Child Knowledge and Intelligence - Term Paper Example

Abstract: This experiment aims to discover more about child knowledge and intelligence. It will conduct a Piagetian experiment on conservation where a child is expected to think when two objects are compared. Two glasses of milk with same and then different sizes but the same amount of milk are presented to a child and he is asked which one has more milk. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development explains how a child thinks at a specific age level and this conservation experiment will test that theory with a five-year old boy as the subject. The experiment was conducted in a quiet room to allow the subject to concentrate on the task. He was able to think clearly and see the difference between the two glasses of milk. He decided that one glass had more because it was a bigger glass that can hold more milk. Introduction Children develop their thinking and communication skills by being immersed in a social environment. They observe what is happening around them and from their observations, gain knowledge and understanding of how the world around them works. Piaget came up with the Stages of Cognitive Development because he believed that intellectual development is influenced by both maturation and experience. “Cognitive development is indicated by a growing ability to plan, to employ strategies for remembering and to seek solutions to problems” (Brewer, 2001, p.26). Piaget describes that cognitive development of children progress in stages. For children aged two to seven, Piaget has categorized them as being in the Preoperational stage of cognitive development. At this stage, children gradually develop the ability to use language and the ability to think in symbolic form. Children see things in one perspective and have difficulty seeing the perspectives of other people. However, they are able to compare things and come up with their own conclusions. One theory of Piaget is that of conservation. Conservation means understanding that equal things stay the same no matter what order they are placed or in terms of volume, in wherever container they are put. For instance, 5 cookies remain to be 5 cookies whether they are lined up from left to right or when they are arranged in a circle. Another example is that 10 ml. of water remains 10 ml. whether it is placed in a tall, slim glass or a short, wide glass. Piaget believes that children at the Pre-operational stage are unable to do conservation as they rely on their senses in comparing things and judge things from how they look. Critics have claimed that Piaget underestimated the cognitive abilities of children, particularly younger ones. Some theorists contend that in the experiments he did with young children, they may have understood more than they could demonstrate when solving the problems he posted. Gelman and Cordes ( in Woolfork, Hughes, Walkup 2008) show that “preschool children know much more about the concept of number than Piaget thought, even if they sometimes make mistakes or get confused. As long as preschool children work with only three or four objects at a time, they can tell that the number remains the same, even if objects are spread far apart or clumped close together” (p.51). Siegler ( in Woolfork, Huges, Walkup 2008) said “Piaget’s theory does not explain how even young children can perform at an advanced level in certain areas where they have highly developed knowledge and expertise. An expert nine-year-old chess player may think abstractly about chess moves, while a novice 20-year-old player may have to resort to more concrete strategies to plan and remember moves” (p. 51). It has been found that children can think during the activity solve problems by using their imagination and making their own decisions. This means that adults have to allow children to think for themselves and not always feed them information. Adults need to understand that by encouraging children to think on their own, children also develop self-confidence in dealing with their own challenges. Self-confidence is further developed when children are provided opportunities to contribute to their own learning and given the chance to participate in making their own decisions in how to achieve things. A five year old child may think differently from a seven year old child simply because one has gained more experiences in thinking. A five year old may not be able to conserve quantity like a seven year old could. This experiment will try to find out if a five year old boy will be able to conserve volume by presenting two different glasses with the same quantity of milk. Methodology: A conservation experiment was conducted with a five-year old boy to test his thinking and to check his level of understanding of conservation of volume. The participant is my cousin and also a neighbor. He lives with his parents. They are a Black middle-classed family. What Material I used: Same quantity of milk put in 3 different glasses Three glasses: two glasses of the same size, and one glass of different size. Pen A piece of paper Ethics and Experiment: What we did: For this assignment, I was asked to observe a child who was in preoperational stage of cognitive development. I phoned my Auntie to ask her if she can allow me to carry out research with his child. The child whom I chose to observe was my little cousin Nathan. Nathan is 5 year old boy. I sat with Nathan and his Mum around the table after I took two glasses of milk. Those glasses of milk were the same size and I put milk in another glass that was a different size with the two glasses of milk. I briefed Nathan and his Mum what I was going to do during the experiment. I have done that because I really want to make sure if she would agree with me and allow me to do the activity with her son. I made sure Nathan felt comfortable to do the test with me. I choose to do my observations while in the kitchen. This is the Procedure I did with Nathan during the experiment: Me: My name is Marlene, what is your name? Nathan: My name is Nathan. Me: Nice to meet you, Nathan. Me: How old are you, Nathan? Nathan: I am 5 years old. After introducing each other, I put the two same-sized glasses of milk on the table and I gave him his glass of milk and I took the other glass and I told him: Me: This is your glass of milk and this will be my glass of milk. Nathan: ok! After sharing the two glasses of milk I asked him: Me: Do they have the same of amount of milk or is one more? After asking Nathan the question, he put my glass of milk and his glass of milk together and responds: Nathan: It is the same. After using the same size glasses of milk, I put two different size glasses of milk on the table and I asked him: Me: How about with these two glasses. Do you think they have the same amount or one is more? After asking him the question, he compares and looks at the glasses and chooses the big glass and said: Nathan: This has more. Me: Why do you choose the big glass and you said it has more? Nathan: Because this one is bigger than another one. Results: This experiment was designed to follow Piaget’s conservation experiment to determine a 5 year old child’s level of understanding of conservation. It appears that he does not know how to conserve yet as he has judged that the quantity of milk is different just because of the size of the container is bigger than the other container. It was really fascinating because he was motivated, concentrated and happy to respond when I asked him the question during the experiment. For me, Nathan’s thinking and level of understanding as shown in the experiment was appropriate because of his age according to Piaget’s Preoperational stage. During the test, I observed the child’s behaviour. I did not see anything that stood out of the ordinary for a child of his age group. He is mentally right where he should be and displayed many of the characteristics known to his current stage of development. Before we started the activity, Nathan was so quiet but when he started to do the activities, he became interested and excited. Discussion: This test of comparing three glasses of milk where two have the same size and one has a different size is an excellent method to teach children about sizes and quantity. Children’s thinking at this age is still very different from that of adults. Piaget signified this by his choice of ‘preoperational’ as the name for this stage. “Piaget saw intellectual development as dependent on the acquisition of operations, but whereas the ability to think at a symbolic level is a necessary step to such a development, the child at the preoperational stage remains handicapped in the use of mental operations by a number of features characterizing thought, namely egocentrism, animism, rigidity and pre-logical reasoning” (Shaffer 2004, p.174). During the experiment, the child did think and respond to my question the way he was observing the activities in his own imagination or reasoning. He did understand the quantity of milk when I used two glasses of the same size but when I put milk in a different glass, he did not understand the quantity of milk was the same because the glass was bigger. He thought it had more. For him if the glasses are in different sizes, one glass has more but when put in the same sizes of glass, the quantity is the same. “The pre-operational child cannot understand that decreased diameter compensates for increased height, because this would require taking into account two dimensions at once. Thus, children at the preoperational stage have trouble freeing themselves from their own immediate perceptions of how the world appears” (Woolfork, Hughes, Walkup, 2008, p. 42). In the pre-operational stage, children may be described as thinking in the same manner, however, in reality, children of the same age may think in varying levels. This depends on the environment the child is reared in because some parents teach their child about the world around them while others do not. It is essential to teach children in a developmentally-appropriate manner and consider their level of understanding to ensure their comprehension. It is also recommended that this experiment be carried out with children from other cultures such as those from Africa or Europe to validate if they will respond in the same way. It would be interesting to find out if Piaget’s theory will hold when cross-cultural participants are involved. Conclusion: In conclusion, this experiment has proven that a five-year old boy judges quantity with how he sees the container and has yet to understand the concept of conservation of volume. It is very important to examine child’s mind and listen to how he uses reason when he explains his views. Nathan appeared to be very interested in performing the tasks that he was involved in. He seemed to be trying to figure out the problem in his head. By watching and paying attention to him and the way he interacted, it allowed me see first-hand some of the characteristics of Piaget's stages of development. As children mature, they gain the mental capacity, which allows them to understand different conservations, perform simple arithmetic, and to think logically and with reason. Word Count: 1977 References Brewer, J.A. (2001) Introduction to Early Childhood Education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Shaffer, H. R. ( 2004). Introducing Child psychology. The Child as Scientist: Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Blackwell Publishing: Australia. Woolfork, A. , Hughes M. & Walkup, V. (Eds.). (2008). Psychology in Education.Cognitive Development and Language. Pearson Education Limited: England. Read More