asked, How
many different shirt/pants/jacket outfits can you make using three of each kind of cloth-ing?
the child using formal operations can systematically identify the 27 possible combi-nations.
(Did you get it right?) A concrete-operational thinker might name just a few
combinations, using each piece of clothing only once. The underlying system of combina-tions
is not yet available to the concrete thinker
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Another characteristic of this stage is adolescent egocentrism. Unlike egocentric young
children, adolescents do not deny that other people may have different perceptions and
beliefs; the adolescents just become very focused on their own ideas. They spend much
time examining their own beliefs and attitudes. This leads to what Elkind (1981) calls the
sense of an imaginary audiencethe feeling that everyone is watching and analyzing
them. (e.g., Everyone noticed that I wore this shirt twice this week. The whole class
thought my answer was dumb!). You can see that social blunders or imperfections in
appearance can be devastating to an adolescent if he or she believes that everybody is
watching. In fact, Kimberly Schonert-Reichl (1994) at the University of British Columbia
linked adolescent egocentrism with adolescent depression. In particular, her study found
that girls from high-socioeconomic-status (SES) families tended to be overly self-conscious
and more at risk for depression. In contrast, boys from high-SES families reported a
heightened sense of omnipotence, uniqueness, and invulnerability. Luckily, this feeling of
being on stage seems to peak in early adolescence, by age 14 or 15.
The ability to think hypothetically, consider alternatives, identify all possible combi-nations,
and analyze their own thinking has some interesting consequences for adoles-cents.
Since they can think about worlds that do not exist, they often become interested
in science fiction. Because they can reason from general principles to specific actions,
they are often critical of people whose actions seem to contradict their principles. Ado-lescents
can deduce the set of best possibilities and imagine ideal worlds (or ideal par-ents
and teachers, for that matter). This explains why many students at this age develop
interests in utopias, political causes, and social issues. They want to design better worlds,
and their thinking allows them to do so. Adolescents can also imagine many possible
futures for themselves and may try to decide which is best. Feelings about any of these
ideals may be strong.
Do We All Reach the Fourth Stage? Most psychologists agree that there is a level of
thinking more sophisticated than concrete operations. But the question of how universal
formal-operational thinking actually is, even among adults, is a matter of debate. The first
three stages of Piagets theory are forced on most people by physical realities. Objects
really are permanent. The amount of water does not change when it is poured into another
glass. Formal operations, however, are not so closely tied to the physical environment.
Being able to use formal operations may be the result of practice in solving hypothetical
problems and using formal scientific reasoningabilities that are valued and taught in
literate cultures, particularly in college and university. Even so, not all high school students
can perform Piagets formal-operational tasks (Shayer, 2003). The Guidelines: Helping
Students to Use Formal Operations will help you support the development of formal
operations in your students.
Piaget himself (1974) suggested that most adults may be able to use formal-opera-tional
thought in a few areas where they have the greatest experience or interest. Taking
a college or university class fosters formal-operational abilities in that subject, but not
necessarily in others (Lehman & Nisbett, 1990). So expect many students in your middle
school or high school class to have trouble thinking hypothetically, especially when they
are learning something new. Sometimes, students find shortcuts for dealing with problems
that are beyond their grasp; they may memorize formulas or lists of steps. These systems
may be helpful for passing tests, but real understanding will take place only if students
are able to go beyond this superficial use of memorization.
Information Processing and Neo-Piagetian Views of
Cognitive Development
As you will see in Chapter 8, there are explanations for why children have trouble with con-servation
and other Piagetian tasks. These explanations focus on the childs developing
information processing skills, such as attention, memory capacity, and learning strategies. As
children mature and their brains develop, they are better able to focus their attention, process
information more quickly, hold more information in memory, and use thinking strategies
more easily and flexibly (Siegler, 2000; 2004). These improvements reflect advances in
Adolescent
egocentrism Assumption that
everyone else is interested in
ones thoughts, feelings, and
concerns.
4
46 PART 1 STUDENTS
Helping Students to Use Formal Operations
GUIDELINES
Continue to use concrete-operational teaching strategies and
materials.
Examples
1. Use visual aids, such as charts and illustrations, as well as
somewhat more sophisticated graphs and diagrams,
especially when the material being covered is new.
2. Compare the experiences of characters in stories to students
experiences.
Give students the opportunity to explore many hypothetical
questions.
Examples
1. Have students write position papers, then exchange their
papers with students who embraced the opposing side of
the issue, and debate topical social issues, such as the
environment, the economy, national unity.
2. Ask students to write about their personal vision of a utopia,
a description of a universe that has no sex differences, a
description of Earth after humans are extinct, and so forth.
Give students opportunities to solve problems and to reason
scientifically.
Examples
1. Set up group discussions in which students design
experiments to answer questions.
2. Ask students to justify two different positions on animal
rights, with logical arguments for each position.
Whenever possible, teach broad concepts, not just facts, using
materials and ideas relevant to students lives (Delpit, 1995).
Examples
1. When discussing Indigenous peoples land claims, consider
other issues that have divided Canadians (e.g., Quebec
sovereignty).
2. When teaching about poetry, let students find lyrics from
popular songs that illustrate poetic devices, and talk about
how these devices do or do not work well to communicate
the meanings and feelings the songwriters intended.
Executive functioning The
processes used to organize,
coordinate, and perform goal-directed,
intentional actions,
including focusing attention,
inhibiting impulsive responses,
making and changing plans, and
using memory to hold and
manipulate information.
Neo-Piagetian theories More
recent theories that integrate
findings about attention, memory,
and strategy use with Piagets
insights about childrens thinking
and the construction of
knowledge.
executive functioning. Executive functioning skills include focusing attention, inhibiting impul-sive
responses, making and changing plans, and using memory to hold and manipulate
information (Best & Miller, 2010; Raj & Bell, 2010). We use these processes to organize,
coordinate, and perform goal-directed, intentional actions. As children develop more sophis-ticated
and effective executive functioning skills, they are active in advancing their own
development; they are constructing, organizing, and improving their own knowledge and
strategies (Siegler & Alibali, 2005). For example, one classic Piagetian task is to show children
10 daisies and 2 roses, then ask if there are more daisies or more flowers. Young children
see more daisies and jump to the answer, daisies. As they mature, children are better at
resisting (inhibiting) that first response based on appearances and can answer based on the
fact that both daisies and roses are flowers. But even adults have to take a fraction of a second
to resist the obvious, so inhibiting impulsive responses is important for developing complex
knowledge throughout life (Borst, Poirel, Pineau, Cassotti, & Houd, 2013).
Some developmental psychologists have formulated neo-Piagetian theories that retain
Piagets insights about childrens construction of knowledge and the general trends in
childrens thinking, but add findings from information processing about the role of atten-tion,
memory, and strategies (Croker, 2012). One of the best known neo-Piagetian theo-rists,
Robbie Case (1992, 1998), who was a professor at both Stanford University and the
University of Toronto, devised an explanation of cognitive development suggesting that
children develop in stages within specific domains such as numerical concepts, spatial
concepts, social tasks, storytelling, reasoning about physical objects, and motor develop-ment.
As children practise using the schemes in a particular domain (e.g., using counting
schemes in the number concept area), accomplishing the schemes takes less attention.
The schemes become more automatic because the child does not have to think so hard
about it. This frees up mental resources and memory to do more. The child now can
combine simple schemes into more complex ones and invent new schemes when needed
(assimilation and accommodation in action).
Kurt Fischer (2009) connected cognitive development in different domains to research
on the brain. He also examined development in different domains such as reading or math
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
You may remember Nico and Brooke, the remarkable children we met earlier in the
chapter who each had one side of their brain removed to treat severe epilepsy, yet still
developed other pathways in their brains to recover lost spatial and verbal abilities. We
have seen that one of the implications of research on the brain is that there are multiple
pathways for learning.
Fischer (2009) found, however, that even though their brains follow different path-ways
as they master skills in speaking, reading, and mathematics, childrens growth pat-terns
show a similar series of spurts, and they go through predictable levels of development.
When learning a new skill, children move through three tiersfrom actions to representa-tions
to abstractions. Within each tier, the pattern is moving from accomplishing a single
action to mapping or coordinating two actions together, creating whole systems of under-standingsuch
as coordinating addition and multiplication in math. At the level of abstrac-tions,
the children finally move to constructing explanatory principles. This may remind
you of sensorimotor, concrete operations, and formal operations in Piagets theory. Look
at Table 2.3, which shows the movement through the tiers of actions to representations
to abstractions.
For each skill level, the brain reorganizes itself, too. Table 2.3 shows this progression
between birth and 30 years old for the skill of arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division. Notice the column that says emergence of optimal level.
This column shows the ages at which the skills will develop if the individuals have quality
support and the chance to practice. The age the skill emerges without support and practice
is shown in the last column. Support and practice are keys in another explanation of
cognitive development we will discuss soonVygotskys theory.
Limitations of Piagets Theory
Although most psychologists agree with Piagets insightful descriptions of how children
think, many disagree with his explanations of why thinking develops as it does.
The Trouble with Stages. Some psychologists have questioned the existence of four
separate stages of thinking, even though they agree that children do go through the
TABLE 2.3 A Pattern of Cognitive Development over 30 Years
As children develop skills in speaking, reading, and mathematics, their growth patterns show a similar series of spurts. In learning a new
skill, children move from actions to representations to abstractions.
TIERS LEVELS
Abstraction
Ab4. Principles
Ab3. Systems
Ab2. Mappings
Rp4./Ab1. Single
Abstraction
Representations Rp3. Systems
Rp2. Mappings
Sm4./Rp1. Single
Representations
Actions
Sm3. Systems
Sm2. Mappings
Sm1. Single Actions
1113 mos
78
34
1124 mos
713
39
Source: Fischer, K. W. (2009). Mind, brain, and education: Building a scientific groundwork for learning and teaching. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3, 216.
31/241/2
2
3045 yrs
2340
1730
1320
712
48
25
47
AGE OF EMERGENCE OF OPTIMAL LEVEL AGE OF FUNCTIONAL LEVEL
2325 yrs
1820
1416
1012
6
48 PART 1 STUDENTS
changes that Piaget described (Mascolo & Fischer, 2005; Miller, 2011). One problem with
the stage model is the lack of consistency in childrens thinking. For example, children
can conserve number (the number of blocks does not change when they are rearranged)
a year or two before they can conserve weight (the weight of a ball of clay does not
change when you flatten it). Why cant they use conservation consistently in every situa-tion?
In fairness, we should note that in his later work, even Piaget put less emphasis on
stages of cognitive development and gave more attention to how thinking changes through
equilibration (Miller, 2011).
Another problem with the idea of separate stages is that the processes may be more
continuous than they seem. Changes may seem like discontinuous, qualitative leaps when
we look across longer time periods. The 3-year-old persistently searching for a lost toy
seems qualitatively different from the infant who does not seem to miss a toy or to search
when the toy rolls under a sofa. But if we watched a developing child very closely and
observed moment-to-moment or hour-to-hour changes, we might see that indeed there
are gradual, continuous changes. Rather than appearing all at once, the knowledge that
a hidden toy still exists may be a product of the older childs more fully developed mem-ory:
He knows that the toy is under the sofa because he remembers seeing it roll there,
whereas for the infant the toy is out of sight, out of mind. The longer you require chil-dren
to wait before searchingthe longer you make them remember the objectthe older
they have to be to succeed (Siegler & Alibali, 2005).
Change can be both continuous and discontinuous, as described by a branch of
mathematics called catastrophe theory. Changes that appear suddenly, like the collapse
of a bridge, are preceded by many slowly developing changes such as gradual, continuous
corrosion of the metal structures. Similarly, gradually developing changes in children can
lead to large changes in abilities that seem abrupt (Dawson-Tunik, Fischer, & Stein, 2004;
Siegler & Alibali, 2005).
Underestimating Childrens Abilities. It now appears that Piaget underestimated the
cognitive abilities of children, particularly younger ones. The problems he gave young
children may have been too difficult and the directions too confusing. His subjects may
have understood more than they could show on these problems. For example, work by
Gelman and her colleagues (Gelman, 2000; Gelman & Cordes, 2001) shows that pre-school
children know much more about the concept of number than Piaget thought,
even if they sometimes make mistakes or get confused. As long as preschoolers work
with only three or four objects at a time, they can tell that the number remains the same,
even if the objects are spread far apart or clumped close together. Mirjam Ebersbach
(2009) demonstrated that most of the German kindergartners in her study considered
all three dimensionswidth, height, and lengthwhen they estimated the volume of a
wooden block (actually, how many small cubes it would take to make bigger blocks of
different sizes). In other words, we may be born with a greater store of cognitive tools
than Piaget suggested. Some basic understandings or core knowledge, such as the per-manence
of objects or the sense of number, may be part of our evolutionary equipment,
ready for use in our cognitive development (Geary & Bjorklund, 2000; Woodward &
Needham, 2009).
Piagets theory also does not explain how even young children can perform at an
advanced level in certain areas where they have highly developed knowledge and exper-tise.
For example, Marion Porath (1996), who studied with Robbie Case, found the draw-ings
of artistically gifted children and the story plots of verbally gifted children to be far
more elaborate than those of children in a same-age control group. Similarly, an expert
9-year-old chess player can think abstractly about chess moves, whereas a novice 20-year-old
player may have to resort to more concrete strategies to plan and remember moves
(Siegler, 1998).
Finally, Piaget argued that the development of cognitive operations such as con-servation
or abstract thinking cannot be accelerated. He believed that children had to
be developmentally ready to learn. Quite a bit of research, however, has shown that
children can learn to perform cognitive operations such as conservation with effective
instruction. They do not have to naturally discover these ways of thinking on their own
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 49
CHILD EXPERTS One limitation of Piagets theory appears to be the underestimation of young chil-drens
cognitive abilities. For instance, his theory does not explain how these young girls can play
chess at the same level as many adults could.
Knowledge and experience in a situation affect the kind of thinking that students can
do (Brainerd, 2003).
Cognitive Development and Culture. One final criticism of Piagets theory is that it
overlooks the important effects of the childs cultural and social group. Research across
different cultures has generally confirmed that Piaget was accurate about the sequence of
the stages in childrens thinking he described, but age ranges for the stages vary. Children
living in Western countries typically move to the next stage about two to three years ear-lier
than their peers in non-Western societies. But careful research has shown that these
differences across cultures depend on the subject or domain tested and whether the
culture values and teaches knowledge in that domain. For example, children in Brazil
who sell candy in the streets instead of attending school appear to fail a certain kind of
Piagetian taskclass inclusion (e.g., Are there more daisies, more tulips, or more flow-ers
in the picture?). But when the tasks are phrased in concepts they understandsell-ing
candythen these children perform better than Brazilian children the same age who
attend school (Saxe, 1999). When a culture or context emphasizes a cognitive ability,
children growing up in that culture tend to acquire that ability sooner. In a study that
compared Chinese students in grades 1, 3, and 5 to same-grade North American peers,
the Chinese students mastered a Piagetian task that involved distance, time, and speed
relationships about two years ahead of the North American students, most likely because
the Chinese education system puts more emphasis on math and science in the early
grades (Zhou, Peverly, Beohm, & Chongde, 2001).
Even concrete operations such as classification may not be so basic to people of
other cultures. For example, when individuals from the Kpelle people of Africa were
asked to sort 20 objects, they created groups that made sense to thema hoe with a
potato, a knife with an orange. The experimenter could not get the Kpelle to change
their categories; they said this is how a wise man would do it. Finally, the experimenter
asked in desperation, Well, how would a fool do it? Then the subjects promptly created
the four neat classification piles the experimenter had expectedfood, tools, and so on
(Rogoff & Morelli, 1989).
Lev Vygotsky proposed another increasingly influential view of cognitive develop-ment.
His theory ties cognitive development to culture.
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY Lev
Vygotsky elaborated the socio-cultural
theory of development.
His ideas about language, culture,
and cognitive development have
become major influences in the
fields of psychology and education.
Elena
Rooraid/PhotoEdit,Inc.
Felicia
Martinez
Photography/PhotoEdit,Inc
50 PART 1 STUDENTS
VYGOTSKYS SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Psychologists today recognize that the childs culture shapes cognitive development by
determining what and how the child will learn about the world. For example, young girls
in the Indigenous Zinacanteco culture of southern Mexico learn complicated ways of
weaving cloth through informal instruction by adults in their communities. Cultures that
encourage cooperation and sharing teach these skills early, whereas cultures that encour-age
competition nurture competitive abilities in their children (Bakerman, Adamson,
Koner, & Barr, 1990; Ceci & Roazzi, 1994). The stages observed by Piaget are not neces-sarily
natural for all children because to some extent they reflect the expectations and
activities of the childrens culture (Kozulin, 2003; Rogoff, 2003).
A major spokesperson for this sociocultural theory (also called sociohistoric) was a
Russian psychologist who died in 1934. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was only 38 when he
died of tuberculosis, but during his life he produced more than 100 books and articles.
Some of his works are now available in translation (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986, 1987a, 1987b,
1993, 1997). Vygotskys work began when he was studying learning and development to
improve his own teaching. He went on to write about language and thought, the psychol-ogy
of art, learning and development, and educating students with special needs. His work
was banned in the former Soviet Union for many years because he referenced Western
psychologists. But in the past 40 years, with the rediscovery of his work, Vygotskys ideas
about language, culture, and cognitive development have become major influences in
psychology and education and have provided alternatives to many of Piagets theories
(Gredler, 2009a, 2009b, 2012; Kozulin, 2003; Kozulin, Gindis, Ageyev, & Miller, 2003; Van
Der Veer, 2007; Wink & Putney, 2002).
Vygotsky believed that human activities take place in cultural settings and cannot be
understood apart from these settings. One of his key ideas was that our specific mental
structures and processes can be traced to our interactions with others. These social inter-actions
are more than simple influences on cognitive developmentthey actually create
our cognitive structures and thinking processes (Palincsar, 1998). In fact, Vygotsky con-ceptualized
development as the transformation of socially shared activities into internal-ized
processes ( John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996, p. 192). We will examine two themes in
Vygotskys writings that explain how social processes form learning and thinking: the
social sources of individual thinking and the role of tools in learning and development,
especially the tool of language (Driscoll, 2005; Gredler, 2012; Wertsch & Tulviste, 1992).
The Social Sources of Individual Thinking
Vygotsky assumed that
Sociocultural theory Theory
that emphasizes the role in
development of cooperative
dialogues between children and
more knowledgeable members of
society; children learn the culture
of their community (ways of
thinking and behaving) through
these interactions.
Co-constructed Constructed
through a social process in which
people interact and negotiate
(usually verbally) to create an
understanding or to solve a
problem; the final product is
shaped by all participants.
Every function in a childs cultural development appears twice: first on the social level
and later on the individual level; first between people (interpsychological) and then
inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logi-cal
memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual
relations between human individuals. (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57)
In other words, higher mental processes, such as directing your own attention and
thinking through problems, first are co-constructed during shared activities between the
child and another person. Then the processes are internalized by the child and become
part of that childs cognitive development (Gredler, 2009a, 2009b; Mercer, 2013). For
example, children first use language in activities with others, to regulate the behaviour of
the others (No nap! or I wanna cookie). Later, however, children can regulate their
own behaviour using private speech (Dont spill), as you will see in a later section. So,
for Vygotsky, social interaction was more than influence; it was the origin of higher mental
processes such as problem solving. Consider this example:
A six-year-old has lost a toy and asks her father for help. The father asks her where she
last saw the toy; the child says, I cant remember. He asks a series of questionsdid
you have it in your room? Outside? Next door? To each question, the child answers, no.
When he says in the car? she says I think so and goes to retrieve the toy. (Tharp &
Gallimore, 1988, p. 14
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Who remembered? The answer is really neither the father nor the daughter, but the
two together. The remembering and problem solving was co-constructedbetween peo-plein
the interaction. But the child may have internalized strategies to use next time
something is lost. At some point, the child will be able to function independently to solve
this kind of problem. So, as the strategy for finding the toy indicates, higher functions
appear first between a child and a teacher before they exist within the individual child
(Kozulin et al., 2003).
Here is another example of the social sources of individual thinking. Richard Ander-son
and his colleagues (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) studied how grade 4 students in
small-group classroom discussions appropriate (take for themselves and use) argument
stratagems that occur in the discussions. An argument stratagem is a particular form, such
as I think [POSITION] because [REASON], where the student fills in the position and the
reason. For example, a student might say, I think that the wolves should be left alone
because they are not hurting anyone. Another strategy form is If [ACTION], then [BAD
CONSEQUENCE], as in If they dont trap the wolves, then the wolves will eat the cows.
Other forms manage participation, for example, What do you think, [NAME]? or Let
[NAME] talk.
Andersons research identified 13 forms of talk and argument that helped to manage
the discussions, to get everyone to participate and present and defend positions, and to
handle confusion. The researchers found that the use of these different forms of talking
and thinking snowballedonce a useful argument was employed by one student, it spread
to other students, and the argument stratagem form appeared more and more in the dis-cussions.
Open discussionsstudents asking and answering each others questionswere
better than teacher-dominated discussion for the development of these argument forms.
Over time, these ways of presenting, attacking, and defending positions could be internal-ized
as mental reasoning and decision making for the individual students.
Both Piaget and Vygotsky emphasized the importance of social interactions in cogni-tive
development, but Piaget saw a different role for interaction. He believed that interac-tion
encouraged development by creating disequilibriumcognitive conflictthat
motivated change. Thus, Piaget believed that the most helpful interactions were between
peers because peers are on an equal basis and can challenge each others thinking. Vygot-sky,
on the other hand, suggested that childrens cognitive development is fostered by
interactions with people who are more capable or advanced in their thinkingpeople
such as parents and teachers (Moshman, 1997; Palincsar, 1998). Of course, students can
learn from both adults and peers, and today, computers can play a role in supporting
communication across distances or in different languages.
Cultural Tools and Cognitive Development
Vygotsky believed that cultural tools, including technical tools (e.g., printing presses,
plows, rulers, abacuses, graph papertoday, we would add mobile devices, computers,
the internet, real-time translators for mobile devices and chats, search engines, digital
organizers and calendars, assistive technologies for students with learning challenges, etc.)
and psychological tools (signs and symbol systems, e.g., numbers and mathematical sys-tems,
Braille and sign language, maps, works of art, codes, and language) play very
important roles in cognitive development. For example, as long as the culture provides
only Roman numerals for representing quantity, certain ways of thinking mathematicallyfrom
long division to calculusare difficult or impossible. But with a number system that
has a zero, fractions, positive and negative values, and an infinite quantity of numbers,
much more is possible. The number system is a cultural tool that supports thinking, learn-ing,
and cognitive development. This symbol system is passed from adult to child and
from child to child through formal and informal interactions and teachings.
Technical Tools in a Digital Age. The use of technical tools such as calculators and spell
checkers has been somewhat controversial in education. Technology is increasingly
checking up on us. You may rely on the spell checker in your word processing program
to protect yourself from embarrassment. But you might also have read papers with spell-ing
replacements that must have come from decisions made by the word processing
51
Cultural tools The real tools
(computers, scales, etc.) and
symbol systems (numbers,
language, graphs, etc.) that allow
people in a society to
communicate, think, solve
problems, and create knowledge
52 PART 1 STUDENTS
programwithout a sense check by the writer. Is student learning harmed or helped
by these technology supports? Just because students learned mathematics in the past
with paper-and-pencil procedures and practice does not mean that this is the best way
to learn. For example, in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (Trends
in International Mathematics and Science Study [TIMSS], 1998), on every test at the
advanced level, students who said that they used calculators in their daily math course-work
performed much better than students who rarely or never used calculators. In
fact, the research on calculators over the past decade has found that rather than erod-ing
basic skills, calculator use has positive effects on students problem-solving skills
and attitudes toward math (Ellington, 2003, 2013; Waits & Demana, 2000). There is a
catch, however. On simple math problems it probably is better to attempt recalling or
calculating the answer first before turning to a calculator. Self-generating answers
before resorting to calculators supports math fact learning and fluency in arithmetic
(Pyke & LeFevre, 2011).
Psychological Tools. Vygotsky believed psychological tools mediate (help to accom-plish)
all higher-order mental processes, such as reasoning and problem solving. These
tools allow children to transform their thinking by enabling them to gain greater and
greater mastery of their own cognitive processes; thus they advance their own develop-ment
as they use the tools. In fact, Vygotsky believed the essence of cognitive development
is mastering the use of psychological tools such as language to accomplish the kind of
advanced thinking and problem solving that could not be accomplished without those
tools (Gredler, 2012; Karpov & Haywood, 1998). The process goes something like this: As
children engage in activities with adults or more capable peers, they exchange ideas and
ways of thinking about or representing conceptsdrawing maps, for example, as a way
to represent spaces and places. Children internalize these co-created ideas. Thus, chil-drens
knowledge, ideas, attitudes, and values develop through appropriating or taking
for themselves the ways of acting and thinking provided by their culture and by the more
capable members of their group (Wertsch, 2007).
In this exchange of signs and symbols and explanations, children begin to develop
a cultural tool kit to make sense of and learn about their world (Wertsch, 1991). The
kit is filled with physical tools such as pencils or paintbrushes directed toward the
external world and with psychological tools such as learning and problem solving or
memory strategies for acting mentally. Children do not just receive the tools transmitted
to them by others, however. Children transform the tools as they construct their own
representations, symbols, patterns, and understandings. As we learned from Piaget,
childrens constructions of meaning are not the same as those of adults. In the exchange
of signs and symbols such as number systems, children create their own understandings
(a raccoon is a kitty). These understandings are gradually changed (a raccoon is a
raccoon) as the children continue to engage in social activities and try to make sense
of their world (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996; Wertsch, 1991). In Vygotskys theory, lan-guage
is the most important symbol system in the tool kit, and it is the one that helps
fill the kit with other tools.
The Role of Language and Private Speech
Language is critical for cognitive development because it provides a means for expressing
ideas and asking questions, the categories and concepts for thinking, and the links
between the past and the future. Language frees us from the immediate situation to think
about what was and what might be (Driscoll, 2005; Mercer, 2013). Vygotsky thought that
The specifically human capacity for language enables children to provide for auxiliary
tools in the solution of difficult tasks, to overcome impulsive action, to plan a solution
to a problem prior to its execution, and to master their own behavior. (Vygotsky, 1978,
p. 28)
Vygotsky placed more emphasis than Piaget on the role of learning and language in
cognitive development. He believed that thinking depends on speech, on the means of
thinking, and on the childs socio-cultural experience (Vygotsky, 1987a, p. 120). In fact
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Vygotsky believed that language in the form of private speech (talking to yourself) guides
cognitive development.
Private Speech: Vygotskys and Piagets Views Compared. If you have spent much
time around young children, you know that they often talk to themselves as they play.
This can happen when the child is alone or, even more often, in a group of childreneach
child talks enthusiastically, without any real interaction or conversation. Piaget called this
the collective monologue, and he labelled all of the childrens self-directed talk egocentric
speech. He assumed that this egocentric speech is another indication that young children
cant see the world through the eyes of others. They talk about what matters to them,
without taking into account the needs or interests of their listeners. As they mature, and
especially as they have disagreements with peers, Piaget believed, children develop social-ized
speech. They learn to listen and exchange (or argue) ideas.
Vygotsky had very different ideas about young childrens private speech. He suggested
that, rather than being a sign of cognitive immaturity, these mutterings play an important
role in cognitive development because they move children toward self-regulation: the
ability to plan, monitor, and guide ones own thinking and problem solving (see Chapter
10 for a detailed description of this highly effective form of learning). First, the childs
behaviour is regulated by others, usually parents, using language and other signs such as
gestures. For example, the parent says No! when the child reaches toward a candle flame.
Next, the child learns to regulate the behaviour of others using the same language tools.
The child says No! to another child who is trying to take away a toy, often even imitating
the parents voice tone. The child also begins to use private speech to regulate her own
behaviour, saying no quietly to herself as she is tempted to touch the flame. Finally, the
child learns to regulate her own behaviour by using silent inner speech (Karpov &
Haywood, 1998).
In any preschool room, you might hear 4-or 5-year-olds saying, No, it wont fit. Try
it here. Turn. Turn. Maybe this one! while they do puzzles. As these children mature, their
self-directed speech goes underground, changing from spoken to whispered speech and
then to silent lip movements. Finally, the children just think the guiding words. The use
of private speech peaks at around age 9, although one study found that some students
from ages 11 to 17 still spontaneously muttered to themselves during problem solving
(McCafferty, 2004; Winsler, Carlton, & Barry, 2000; Winsler & Naglieri, 2003). Vygotsky
called this inner speech an internal plane of verbal thinking (Vygotsky, 1934/1987c,
p. 279)a critical accomplishment on the road to higher-order thinking.
This series of steps, from spoken words to silent inner speech, is another example
of how higher mental functions appear first between people as they communicate and
regulate each others behaviour and then emerge again within the individual as a cogni-tive
process. Through this fundamental process, the child is using language to accomplish
important cognitive activities such as directing attention, solving problems, planning,
forming concepts, and gaining self-control. Research supports Vygotskys ideas (Berk &
Spuhl, 1995; Emerson & Miyake, 2003). Children and adults tend to use more private
speech when they are confused, having difficulties, or making mistakes (Duncan &
Cheyne, 1999). Have you ever thought to yourself something like, Lets see, the first step
is . . . or Where did I use my glasses last? or If I work to the end of this page, then I
can . . .? You were using inner speech to remind, cue, encourage, or guide yourself.
This internal verbal thinking is not stable until about age 12, so children in elemen-tary
school may need to continue talking through problems and explaining their reasoning
in order to develop their abilities to control their thinking (Gredler, 2012). Because private
speech helps students to regulate their thinking, it makes sense to allow, and even encour-age,
students to use private speech in school. Teachers insisting on total silence when
young students are working on difficult problems may make the work even harder for
them. Note when muttering increases in your classthis could be a sign that students
need help.
Table 2.4 contrasts Piagets and Vygotskys theories of private speech. We should note
that Piaget accepted many of Vygotskys arguments and came to agree that language could
be used in both egocentric and problem-solving ways (Piaget, 1962).
Collective monologue Form of
speech in which children in a
group talk but do not really
interact or communicate.
Private speech Childrens self-talk,
which guides their thinking
and action; eventually, these
verbalizations are internalized as
silent inner speech.
5
54 PART 1 STUDENTS
TABLE 2.4 Differences between Piagets and Vygotskys Theories of Egocentric or Private Speech
PIAGET VYGOTSKY
Developmental significance Represents an inability to take the
perspective of another and
engage in reciprocal
communication
Course of development
Relationship to social speech
Declines with age
Negative; least socially and
cognitively mature children use
more egocentric speech
Relationship to environmental contexts
Represents externalized thought; its function is to
communicate with the self for the purpose of
self-guidance and self-direction
Increases at younger ages and then gradually loses
its audible quality to become internal verbal
thought
Positive; private speech develops out of social
interaction with others
Increases with task difficulty; private speech serves
a helpful self-guiding function in situations
where more cognitive effort is needed to reach
a solution
Source: Based on Berk, L. E., & Garvin, R. A. (1984). Development of private speech among low-income Appalachian children. Developmental Psychology, 20, 272.
Copyright 1984 by the American Psychological Association.
The Zone of Proximal Development
According to Vygotsky, at any given point in development, there are certain problems that
a child is on the verge of being able to solve. The child just needs some structure, clues,
reminders, help with remembering details or steps, encouragement to keep trying, and so
on. Some problems, of course, are beyond the childs capabilities, even if every step is
explained clearly. The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the area between the childs
current developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level
of development that the child could achieve through adult guidance or in collaboration
with more peers (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). It is a dynamic and changing space as student
and teacher interact and understandings are exchanged. This is the area where instruction
can succeed. Kathleen Berger (2012) called this area the magic middlesomewhere
between what the student already knows and what the student is not ready to learn.
Private Speech and the Zone. We can see how Vygotskys beliefs about the role of
private speech in cognitive development fit with the notion of the zone of proximal devel-opment.
Often, an adult helps a child to solve a problem or accomplish a task using
verbal prompts and structuring. We will see later that this type of support has been called
scaffolding. This support can be gradually reduced as the child takes over the guidance,
perhaps first by giving the prompts as private speech and finally as inner speech. Lets
move forward to a future day in the life of the girl in the earlier example who had lost
her toy and listen to her thoughts when she realizes that a school book is missing. They
might sound something like this:
Wheres my math book? Used it in class. Thought I put it in my book bag after class.
Dropped my bag on the bus. That dope Larry kicked my stuff, so maybe . . . .
The girl can now systematically search for ideas about the lost book without help
from anyone else.
Zone of proximal development
(ZPD) Phase at which a child can
master a task if given appropriate
help and support.
The Role of Learning and Development. Piaget defined development as the active con-struction
of knowledge, and learning as the passive formation of associations (Siegler,
2000). He was interested in knowledge construction and believed that cognitive develop-ment
has to come before learningthe child has to be cognitively ready to learn. He
said that learning is subordinated to development and not vice-versa (Piaget, 1964,
p. 17). Students can memorize, for example, that Geneva is in Switzerland but still insist
that they cannot be Genevan and Swiss at the same time. True understanding will happe
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
only when the child has developed the operation of class inclusionthe idea that one cat-egory
can be included in another. But as we saw earlier, research has not supported Piagets
position on the need for cognitive development to precede learning (Brainerd, 2003).
In contrast, Vygotsky believed that learning is an active process that does not have to
wait for readiness. In fact, properly organized learning results in mental development and
sets in motion a variety of developmental processes that would be impossible apart from
learning (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 90). He saw learning as a tool in developmentlearning pulls
development up to higher levels, and social interaction is a key in learning (Glassman,
2001; Wink & Putney, 2002). Vygotskys belief that learning pulls development to higher
levels means that other people, including teachers, play a significant role in cognitive
development. This does not mean that Vygotsky believed memorization is learning. When
teachers try to directly communicate their understanding, the result can be a meaningless
acquisition of words and mere verbalization (Vygotsky 1934/1987b, p. 356) that actually
hides an understanding vacuum (Gredler, 2012). In Vygotskys words, the teacher explains,
informs, inquires, corrects, and forces the child to explain (p. 216).
Limitations of Vygotskys Theory
Vygotskys theory added important considerations by highlighting the role of culture and
social processes in cognitive development, but he may have gone too far. As we have
seen in this chapter, we may be born with a greater store of cognitive tools than either
Piaget or Vygotsky suggested. Some basic understandings, such as the idea that adding
increases quantity, may be part of our biological predispositions, ready for use to guide
our cognitive development. Young children appear to figure out much about the world
before they have the chance to learn from either their culture or teachers (Schunk, 2012;
Woodward & Needham, 2009). The major limitation of Vygotskys theory, however, is that
it consists mostly of general ideas; Vygotsky died before he could expand and elaborate
on his ideas and pursue his research. His students continued to investigate his ideas, but
much of that work was suppressed until the 1950s and 1960s in the Soviet Union by
Stalins regime (Gredler, 2005; Kozulin, 1990, 2003). A final limitation might be that
Vygotsky did not have time to detail the applications of his theories for teaching, even
though he was very interested in instruction. So most applications of Vygotskys theory
described today have been created by his successorswe do not even know if he would
agree with them. It is clear that some of his concepts, like ZPD, have been misrepresented
at times (Gredler, 2012).
IMPLICATIONS OF PIAGETS AND VYGOTSKYS
THEORIES FOR TEACHERS
Piaget did not make specific educational recommendations, and Vygotsky did not have
time to make a complete set of applications, but we can still glean some guidance
from them.
Piaget: What Can We Learn?
Piaget was more interested in understanding childrens thinking than in guiding teachers.
He did express some general ideas about educational philosophy, however. He believed
that the main goal of education should be to help children learn how to learn, and that
education should form not furnish the minds of students (Piaget, 1969, p. 70). Piaget
taught us that we can learn a great deal about how children think by listening carefully
and by paying close attention to their ways of solving problems. If we understand chil-drens
thinking, we will be better able to match teaching methods to childrens abilities;
in other words, we will be better able to differentiate instruction.
Even though Piaget did not design programs of education based on his ideas, his
influence on twentieth-century education is huge (Hindi & Perry, 2007). For example, the
National Association for the Education of Young Children has guidelines for developmen-tally
appropriate practice (DAP) that incorporate Piagets findings (Bredekamp, 2011;
Bredekamp & Copple, 1997).
5
56 PART 1 STUDENTS
ACTIVE LEARNING The ability to manipulate concrete
objects helps children understand abstract relationships
such as the connection between symbols and quantity.
Understanding and Building on Students Thinking. The stu-dents
in any class will vary greatly both in their level of cognitive
development and in their academic knowledge. As a teacher, how
can you determine whether students are having trouble because
they lack the necessary thinking abilities or because they simply
have not learned the basic facts? To do this, Robbie Case (1985b)
suggested that you observe your students carefully as they try to
solve the problems you have presented. What kind of logic do they
use? Do they focus on only one aspect of the situation? Are they
fooled by appearances? Do they suggest solutions systematically or
by guessing and forgetting what they have already tried? Ask your
students how they tried to solve the problem. Listen to their strate-gies.
What kind of thinking is behind repeated mistakes or prob-lems?
Students are the best sources of information about their own
thinking abilities (Confrey, 1990a).
An important implication of Piagets theory for teaching is what
J. M. Hunt (1961) years ago called the problem of the match. Stu-dents
must be neither bored by work that is too simple nor left
behind by teaching they cannot understand. According to Hunt, disequilibrium must be
kept just right to encourage growth. Setting up situations that lead to errors can help
create an appropriate level of disequilibrium. When students experience some conflict
between what they think should happen (a piece of wood should sink because it is big)
and what actually happens (it floats!), they may rethink their understanding, and new
knowledge may develop.
Many materials and lessons can be understood at several levels and can be just right
for a range of cognitive abilities. Classics such as Alice in Wonderland, myths, and fairy
tales can be enjoyed at both concrete and symbolic levels. It is also possible for a group
of students to be introduced to a topic together and then work individually on follow-up
activities matched to their learning needs and interests. Using multi-level lessons is called
differentiated instruction (Hipsky, 2011; Tomlinson, 2005b). We encountered this idea in
Chapter 1, and will look at it more closely in Chapter 14.
Activity and Constructing Knowledge. Piagets fundamental insight was that individu-als
construct their own understanding; learning is a constructive process. At every level
of cognitive development, you will also want to see that students are actively engaged in
the learning process. In Piagets words:
Knowledge is not a copy of reality. To know an object, to know an event, is not simply
to look at it and make a mental copy or image of it. To know an object is to act on it.
To know is to modify, to transform the object, and to understand the process of this
transformation, and as a consequence to understand the way the object is constructed.
(Piaget, 1964, p. 8)
For example, research in teaching mathematics indicates that students from kinder-garten
to college remember basic facts better when they have learned using manipulatives
versus using abstract symbols only (Carbonneau, Marley, & Selig, 2012). But this active
experience, even at the earliest school levels, should not be limited to the physical manip-ulation
of objects. It should also include mental manipulation of ideas that arise out of
class projects or experiments (Gredler, 2005; 2009). For example, after a social studies
lesson on different jobs, a primary-grade teacher might show the students a picture of a
woman and ask, What could this person be? After answers such as teacher, doctor,
secretary, lawyer, saleswoman, and so on, the teacher could suggest, How about a
daughter? Answers such as sister, mother, aunt, and granddaughter may follow. This
should help the children switch dimensions in their classification and centre on another
aspect of the situation. Next, the teacher might suggest Canadian, jogger, or blonde.
With older children, hierarchical classification might be involved: It is a picture of a
woman, who is a human being; a human being is a primate, which is a mammal, which
is an animal, which is a life form.
Gorillaimages/Shutterstoc
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
All students need to interact with teachers and peers in order to test their thinking,
to be challenged, to receive feedback, and to watch how others work out problems.
Disequilibrium is often set in motion quite naturally when the teacher or another student
suggests a new way of thinking about something. As a general rule, students should act,
manipulate, observe, and then talk and/or write (to the teacher and each other) about
what they have experienced. Concrete experiences provide the raw materials for think-ing.
Communicating with others makes students use, test, and sometimes change their
thinking strategies.
The Value of Play. Maria Montessori once noted, and Piaget would agree, that play
is childrens work. We saw that the brain develops with stimulation, and that play pro-vides
some of that stimulation at every age. Babies in the sensorimotor stage learn by
exploring, sucking, pounding, shaking, throwingacting on their environments. Preop-erational
preschoolers love pretend play, and through pretending they form symbols,
use language, and interact with others. They are beginning to play simple games with
predictable rules. During their elementary school years, children also like fantasy, but
they are beginning to play more complex games and sports and thus learn cooperation,
fairness, negotiation, winning, and losing, as well as developing language. As children
grow into adolescents, play continues to be part of their physical and social develop-ment
(Meece, 2002).
Piaget taught us that children do not think like adults, but discussions about the
implications of Piagets theory often centre on the question of whether cognitive develop-ment
can be accelerated. This issue is at the heart of many discussions about the nature
of programming in preschool and kindergarten. Many provinces across Canada have
implemented, or are in the process of implementing, full-day kindergarten, including Brit-ish
Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Some provinces have
begun a targeted implementation, focusing on particular groups of children who are
believed to be disadvantaged in terms of their readiness for school (e.g., Indigenous chil-dren,
immigrant children, children with disabilities). Others, like British Columbia and
Ontario, are quickly moving to universal programs (universally available, although not
universally required). These provinces are promoting a play-based approach to instruction,
emphasizing that through play children can develop language and literacy, math and sci-ence
skills, and social competence (BC Ministry of Education, n.d.; Elementary Teachers
Federation of Ontario, 2008).
Vygotsky: What Can We Learn?
Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed that the main goal of education was the development of
higher mental functions, not simply filling students memories with facts. So Vygotsky
probably would oppose educational curricula that are an inch deep and a mile wide or
seem like the game Trivial Pursuit. As an example of this Trivial Pursuit curriculum,
Margaret Gredler (2009a) described a set of materials for a nine-week science unit that
had 61 glossary terms such as aqueous solution, hydrogen bonding, and fractional crys-tallizationmany
terms described with only one or two sentences.
There are at least three ways that higher mental functions can be developed through
cultural tools and passed from one individual to another: imitative learning (where one
person tries to imitate the other), instructed learning (where learners internalize the
instructions of the teacher and use these instructions to self-regulate), and collaborative
learning (where a group of peers strives to understand each other and learning occurs in
the process) (Tomasello, Kruger, & Ratner, 1993). Vygotsky was most concerned with the
second type, instructed learning through direct teaching or by structuring experiences
that encourage anothers learning, but his theory supports learning through imitation or
collaboration as well. Thus, Vygotskys ideas are relevant for educators who teach directly,
intentionally use modelling to teach, or create collaborative learning environments (Das,
1995; Wink & Putney, 2002). That pretty much includes all of us.
The Role of Adults and Peers. Vygotsky believed that the child is not alone in the
world discovering the cognitive operations of conservation or classification. This
5
58 PART 1 STUDENTS
discovery is assisted or mediated by family members, teachers,
peers, and even software (Puntambekar & Hubscher, 2005). Most
of this guidance is communicated through language, at least in
Western cultures. In some cultures, observing a skilled perfor-mance,
not talking about it, guides the childs learning (Rogoff,
1990). Some people have called this adult assistance scaffolding,
taken from Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976). The idea is that chil-dren
use the help for support while they build a firm understand-ing
that will eventually allow them to solve the problems on their
own. Actually, when Wood and his colleagues introduced the term
scaffolding, they were talking about how teachers set up or struc-ture
learning environments, but Vygotskys theory implies more
dynamic exchanges between students and teachers that allow
teachers to support students in the parts of a task they cannot do
alonethe interactions of assisted learning, as you will see next
(Schunk, 2012).
SCAFFOLDING LEARNING According to Vygotsky, much
of childrens learning is assisted or mediated by teachers
or parents and tools in their environment, and most of this
guidance is communicated through language.
Assisted Learning. Vygotskys theory suggests that teachers need
to do more than just arrange the environment so that students can
discover on their own. Children cannot and should not be expected
to reinvent or rediscover knowledge already available in their cul-tures.
Rather, they should be guided and assisted in their learning
(Karpov & Haywood, 1998).
Assisted learning, or guided participation, requires: first learn-ing
from the student what is needed; then giving information,
prompts, reminders, and encouragement at the right time and in
the right amounts; and gradually allowing the students to do more
and more on their own. Teachers can assist learning by adapting
materials or problems to students current levels; demonstrating
skills or thought processes; walking students through the steps of
a complicated problem; doing part of the problem (e.g., in algebra, the students set
up the equation and the teacher does the calculations or vice versa); giving detailed
feedback and allowing revisions; or asking questions that refocus students attention
(Rosenshine & Meister, 1992). Cognitive apprenticeships (described in Chapter 10) are
examples. Table 2.5 gives examples of assisted learning strategies that can be used in
any lesson.
An Example Curriculum: Tools of the Mind
Deborah Leong and Elena Bodrova (2012) worked for years to develop a curriculum for
preschool through second-grade children based on Vygotskys theory. In Russia,
Dr. Bodrova had studied with students and colleagues of Vygotsky and wanted to bring
Scaffolding Support for learning
and problem solving; the support
could be clues, reminders,
encouragement, breaking the
problem down into steps,
providing an example, or
anything else that allows the
student to grow in independence
as a learner.
Assisted learning Learning by
having strategic help provided in
the initial stages; the help
gradually diminishes as students
gain independence.
TABLE 2.5 Strategies to Provide Scaffolding
Model the thought process for the students: Think out loud as you solve the problem or outline
an essay, for example.
Provide organizers or starters such as who, what, why, how, what next?
Do part of the problem.
Give hints and cues.
Encourage students to set short-term goals and take small steps.
Connect new learning to students interests or prior learning.
Use graphic organizers: timelines, charts, tables, categories, checklists, and graphs.
Simplify the task, clarify the purpose, and give clear directions.
Teach key vocabulary and provide examples.
Sources: Based on http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Scaffolding#Sharing_a_Specific_Goal; http://
condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~group4, http://k6educators.about.com/od/helpfornewteachers/a/scaffoldingtech.htm.
John
Birdsall/The
Image
work
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
FIGURE 2.5
BRANDONS PLAY PLANS
At the beginning of age three, Brandons play plans show that he wants to go to the art centre. By the
end of age four, Brandon plans to pretend to be a king. He is beginning to use sounds in writing.
59
End of age four
Beginning of age three.
Source: Brandons Plan, Beginning Age 3 Preschool. Tools of the Mind. http://www.toolsofthemind.org/curriculum/preschool. Used by
permission.
his ideas to teachers. The result is the Tools of the Mind project that includes curriculum
ideas for preschool, kindergarten, and special needs (see toolsofthemind.org). One key
idea taken from Vygotsky is that as children develop mental tools such as strategies for
focusing attention, they cease being prisoners of their environmenthaving their attention
grabbed away by any new sight or sound. They learn to control their attention. A second
key idea is that play, particularly dramatic pretend play, is the most important activity
supporting the development of young children. Through dramatic play children learn to
focus attention, control impulses, follow rules, use symbols, regulate their own behaviours,
and cooperate with others. So a key element of the Tools of the Mind curriculum for young
children is play plans, created by the students themselves. Children draw a picture of how
they plan to play that day, and then describe it to the teacher, who may make notes on
the page and thus model literacy activities. Plans become more complex and detailed as
children become better planners. Figure 2.5 shows Brandons simple play plan at the
beginning of age three and then another plan at the end of age four. His later plan shows
better fine motor control, more mature drawing, increased imagination, and greater use
of language.
Reaching Every Student: Teaching in the Magic Middle
Both Piaget and Vygotsky probably would agree that students need to be taught in the
magic middle (Berger, 2006) or the place of the match (Hunt, 1961)where they are
neither bored nor frustrated. Students should be put in situations where they have to reach
to understand, but where support from other students or the teacher is also available.
Sometimes the best teacher is another student who has just figured out how to solve the
problem, because this student is probably operating in the learners zone of proximal
development. When a student works with another student who is a bit better at the activ-ity,
both students benefit in the exchange of explanations, elaborations, and questions. In
addition, students should be encouraged to use language to organize their thinking and
to talk about what they are trying to accomplish. Dialogue and discussion are important
avenues to learning (Karpov & Bransford, 1995; Kozulin & Presseisen, 1995; Wink & Putney,
2002). The Guidelines: Applying Vygotskys Ideas to Teaching offer additional ideas for
applying Vygotskys insights
60 PART 1 STUDENTS
Applying Vygotskys Ideas to Teaching
GUIDELINES
Tailor scaffolding to the needs of students.
Examples
1. When students are beginning new tasks or topics, provide
models, prompts, sentence starters, coaching, and feedback.
As the students grow in competence, give less support and
more opportunities for independent work.
2. Give students choices about the level of difficulty or
degree of independence in projects; encourage them
to challenge themselves but to seek help when they are
really stuck.
Make sure that students have access to powerful tools that
support thinking.
Examples
1. Teach students to use learning and organizational
strategies, research tools, language tools (dictionaries
or computer searches), spreadsheets, and word processing
programs.
2. Model the use of tools; show students how you use an
appointment book or electronic notebook to make plans and
manage time, for example.
Build on the students cultural funds of knowledge (Gonzales,
Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzales, 1992).
Examples
1. Identify family knowledge by having students interview each
others families about their work and home knowledge
(agriculture, economics, manufacturing, household manage-ment,
medicine and illness, religion, child care, cooking, etc.).
2. Tie assignments to these funds of knowledge and use
community experts to evaluate assignments.
Capitalize on dialogue and group learning.
Examples
1. Experiment with peer tutoring; teach students how to ask
good questions and how to give helpful explanations.
2. Experiment with cooperative learning strategies, described
in Chapters 9 and 11, including using the internet to create
communities of learners.
For more information about Vygotsky and his theories, see http://tip.
psychology.org/vygotsky.html.
Cognitive Development: Lessons for Teachers
In spite of cross-cultural differences in cognitive development and the different theories of
development, there are some convergences. Piaget, Vygotsky, and more recent researchers
studying cognitive development and the brain probably would agree with the following
big ideas:
1. Cognitive development requires both physical and social stimulation.
2. To develop thinking, children have to be mentally, physically, and linguistically active.
They need to experiment, talk, describe, reflect, write, and solve problems. But they
also benefit from teaching, guidance, questions, explanations, demonstrations, and
challenges to their thinking.
3. Teaching students what they already know is boring. Trying to teach what the student
is not ready to learn is frustrating and ineffective.
4. Challenge with support will keep students engaged but not fearful.
. SUMMARY
A DEFINITION OF DEVELOPMENT (PP. 2325)
What are the different kinds of development? Human develop-ment
can be divided into physical development (changes in the
body), personal development (changes in an individuals personal-ity),
social development (changes in the way an individual relates to
others), and cognitive development (changes in thinking).
What are three questions about development and three gen-eral
principles? For decades, psychologists and the public have
debated whether development is shaped more by nature or
nurture, whether change is a continuous
process or involves qualitative differences
or stages, and whether there are criti-cal
times for the development of certain
abilities. We know today that these sim-ple
either/or distinctions cannot capture
the complexities of human development,
where coactions and interactions are the rule. Theorists generally
agree that people develop at different rates, that development is
an orderly process, and that development takes place gradually.
Tursunbaev
Ruslan/
Shutterstoc
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
THE BRAIN AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (PP. 2536)
What part of the brain is associated with higher mental functions?
The cortex is a crumpled sheet of neurons that serves three major
functions: receiving signals from sense organs (such as visual or
auditory signals), controlling voluntary movement, and forming
associations. The part of the cortex that controls physical motor
movement develops or matures first, followed by the areas that
control complex senses such as vision and hearing, and then the
frontal lobe, which controls higher-order thinking processes.
What is lateralization and why is it important? Lateralization is
the specialization of the two sides, or hemispheres, of the brain.
For most people, the left hemisphere is the major factor in lan-guage,
and the right hemisphere is prominent in spatial and visual
processing. Even though certain functions are associated with
certain parts of the brain, the various parts and systems of the
brain work together to learn and perform complex activities such
as reading and to construct understanding.
What are some implications for teachers? Recent advances in
both methods and findings in the neurosciences provide excit-ing
information about brain activity during learning and brain
activity differences among people with varying abilities and
challenges and from different cultures. There are some basic
implications for teaching based on these findings, but many of
the strategies offered by brain-based advocates are simply
good teaching. Perhaps we now know more about why these
strategies work.
PIAGETS THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (PP. 3649)
What are the main influences on cognitive development?
Piagets theory of cognitive development is based on the assump-tion
that people try to make sense of the world and actively create
knowledge through direct experience with objects, people, and
ideas. Maturation, activity, social transmission, and the need for
equilibrium all influence the way thinking processes and knowl-edge
develop. In response to these influences, thinking processes
and knowledge develop through changes in the organization of
thought (the development of schemes) and through adaptationincluding
the complementary processes of assimilation (incorpo-rating
new information into existing schemes) and accommodation
(changing existing schemes).
What is a scheme? Schemes are the basic building blocks of think-ing.
They are organized systems of actions or thought that allow
us to mentally represent or think about the objects and events
in our world. Schemes may be very small and specific (grasping,
recognizing a square), or they may be larger and more general
(using a map in a new city). People adapt to their environment as
they increase and organize their schemes.
As children move from sensorimotor to formal-operational
thinking, what are the major changes? Piaget believed that
young people pass through four stages as they develop: sen-sorimotor,
preoperational, concrete operational, and formal
operational. In the sensorimotor stage, infants explore the world
through their senses and motor activity and work toward master-ing
object permanence and performing goal-directed activities.
In the preoperational stage, symbolic thinking and logical opera-tions
begin. Children in the stage of concrete operations can
think logically about tangible situations and can demonstrate
conservation, reversibility, classification, and seriation. The abil-ity
to perform hypothetico-deductive reasoning, coordinate a set
61
of variables, and imagine other worlds marks the stage of formal
operations.
How do neo-Piagetian and information processing views explain
changes in childrens thinking over time? Information processing
theories focus on attention, memory capacity, learning strategies,
and other processing skills to explain how children develop rules
and strategies for making sense of the world and solving prob-lems.
Neo-Piagetian approaches also look at attention, memory,
and strategies and at how thinking develops in different domains
such as numbers or spatial relations. Research in neuroscience sug-gests
that when learning a new skill, children move through three
tiersfrom actions to representations to abstractions. Within each
tier, the pattern is moving from accomplishing a single action to
mapping or coordinating two actions together such as coordinat-ing
addition and multiplication in math, to creating whole systems
of understanding.
What are some limitations of Piagets theory? Piagets theory has
been criticized because children and adults often think in ways that
are inconsistent with the notion of invariant stages. It also appears
that Piaget underestimated childrens cognitive abilities; he insisted
that children could not be taught the operations of the next stage,
but had to develop them on their own. Alternative explanations
place greater emphasis on students developing information pro-cessing
skills and ways teachers can enhance their development.
Piagets work is also criticized for overlooking cultural factors in
child development.
VYGOTSKYS SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE (PP. 5055)
According to Vygotsky, what are three main influences on
cognitive development? Vygotsky believed that human activities
must be understood in their cultural settings. He believed that
our specific mental structures and processes can be traced to our
interactions with others; that the tools of the culture, especially the
tool of language, are key factors in development; and that the zone
of proximal development is the area where learning and develop-ment
are possible.
What are psychological tools and why are they important?
Psychological tools are signs and symbol systems such as numbers
and mathematical systems, codes, and language that support
learning and cognitive developmentthey change the thinking
process by enabling and shaping thinking. Many of these tools are
passed from adult to child through formal and informal interactions
and teachings.
Explain how interpsychological development becomes intra-psychological
development. Higher mental processes appear first
between people as they are co-constructed during shared activi-ties.
As children engage in activities with adults or more capable
peers, they exchange ideas and ways of thinking about or repre-senting
concepts. Children internalize these co-created ideas. Thus
childrens knowledge, ideas, attitudes, and values develop through
appropriating, or taking for themselves, the ways of acting and
thinking provided by their culture and by the more capable mem-bers
of their group.
What are the differences between Piagets and Vygotskys
perspectives on private speech and its role in development?
Vygotskys sociocultural view asserts that cognitive development
hinges on social interaction and the development of language. As
an example, Vygotsky described the role of childrens self-directed
talk in guiding and monitoring thinking and problem solving, whil
62 PART 1 STUDENTS
Piaget suggested that private speech was an indication of the
childs egocentrism. Vygotsky, more than Piaget, emphasized the
significant role played by adults and more able peers in childrens
learning. This adult assistance provides early support while stu-dents
build the understanding necessary to solve problems on
their own.
What is a students zone of proximal development (ZPD)? At
any given point in development, there are certain problems that
a child is on the verge of being able to solve and others that are
beyond the childs capabilities. The zone of proximal development
is the area where the child cannot solve a problem alone, but can
be successful under adult guidance or in collaboration with a more
advanced peer.
What are two criticisms or limitations of Vygotskys theory?
Vygotsky may have overemphasized the role of social interaction
in cognitive developmentchildren figure out quite a bit on their
own. Also, because he died so young, Vygotsky was not able to
develop and elaborate on his theories. His students and others
since have taken up that work.
IMPLICATIONS OF PIAGETS AND VYGOTSKYS THEORIES FOR
TEACHERS (PP. 5560)
What is the problem of the match described by Hunt? The
problem of the match is that students must be neither bored
by work that is too simple nor left behind by teaching they cannot
understand. According to Hunt, disequilibrium must be carefully
balanced to encourage growth. Situations that lead to errors can
help create an appropriate level of disequilibrium.
What is active learning? Why is Piagets theory of cognitive
development consistent with active learning? Piagets funda-mental
insight was that individuals construct their own under-standing;
learning is a constructive process. At every level of
cognitive development, students must be able to incorporate
information into their own schemes. To do this, they must act on
the information in some way. This active experience, even at the
earliest school levels, should include both physical manipulation
of objects and mental manipulation of ideas. As a general rule,
students should act, manipulate, observe, and then talk and/or
write about what they have experienced. Concrete experiences
provide the raw materials for thinking. Communicating with oth-ers
makes students use, test, and sometimes change their think-ing
abilities.
What is assisted learning, and what role does scaffolding
play? Assisted learning, or guided participation in the classroom,
requires scaffoldingunderstanding students needs; giving infor-mation,
prompts, reminders, and encouragement at the right time
and in the right amounts; and then gradually allowing the students
to do more and more on their own. Teachers can assist learning by
adapting materials or problems to students current levels, demon-strating
skills or thought processes, walking students through the
steps of a complicated problem, doing part of the problem, giving
detailed feedback and allowing revisions, or asking questions that
refocus students attention.
. what would they do?
TEACHERS CASEBOOK: Symbols and Cymbals
Here is how two practising teachers responded to the teaching
situation described on the first page of this chapter.
JANET E. GETTINGS
Willoughby Elementary School, Langley, BC Faculty Adviser and Sessional
Instructor, University of British Columbia
Source: Janet E. Gettings, Formerly from Willoughby Elementary School,
Langley, BC. Used with permission.
The students of the class have indicated a need for scaffolded
learning to enhance their understanding of the concept of
symbolism.
To introduce the concept, I would build on the childrens
prior knowledge of homophones by doing a quick review of com-monly
used word pairs, such as bear/bare, stare/stair, I/eye, pair/
pear, two/to/too, followed by cymbal/symbol. With the latter
example, I would explain that Tracy had defined cymbal. I
would then invite suggestions for symbol, summarizing with a
formal definition, such as something that stands for or repre-sents
something else.
I would follow the discussion with a Think, Pair, Share activity.
Students would be asked to think about symbols independently,
and then pair with a partner to share ideas. Next, the partners would
be invited to go on a detective search of the room and their desks
for symbols they could share with the class. For example, when I
hang an umbrella on the door, students know they can stay in the
classroom at lunch.
Another follow-up activity would be a modified game of
Pictionary. The class would be divided into teams of five or six
and take turns being artists. Each team would send a student to
the teacher to view a phrase, which the student then has to rep-resent
pictorially. Sample phrases might include the house had
not been lived in for a long time or her face reflected pain and
sadness.
At this stage, the students might be ready to move to usage of
symbolism in written language. Sections of a familiar novel that
includes symbolic phrases to describe feelings and emotions could
be shared. For example, the phrase thunderclouds passed over
her face describes the feelings of a character in a story in language
that students understand easily. I would engage the class in a dis-cussion
to share the authors message and intent.
Reading aloud humorous poetry, such as that of Jack Prelutsky,
might be used to move toward the final goal of identifying the use
of symbolism in poetry. Students could demonstrate their under-standing
by researching the use of symbolic language in the genre
of poetry and by writing their own poems, incorporating symbolism
into their products
CHAPTER 2 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
MICHELE MELLOW
St Alphonsus Catholic School
The students responses would indicate to me that I need to take a
few steps back and reflect. I would start by asking myself some
questions like what are the cultural backgrounds of my students?
Do we all share the same knowledge? Are there many ESL learners
in the class who need help building their background knowledge?
We need to have a common understanding before we can continue.
To begin teaching about symbols, I would look for examples
that the students could relate to, so I would start a discussion about
how logos for companies are like symbols. First, we would examine
symbols for McDonalds, Nike, Twitter, Facebook and others. I would
listen to the students conversations as they worked in pairs match-ing
the logos to the companies and observe how accurately they
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did this exercise. We would also look at pictures of other symbols
that are common in Canadian cultureCanadian flag, ring on the
third finger of the left hand, the Queen, red stoplight, peace sym-bol,
etc. and discuss their meanings.
Then the students would have to design a symbol that repre-sents
them and explain why they chose that symbol. What is it about
their personality that made them choose that particular symbol?
The students written responses would tell me more about their
understanding. I could assess their knowledge so far and see if they
were ready to continue.
After these steps, if students were still struggling to under-stand
symbols, I would conclude that they are not developmen-tally
ready for this material and would move on to a different
topic
