CHAPTER 4

Cognitive and Linguistic Development (Part 1)

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this part of the chapter, you must be able to:
1. Identify essential features and concepts related to Piaget’s ideas about
cognitive development.
2. Exemplify mechanisms of cognitive development and abilities that
characterize each stage of cognitive development.
3. Classify specific instances of how children’s thinking develops through the
stages Piaget described.

What we see changes what we know. What we know changes what we see.
—Jean Piaget

Consider the following scenarios:

1. Leanne, a 4-year-old, selects a doll as her birthday present for mom.
2. Eight-year-old Datu Prince finds it difficult to imagine how a person can be in
Kidapawan, in Mindanao, and in the Philippines at the same time.
3. Jamal, a very bright elementary school student, cannot answer the question
“How would life be different if people did not sleep?” because he insists,
“People HAVE TO SLEEP !”

What explains these interesting events? You will soon find out as we explore the
world of child and adolescent development through the ideas of Jean Piaget.

4.1 Piaget’s Theory on Cognitive Development

Cognitive development refers to the gradual, orderly changes by which
mental processes become more complex and sophisticated. The changes in mental
skills occur through increasing maturity and experience.
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss psychologist who proposed the most
influential single theory of cognitive development. He explored both why and how
mental abilities change over time. In his view, knowledge comes from action.
For Piaget, intellect or cognitive ability progresses through four distinct
stages. Each stage is characterized by the emergence of new abilities and ways of
processing information. His theory is based on the premise of “the child as scientist.”
At all ages, children actively seek to explore the world and adjust to it.
Piaget’s theory specifies qualitative changes of cognitive development. A
child's accomplishments at each stage build on those in the previous stage. People
who accept this theory believe teachers should expect sudden bursts in the
development of cognitive abilities rather than a smooth progression of
development over time. His theory predicts that children who show cognitive
development in one area generally should show comparable cognitive development

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in other areas.

Mechanisms for Cognitive Development

What are the main influences on cognitive development? Piaget's theory of

cognitive development is based on the assumption that people try to understand
the world and actively create knowledge through direct experiences with objects,
people and ideas. For Piaget, there are four main factors that affect how our
knowledge and thinking processes develop: biological maturation, activity, social
experiences, and equilibration.
One of the most important influences on the way we understand 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 be sure that children get the nourishment and care they
need to be healthy.
Activity is another influence. With physical maturation comes the increasing
ability to act on the environment and learn from it. When a young child’s
coordination (motor skills) is reasonably developed, for example, the child can
discover principles about balance by experimenting with a seesaw. Thus, as we act
on the environment—as we explore, test, observe, and eventually organize
information—we are likely to change our thinking processes at the same time.
As we develop, we are also interacting 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?
In response to biological maturation, activity, and social experiences, our
knowledge and mental abilities develop. To Piaget, this intellectual growth is
possible because our mind actively organizes and adapts to new information and
experiences. These two processes of organization and adaptation are inherited
tendencies in our thinking.

Organization: Our natural tendency toward grouping or arranging and

rearranging information and experience into mental systems or categories. We
call these categories schemes. Imagine our minds as a huge filing cabinet where
we file documents into folders. These folders represent our schemes.
Organization, however, is an ongoing process that enables us to build schemes
from simpler to more complex ones as we mature more physically, act on our
experiences and learn from others.

Schemes are the basic building blocks of thinking. They are organized
systems of actions or thoughts that allow us to 'think about’ or mentally
represent the objects or events in our world. We use our schemes to
understand and interact with the world. They guide our behavior.

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 Schemes may be very small or specific (sucking-through-a-straw scheme
or the recognizing-a-rose scheme), or they may be larger or more general
(drinking scheme or gardening scheme). As a person’s thinking processes
become more organized and new schemes develop, behavior also
becomes more sophisticated and better suited to the environment.

Adaptation: The inherited tendency for our minds to adjust to a new

environment. We adjust our schemes in response to our new experiences by
means of two more specific processes—assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation: Takes place when we use our existing schemes to make

sense of events in our world. It involves trying to understand something
new by fitting it into what we already know (i.e., our scheme). At times,
we may have to change the new information to make it fit. For instance,
seeing a zebra for the first time, a child calls it a horse.

Accommodation: Occurs when we must change existing schemes to

respond to a new situation. In assimilation, we change the new
information to fit our thinking, but in accommodation, we change our
thinking to fit the new information. Children demonstrate
accommodation when they add the scheme for recognizing zebras to their
other schemes for identifying animals.

Whenever new experiences are assimilated into an existing scheme, the

scheme is enlarged and changed somewhat, so assimilation involves some
accommodation.
There are also times when neither assimilation or accommodation is used. If
people encounter something that is too unfamiliar, they may ignore it. For example,
if you overhear a conversation in a foreign language, you probably will not try to
make sense of the conversation unless you have some knowledge of the language.
Equilibration. According to Piaget, organizing, assimilating, and
accommodating can be viewed as a kind of complex balancing act. In his theory, the
actual changes in thinking take place through the process of equilibration—the 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 like this: If we apply a particular scheme to an event
or situation and the scheme works, then equilibrium exists. If the scheme does not
produce a satisfying result, then 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 optimal—too little and we
aren’t interested in changing, too much and we may be discouraged or anxious and
not change.

Equilibration: The process of restoring balance between present understanding

and new experiences.

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 Disequilibrium: In Piaget's 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.

Implications for Teaching

Piaget's theory suggests many sound ideas for instruction and assessment:
Mix assimilations and accommodations. Expert teachers balance
assimilation and accommodation to help their students develop the schemas they
have as well as create new schemas. In particular, you want to provide instruction
that goes just a little bit beyond the level of children's thinking at a given point.
As a simple example, reading material should be challenging but not
overwhelming. It should contain a level of vocabulary and should involve a level of
conceptual complexity that engages the student, but not at a level that frustrates
the student and makes him or her want to put the book down.
One of the many reasons for the success of the Harry Potter series of novels
has been that the level of writing and even the sheer length of the novels challenge
children who pick the books up. Nevertheless, the novels engage the children
sufficiently that they are willing to accept and surmount the challenges that the
books present.
Teach children in a way that allows new cognitive structures to always
build on old ones. Incorporate what the children already know into your lessons so
that they can build on this knowledge to construct new knowledge. Piaget's theory
stresses the cumulative nature of cognitive development. In teaching, you need to
build carefully on what students already know. It is only in this way that students can
integrate new knowledge with the old, and see in some cases how to correct
misconceptions they may have had. For example, teaching decimals can build on
what children already have learned about fractions.

Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

1. The Sensorimotor Stage (Infancy)
2. The Preoperational Stage (Early childhood)
3. The Concrete Operational Stage (Middle to late childhood)
4. The Formal Operational Stage (Adolescence)

For this portion of our discussions on Piaget’s ideas, we will look at the
distinct changes in children’s thinking as they grow and answer the question, “What
specific cognitive abilities describe each stage of cognitive development?” Along with
the abilities, we will also explore limitations in children’s thinking at the earlier
stages of development. These limitations are tied to the introductory scenarios
involving Leanne, Datu Prince, and Jamal. As you read, identify what concepts
explain these scenarios.
As you encounter seemingly new concepts, bear in mind that you are already
familiar with most if not all of these abilities and limitations—from your personal

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experiences and/or observations. What we are simply doing here is attaching a
name to these experiences or observations.
Piaget's theory proposes that children pass through four stages—
sensorimotor, pre-operations, concrete operations, and formal operations—in a fixed,
one-directional order. In other words, all children pass through the stages in the
same order. Once they enter a stage, they never go back to a previous one. The next
stages build on previous ones, so full development of one stage becomes the basis
for the equilibrations that lead to the next stage.
These stages are generally associated with specific ages. However, 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 or lower stage in other situations. Therefore, knowing a
student's age is never a guarantee that you know how the child will think.
Before we proceed, consider the following: Have you ever played
“peekaboo” with a baby? Don’t they just love it when we surprise them with a funny
face? They then stop laughing when we hide behind our hands. Do you ever wonder
what goes on in a child’s mind? At first they wouldn’t understand where that funny
face went. But later, they would realize that it’s just hidden behind those hands.

The Sensorimotor Stage (Infancy)

This stage is primarily characterized by the development of sensory (simple

input) and motor (simple output) functions. The infant constructs an understanding
of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions.

Sensory input: Seeing, hearing

Motor output: Moving, experimenting (grasping at or playing with objects in
the environment)

At this stage, infants begin to use imitation, memory, and thought. They
begin to recognize that objects do not cease to exist when they are hidden. They
move from reflex actions to goal-directed activity.
Two main accomplishments:
1. Object permanence
2. Goal-directed actions

Infants develop object permanence, the understanding that an object exists

even when it is out of sight. This is the beginning of the important ability to
construct a mental representation (scheme), which allows the infant to imagine and
think about an object that exists in reality. 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 looking—“out 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.
With the peekaboo game, the infant who has developed object permanence would

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remove those hands hiding the funny face because he/she now knows the funny
face exists even when he/she does not see it at that moment. 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 coordinate a search.
A second major accomplishment in the sensorimotor period is the beginning
of logical, goal-directed actions. Think of a clear plastic container with a cover and
several colorful toys inside. 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 toy in an orderly manner
by building a “container toy” scheme: (1) get the cover off, (2) turn the container
upside down, (3) shake if the toys jam, and (4) watch the toys fall. Separate
lower-level schemes have been organized into a higher-level scheme to achieve a
goal.
The child is soon able to reverse this action by putting the toys back into the
container. Learning to reverse actions is a basic accomplishment of the
sensorimotor stage. As we will soon see, however, learning to reverse thinking—that
is, learning to imagine the reverse of a sequence of actions—takes much longer.

Activity 4.1A

Watch a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtLEWVu815o) that

shows a teacher asking three girls specific questions related to (a) juice in glass, (b)
coins/quarters, and (c) crackers. As you watch, take note of the girls' answers and
their explanations.
JUICE IN GLASS. After the teacher pours the juice from one glass to another,
she asks, "Do you think the two glasses have the same amount of juice?"
1. What does GIRL #1 answer? What is her explanation?
2. What does GIRL #2 answer? What is her explanation?

COINS. After the teacher adjusts the distance among the coins in Row A, she
asks, "Does [Row A] have more quarters [coins], does [Row B] have more, or do they
have the same?
3. What does GIRL #3 answer? What is her explanation?

GRAHAM CRACKERS: The teacher gives the girl one piece, while she gets
two pieces. Then she asks, "Do you think we shared those fairly?"
4. What does GIRL #3 answer? What is her explanation?
5. After the teacher breaks the girl's cracker into two, she asks the same
question. What does GIRL #3 answer? What is her explanation?

As you read on Piaget’s theory, answer the following questions:

6. What concept explains the answers of GIRL #1 and GIRL #3?
7. In what developmental stage must GIRL #1 and GIRL #3 be?
8. What concepts explain the answers of GIRL #2?
9. In what developmental stage must GIRL #2 be?

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The Preoperational Stage (Early Childhood)

By the end of the sensorimotor stage, the child can use many action
schemes. But when these schemes remain tied to physical actions, children cannot
use them to recall the past, keep track of information, or plan. To do these, children
need what Piaget called operations, or actions that are carried out and reversed
mentally rather than physically (actions a person carries out by thinking them
through instead of literally performing the actions).
At the preoperational stage the child is moving toward mastery, but has not
yet mastered these mental operations (so thinking is preoperational).

Preoperational: The stage before a child masters logical mental operations.

The first type of thinking that is separate from physical action involves
making action schemes symbolic, e.g. through words, gestures, and images. The
ability to form and use symbols—words, gestures, signs, images and so on—is thus a
major accomplishment of the preoperational stage. The child now uses the word
horse or a picture of a horse or even pretends to ride a broomstick to represent a
horse. In fact, the child's earliest use of symbols is in pretending.
Children who are not yet able to talk will often use action symbols—
pretending to drink from an empty cup or touching a comb to their hair, showing
that they know what each object is for.
In addition, during this stage, there is 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 2,000 words.

Symbolic thought: A type of thinking in which symbols or internal images are

used to represent objects, persons, and events that are not present. Examples
are pretend play, drawing, writing, and speaking.

As the child moves through the preoperational stage, the developing ability
to think 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
backwards,” or imagine how to reverse the steps in a task. In the video you watched
earlier, Girl #1 observed how the teacher poured the juice from Glass B (short and
wide) to Glass C (tall and narrow). But she finds it difficult to reverse the steps in her
mind — to imagine pouring the juice back from Glass C to Glass B. This is why she
said that Glass C has more juice in it when compared to Glass A. Reversible thinking
is involved in many tasks that are difficult for the preoperational child, such as
conservation.
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. The experiments you watched in the
video are actually conservation tasks that preoperational children usually fail at. If
you have preschoolers at home, you can try these experiments with them. It’s
amusing to hear their answers, but you must realize that when you were at that
stage, you must have answered the same way. Now that you have developed this

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understanding, 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.
Going back to the video, when the teacher asks “Now, does one glass have
more juice, or are they the same?” Girl #1 responds that Glass C has more because
“It is taller.”
Piaget's explanation for Girl #1’s answer is that she is focusing, or centering,
attention on the dimension of height. She has difficulty considering more than one
aspect of the situation at a time. The preoperational child cannot understand that
decreased diameter compensates for increased height, because this would require
taking into account two dimensions at once. In the conservation task with coins, Girl
#3 centered on the dimension of length even when she witnessed the teacher
simply spreading the coins farther apart, not adding any coins. In the final task with
the crackers, Girl #3 confidently declared that they now have a fair share after the
teacher broke her piece of cracker “Because we both have two!”

Centration. Tendency to focus, or center, attention on one characteristic to

the exclusion of all others; Paying attention to only one aspect of an object or
situation.

Another important characteristic of the preoperational stage is the child's

tendency to be egocentric, to see the world and the experiences of others from their
own viewpoint. The concept of egocentrism, as Piaget intended it, does not mean
selfish; it simply means children often assume that everyone else shares their
feelings, reactions, and perspectives. For example, if a little boy at this stage is
afraid of dogs, he may assume that all children share this fear.
In fairness to young children, even adults can make assumptions that others
feel or think like they do. For example, have you ever gotten a gift that the giver
loved but was clearly inappropriate for you?
As children grow older, they become less egocentric and more focused on
others. The emergence of the ability to take others' points of view develops
gradually, over a lengthy period of time.

Egocentric: Assuming that others experience the world the way you do.

Aside from centered thinking and egocentrism, pre-operational children also

exhibit animism and transductive reasoning. Animism is the belief that inanimate
objects (e.g., toys) possess human feelings and are capable of actions. For instance,
the chair is angry because it hit him/her, or the stars twinkle because they are
happy1. Transductive reasoning is a child’s tendency to make faulty
cause-and-effect connections. For instance, the child learns that Italians eat
spaghetti. Now they go to Jollibee, and seeing her father eat spaghetti, she
declares, “Papa, you are an Italian.”
To sum it up, at the preoperational stage of cognitive development, the child

1
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/teachereducationx92x1/chapter/piagets-theory-of-cognitive-dev
elopment/

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begins to actively develop the mental representations that were just starting to
form near the end of the sensorimotor stage—he/she begins to represent the world
with words and images. These words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking
and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical action.
Also, the child is able to think through operations (mental actions) logically
in one direction and has difficulties seeing another person's point of view—thinking
remains egocentric and centered. The child also exhibits animism and transductive
reasoning.

Activity 4.1B

Before you proceed to the last two stages of Piaget's theory, reflect on the
following questions

1. What if we did not have thumbs, how would things be different?

2. RULE #1: If you hit a glass with a hammer, the glass will break.
SCENARIO: Makisig hits a glass with a hammer.
QUESTION: What happens to the glass? Explain your answer.
3. RULE #2: If you hit a glass with a feather, the glass will break.
SCENARIO: Liwanag hits a glass with a feather.
QUESTION: What happens to the glass? Explain your answer.
4. Where would you put a third eye? If you had a third eye and you could put it
anywhere in your body, where would you put it? Why?

The Concrete Operational Stage (Middle to Late Childhood)

Piaget coined the term concrete operations to describe this stage of

“hands-on” thinking. The basic characteristics of the stage include 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.
According to Piaget, the ability to solve conservation problems depends on
having 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
glass is narrower, the liquid will rise higher in the glass. And with an understanding
of reversibility, the student can mentally cancel out the change that has been made.
In the video you watched for Activity 4.1A, Girl #1 apparently knew it was the same
juice (identity), but she lacked compensation and reversibility, so she said the
narrower glass had more juice in it. This lack of compensation is due to the girl’s
tendency to focus only on the height of the juice, which we referred to in our
previous discussion as centration. Girl #2, however, has developed this
understanding of compensation because of an ability which we call decentered
thinking or decentering, considering more than one aspect of the situation at a

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time. Some examples of conservation tasks mastered by a concrete operational
child are shown in Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1 Piagetian conservation tasks (Woolfolk, 2016 p.76).

Concrete operations: Mental tasks tied to concrete objects and situations.

Conservation: The recognition that even when the physical appearance of

something changes, its underlying quantity (how much there is of it—number,
size, or volume) remains the same—or in other words, conserved.

Decentering: Focusing on more than one aspect at a time.

Reversibility: Thinking backward, from the end to the beginning; The ability
to think through a series of steps, then mentally reverse the steps and return

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 to the starting point; also called reversible thinking. The concrete operational
child can reverse in his or her mind a set of concrete physical operations
(actions) observed.

Note: Pouring water from one glass to another is a concrete physical

operation, while giving people freedom or taking it away is an abstract formal
operation, a characteristic of the next stage.
Concrete-operational children can be taught in a way that enables them to
reverse what they have done. For example, they can go from the terms of a problem
to its solution. If they get a wrong answer, they can also review their problem
solving by going back from the solution to the terms of the problem.
It is important to emphasize that at this stage, children can think logically as long as
the logical thinking applies to concrete objects rather than to abstractions (such as
the concepts of truth, freedom, justice).
Two other important operations mastered at this stage are classification and
seriation. Classification depends on a student’s abilities to focus on a single
characteristic of objects in a set (e.g., color) and group the objects according to that
characteristic. The concrete operational student can now see that there is more
than one way to classify a group of objects. The student understands, for example,
that buttons can be classified by color, then reclassified by size or by the number of
holes.
More advanced classification at this stage involves recognizing that one class
fits into another. A town can be in a particular province and also in a particular
country, something that is quite easy for us to imagine, but not for children like Datu
Prince in the opening scenario.
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 still smaller than C.

Classification: Grouping objects into categories.

Seriation: Arranging objects in sequential order according to one aspect, such

as size, weight, or volume.

With the abilities to handle operations such as conservation, classification,

and seriation, the student at the concrete-operational stage has finally developed a
complete and very logical system of thinking. This system of thinking, however, is
still tied to physical reality. The logic is based on concrete situations that can be
organized, classified, or manipulated. However, the concrete-operational child is not
yet able to reason about hypothetical, abstract problems that involve the
coordination of many factors at once.
To sum it all up, concrete operations is the stage of “hands-on” thinking. The
child is able to solve concrete (hands-on) problems in logical fashion, understand
laws of conservation—that elements can be changed or transformed and still
conserve many of their original characteristics, and also that these changes can be

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reversed. S/he is able to classify objects into different sets and seriate. Thinking is
decentered, and problem solving is less restricted by egocentrism. Abstract thinking
is not possible.
Before we move to the last stage, let’s practice self-quizzing. As previously
emphasized, quizzing yourself is an effective study strategy for college students. So
without looking at the reading materials, list down (1) majors accomplishments of a
child at the sensorimotor, pre-operational, and concrete operational stages; (2)
limitations in their cognitive abilities at each of these stages. After you have written
these down in your notebooks, go back to the reading materials and verify your
answers.

The Formal Operational Stage (Adolescence)

The adolescents reason in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways. They
are able to solve abstract problems in logical fashion, become more scientific in
thinking, and develop concerns about social issues and identity.
People at this stage form and operate on—that is, reverse—abstract as well
as concrete mental representations. At this stage, for example, children can see
relations between relations, as required by analogical reasoning.
Another important ability that develops during the formal operations stage
is the ability to think abstractly—that is, to think about concepts, such as justice or
inner peace, that do not have any concrete, physical equivalents.
Formal operational children can also think systematically. For example, if
told that some unknown subset of four colored chemicals will be clear in color when
combined, the child systematically can go through all possible subsets to find the
one that produces the solution that is clear in color.
Some students remain at the concrete-operational stage throughout their
school years, even throughout life. However, new experiences, usually those that
take place in school, eventually present most students with problems that they
cannot solve using concrete 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. A bright
elementary school student could not answer the question “How would life be
different if people did not have to sleep?” because he insists, “People HAVE TO
SLEEP!”
In contrast, the adolescent who has mastered formal operations can consider
contrary-to-the-fact questions. In answering, the adolescent demonstrates the
hallmark of formal operations—hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
The formal-operational thinker can consider a hypothetical situation (people
do not sleep) and reason deductively (from the general assumption to specific
implications, such as longer workdays, more money spent on energy and lighting,
smaller houses without bedrooms, or new entertainment industries).

Formal operations: Mental tasks involving abstract thinking and coordination

of a number of variables.

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 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.

Adolescents can think about worlds that do not exist. They can deduce the
set of “best” possibilities and imagine ideal worlds (or ideal parents and teachers, for
that matter). Feelings about any of these ideals may be strong.
Formal operations also include inductive reasoning, or using specific
observations to identify general principles. For example, the economist observes
many specific changes in the stock market and attempts to identify general
principles about economic cycles.
Abstract formal-operational thinking is necessary for success in many
advanced high school and college courses. For example, most math is concerned
with hypothetical situations, assumptions, and givens: “Let x = 10,” or “Assume x² +
y² = z², or “Given two sides and an adjacent angle...”
Work in social studies and literature requires abstract thinking, too: “What
did Wilson mean when he called World War I the 'war to end all wars' ?” “What are
some metaphors for hope and despair in Shakespeare's sonnets?” “What symbols of
old age does T. S. Eliot use in The Waste Land ?” “How do animals symbolize human
character traits in Aesop's fables?”
The organized, scientific thinking of formal operations requires that students
systematically generate different possibilities for a given situation. For example, if
asked, “How many different shirt/pants/sneakers outfits can you make using three of
each kind of clothing?” the child using formal operations can systematically identify
the 27 possible combinations. A concrete-operational thinker might name just a few
combinations, using each piece of clothing only once. The underlying system of
combinations is not yet available.
Another characteristic of this stage is adolescent egocentrism. Unlike
egocentric young children, adolescents do not deny that other people do not have
different perceptions and beliefs; the adolescents just become very focused on their
own ideas. This leads to the what David Elkind calls the sense of an imaginary
audience—the feeling that everyone is watching.
According to Alberts, Elkind, and Ginsberg (2007), it is the adolescent's
assumption that his or her preoccupation with personal appearance and behavior is
shared by everyone else. The presence of an admiring or fault-finding (imaginary)
audience helps to account for the heightened self-consciousness characteristic of
early adolescence.
This feeling of being “on stage” seems to peak in early adolescence by age 14
and 15, although in unfamiliar situations we all may feel our mistakes are being
noticed.
Another idea related to the imaginary audience is the personal fable.
Thinking of himself/herself as the center of attention, the adolescent comes to
believe that it is because he or she is special and unique. "Other people will not realize
their ambitions, but not me; other people will grow old and die but not me; other people
will get hooked on drugs but not me." Because of this personal fable, the young
adolescent believes that his or her feelings and emotions are different, more intense

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and excruciating, than those of others. Personal fable gives rise to a sense of
invulnerability and speciality with a tendency for behavioral risk-taking.
For some individuals, adolescent egocentrism can contribute to reckless
behavior, including suicidal thoughts, drug use, and failure to use contraceptives
during sexual intercourse. Egocentricity may lead some adolescents to think that
they are invulnerable.
However, reason to question the accuracy of the invulnerability aspect of the
personal fable is provided by research that reveals many adolescents don’t consider
themselves invulnerable. Indeed, recent research suggests that rather than
perceiving themselves to be invulnerable, most adolescents tend to portray
themselves as vulnerable to experiencing a premature death.

Adolescent Egocentrism: Assumption that everyone else shares one's

thoughts, feelings, and concerns; The heightened self-consciousness reflected
in adolescents' beliefs that others are as interested in them as they themselves
are.

Do we all reach the fourth stage? Most psychologists agree that there is a
level of thinking more sophisticated than concrete operations. But there is a debate
about how universal formal operational thinking actually is, even among adults.
The first three stages of Piaget's theory are forced on most people by
physical realities. Objects really are permanent. The amount of water doesn't
change when it is poured into another glass.
Formal operations, however, are not so closely tied to the physical
environment. They may be the product of practice in solving hypothetical problems
and using formal scientific reasoning—abilities that are valued and taught in literate
cultures, particularly in college. Even so, only about 30 to 40% of high school
students can do Piaget's formal-operational tasks.
Piaget himself suggested that most adults may be able to use
formal-operational thought in only a few areas where they have the greatest
experience or interest. Taking a college class fosters formal-operational abilities in
that subject, but not necessarily in others.
Piaget's theory makes a number of predictions about cognitive development
from birth through adulthood. There are many ways for you as a future teacher to
make use of your knowledge about the level of cognitive development of your
students.
1. Do not underestimate children's skills. Piaget's theory gives a rough guide to
when students become able to think in various ways. Nevertheless, some
children reach Piagetian stages before Piaget would have predicted they do.
Piaget's theory applies on average—not to all children.
2. Some children will have not reached the levels Piaget's theory would have
predicted. For example, not all students older than age 12 will find abstract
thinking comes readily to them.
3. Use Piaget's theory as a guide to challenge each student to his or her own
individual level of learning, rather than assuming that “one size fits all.”

Expert teachers do not assume their students are unable to perform

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sophisticated reasoning tasks. They know that, in their ability to reason, children
sometimes surprise not only researchers but also teachers.
When children fail in a reasoning task, teachers should not immediately
conclude that the children lack reasoning ability. Perhaps the children simply cannot
remember the givens of the problem.
As pre-service teachers in your first year of training, Piaget’s theory
introduces you to the concept of developmentally appropriate practices. Knowing
what to expect at each developmental period can help the teacher design learning
experiences that are appropriate to the learner’s developmental level.
In addition, Piaget emphasized the importance of understanding the reasons
behind students’ answers. Therefore, as a teacher, pay as much attention to
understanding and correcting the bases of children's errors as to rewarding their
correct answers. Rather than simply putting a big “X” next to errors, a teacher needs
to understand why students make the errors they do and how he or she can help the
children correct the thinking that led to these errors.

Chapter References

1. Alberts, A., Elkind, D., & Ginsberg, S. (2007). J Youth Adolescence. 36:71-76.
DOI 10.1007/s10964-006-9144-4
2. Santrock, J.W. (2018). Educational psychology. McGraw-Hill Education.
3. Slavin, R.E. (2018). Educational psychology: Theory and Practice. Pearson
Education, Inc.
4. Sternberg, R.J. & Williams, W.M. (2009). Educational psychology.
Pearson/Merrill.
5. Woolfolk, A. (2016). Educational psychology. Pearson Education Limited.

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