CHAPTER 13

1. CHAPTER 13 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD

2. COGNITIONPiaget’s Theory – the preschool child’s thought is preoperational, meaning the emergence of mental reasoning, prominence of egocentrism, and the construction of magical belief systems. • Concrete operational thought – mental actions that are reversible (i.e., the conservation test). In seriation children can order stimuli along a quantitative dimension. In transivity they can logically combine relations to understand certain conclusions.

3. Piaget and education – Piagetian educational practices can be summarized as such: • Constructivist approach – Allow children to seek their own solutions. • Facilitation vs. direct instruction – Teacher stands aside; does not dictate. • Know child’s knowledge and thinking level – Teacher responds to students’ responses. • Ongoing assessment – Constant evaluation of student achievement. • Promote intellectual health – Provide optimum learning experiences. • Classroom context – Provide optimum learning environment.

4. Evaluating Piaget’s Theory – Piaget introduced educators and psychologist to assimilation, accommodation, object permanence, egocentrism, and conservation, but the following are criticisms of the theory: • Underestimated children’s competence – Children display many cognitive achievements above and below Piaget’s stages. • Children can be taught to reason at higher levels. • Culture has a very strong influence on children’s cognition.

5. Information Processing Memory – Long-term memory is a relatively permanent and unlimited type of memory. • Knowledge and expertise – Researchers have found that knowledge greatly affects one’s ability to understand and memorize. • Constructive memory – Schemas help children to remember through sorting of information (i.e., trauma involves reconstructive memory). • Control processes/strategies – The learner works to control the thinking process so the type of learning activity will affect the learner’s control.

6. Critical thinking – Grasping the deeper meaning of ideas; looking at different approaches and perspectives. • Schools and critical thinking – Studies show that schools tend to avoid deeper thinking exercises relative to content. • Issues in critical thinking – Two sides of a debate: should it be (1) taught as a separate entity or (2) within the context of the material taught. • Stimulating critical thinking – Encourage open-mindedness, arouse intellectual curiosity, promote planning and strategy, and become intellectually careful. • Fostering a community of learners – Using such strategies as reciprocal teaching, peer teaching, jigsaw grouping, online computer consultation, and adults as role models.

7. Domain-specific academic skills • Mathematical skills – Children learn math through movement in cognitive problem-solving, but many researcher and teachers believe that practice and drill are also necessary. • Scientific skills – Children naturally use causal events to solve problems – this is part of the scientific process – however, they also tend to remain enmeshed in first-adopted beliefs that are often misconceptions. • Metacognition – thinking about thinking – knowing about knowing – thinking about how we think.

8. Intelligence and Creativity • What is intelligence? – there are varied definitions – generally believed to problem-solving skills, ability to adapt and learn from life’s experiences • The Binet tests – first IQ tests measured mental age related to chronological age producing an Intelligent Quotient • Weschler Scales – used mostly in preschool and primary levels measuring verbal ability along six subscales

9. Types of intelligence – Spearman = general intelligence • Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory – three forms of intelligence – analytical, creative, and practical • Gardner’s multiple intelligences – verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist

10. Controversies and issues regarding intelligence • Heredity-environment controversy – The general belief is that many complex behaviors, including intelligence, have a genetic foundation providing a context either for stimulating or degrading achievement • Culture and ethnicity – determining if ethnicity affects intelligence is difficult because the variables are multitudinous (i.e., what is “intelligent’ in Western culture may differ sharply with what is intelligent in Kenya). • The use and misuse of intelligence tests – Single number IQ scores provide rich ground for stereotyping, yet ability tests could help teachers target specific instruction

11. The extremes of intelligence • Mental retardation – Low mentality disabling an individual to function or adapt to every day life. • Cultural-familial retardation – Found where no organic retardation is present and is attributable to a normal variation among people raised in below-average intellectual environment • Giftedness – Above-average and superior talent • Creativity – Ability to think in a novel way and create novel solutions to problems

12. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTVocabulary and grammar – Word recognition and reading in general become more sophisticated in middle childhood.Reading – There is widespreaddisagreement about what technique is most effective in teaching young children to read. The hottest controversy is between the whole-language and the phonetic approach. Whole language stresses a program of working through a child’s natural reading development through immersion into stories and writing. Phonetics or the basic-skills approach favors and emphasis on phonetics and parsing of sounds to words with a great deal of drill. From both of these approaches has evolved the balanced approach, which is a synthesis of the two strategies.

13. Bilingualism – Children who are proficient in a language other than English are candidates for a bilingual program, whereby they are given instruction in their native tongue with a gradual move to English as they become more acclimated to the English language.

14. ACHIEVEMENTNeed for Achievement – Different levels of motivation, to reach a standard of excellence.Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation – External incentives (i.e., rewards and punishments) vs. internal motivations (curiosity, challenge and effort).Self-determination and personal choice – Intrinsic motivation produces higher achievement levels in some studies.Mastery orientation – a person is task-oriented focused on learning strategies. This is vs. performance orientation where one focuses on outcomes and winning.Self –efficacy – a self-motivated perspective in which a person can master and control situations.Goal-setting, planning and self-monitoring – Self-efficacy and achievement levels increase when an individual sets goals, makes plans, and then monitors progress.

15. Ethnicity and Culture • Ethnicity – The view of how ethnicity and culture impact achievement and motivation is often misinterpreted: “When ethnicity and socioeconomic status are investigated in a study, socioeconomic status predicts achievement better than ethnicity does.” • Culture – The main contention relative to culture is the comparison of American students’ achievement on international tests with that of the other cultures (e.g., Sweden, Indonesia, French).