Reflection on Cognitive Development

This reflective essay speaks about Educational Psychology, a good teacher, general principles of
development, the brain and cognitive development, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Lev
Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective. Educational Psychology plays a very important role in our daily
lives as it helps us to understand and develop strategies to improve the learning process.

An effective teacher is one who is organized, not biased, patient, and flexible and knows how to teach
medium and slow paced learners. The essay also speaks about Development; persons develop
physically, socially and also personally. It also speaks about the different ways in which development
takes place. The brain begins to lateralize soon after birth and therefore have specific functions to
carry out. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development speaks about the four stages while Lev Vygotsky
educates us on his sociocultural perspective.

Educational Psychology is important to me as a teacher in training as it helps me to understand my

students’ behaviour and the strategies that I can use to help them. Life is a process and therefore we
go through changes from conception to death. This process is called development. We develop
physically, socially, and also cognitively .The changes that occur early in our lives, are generally
assumed to be for the better and to result in behaviour that is more adaptive, more organized, more
effective and more complex (Mussen, Kogner, Kagan, 1984).I also learnt that development takes
place at different rates and that is persons may be more coordinated than others and also be more
mature in their thinking. Secondly, development takes place orderly as we learn to babble before we
talk and the final one is that development takes place gradually, that is you know the letters of the
alphabet before you can spell words. Finally, the one that stands out to me most is maturation.

Maturation deals with the natural changes that take place in our bodies. The changes in the climate
don’t affect the natural changes that will take place in our body only severe sickness or malnutrition.
The brain is also important in cognitive development as each part is given a specific function to carry
out. However, the different parts of the brain combine in order to perform human activities and
construct understanding. There are some terms that are associated with the brain and the first is
synapses, as the word suggests they are tiny spaces between neurons and that chemical messages
are sent across the gaps. Hippocampus really took me by surprise as the first syllable “hippo” is the
name of an animal. However it means recalling new information and recent experiences. Myelination
is also very new to me and it means influencing thinking and hearing.

The basic tendencies in thinking help us to organize our thoughts and behaviours into coherent
systems. Our thinking process and knowledge is now developed through adaptation and this is
adjusting ourselves to the environment. Assimilation, accommodation also takes place. Sometimes it
seems as if I am searching for some balance in my thinking and this is known as equilibration.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is not foreign to me as I did in Introduction to Psychology. I
know that there are four stages and each stage has a different age group. The fist stage is the
sensorimotor stage and children at this stage are usually zero to two years of age. The most
significant things that occur at this stage are: the children develop object permanence, perform goal
directed activities, use there senses and also uses imitation. The pre-operational stage is age two to
seven years. Children are able to use symbolic function for example taking a broom and riding it
saying that it is a donkey.

There motor skills are being developed and therefore they would want to feed themselves. In the
concrete operational stage children are able to think logically, can engage in a conversation and
reversibility, classification and seriation takes place. The final stage is the formal operational stage
and they are able to reason well and they also develop adult egocentrism and that is the heightened
self consciousness that is reflected in adolescents and the belief that others are interested in their
thoughts as they do. It also speaks about them having a sense of uniqueness and wants to be noticed
by others. However some students will develop reckless behaviour including suicidal thoughts and
drug abuse.

In my opinion Vygotsky’s theory is much better than Piaget’s. He placed more emphasis on the
development of language than Piaget. He also states that language is the most important symbol in
the development of language. As a child I use to talk to myself and now I know that it is private
speech. I really believe that private speech guides an individual into making the right decisions and
also into problem solving. The most important part of his theory is the zone of proximal development.
My understanding of it is that at a particular stage in one’s life given guidance and support will help
me as an individual to master something.

Children first learn pronounciation and they shy away from those words that are hard to pronounce.
For example my three year old son says ‘begetable’ instead of vegetable. I also believe that adults
should use language in the child’s learning experience and don’t use high flown words because the
child should be able to relate to what is being said. Vocabulary, grammar and syntax are developed at
around age five. However parents can buy books, read to their children, take them on a nature walks
and also answer their questions so as to develop their language.

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