Cognitive Development Theory - Coursework Example

Cognitive Development Theory Jean Piaget is a Swiss psychologist recognized as the first psychologist to develop theories of human intelligence. Piaget came up with cognitive development theory that focuses on the development of knowledge in children. He argues that knowledge is progressive, and human beings acquire knowledge continuously. He looked at the nature of information, and the ways in which children apply knowledge in understanding their environment. Piaget further claims that cognitive development is the center of every child’s maturation. In his explanation for the nature of intelligence, Piaget applied four stages through which cognitions develop until maturity. This research paper will analyze Piaget’s cognitive development by focusing on the concrete development stage. Piaget noted that, reality in its sense is dynamic because it undergoes a continuous change. According to him, reality undergoes transformation and states. Human’s development changes in their character, size, figures, and intellectual experience. These changes occur as human beings grow and mature. Piaget argued that if human intelligence remained static, then human beings would not adapt to their environments and situations. Piaget focused on assimilation and accommodation in his study of education. Through the series of social stages, Piaget explains that there is a characteristic change that happens in human thought. Assimilation consisted of the ways in which individuals integrate their external events or elements in their environment through experience (Talat, Abro & Jamali, 2013). To assimilate an object involves integrating them into personal schemas; thus, making them part of the existing mental schemas. Accommodation involves ways in which people continue to interpret new objects and frameworks in their minds. Piaget argues that assimilation and accommodation must cooperate in order to create a balance in human cognitive development. Human cognitions undergo evolution that influences the internal and external structuring of the surrounding environment (Wadsworth, 1971). Concrete operational stage Concrete Operational Stage is the second last stage of Piaget’s theory that occurs between the ages of seven to eleven years. Concrete stage follows pre operational stage characterized by logical organization of events and objects. During the real stage, children mature in their thought process and can reason like grown-ups. However, their thought process is limited to the concrete events because their hypothetical thought is not yet developed. Children at this stage begin to solve their problems in a logical manner. They struggle to master events in their environment by using deductive reasoning. This type of reasoning involves the use of general principles in order to predict the outcome of events or processes. During this stage, children have not developed inductive reasoning; they cannot derive the general principle from the given methods. Additionally, the children struggle with logic and have difficulties in figuring out logic in their heads, for example, they will understand A than D, and if asked which one is higher, they may not figure out the question. During the concrete stage, children perform mental tasks or operations. Piaget defines mental operation as the interiorized actions or the actions of mind that allows the child to think about the physical actions that he or she is performing or performed previously. Unlike the proportional child who could not count up to ten, the concrete child can count and has the actual understanding of one event or object. At the concrete stage, the child’s thought is characterized by reversibility; the child can mentally reverse the directions of his thoughts. He can add and subtract; he can trace the way to and from school and figure out where he left his toys without having to search the whole house. A child at concrete stage can solve simple mathematical operations. The child is labeled “concrete” because he can understand and apply the present objects. It is a concrete stage because children cognitively operate on the physical objects and events and cannot visualize events or objects that are not real. An important factor acquired in this stage is the conservation. Piaget defines conservation as the ability to see the objects or quantities of the objects remain the same despite the changes in their physical appearance. Children at this stage conserve quantities of objects like numbers, mass, area, and volume. However, their conservation of objects may or may not be true. Children at this stage present their ideas logically and in a flexible manner. They rules of thought are seen by adults as the basic concepts of understanding and usually happen unconsciously. During this stage, the child may unconsciously follow the mathematical rules that would lead them to the final answers. Their ability to solve problems increase and they, therefore, understand symbols of arithmetic’s subtraction or addition of a number from zero and understanding set classroom experiments that involve judgments on the amounts of liquids after mixing them. Other significant idea of this stage is decentration. This involves the ability to focus on more than one event at the same time. Children demonstrate this at the preschool stage through play. In school level, children at real stage can solve mathematical tasks that involve the applications of more than one concept. Major changes in the Concrete Operational Stage Primary events that take place during this stage involve the ability to isolate their thoughts from the thoughts of others. At this stage, children realize that their thoughts and perception of things differs from those of other people. Children become tolerant of the views of others, and this helps them build strong friendships and relationships with others. Secondly, the children develop in their classification skills. They can classify objects in terms of numbers, mass or weight, sizes and even shapes. Thirdly, the children are able to think logically about themselves, events and objects or people that surround them. The last primary development is the ability to solve mathematical problems logically by applying higher principles like addition and subtraction (Piaget, 1977). Important processes in the Concrete Operational Stage Logic Piaget argued that children at concrete stage are good at use of logic. They apply inductive reasoning well. At this stage, children develop thinking that involves accurate application and imagination of events and consequences of something. During this stage, the children can imagine things like “what if” which makes them visualize the possibilities and the impossibilities of their actions. They begin to argue logically, for example, if they eat fruit out of the five fruits, they will begin counting the remaining fruits mentally because they have the figures in their minds. Concrete stage children connect events, objects, and words. They follow a logical order in their mathematical problems and arguments. Piaget suggested that children at concrete stage demonstrate spatial reasoning that goes from childhood to adulthood. They can understand and reason about their environments. They can draw conclusions from the general statements. At the concrete stage, the child discriminates objects by looking at how they appear when they are far and when they are near. They can differentiate between vision and reality (Piaget, Elkind, & Flavell, 1969). Conservation Conservation refers to the children’s ability to understand that the quantity or the amounts of objects remain constant irrespective of the change in shape or appearance. The idea of conservation can be applied to all forms of measurement that include numbers, length, area, and volume among others. Piaget demonstrated that the concrete children are able to recognize that liquids do not change despite being poured into other containers with varying shapes. Unlike the younger children who were fooled by appearance, concrete operational stage children recognized that liquids remain constant in volume even if the containers are interchanged. At this stage, children understand that ten cookies remain the same number irrespective of whether they are spread or stacked. They understand that the mass of an object remains constant when standing straight or lying down on a flat surface. They learn that a rope remains at the same length regardless of whether they are coiled or spread. Children who grasp the conservation of the area realizes that the surface area of the table does not change irrespective of whether it is cleared or occupied. For example, a western child achieves conservation of numbers at the age of seven, mass and length conservation at the age between 7 and 8, and area conservation at the age of eight or nine. Volume conservation, on the other hand, takes place at the late concrete stage. Decentration Piaget understood that conservation relied on the child’s ability decentrate and reverses the situation. Decentration includes the ability to attend to more than one events or objects. This allows the children to compare and contrast different conditions or masses. At the concrete stage, children can compare the volumes of different juices because they are flexible to compare dimensions of height and width of different containers holding the juice. This process involves the development of an attention flexibility that would help the children to concentrate in more than one situation without losing focus on any. At the concrete stage, children’s decentration skills help them advance in solving mathematic problems and reading skills. This mastery help children beyond memorizing symbols to understanding and deriving meanings from the symbols. Decentration is seen in the child’s skills like reading skills and increases short-term memory of the child. At the concrete stage, the child has advanced in cognitive skills, which enable him to consider different symbols like letters, and number that is an element of decentration. Children at the concrete stage learn to understand words and pay more attention to the different letters. Reversibility Reversibility helps the child through the conservative step. At the concrete stage, the child learns that objects that cab be altered can also be reversed. If an object is altered through addition or subtraction, he can reverse by either adding it or subtracting in order to restore the original quality or quantity. The aspect if reversibility increases with the child’s cognitive maturation. At the concrete stage, the child’s retention memory has developed to allow him/ her reverse the situation. Retention memory allows them recognize the events and the steps that these events followed. This retention experience will help them in reversing the existing conditions. Reversibility allows children to understand the roles of their parents. They demonstrate this reversibility when they recognize that if their mother has four fruits and places the fruits in each of the four person’s plate, then the fruits present will remain for as long as no one has eaten any of the fruits (Ke & Cheng, 2001). Classification Beyond conservation and reversibility, concrete stage child classify events by mastering hierarchical classification. They are able to seek things into specific and general groups or comparisons. Most of the children develop classification skills at the age of 7 to 10. The classification skills help the children make just comparisons in schools and appreciate science and social subjects. Seriation Seriation is the ability to order items based on their quantity or magnitude. At concrete stage, children count numbers in order and generic form. Piaget demonstrated children’s ability to seriate during the concrete stage by showing how children could arrange and organize sticks in the order of the sizes. Children use this skill often in schools to master math and science subjects. Conclusively, Piaget’s concept of cognitive development is complex and expansive. The concrete stage is characterized by concrete actions and mental events that define a child. Piaget demonstrates that learning is continuous and that cognitive maturity is the key to the child understands a comprehension of events and the environment surrounding him. The concrete stage is the second highest level thus characterized by biological and mental maturity that leads to cognitive maturity. Reference Ke, C. K. & Cheng, S. (2001). Developing Taiwanese Language Curriculum in Taiwanese Romanization for Children at the Concrete Operational Stage (Age of 7 to 11 Years): A Practice of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Adolescence, 10 p. 13. Piaget, J. (1977). The development of thought. New York: Viking Press Piaget, J., Elkind, D. & Flavell, J. H. (1969). Studies in cognitive development. New York: Oxford University Press. Talat, E., Abro, A. & Jamali, M. Y. (2013). Analysis of cognitive development of learners at concrete operational stage in Pakistan. Analysis, 5 (3). Wadsworth, B. J. (1971). Piagets theory of cognitive development. New York: Mckay. Read More