Do not write here. 5. Discussion. Critique Piaget\'s interpretation. See thes ev
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Do not write here. 5. Discussion. Critique Piaget's interpretation. See thes evaluation of Piaget's theory in your textbook. Provide an adequate amount of information in this section. Do not mention critiques related to the sensorimotor stage here. Do not write here. Writing Guidelines: Use third person (Do not write "I " or 'you on your paper; write "the child was shown", etc) Use past tense Use complete sentences; do not use Q/A format All answers should be written in paragraph form Double space the answers. COGNITIVE DEVELO 3 words MIDDLE CHILDHOODExplanation / Answer
Piaget's theory of cognitive development is well-known within the fields of psychology and education, but it has also been the subject of considerable criticism. While presented in a series of progressive stages, even Piaget believed that development does not always follow such a smooth and predictable path. In spite of the criticism, the theory has had a considerable impact on our understanding of child development [Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology" i.e. Origin of thinking.]
Piaget's (1936) theory of cognitive development explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world. He disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait, he proposed, intelligence is something that grows and develops through a series of stages, he concluded that children were not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently. Cognitive development involves changes in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget's view, early cognitive development involves processes based upon actions and later progresses to changes in mental operations.
According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge are based.
There are 3 basic components to Piaget’s Cognitive Theory:
1.Schemas
(building blocks of knowledge). A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world. For example, a child may have a schema about a type of animal, such as a dog. If the child's sole experience has been with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small, furry, and have four legs. Suppose then that the child encounters an enormous dog. The child will take in this new information, modifying the previously existing schema to include these new observations.
2. Adaptation processes that enable the transition from one stage to another [Equilibrium, Assimilation, and Accommodation
The process of taking in new information into our already existing schemas is known as assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify experiences and information slightly to fit in with our pre-existing beliefs. In the example above, seeing a dog and labeling it "dog" is a case of assimilating the animal into the child's dog schema.
Another part of adaptation involves changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information, a process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves modifying existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process.
When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium, i.e., a state of cognitive (i.e., mental) balance.
Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between assimilation and accommodation, which is achieved through a mechanism Piaget called equilibration. As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation). Equilibration helps explain how children can move from one stage of thought into the next.
3. Stages of Cognitive Development
Piaget did not claim that a particular stage was reached at a certain age - although descriptions of the stages often include an indication of the age at which the average child would reach each stage.
The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed how people viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying children. He was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have generated a huge amount of research which has increased our understanding of cognitive development. His ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating with children, particularly in the field of education (re Discovery Learning). Along the support, there was criticism too.
Firstly, much of the criticism of Piaget's work is in regards to his research methods. Piaget’s methods (observation and clinical interviews) are more open to biased interpretation than other methods. A major source of inspiration for the theory was Piaget's observations of his own three children. In addition to this, the other children in Piaget's small research sample were all from well-educated professionals of high socioeconomic status. Because of this unrepresentative sample, it is difficult to generalize his findings to a larger population.
Secondly, Research has disputed Piaget's argument that all children will automatically move to the next stage of development as they mature Some data suggests that environmental factors may play a role in the development of formal operations. Therefore, it leads to a question, are the stages real? Vygotsky and Bruner would rather not talk about stages at all, preferring to see development as a continuous process. Others have queried the age ranges of the stages. Some studies have shown that progress to the formal operational stage is not guaranteed.
For example, Keating (1979) reported that 40-60% of college students fail at formal operation tasks, and Dasen (1994) states that only one-third of adults ever reach the formal operational stage.
Thirdly, most researchers agree that children possess many of the abilities at an earlier age than Piaget suspected. A Recent theory of mind research has found that 4- and 5-year-old children have a rather sophisticated understanding of their own mental processes as well as those of other people. For example, children of this age have some ability to take the perspective of another person, meaning they are far less egocentric than Piaget believed.
As several studies have shown Piaget underestimated the abilities of children because his tests were sometimes confusing or difficult to understand (e.g., Hughes, 1975). Piaget failed to distinguish between competence (what a child is capable of doing) and performance (what a child can show when given a particular task). When tasks were altered, performance (and therefore competence) was affected. Therefore, Piaget might have underestimated children’s cognitive abilities. For example, a child might have object permanence (competence) but still not be able to search for objects (performance). When Piaget hid objects from babies he found that it wasn’t till after nine months that they looked for it. However, Piaget relied on manual search methods – whether the child was looking for the object or not.
Later, research such as Baillargeon and Devos (1991) reported that infants as young as four months looked longer at a moving carrot that didn’t do what is expected, suggesting they had some sense of permanence, otherwise they wouldn’t have had any expectation of what it should or shouldn’t do.
The concept of the schema is incompatible with the theories of Bruner (1966) and Vygotsky (1978). Behaviourism would also refute Piaget’s schema theory because it cannot be directly observed as it is an internal process. Therefore, they would claim it cannot be objectively measured.
For Piaget, language is seen as secondary to the action, i.e., thought precedes language. The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1978) argues that the development of language and thought go together and that the origin of reasoning is more to do with our ability to communicate with others than with our interaction with the material world.
Piaget's focus on qualitative development had an important impact on education. While Piaget did not specifically apply his theory in this way, many educational programs are now built upon the belief that children should be taught at the level for which they are developmentally prepared.
In addition to this, a number of instructional strategies have been derived from Piaget's work. These strategies include providing a supportive environment, utilizing social interactions and peer teaching, and helping children see fallacies and inconsistencies in their thinking.
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