Role of cognitive development in leaarning : stages - Essay Example

Role of Cognitive Development in Learning As a College I benefited a lot from Piaget’s cognitive development theories, especially in regard tohis four stages of development for children. A stage, essentially, is an identified age range and its accompanying developmental attributes. Hence, studying Piaget’s theory of cognitive development helped me believe that I, as a tutor, must emphasize the critical role that experiences play in student learning. As such, while I am dealing with my tutees, I have taken into account the role that fundamental concepts play in establishing cognitive structures.

As I am tutoring children at the age between 11 to 13 years old, I identified their development stage to be “the Formal Operational,” as defined by Piaget. This is the fourth and last stage in Piaget’s cognitive development, during which children use thought that is entirely freed from physical and perceptual constraints. Thus, one of the important concepts that I observe with my tutees, who are in the Formal Operational Stage, is that they can make reason about abstracts and hypothetical situations about the world.

This stage allows for the emergence of scientific thinking, formulating abstract theories and hypotheses when faced with a problem. That is, intelligence of the adolescent is managed through his or her logical use of symbols related to concrete as well as abstract concepts.Implementing the learning attributes of the Formal Operational Stage, as defined by Piaget, to my tutees, I decided to induce them to use their abilities of deductive and hypothetical reasoning. As I teach math to my tutees, I ask them to solve problems and mathematical puzzles, which are beneficial for young students as they would broaden their minds and encourage creativity and decision making in them.

Hence, I would say that I benefited from Piaget’s description of the attributes of children at their Formal Operational stage, in my experience of teaching math to my tutees. This is because I did not have to concretize mathematical ideas and concepts for them in order to let them grasp the meanings; rather, I used to brainstorm them by discussing abstract mathematical ideas and let them speak out their interpretations of the concepts I mention. This approach enhances the creative attribute that characterizes adolescents during this stage of cognitive development.

As such, I have not focused primarily on concrete ideas and concepts that characterize earlier stages of cognitive development; rather, I have focused instead on abstracts that stimulate the creative abilities of my tutees. Therefore, to help my students learn, I manipulated Piaget’s ideas of cognitive development, particularly, his definition of the Formal Operational stage. This stage brings cognition to its final form. As such, I’ve become aware that my adolescent tutees no longer require concrete objects to make rational judgements.

Rather, I discovered that my tutees are capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning. Lastly, I may conclude that teaching for the adolescents, like my tutees, is wide ranging because students at this age become able to consider many possibilities from several perspectives.