DEVELOPMENT

Cogniti
ve
View

DEVELOPMENT
Orderly, adaptive changes we go through
from conception to death (Woolfolk, 1993)
Physical development
Social Development
Psychological Development
Moral Development
Psychosexual Development
Cognitive Development

FACTORS IMPACTING
DEVELOPMENT
Maturation
Environment
What aspects of development are
impacted by these two?

CONTROVERSIES
Nature vs. Nurture

The first years of Life

PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
People develop at diff erent rates

Development is relatively orderly

Development takes place gradually

Virtually every aspect of development is aff ected by

both heredity and environment

PIAGETS THEORY OF
DEVELOPMENT
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
Children are active and motivated learners.
Children construct knowledge from their experiences.
Schemes

Children learn through the two complementary

processes of assimilation and accommodation.
Interaction with ones physical and social
environments is essential for cognitive development.
The process of equilibration promotes progression
toward increasingly more complex levels of thought.
Cognitive development can proceed only after certain
genetically controlled neurological changes occur.

STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Sensorimotor Stage (birth until 2 years)

Preoperational Stage (2 years until 6 or 7 years)

Concrete Operational Stage (6 or 7 years until 11 or
12 years)
Formal Operational Stage (11 or 12 years through
adulthood)

VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AuhaJYqXQ4
http://youtu.be/TRF27F2bn-A

SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
BIRTH UNTIL 2 YEARS
Develop schemes based on behaviors and perceptions
Initially schemes dont yet represent objects beyond a
childs view
Move from refl exes to some goal directed actions
Simple words and symbols are used
Later part of the stage children develop object permanence
Beginning to develop an understanding of cause-eff ect
relationships

PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
2 YEARS UNTIL 6 OR 7 YEARS
Schemes are relatively independent of immediate
perceptions and behaviors
Ability to represent External objects and events in
ones head (symbolic thinking)
Language ability develops increase in vocabulary
provides labels for newly developed schemes and
serve as symbols so they think of events or objects
when they are not in view.
Preoperational egocentrism
Egocentric speech
Perceptual centration
Lack of conservation
Irreversibility

CONCRETE OPERATIONS STAGE

6 OR 7YEARS UNTIL 11 OR 12
YEARS
Emergence of integrated and coordinated thought
Can see others points of view
Capable of many forms of logical thought
Thinking based on concrete/physical experience
Understand conservation
Multiple classifi cation
Deductive reasoning

FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE

11 OR 12 YEARS THROUGH
ADULTHOOD
Ability to think about abstract and or hypothetical
and contrary to fact ideas
Formulation and testing of multiple hypothesis
Separation or control of variables
Proportional reasoning

ACTIVITY

IMPLICATIONS OF PIAGETS THEORY

Theory informs teachers about the characteristics of
thought at diff erent age levels
Concrete thinking: in early and middle elementary school
students need direct experience with objects
Instruction is critical in helping students acquire formal
thought
Spiral Curriculum: concepts are revisited periodically
during the period of formal schooling, with each new
exposure incorporating and building on the previous one,
while moving to a more sophisticated level of
understanding.

PIAGETS THEORY OF
CONSTRUCTIVISM
According to Piagets theory of intellectual
development we construct knowledge through our
actions on and in our environment
Through assimilation and accommodation we adapt to
our environment. Adaptation as state of equilibrium
Constructivists take into account the childs way of
thinking and learning when planning instruction
Involves active engagement of learners
In this approach lesson plan is design with a capacity
to change as the lesson evolves

CRITICISM OF PIAGETS THEORY

Model underestimates young childrens cognitive
abilities and overestimates older childrens abilities
Does not take into account important eff ects of
culture and social group on children
Issues with whether development occurs in stages
(development better described as gradual trends not
as specifi c discrete stages)

NEO-PIAGETIAN THEORIES
Cognitive developmwnt constrained by the
maturation of information processing mechanisms in
the brain
Children acquire knowledge through both intentional
and unintentional learning processes.
Children acquire cognitive structures that aff ect their
thinking in particular content domains
Development in specifi c content domains can be
thought of as a series of stages
Formal Schooling has a agreat infl uence on cognitive
development then Piaget suggested

REFLECTION
What have I learned about myself today?
What have I learned about Educational Psychology
that will help me as a teacher?