The School Years: Cognitive Development Slides prepared by Kate Byerwalter, Ph.D., Grand Rapids Community College The Developing Person Through Childhood.

The School Years: Cognitive Development

Slides prepared by Kate Byerwalter, Ph.D., Grand Rapids Community College

The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence by Kathleen Stassen Berger

Chapter 12

Seventh Edition

Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 12

A Prime Time for Learning

Children in the school years are inquisitive and eager to learn new skills.

PHOTODISC


Piaget’s Third Stage

Concrete operational thought is the ability to reason logically about direct experiences and perceptions.

Children in this stage become more systematic, objective, and scientific thinkers–but only about tangible, visible things.


Logical Principles

Classification: organization into groups according to common property

Example: Show 5 collies and 2 poodles. Ask, “Are there more collies or dogs?”

Kids in middle childhood know that collies are a subcategory of “dogs.”


Essence and Change

Identity: certain characteristics of an object remain the same even if other characteristics change

Examples: frozen water is still water; a butterfly was once a caterpillar; liquid in smaller glass is the same liquid


Essence and Change (cont.)

Reversibility: reversing the process by which something was changed brings the original conditions

Example: if 5 + 9 = 14, then

14 – 9 must equal 5! Also, imagine pouring H2O back in conservation task.


Essence and Change (cont.)

Reciprocity is the principle that things may change in opposite ways, and thus balance each other out.

Example: A child states that the decreased height in the shorter is balanced out by its increased width.


Practical Applications

The logical principles of concrete operational thought make learning easier and more fun.

Example: Children enjoy classifying cities, states, nations, etc., or knowing that a tadpole turns into a frog (identity).


Logic and Culture

Lev Vygotsky believed that culture shapes cognition more than Piaget believed.


Logic and Culture: An Example Brazilian street

children calculate complex computations not learned in school (see text p. 361)

VICTOR RUIZ CABLLERO / AP/ WIDE WORLD PHOTOS


Moral Development

Develops along with cognitive advances

Is shaped by culture and social influences

Middle childhood is a key time for learning moral lessons


Kohlberg presented moral dilemmas and scored responses as:

Preconventional: rewards and punishment

Conventional: emphasis on social rules

Postconventional: moral principles

“beyond” societal standards

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development




Evaluating Kohlberg’s Theory Moral reasoning does seem to advance

with advances in cognitive development.

Most children are preconventional before age 8, and conventional by age 9 years.


Criticisms of Kohlberg

He may have underestimated the potential of school-age children.

His research was done on Western males.

It may be better to address practical issues such as feeding the poor (vs. hypothetical dilemmas).


Morality and Gender

Carol Gilligan believed that females are more likely to develop a morality of care, in which nurturance and compassion are more important than a morality of justice, which emphasizes absolute judgments of right and wrong.


Was Gilligan right? Research has found NO clear gender

distinction regarding morality of care or justice (boys and girls are equally likely to use each).

APICHART WEERAWONG / AP PHOTO


Information Processing Analyzes how the

mind analyzes, stores, and retrieves information.

Cognition becomes more efficient in middle childhood. RUBBERBALL PRODUCTIONS


Sensory register: registers incoming stimuli for a split second

Working memory (short term): where current, conscious mental activity occurs

Long-term memory = stores information for minutes, hours, days, months, yearsUnlimited capacity (!)

The Three “Parts” of Memory


Speed of Processing

Speed of processing increases during middle childhood.

This allows a child to process more thoughts quickly, retain more thoughts in memory, and simultaneously process two different thoughts.


Automatization

Certain skills become automatic during middle childhood (e.g., reading, writing).

This increases intellectual capacity and speed of processing.


Make it Real: Learning a Subject

Do you find it easier to learn new material in your major field of interest than in a brand new subject?

Why do think that is?


Knowledge Base

Knowledge base: a body of knowledge in an area that makes it easier to master new learning

Interest, motivation, and practice determine the size of the knowledge base.

Example: child chess experts, Pokémon experts


Knowledge of Pokémon and Wildlife


Control Processes

Control processes regulate the analysis of information within the information processing system, and increase during middle childhood.

Examples: selective attention, retrieval strategies, metacognition


Selective attention: the ability to screen out irrelevant distractions and concentrate on a task

Metacognition: the ability to evaluate a task and determine how to accomplish it

Improvements in Control Processes


Language: New Vocabulary

School-age kids learn up to 20 new words a day.

They understand metaphors and various uses of words.

Examples: egg, “walking on eggshells,” “last one is a rotten egg,” egg salad, etc.


Two “Codes” of Language

Formal Code: used in school and other “formal” situations

Extensive vocabulary

Complex syntax

Lengthy sentences


Informal code: language used with friends

Fewer words, simpler syntax

Gestures and intonation convey meaning

Vital for social acceptance

Two “Codes” of Language (cont.)


Code Switching: A Life Saver

Kids in middle childhood learn that certain words and phrases are okay with friends (informal code), but NOT with teachers, pastors, or other adults.

Failure to learn this could result in punishment for calling the teacher “dude”!


Socioeconomics and Language Lower-income children tend to have

smaller vocabularies, simpler grammar, and more difficulty in reading.

Two key explanations for this:

Exposure to languageParental expectations towards education


A Hopeful Study

A study of low-income children demonstrated that exposure to language was a key predictor of language development.

Real world application: TALK with kids!



Tones and Tricks

By 10 years of age, children learn to understand the nuances of language (tone, sarcasm, puns).

Example: 10 year olds recognized that saying “I lost my stickers” in a happy voice is strange.



Make it Real: Education

If you could design the ideal educational environment, what would it look like? Be specific. Think about class size, curriculum, sports, scheduling, etc.


Teaching and Learning

The curriculum for school-age children varies. Some possibilities include: reading, writing, math, arts, physical education, oral expression, religion.

Funding for education also varies greatly.


The Hidden Curriculum

The hidden curriculum is the unofficial, unstated rules that influence learning.

Examples: discipline strategies, teacher salaries, class size, testing, schedules, emphasis on sports, segregation by ethnicity, physical condition of the school


International Tests

International comparisons of achievement have found that the United States is not among the top scoring developed nations.



Education in Japan

Harold Stevenson (U of M) documented key aspects that help Japanese students:

Strong parental involvementTeachers paid well, given time to prepareLonger school daysEffort is highly valued


Education in Japan

Unfortunately, the strong emphasis on education has caused a phobia of school for too many Japanese children.

The government is now working towards a more “relaxed education.”


Make it Real: The No Child Left Behind Act

This Act requires yearly testing and a certain level of achievement in order for schools to receive federal funding.

Were you affected by this Act? Do you think it is a good idea? Why or why not?


The No Child Left Behind Act

The Act is controversial. Some questions include:

What about the arts and physical education?

Does it punish schools that need funding the most?

Should graduation (or not) depend on a test?

What about special needs students?


The Reading Wars

Phonics approach: teaching reading by first teaching the sounds of each letter

Whole-language: teaching reading by early use of all language skills–talking, listening, reading, and writing

BOTH approaches are valuable


Quiz: Which

approach is this?


The Math Wars

Math is an often feared subject, but one of utmost importance.

New curriculum discourages rote learning, emphasizing problem solving, and understanding of concepts.

The focus is on the thought process, not just the final answer.


Class Size

Research on the relationship between class size and academic achievement has yielded mixed results.

Confounding factors include the types of students in the study, the qualifications of teachers, and suitable classrooms.


Bilingual Education

About 4 million U.S. children are English-language learners (ELL).

JOHN O’BRIAN / CANADA IN STOCK, INC.


Bilingual Education (cont.)

Middle childhood is an ideal time to teach a second language.

However, there is considerable debate about when and how to teach a second language.


Types of 2nd Language Programs Total immersion: all instruction in second

language

Reverse immersion: instruction of basic subjects in first language, then second language is taught

Bilingual education: instruction in both languages


Types of 2nd Language Programs (cont.)

Heritage language classes: after school classes to connect with native culture

English as a second language (ESL): exclusive English for a few months, in preparation for “regular” classes


Which type is best?

Research in Canada found the total immersion approach to be very successful.

However, there is no one right answer. The goal is to help immigrant children preserve their culture, while learning the new language.

The School Years: Cognitive Development Slides prepared by Kate Byerwalter, Ph.D., Grand Rapids Community College The Developing Person Through Childhood.

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