Cognitive Developmental Theory of Piaget - Research Paper Example

? Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory describes the stages in which a child or adolescent advances as their cognitive abilities develop, both through environmental exposure or heredity as catalysts for this growth. Under this theory, there are four distinct tiers of development that are applicable to specific age groups. These include the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, concrete operational and the formal operational stage. Depending on the age of the child, and their level of normal advancement through these stages, a sound academic curriculum can be developed to facilitate more effective learning. The sensorimotor stage is representative of the early-aged youth, from birth to age two. It is a period where the child begins to recognize basic mobility and hand-eye coordination as well as a variety of foundational mental representations accumulated through vision, touch, and motor conditioning. The preoperational stage is a period where more formal logic is developed, ranging between age two through seven, in which the child maintains rather egocentric behaviors and attitudes. It is in this stage where the youth maintains centric-style thinking, which is placing all of their focus and attention on a singular characteristic rather than thinking abstractly about various alternatives. Centration in this stage will often have a child stating that the volume of liquid in two similar beakers, when poured into a taller and more slender container, remains the same even though there was a transition. Thus, broader logic has not yet been developed. The next stage is the concrete operational stage, appropriate for youths between seven and 12 years of age, where conservation is now understood, comprehending concepts of reversibility, the ability to classify objects based on common shapes and sizes, and the youth begins to reject their previous egocentric thought. The final stage is formal operations, occurring between the ages of 12 to late adolescence. This stage involves maintaining an understanding of abstract moral and ethical principles, where the child is able to reasonably determine potential consequences to an action, and where some egocentric behaviors and attitudes re-emerge as a product of identify formation. Having provided a brief summation of the different stages, the one particular stage of development appropriate for more intensive examination is the concrete operational stage, the stage where egocentric behavior begins to diminish and where elementary logic begins to surface. In order to facilitate more effective learning, a child in the concrete operational stage of development requires a tactical approach to learning, using hands-on methodologies to gain attention and comprehension. Shaikh (2003) suggests that youths in this stage must have recurrent trial-and-error in experimentation where knowledge findings are repeated with instructor-generated feedback in order to retain learning from experiential lessons. Shaikh (2003) further emphasizes that lectures as a tool for imparting knowledge will be ineffective during this stage of development due to the rationalization processes within the child between seven and twelve. The child in the concrete operational stage gains more curiosity about the world around them as they are able to establish logical patterns and shape distinctions with the shedding of their self-motivated thought patterns. Their curiosity will demand hands-on applications to learn complex concepts such as mathematics, thus students being taught in the classroom will require dice, algebra blocks, spinners, or other appropriate experiential tools (Burns & Silbey, 2000). Why is this? Students have not yet developed the verbal capabilities to express their newfound logic and reasoning (e.g. classification and conservation), thus they require more fundamental learning tools to fill this void in self-expression (Santrock, 2008). Thus, to properly express that comprehension has occurred, the student must illustrate, hands-on, that they have the ability to group like objects together or illustrate their knowledge that an item can be transformed while following the process of how the transformation occurred. For instance, deflating a soccer ball and then presenting the object to the child in the concrete operational stage will return a response that the object is still the soccer ball with rationalization to justify that the object has not changed, only its characteristics. The youth cannot properly orchestrate a verbal justification without experiential illustration. An experiment conducted by DeCarcer, et al. (1978) utilizing a sample of youths in the concrete operational stage identified that students have difficulties with transfer, which deals with retention and constraints that limit long-term comprehension. The students in this study maintained the ability to learn specific concepts or tasks, but were unable to properly transfer this knowledge into verbal explanations or without repetition. These results were consistent with theory of this stage of development. An additional study of students in this stage of development conducted by Lawson, et al. (1989) supported the necessity for a curriculum to have hands-on learning along with repetitive feedback from the instructor to facilitate learning. Students required experiential elements for the task, followed by instructor-led group discussions, and then a continuing opportunity to examine alternative solutions by engaging in the same experimental hands-on task. When the students in the study were unable to verbalize their frustrations, the instructor realized that words such as “obviously” or “it is easy” only served to complicate learning outcomes (Lawson, et al., 1989). McLaughlin (2003) offers that in order to advance cognitive growth, a teacher should set children in this stage of development toward task completion when they maintain no previous experience with the task. Lack of prior instruction provides opportunities for students to rely on their own rational and practical experiences to build more efficient problem-solving skills. Since they lack certain verbal abilities to justify their comprehension, a change from answer-centered comprehension, there should be a shift to a new type of reasoning to achieve learning outcomes (McLaughlin, 2003). Implications of the research findings and the theoretical position of children in the concrete operational stage for education are significant. It would suggest that the classroom curriculum between ages seven and 12 should be focused on removing group verbal discussions and including more experiential learning practices. Using hands-on tools rather than lectures, graphic illustrations, or videos will promote better comprehension in these developing youths. The teacher would be required, based on the evidence, to be more interactive in teaching rather than simply regurgitating knowledge and then demanding audible explanations from students, which is common in higher grade classrooms during the high school experience. The inquisitive nature of youths in this category, despite their lack of verbal abilities, is an excellent opportunity when compounded with a less-egocentric view to ensure attention to experiment or other hands-on activities. This, of course, applies to youths that are progressing through the cognitive developmental stages normally, with adjustments to cognitive functioning occurring through evolution. Atypical students may not maintain the same capabilities, thus maintaining more egocentric behaviors commonly found in the preoperational stage or have certain environmental triggers that created a certain cognitive immaturity. It would be recommended that the instructor deliver simple, yet comprehensive pre-testing to determine the level of operations experienced with the classroom students to ensure all have evolved into the concrete operational stage when teaching a class between seven and 12 years of age. Youths that have had their cognitive growth stunted may still be struggling with conservation or classification, thus they should not be advancing with tactical hands-on activities as their egocentric behaviors could facilitate improper socialization or failure to comprehend what is being taught. Students not yet evolved into the concrete operational stage may still have difficulties functioning in group environments or adopt logical conclusions that their peers comprehend fully which could create frustrations or emotional outbursts related to their self-protectionist egocentric attitudes. A child with atypical development patterns may still have trouble seeing beyond centrality, thus any effort by the teacher to instill empathy or social logic would be rejected and little knowledge transfer would be accomplished. Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental theory gives society and teachers a practical and research-justified window into the characteristics of childhood evolution in learning, allowing for atypical development needs to be considered. However, it is clear that those who have made it to the concrete operational stage require formal verbal capabilities, but are able to begin exploring logic and abstract-based learning so long as the majority of lessons are experiential in nature. The literature supports the necessity for interaction in order to have positive comprehension outcomes for those between seven and twelve years of age. References Burns, M., & Silbey, R. (2000). So you have to Teach Math? Sound advice for K-6 teachers. Sausalito: Math Solutions Publications. DeCarcer, I.A., Gabel, D.L. & Staver, J.R. (1978). Implications of Piagetian Research for High School Teaching: A Review of the Literature, Science Education, 62(4), pp.571-583. Lawson, A.E., Abraham, M. & Renner, J.W. (1989). A Theory of Instruction: Using the learning cycle to teach science concepts and thinking skills, National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Cincinnati. McLaughlin, Shannon. (2003). Effect of Modeling Instruction on Development of Proportional Reasoning II: Theoretical Background, Retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://modeling.asu.edu/modeling-HS.html Santrock, J.W. (2008). A Topical Approach to Life Span Development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Shaikh, Munira. (2003). Hands-On Science in Elementary School: Why and How, University of Texas at Dallas, Retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://www.utdallas.edu/scimathed/resources/SER/SCE5308_03/Hands-on-scienceMS.pdf Read More