This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Slide 1
Chapter 9 from page 299 Cognitive Development in Middle
Childhood
Slide 2
Final Exam Final exam will be Wednesday, December 7
8AM-11AM
Slide 3
Piagets Theory: The Concrete Operational Stage Concrete
operational stage Extends from about age 7 to 11 years Marks a
major turning point in cognitive development Thought s much more
logical, flexible, and organized than it was at earlier ages
Slide 4
Concrete Operational Thought: Conservation The ability to pass
conservation tasks provides clear evidence of operations Operations
mental actions that obey logical rules Children at this stage are
capable of decentration Decentration the ability to focus on
several aspects of a problem at once and relate them to one another
Ex. Recognizing that when 1 of 2 identical glasses of water is
poured into a shorter wider container, that the amounts are still
the same because even though it is now shorter, the width of the
container makes up for the loss in hight They also demonstrate
reversibility Reversibility the ability to go through a series of
steps in a problem and then mentally reverse them and return to the
starting point
Slide 5
Concrete Operational Thought: Classification Between ages 7 and
10 children pass Piagets class inclusion problem This indicates
greater awareness of classification hierarchies They can focus on
relations between a general category and two specific categories at
the same time That is, on three relationships at once Ex. Children
can now understand that there are more flowers than yellow flowers
because both blue and yellow flowers fall under the category of
flowers
Slide 6
Concrete Operational Thought: Seriation Seriation the ability
to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length,
weight, or height To test for seriation, Piaget asked children to
arrange sticks of different lengths from shortest to longest Older
preschoolers can put the stick in a row, but they do so
haphazardly, making many errors But, 6-7 year olds create the
series efficiently, moving in an orderly sequence from the smallest
stick, to the next largest, and so on Concrete operational children
are also capable of transitive inferences Transitive inference the
ability to seriate mentally This requires children to integrate
multiple relationships at once Ex. Piaget showed children parings
of sticks of different colors From observing that stick A is longer
than stick B and that stick B is longer than stick C, children must
infer that stick A is also longer than stick C
Slide 7
Concrete Operational Thought: Spatial Reasoning School-age
childrens understanding of space is more accurate than that of
preschoolers Evident from childrens cognitive maps mental
representations of familiar large-scale spaces, such as their
neighborhood Drawing a map of a large-scale space requires
considerable perspective-taking skill because the entire space
cannot be seen at once, children must infer its overall layout by
relating its separate parts Around ages 8-10, childrens maps become
better organized, showing landmarks along an organized route of
travel At the same time children become bale to give clear,
well-organized instructions for getting from one place to another
by using a mental walk strategy Mental walk strategy imagining
another persons movements along a route By the end of middle
childhood, children form an overall view of a large-scale
space
Slide 8
Limitations of Concrete Operational Thought Children at the
concrete operational stage think in an organized, logical fashion
only when dealing with concrete information that they can perceive
directly Their mental operations work poorly with abstract ideas
that are not apparent in the real world Ex. When shown the pairs of
different size sticks, children are able to infer that stick A was
longer than stick C, but they have considerable difficulty with a
hypothetical version of the problem: Susan is taller than Sally,
and Sally is taller than Mary. Who is the tallest? Children are not
able to solve this problem until ages 11-12 School-age children
master Piagets concrete operational tasks step by step They work
out the logic of each problem separately instead of coming up with
general logical principles that they can apply globally Ex.
Children usually grasp conservation of number first, followed by
conservation of length, liquid, and mass, and then weight Rather
than learning a general conservation principle, they figure out the
logic of each problem individually
Slide 9
Follow-Up Research on Concrete Operational Thought According to
Piaget, brain development combined with experience should lead
children everywhere to reach the concrete operational stage at
about the same time But, recent evidence indicates that specific
cultural and educational practices have much to do with childrens
mastery of Piagetian tasks Information-processing research helps
explain the gradual mastery of logical concepts in middle
childhood
Slide 10
Follow-Up Research: The Impact of Culture and Schooling In
tribal and village societies, where children rarely attend school,
even the most basic conservation tasks are often delayed until age
11 or later This suggests that taking part in relevant everyday
activities (like sorting your crayons by color or pouring your own
glass of juice) helps children master conservation and other
Piagetian problems Specifically, the experience of going to school
seems to promote master of Piagetian tasks Based on the differences
between cultures, some researchers have concluded that the forms of
logic required by Piagetian tasks do not emerge spontaneously
Rather, they are heavily influenced by training, context, and
cultural conditions
Slide 11
Follow-Up Research: Information Processing View Some
neo-Piagetian theorists argue that the development of operational
thinking can best be understood in terms of gains in
information-processing speed rather than a sudden shift to a new
stage With practice, cognitive schemes demand less attention and
become more automatic This frees up space in working memory so
children can focus on combining old schemes and generating new ones
Ex. A child who sees water poured from one glass to another
recognizes that the height of the liquid changes As this
understanding becomes routine, the child notices that the width of
the water also changes Soon children coordinate these observations,
and develop conservation of liquid As this logical idea becomes
well-practiced, the child transfers it to more demanding situations
Once the schemes of a Piagetian stage are sufficiently automatic,
enough working memory is available to integrate them into an
improved representation Allowing children to acquire central
conceptual structures broadly applicable principles that result in
increasingly complex, systematic reasoning
Slide 12
Evaluation of the Concrete Operational Stage Disagreement
continues over whether childrens cognitive development occurs as
continuous improvement in logical skills or as discontinuous
restructuring of childrens thinking, as Piagets stage idea assumes
Many researchers think that both types of change may be involved In
the school years, children apply logical schemes to many more tasks
In the process, their thought seems to undergo qualitative change,
toward a comprehensive grasp of the underlying principles of
logical thought A blend of Piagetian and information-processing
ideas holds the greatest promise for understanding cognitive
development in middle childhood
Slide 13
Information Processing Perspective Focuses on separate aspects
of thinking rather than overall cognitive change Attention and
memory, which underlie every act of cognition are central concerns
in middle childhood Advances in metacognition and opportunities for
self-regulation aid in development Researchers believe that brain
development contributes to basic changes in information processing
that facilitate divers aspect of thinking Increases in
information-processing speed and capacity time needed to process
information on a wide variety of cognitive tasks declines rapidly
between ages 6-12 Suggests a biologically based gain in speed of
thinking, possibly due to myelination and synaptic pruning in the
brain Faster thinkers can hold on to and operate on more
information in working memory Gains in inhibition the ability to
control internal and external distracting stimuli improves Strides
in inhibition occur in middle childhood possibly due to further
development of the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex Inhibition
can prevent an individuals mind from straying to irrelevant
thoughts, which supports many information-processing skills by
preserving space in working memory for the task at hand
Slide 14
Information-Processing: Attention In middle childhood,
attention becomes more selective, adaptable, and planful Between
ages 6-10, children become better at deliberately attending to just
those aspects of a situation that are relevant to their goals
Researchers study this by introducing irrelevant stimuli into a
task and seeing how well children attend to its central elements
Older children can flexibly adapt their attention to task
requirements When asked to sort cards with pictures that vary in
both color and shape, children age 5 and older can switch their
basis of sorting from color to shape when asked to do so Planning
improves greatly in middle childhood School-age children scan
detailed pictures and written materials for similarities and
differences more thoroughly than preschoolers On tasks with many
parts, the make decisions about what to do first and what to do
next in an orderly fashion Some children have great difficult
paying attention Learning and behavior problems sometimes can be
attributed to attention- deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Slide 15
Information-Processing: Memory Strategies Memory strategies are
deliberate mental activities we use to store and retain information
Rehearsal involves repeating information to oneself First memory
strategy, appears in the early grade school years Ex. Repeating
each states capitol over and over again Organization grouping
together related items Second strategy to appear, increases recall
dramatically Ex. Remembering all state capitols in a specific
region of the country Elaboration creating a relation between two
or more items that re not members of the same category Appears by
the end of middle childhood, is highly effective techniques and
requires considerable effort and space in working memory Ex. If two
words on a list to be remembered are fish and pipe, a child might
generate the verbal statement or mental image the fish is smoking a
pipe. Gains in organization and elaboration permit older children
to combine items into more meaningful chunks, allowing them to
retain more information and further expand working memory
Additionally, when children link a new item to information they
already know, they can retrieve it easily by thinking of associated
items
Slide 16
The Knowledge Base and Memory Performance During middle
childhood, childrens long-term knowledge base grows larger and is
organized into increasingly elaborate, hierarchically structured
networks Knowing more about a topic makes new information more
meaningful and familiar so it is easier to store and retrieve In
one study, children were 4 th graders were classified as either
experts or novices in knowledge of soccer and then gave both groups
lists of soccer and nonsoccer items to learn Kids in the expert
group remembered far more items on the soccer lists, but not on the
nonsoccer list, than kids in the novice groups During recall,
experts listing of items was better organized, indicated by
clustering of items into categories This better organization at
retrieval suggests that highly knowledgeable children organize
information in their area of expertise with little or no effort
Academically unsuccessful children fail to make use of previously
stored information to clarify new material By the end of the school
years, extensive knowledge and use of memory strategies support one
another
Slide 17
Culture, Schooling, and Memory Strategies Memory strategies are
usually used to remember information for its own sake On many other
occasions, memory occurs as a natural byproduct of participation in
daily activities People in non-Western cultures who lack formal
schooling do not use or benefit from instruction in memory
strategies because they see no practical reason to use these
techniques Tasks that require children to recall isolated bits of
information, which are common in classrooms, strongly motivate use
of memory strategies In fact, Western children get so much practice
doing this that they do not refine techniques relying on cues
available in everyday life, such as spatial location and
arrangement of objects Ex. Guatemalan Mayan 9 year olds do better
than their North American agemates when asked to remember the
placement of 40 familiar objects in a play scene North American
children often rehearse object names when it would be more
effective to keep track of spatial relations The development of
memory strategies, then, is not just a product of a more competent
information-processing system It also depends on task demands and
cultural circumstances
Slide 18
The School-Age Childs Theory of Mind Theory of mind
(metacognition) set of ideas about mental activities becomes more
elaborate and refined during middle childhood Unlike preschoolers,
who view the mind as a passive container of information, older
children regard it as an active, constructive agent that selects
and transforms information They have a much better understanding of
cognitive processes and the impact of psychological factors on
performance Ex. They know that doing well on a task depends on
focusing attention, concentrating, and exerting effort School-age
children realize that people can extend their knowledge not only
directly but also by making mental inferences An understanding that
enables knowledge of false belief to expand, bringing a greater
understanding of others perspectives They are better able to
pinpoint the reasons that another person arrived at a certain
belief Experiences that foster awareness of mental activities, such
as teachers asking children to pay attention, also contribute to
childrens more reflective, process- oriented view of mind
Slide 19
Cognitive Self-Regulation School-age children are not yet good
at cognitive self-regulation Cognitive self-regulation the process
of continuously monitoring progress toward a goal, checking
outcomes, and redirecting unsuccessful efforts Ex. A child may know
that she should group items when memorizing and that she should
reread a complicated paragraph to make sure she understands, but
she probably doesnt do this all the time Because monitoring
learning outcomes is cognitively demanding, it develops gradually
By adolescence, self-regulation is a strong predictor of academic
success Parents and teachers can foster self-regulation
Particularly by explaining eh effectiveness of strategies Children
who acquire effective self-regulatory skills develop a sense of
academic self-efficacy Academic self-efficacy confidence in their
own abilities Negative messages from parents and teachers can
undermine childrens academic self-esteem and self-regulatory
skills
Slide 20
Applications of Information Processing to Academic Learning
Fundamental discoveries about the development of information
processing have been applied to childrens learning of reading and
mathematics Researchers are identifying the cognitive ingredients
of skilled performance, tracing their development, and pinpointing
differences in cognitive skills between good and poor readers They
hope to design teaching methods that will improve childrens
learning
Slide 21
Applications of Information Processing: Reading Reading taxes
all aspect of our information-processing systems, making use of
many skills at once We must perceive single letters and letter
combinations, translate them into speech sounds, recognize the
visual appearance of many common words, hold chunks of text in
working memory while interpreting their meaning, and combine the
meanings of various parts of a text passage into an understandable
whole Because reading is so demanding, most or all of these skills
must be done automatically If one or more are poorly developed,
they will compete for space in our limited working memories, and
reading performance will decline
Slide 22
Applications of Information Processing: Reading As children
make the transition from emergent literacy to conventional reading,
phonological awareness continues to facilitate their progress Other
information-processing activities also contribute Gains in
processing speed foster childrens rapid conversion of visual
symbols into sounds Visual scanning and discrimination are also
important and improve with reading experience Performing all these
skill efficiently releases working memory for higher-level
activities involved in comprehending the tests meaning
Slide 23
Applications of Information Processing: Reading Until recently,
researcher were involved in an intense debate over the best way to
teach beginning reading Proponents of a whole-language approach,
argued that reading should be taught in a way that parallels
childrens natural language learning From the beginning, children
should be exposed to text in its complete form stories, poems,
letters, posters, and lists so that they can appreciate the
communicative function of written language According to this view
as long as reading is kept whole and meaningful, children will be
motivated to discover the specific sills they need Others favored a
phonics approach, in which children were first coached on phonics
the basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds Only
after mastering these skills should children get complex reading
material Many studies show that children learn best with a mixture
of both approaches
Slide 24
Applications of Information Processing: Mathematics Over the
early elementary school years, children acquire basic math facts
through a combination of frequent practice, experimentation with
diverse computational procedures, reasoning about number concepts,
and teaching that conveys effective strategies Ex. When 1 st
graders realize that regardless of the order in which 2 sets of
numbers are combined (ex. 2+6=8 and 6+2=8), they yield the same
result, they more often start with the higher digit (6) and count
up, which minimizes the work involved Arguments over how to teach
mathematics resemble those about reading, pitting drill in
computing against number sense or understanding Again a blend of
both is most beneficial, encouraging students to apply strategies
and making sure they understand why certain strategies work well
are essential for solid mastery of basic math Ex. Students greatly
benefit when they realize that multiplication problems involving 2
(8 x 2) are equivalent to addition doubles (8+8)
Slide 25
Individual Differences in Mental Development Around age 6, IQ
becomes more stable than it was at earlier ages, and it correlates
moderately will with academic achievement, typically around.50
to.60 Children with higher IQs are more likely when they grow up to
attain higher levels of education and enter more prestigious
occupations Because IQ predicts school performance and educational
attainment, it often enters into educational decisions Do
intelligence test accurately assess the school-age childs ability
to profit from academic instruction? = controversial issue
Slide 26
Defining and Measuring Intelligence Virtually all intelligence
tests provide an overall score (IQ) which represents general
intelligence, or reasoning ability, and an array of separate scores
measuring specific mental abilities But, intelligence is a
collection of many capacities, not all of which are included on
currently available tests Test designers use a complicated
statistical technique called factor analysis to identify various
abilities that intelligence tests measure Identifies which sets of
test items cluster together, meaning that test- takers who do well
on one item in a cluster tend to do well on the others Distinct
clusters are called factors, each of which represents an
ability
Slide 27
Defining and Measuring Intelligence Group-administered tests
permit large numbers of pupils to be tested at once and are useful
for instructional planning Usually given to classrooms as a whole
Teachers need little training to administer them Can identify
children who require more extensive evaluation Individually
administered tests are used for more extensive evaluation of
children Require considerable training and experience to be given
well The examiner considers both the childs answers and behavior
and notes reactions such as attention to and interest in the tasks
These observations give insight into whether the test results
accurately reflect the childs abilities Examples include the
Stanford-Binet and the Wechsler, which are used to identify highly
intelligent children and to diagnose children with learning
problems
Slide 28
Defining and Measuring Intelligence The Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scales, 5 th Edition For individuals from age 2 to
adulthood Assesses general intelligence and 5 intellectual factors:
knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing,
working memory, and basic information processing (such as speed of
analyzing information Each factor includes both a verbal and a
nonverbal mode of testing, yielding 10 subtests in all The
knowledge and quantitative reasoning factors emphasize culturally
loaded, fact-oriented information, such as vocabulary and
arithmetic problems But the visual-spatial processing,
working-memory, and basic information processing factors are
assumed to be les culturally biased because they require little
specific information
Slide 29
Defining and Measuring Intelligence The Wechsler Intelligence
Scale for Children (WISC-IV), 4 th Edition The 1 st test to be
standardized on children representing the total population of the
U.S., including ethnic minorities Widely used for 6-16 year olds
Measures general intelligence and 4 broad factors: verbal
reasoning, perceptual (or visual-spatial) reasoning, working
memory, and processing speed Each factor is made up of 2 or 3
subtests, yielding 10 separate scores in all Was designed to
downplay culturally dependent knowledge, which is emphasized on
only 1 factor, verbal reasoning According to the test designers,
the result is the most culture-fair intelligence test
available
Slide 30
Recent Efforts to Define Intelligence Some researchers combine
the mental testing approach with the information-processing
approach Believe that once we identify the processing skills that
separate those who test well from those who test poorly, we well
know more about how to intervene to improve performance They
conduct componential analyses of childrens mental test scores To
look for relationships between components of information
processing, such as basic working-memory capacity and childrens
scores Ex. Measures of basic working-memory such as digit span,
correlate highly with mental test scores Major problem with the
componential approach: it regards intelligence as entirely due to
causes within the child Disregarding cultural and situational
factors that are known to affect childrens thinking
Slide 31
Sternbergs Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence
Triarchic theory of successful intelligence expands the
componential approach into a comprehensive theory that regards
intelligence as a product of both inner and outer forces Identifies
3 broad, interacting intelligences: Analytical intelligence
information processing skills Creative intelligence capacity to
solve novel problems Practical intelligence application of
intellectual skills in everyday situations Intelligent behavior
involves balancing all three intelligences to achieve success in
life according to ones personal goals and the requirements of ones
cultural community
Slide 32
Triarchic Theory: Analytical Intelligence Consists of the
information-processing components that underlie all intelligent
acts: Applying strategies, acquiring task-relevant and
metacognitive knowledge, and engaging in self-regulation However,
on mental tests, processing skills are used in only a few of their
potential ways, resulting in far too narrow view of intelligent
behavior Ex. Children in tribal and village societies do not
necessarily perform well on measures of school knowledge but excel
when processing information in out-of-school situations that most
Westerners would find highly challenging
Slide 33
Triarchic Theory: Creative Intelligence In any context, success
depends not only on processing familiar information but also on
generating useful solutions to new problems People who are creative
think more skillfully than others when faced with novelty Given a
new task, they apply their information-processing skills in
exceptionally effective ways, rapidly making these skills automatic
so that working memory is freed for more complex aspects of the
situation Consequently, they quickly move to high-level performance
Although all of us are capable of some creativity, only a few
individuals excel at generating novel situations
Slide 34
Triarchic Theory: Practical Intelligence Intelligence s a
practical goal-oriented activity aimed at adapting to, shaping, or
selecting environments Intelligent people skillfully adapt their
thinking to fit with both their desires and the demands of their
everyday worlds When they cannot adapt to a situation, they try to
shape, or change, it to meet their needs If they cannot shape it,
they select new contexts that better match their skills, values, or
goals Practical intelligence reminds us that intelligent behavior
is never culture-free Children with certain life histories do well
at the behavior required for success on intelligence tests and
adapt easily to the testing conditions Others, with different
backgrounds, may misinterpret or reject the testing context Yet
such children often display sophisticated abilities in daily life
Ex. Telling stories, engaging in complex artistic activities, or
interacting skillfully with other people
Slide 35
Sternbergs Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence
Triarchic theory highlights the complexity of intelligent behavior
and the limitations of current intelligence tests in assessing that
complexity Out-of-school, practical forms of intelligence are vital
for life success and help explain why cultures vary widely in the
behaviors they regard as intelligent Ex. Researchers asked
ethnically divers parents to describe an intelligent 1 st grader
Caucasian Americans mentioned cognitive traits Ethnic minorities
(Cambodian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Mexican immigrants)
identified noncognitive capacities: motivation, self-management,
and social skills According to Sternberg, mental tests can easily
underestimate, and even overlook, the intellectual strengths of
some children, especially ethnic minorities
Slide 36
Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences Theory of multiple
intelligences defines intelligence in terms of distinct sets of
processing operations that permit individuals to engage in a wide
range of culturally valued activities Dismisses the idea of general
intelligence Proposes at least 8 independent intelligences (listed
in table 9.1, pg. 311 in text) Gardner believes that each
intelligence has a unique biological basis, a distinct course of
development, and different expert, or end-state, performances Also
emphasized that a lengthy process of education is required to
transform any raw potential into a mature social role Cultural
values and learning opportunities affect the extent to which a
childs intellectual strengths are realized and the ways they are
expressed However, Gardners list of abilities has yet to be firmly
grounded in research and neurological evidence for the independence
of these abilities is weak Still, Gardners theory highlights
abilities not measured by intelligence tests (such as interpersonal
and intrapersonal intelligences)
Slide 37
Explaining Individual and Group Differences in IQ When we
compare academic achievement, years of education, and occupational
status, it quickly becomes clear that some sectors of the
population are advantaged over others In trying to explain these
differences, researchers have compared the IQ scores of ethnic
minorities and SES groups African American children score, on
average, 12-13 IQ points below which American children, although
the difference has been shrinking Hispanic children fall midway
between black and white children The IQ gap between middle-SES and
low-SES (about 9 points) accounts for some, but not all, of the
ethnic differences When black and white children are matched on
parental education and income, the IQ gap is reduced by 1/3 1/2 In
the 1970s, the IQ nature-nurture debated drastically escalated
after the publication of a book stating that heredity is largely
responsible for variations in intelligence
Slide 38
Nature Versus Nurture Bases on evidence from kinship studies,
which compare family members, especially twins, researchers
estimate that about of the differences in IQ among children is due
to genetic makeup However, because heritabilities risk
overestimating genetic influences and underestimating environmental
influences, disagreement continues over how large the role of
heredity really is Adoption studies offer a wider range of
information Findings consistently show that when young children are
adopted into caring, stimulating homes, their Iqs rise
substantially compared with the IQs of nonadopted children who
remain in economically deprived families 2 adoption studies have
found that African-American children adopted into well-off homes
during the 1 st year of life scored very high on intelligence test
(mean IQs of 110-117, 20-30 points above means for
African-Americans living in poverty) This indicates that poverty
severely depresses the intelligence of large numbers of ethnic
minorities
Slide 39
Cultural Influences A controversial issue is whether or not
ethnic differences in IQ are due to test bias Experts disagree over
whether intelligence tests are biased Ethnic groups may not have
equal opportunity to be exposed to information on the tests and the
testing situation may impair the performance of some but not others
Some experts reject that the tests are biased, claiming that
because IQ predicts academic achievement equally well for majority
and minority children, IQ tests are fair to all groups Others
believe that lack of exposure to certain communication styles and
knowledge, along with negative stereotypes about the test-takers
ethnic group, can undermine childrens performance
Slide 40
Cultural Influences: Communication Styles Ethnic minority
families often foster unique language skills that do not match the
expectations of most classrooms and testing situations In one
study, a researcher spent many hours observing in low-SES black
homes in a southeastern U.S. city Found that African-American
parents rarely asked their children the knowledge training
questions typical of middle-SES white parents and of tests and
classrooms Ex. what color is it? Whats this story about? Instead,
they asked only real questions, ones they themselves could not
answer Often these questions were analogies (Whats that look like
to you?) or story-starter questions (Did ya hear Miss Sally this
morning? What did she tell you?), these types of questions call for
elaborate responses about everyday evens and have no right answer
These experiences lead low-SES children to develop complex verbal
sills at home As a result, children may learn to communicate
emotional and social concerns more than facts and may be confused
by the objective questions found on tests
Slide 41
Cultural Influences: Test Content Many researchers argue the IQ
scores are affected by specific information acquired as part of a
majority-culture upbringing Consistent with this view, low-SES
children often miss vocabulary words on mental tests that have
alternative meanings in their cultural community Ex. Interpreting
the word frame as physique of an individual rather than a type of
border or something that holds a picture Toys such as blocks and
video games increase childrens success on spatial tasks, however,
low-SES minority children often grow up in more people-oriented
than object-oriented homes and may lack the toys that promote
certain intellectual skills Also, just the amount of time a child
spends in school predicts IQ Thus, exposure to the factual
knowledge and ways of thinking valued in classrooms has a sizable
impact on childrens intelligence test performance
Slide 42
Cultural Influences: Stereotypes Stereotype threat the fear of
being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype Can trigger
anxiety that interferes with test performance Researchers gave
African-American, Hispanic-American, and Caucasian-American 6-10
year olds verbal tasks Some children were told that the tasks were
not a test and others were told they were a test of how good
children are at school problems Among children who were aware of
ethnic stereotypes, African American and Hispanic American children
performed far worse in the test condition than in the not a test
condition In contrast, Caucasian American children performed
similarly in both conditions Over middle childhood, children
(especially those from stigmatized groups) become increasingly
conscious of ethnic stereotypes By junior high school, many low-SES
minority students start to say that doing well in school is not
important to them Self-protective disengagement, parked by
stereotype threat, may be responsible This weakening of motivation
can have serious, long-term consequences
Slide 43
Reducing Cultural Bias in Testing Many experts acknowledge that
IQ scores can underestimate the intelligence of culturally
different children There is special concern about incorrectly
labeling minority children as slow learners, after which they are
placed in remedial classes which provide a less stimulating
environment Culturally relevant testing procedures enhance minority
childrens test performance Dynamic assessment a innovative testing
approach which is consistent with Vygotskys zone of proximal
development, the adult introduces purposeful teaching into the
testing situation to see what the child can attain with social
support Childrens receptivity to teaching and capacity to transfer
what they have learned to novel problems contribute substantially
to gains in test performance
Slide 44
Reducing Cultural Bias in Testing But rather than adapting
testing to support ethnic minority childrens learning needs, North
American education is placing greater emphasis on traditional test
scores With the advent of the high-stakes testing movement that
requires satisfactory test performance for progress through school
This emphasis on standardized testing has narrowed the focus of
instruction (only teaching whats on the test) and may widen SES and
ethnic differences in educational attainment Testing remains
important to aid educational decisions, but intelligence tests need
to be interpreted with sensitivity to cultural influences on
performance
Slide 45
Language Development Vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatics
continue to develop in middle childhood Although less obviously
than at earlier ages Additionally, school-age childrens attitude
toward language under goes a fundamental shift They develop
language awareness Schooling contributes greatly to these language
competencies Reflecting on language is extremely common during
reading instruction Fluent reading is major new source of language
learning
Slide 46
Vocabulary In the elementary school years, children learn about
20 new words a day, and vocabulary increases fourfold Children
continue to benefit from conversation with more expert speakers,
especially when their partners use complex words and explain them
Reading contributes enormously to vocabulary growth Children who
engage in as little as 21 mins of independent reading per day are
exposed to nearly 2 million words per year School-age children
think about and use words more precisely than preschoolers Ex. In
addition to the verb fall, they also use topple, tumble, and
plummet As school-age children learn to grasp the double meanings
of some words, they develop an understanding of metaphors and of
riddles and puns Ex. the refrigerator keeps food cool. and what a
cool shirt! Ex. sharp as a tack and spilling the beans
Slide 47
Grammar Mastery of complex grammatical constructions improves
in middle childhood Ex. English-speaking children use the passive
voice more frequently, and they more often extend it from an
abbreviated form (It broke.) into full statements (The glass was
broken by Mary.) During middle childhood children also develop an
advanced understanding of infinitive phrases Ex. The difference
between John is eager to please. and John is easy to please.
Appreciation of subtle grammatical distinctions is supported by an
improved ability to analyze and reflect on language
Slide 48
Pragmatics Improvements in pragmatics (the communicative side
of language) occur as childrens conversational strategies become
more refined Childrens narratives increase in organization, detail,
and expressiveness A typical 4-5 year olds narrative states what
happened Ex. Went to the lake. We fished and waited. Paul caught a
huge catfish. 6-7 year olds include orienting information (time,
place, and participants) and many connective that lend coherence to
the story (next, then, so, finally) Gradually narratives lengthen
into a classic form in which events not only build to a high point,
but also resolve Ex. After Paul reeled in the catfish, Dad cleaned
and cooked it. Then we at it all up! Evaluative comments rise
dramatically, becoming common by age 8-9 Ex. The catfish tasted
great. Paul was so proud! Because children pick up the narrative
styles of significant adults in their lives, their narrative forms
vary widely across cultures Practice in relating personal stories
(ex. In families who regularly eat meals together) promotes gains
in language and literacy development
Slide 49
Learning Two Languages at a Time Many children are bilingual,
learning 2 or more languages in childhood An estimated 15% of
American children (6 million) speak a language other than English
at home
Slide 50
Bilingual Development Children can become bilingual by
acquiring 2 languages at the same time in early childhood or
learning a 2 nd language after mastering the 1 st Children who
learn both languages in infancy and early childhood attain early
language milestone according to a typical timetable When school-age
children acquire a 2 nd language after they already speak the 1 st,
they generally take 5-7 years to attain speaking and writing skills
on par with those of native-speaking agemates Sensitive period for
2 nd language learning: to achieve full proficiency in a 2 nd
language, mastery must begin sometime in childhood Children who are
fluent in 2 languages do better than other on tests of selective
attention, analytical reasoning, and concept formation
Slide 51
Bilingual Education The advantages of bilingualism provide
strong justification for bilingual education programs in schools In
Canada, about 7% of elementary school students participate in
language immersion programs (in which English-speaking children are
taught entirely in French) and become proficient in both French and
English In the U.S., disagreement exists over how best to educate
ethnic minority children with limited English proficiency Some
believe that time spent communicating in the childs native tongue
detracts from English language achievement, which is crucial for
success at school and work Others are committed to developing
minority childrens native language while fostering mastery of
English This approach prevents inadequate proficiency in both
languages, which is believed to lead to high rates of school
failure and dropout among low-SES Hispanic children Currently, U.S.
public opinion and educational practice favor English-only
instruction However, when both languages are integrated into the
curriculum, minority children are more involved in learning and
acquire the 2 nd language more easily
Slide 52
Learning in School Schools are vital forces in childrens
cognitive development How do school exert such a powerful
influence? Research looking at schools as complex social systems
provides important insights Class size Educational philosophies
Teacher-student relationships Larger cultural context
Slide 53
Class Size Smaller class sizes are most beneficial Teachers
spend less time disciplining and more time teaching and giving
individual attention Children who learn in smaller groups show
better concentration, higher-quality class participation, and more
favorable attitudes toward school In one study, more than 6,000
Tennessee kindergartners were randomly assigned to 3 class types,
in which they remained until 3 rd grade Small 13-17 students
Regular 22-25 students Regular with a teacher plus a full-time
teachers aide Results Small-class students (especially ethnic
minority children) scored higher in reading and math achievement
each year Placing teachers aides in regular-size classes had NO
impact Being in small classes from kindergarten through 3 rd grade
predicted substantially higher achievement from 4 th -9 th grades,
even after children had returned to regular- size classes Smaller
class size also predicted greater likelihood of graduating from
high school
Slide 54
Educational Philosophies Each teacher brings an educational
philosophy to the classroom, which plays a major role in childrens
learning 2 philosophies have received the most research attention
Traditional vs. Constructivist They differ in what children are
taught, the way they are believed to learn, and how their progress
is evaluated
Slide 55
Traditional Versus Constructivist Traditional teachers are the
sole authority for knowledge, rules, and decision making and does
most of the talking Students are relatively passive listening,
responding when called on, and completing teacher-assigned tasks
Students progress is evaluated by how well they keep pace with a
uniform set of standards for their grade Constructivist encourages
students to construct their own knowledge Many are grounded in
Piagets theory, that views children as active agents who reflect on
and coordinate their own thoughts rather than absorbing those of
others Constructivist classrooms provide richly equipped learning
centers and allow small groups and individuals to engage in problem
solving Students are evaluated in terms of their progress in
relation to their own prior development
Slide 56
Traditional Versus Constructivist In the U.S., the pendulum has
swung back and forth between traditional and constructivist views
Older elementary school children in traditional classrooms score
slightly higher in achievement tests But, constructivist classrooms
are associated with many benefits such as gains in critical
thinking, academic motivation, social and moral maturity, and
positive attitudes toward school In preschool and kindergarten,
teacher-directed instruction undermines academic motivation and
achievement, especially in low-SES children
Slide 57
New Philosophical Directions New approaches are grounded in
Vygotskys sociocultural theory Capitalize on the rich social
context of the classroom to spur childrens learning
Social-constructivist classrooms Children participate in a wide
range of challenging activities with teachers and peers, with whom
they jointly construct understandings As children acquire knowledge
and strategies from working together, they become competent,
contributing members of their classroom and advance in cognitive
and social development
Slide 58
New Philosophical Directions Important themes in
social-constructivist classrooms include: Teachers and children are
partners in learning A classroom rich in both teacher-child and
child-child collaboration transfers culturally valued ways of
thinking to children Children experience many types of symbolic
communication in meaningful activities As children master reading,
writing, and mathematics, they become aware of their cultures
communication systems, reflect on their own thinking, and bring
communication and thoughts under voluntary control Teaching is
adapted to each childs zone of proximal development Assistance that
both responds to current understandings and encourages children to
take the next step helps ensure that each child makes the best
progress possible According to Vygotsky, more expert peers can spur
childrens learning Evidence confirms that this approach is
effective in the context of cooperative learning in which small
group s of classmates work toward common goals
Slide 59
Teacher-Student Interaction In classrooms where teachers are
caring, helpful, and stimulating, children make gains in
motivation, achievement, and positive peer relations But, too many
U.S. teachers emphasize repetitive drill over higher-level
thinking, such as grappling with ideas and applying knowledge to
new situations Teachers dont treat all students the same
Well-behaved, high-achieving students typically get more
encouragement and praise Unruly students have more conflicts with
teachers and are criticized more Unfortunately, once a teachers
attitudes toward students are established, they can become more
extreme than is warranted by students behavior Can lead to an
educational self-fulfilling prophecy in which children start to
live up to their teachers positive or negative views of them This
effect is especially strong when teachers emphasize competition and
publicly compare children, regularly favoring the best students
Inaccurate views held by teachers affect low achievers more than
high achievers When a teacher is critical, high achievers can fall
back on their history of success Low-achieving students sensitivity
to self-fulfilling prophecies can be beneficial when teachers
believe in them, but, biased teacher judgments are usually slanted
in a negative direction
Slide 60
Grouping Practices In many schools, students are assigned to
homogeneous groups of classes in which children of similar ability
levels are taught together (ex. Reading groups) This can be a
strong source of self-fulfilling prophecies Low-group students, who
as early as 1 st grade are more likely to be low-SES, minority, and
male, get more drills on basic facts and skills, engage in less
discussion, and progress at a slower pace Gradually, they decline
in self-esteem and motivation Not surprisingly, homogeneous
grouping widens the gap between high and low achievers Partly
because of these findings, some schools have increased the
heterogeneity of classrooms by combining 2 or 3 adjacent grades In
these multigrade classrooms, academic achievement, self-esteem, and
attitudes toward school are usually more favorable than in
single-grade classrooms Maybe multigrade grouping decreases
competition and promotes cooperative learning, which also fosters
these positive outcomes
Slide 61
Teaching Children with Special Needs So, weve seen that
effective teachers flexibly adjust their teaching strategies to
accommodate students with a wide range of characteristics These
adjustments are especially challenging and the very low (children
with learning difficulties) and very high (gifted children) ends of
the distribution
Slide 62
Children with Learning Difficulties U.S. legislation mandates
that schools place children who require special supports for
learning into the least restrictive (meaning as close to normal as
possible) environments that meet their educational needs Inclusive
classrooms students with learning difficulties are placed in
regular classrooms for all or part of the school day This practice
is designed to prepare them for participation in society and to
combat prejudices against individuals with disabilities Largely as
the result of parental pressures, and increasing number of students
experience full inclusion full-time placement in regular classrooms
Some students in inclusive classrooms have mild mental retardation:
their IQs fall between 55-70, and they also show problems in
adaptive behavior, or skills in everyday living But, the largest
number have learning disabilities great difficulty with one or more
aspects of learning, usually reading As a result, their achievement
is considerably behind what would be expected on the basis of their
IQ
Slide 63
Children with Learning Difficulties Although some students in
inclusive classroom situations benefit academically, many do not
Achievement gains depend on both the severity of the disability and
the support services available Furthermore, children with
disabilities are often rejected by regular-classroom peers Often
these children do best when they receive instruction in a resource
room for part of the day and regular classroom for the remainder In
the resource room, a special education teacher works with students
on an individual and small-group basis Then, depending on their
progress, children join regular classmates for different subjects
and amounts of time Special steps must be taken to promote peer
relations in inclusive classrooms Cooperative learning and
peer-tutoring experiences, in which classmates and teachers work
together with children with learning difficulties, often lead to
friendly interaction, improved peer acceptance, and achievement
gains
Slide 64
Gifted Children Gifted children display exceptional
intellectual strengths, including creativity and talent as well as
high IQ 1 or 2 students in every grade have IQ scores above 130,
the standard definition of giftedness based on intelligence test
performance High-IQ children have keen memories and exceptional
capacity to solve challenging academic problems Yet recognition
that intelligence tests do not sample the entire range of human
mental skills has led to an expanded conception of giftedness
Slide 65
Gifted Children: Creativity and Talent Creativity is the
ability to produce work that is original yet appropriate Something
others have not thought of that is useful in some way Children with
high potential for creativity can be designated as gifted Tests of
creative capacity tap divergent thinking the generation of multiple
and unusual possibilities when faced with a task or problem
Divergent thinking contrasts convergent thinking involves arriving
at a single correct answer and is emphasized on intelligence tests
Because highly creative children (like children with high IQs) are
often better at some tasks than at others, a variety of tests of
divergent thinking are available Verbal measures might ask children
to name uses for common objects Figural measures might as them to
create drawings based on a particular theme real-world-problem
measures require students to suggest solutions to everyday problems
Responses can be scored for the number of ideas generated and their
originality But, critics of these measures point out that they are
poor predictors of creative accomplishment in everyday life because
they only tap one of the complex cognitive contributions to
creativity Also involved are defining new and important problems,
evaluating divergent ideas, choosing the most promising, and
calling on relevant knowledge to understand and solve problems
Slide 66
Gifted Children: Creativity and Talent To understand why people
usually demonstrate creativity on only one or a few related areas,
consider this: Even individuals designated as gifted by virtue of
high IQ often show uneven ability across academic subjects This is
partly why definitions of giftedness have been extended to include
talent outstanding performance in a specific field Talents usually
appear in early childhood, but talents must be nurtured Parents
should be warm and sensitive, provide a stimulating home life, are
devoted to developing their childs abilities, and provide models of
hard work These parents are reasonably demanding but not driving or
overambitious and arrange for caring teachers while the child is
young and more rigorous master teachers as the talent develops Many
gifted children are socially isolated, partly because their highly
driven, nonconforming, and independent styles leave them out of
step with their peers and partly because they enjoy solitude Still,
gifted children desire gratifying peer relationships and some (more
often girls than boys) try to become better liked by hiding their
abilities Although many talented youths become experts in their
fields, few become highly creative, because rapidly mastering an
existing field requires different skills than innovating in the
field
Slide 67
Educating the Gifted Debate about the effectiveness of school
programs for the gifted typically focuses on factors irrelevant to
giftedness Whether to provide enrichment in regular classrooms,
pull children out for special instruction (the most common
practice), or advance brighter students to a higher grade Overall,
the extent to which programs foster creativity and talent depends
on opportunities to acquire relevant skills Meaningful activities,
each tapping a specific intelligence or set of intelligences, serve
as contexts for assessing strengths and weaknesses and, on that
basis, teaching new knowledge and original thinking Ex. Linguistic
intelligence might be fostered through storytelling or playwriting
Ex. Spatial intelligence through drawing, sculpting, or taking
apart and reassembling objects Ex. Kinesthetic intelligence through
dance, acting, or pantomime Although evidence is still needed on
how effectively these programs nurture childrens talents, the have
been successful in highlighting the strengths of some students who
had previously been overlooked Especially talented low-SES and
minority children
Slide 68
How Well Educated Are North American Children? Many factors,
both within and outside schools, affect childrens learning
(societal values, school resources, quality of teaching, and
parental encouragement) Nowhere are these multiple influences more
apparent than when schooling is examined in a cross-cultural
perspective U.S. students fare poorly when their achievement is
compared to that of children in other industrialized nations
Studies of reading, mathematics, and science achievement
Internationally: Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan are
consistently at the top Among Western nations: Canada, Finland,
Netherlands, and Switzerland are in the top tear Students in the
U.S. usually perform at he international average and sometimes
below it Why? Compared with students in the top-achieving nations,
many more U.S. students report studying by memorizing rather than
by relating information to previously acquired knowledge
Achievement also varies much more among U.S. schools, reflecting an
uneven distribution of quality of education
Slide 69
How Well Educated Are North American Children? To clarify the
factors that support high achievement, research has been conducted
on learning environments in Asian nations Emphasis on effort where
as North American parents and teachers tend to regard natural
ability as key to academic success, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese
parents and teachers believe that all children can succeed
academically with enough effort Parents devote many more hours to
helping children with homework, and children (due to the
collectivist values) typically view striving to achieve as a moral
obligation to their family and community High quality education for
all ability grouping is absent from Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese
elementary schools; all students receive the same nationally
mandated, high-quality education, delivered by teachers who are
better paid than in the U.S. Lessons are well-organized and
presented in ways that capture childrens attention, and also
encourage high-level thinking Further, Japanese elementary school
teachers are 3 times as likely as U.S. teachers to work outside
class with students who need extra help More time devoted to
instruction in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the school year is
more than 50 days longer than in the U.S.; and on a day-to-day
basis, Asian teachers devote much more time to academic pursuits
but still allow time for recess and field trips Overall, families,
schools, and the larger society must work together to upgrade U.S.
education