2. The changes that occur in human beings
between conception and death are referred to
as:
 maturation
 cognitive development
 growth
 development

3. Which of the following is FALSE regarding a
general principle of development ?
 Development is rapid and dramatic.
 Development occurs at different rates.
 Development takes place gradually.
 Development takes place in an orderly sequence.

4. What is a major issue pertaining to the
nature-nurture controversy?
 Young children demonstrate patterns of behavior or thinking,
called schemes, which older children and adults also use in
dealing with objects in the world.
 Development occurs in a smooth progression as skills develop
and parents and the environment provide experiences.
 Is development predetermined at birth, by hereditary factors,
or does experience and other environmental factors affect it?
 All children are believed to acquire skills in the same sequence,
although rates of progress differ from child to child.

5. Did you remember to do your
homework?
5

7. What part of the brain is associated
with higher mental functions?
The cortex is a crumpled sheet of neurons that serves three
major functions: receiving signals from sense organs,
controlling voluntary movement and forming associations.
The part of the cortex that controls physical motor movement
develops or matures first, then the areas that control complex
senses such as vision and hearing, and last the frontal lobe,
which controls the higher-order thinking processes.
7

8. What is lateralization and
why is it important?
Lateralization is the specialization of the two sides, or
hemispheres, of the brain. The brain begins to lateralize soon
after birth. For most people, the left hemisphere is prominent
in spatial and visual processing.
Even though certain functions are associated with certain
parts of the brain, the various parts and systems of the brain
work together to learn and perform complex activities such as
reading and to construct understanding.
8

10. Piaget’s Theory
 (1986 – 1980)
 Piaget studied his children’s intellectual
development from infancy.
 While studying his children, Piaget developed
theories concerning how children learn.
 His theory of Cognitive Development consists
of four stages of intellectual development.

12. Stage 1 - Sensorimotor
 During this stage, the child begins to develop:
 Reflexes
 Habits
 Hand-eye coordination
 Object Permanence (knowing something exists,
even though it can’t be seen)
 Experimentation and creativity.
 Trial and error experiments

13. Piaget Stage 1 Sensorimotor, Object Permenence

14. Stage 2 - Preoperational
During this stage, the child begins to develop:
 Ability to represent objects with images and words
 Language skills
 Imagination
Children learn through imitation and play during this stage.
They begin to use reasoning, however it is mainly intuitive,
instead of logical.

15. Piaget Stage 2 Preoperational Lack of Conservation

16. Stage 3 - Concrete Operational
During this stage, the child begins to develop:
 The fundamentals of logic
 Ability to sort objects
 Ability to classify objects
 Understanding of conservation (physical
quantities do not change based on the
arrangement and/or appearance of the object)

17. Piaget Stage 3 Concrete Reversibility

18. Stage 4 - Formal Operational
During this stage, the child begins to develop:
 Ability to hypothesize, test and reevaluate
hypotheses
Children begin thinking in a formal systematic way

19. Piaget Stage 4 Formal. Deductive Reasoning

20. Egocentrism

22. According to Piaget, planned problem solving
moves from trial and error to a planned
approach at the end of what stage of
development?
 Concrete operational
 Formal operations
 Preoperational
 Sensorimotor The child at this stage can form
concepts, see relationships, and
solve problems, but only as long
as they involve objects and
situations that are familiar.

23.  sensorimotor development; goal
directed action.
 concrete operational development;
classification.
 preoperational development;
collective monologue.
 preoperational development;
the semiotic function.

24. Object permanence – understanding that
objects exist even when out of sight – is a
hallmark of which of Piaget’s stages of
cognitive development?
 concrete operations
 formal operations
 preoperations
 sensorimotor

25. Understanding that the volume remains the
same, even if it is transferred from a tall, thin
container to a short, wide one requires which
of the following cognitive abilities?
 conservation and decentration
 hypothetical and scientific thought
 transitivity and reversibility
 private speech and scaffolding

27.  Piaget’s theories have had a major impact on the
theory and practice of education.
 First, the theories focused attention on the idea of
developmentally appropriate education—an
education with environments, curriculum, materials,
and instruction that are suitable for students in terms
of their physical and cognitive abilities and their social
and emotional needs.

28.  In addition, several major approaches to curriculum
and instruction are explicitly based on Piagetian
theory, and this theory has been influential in
constructivist models of learning.
 Berk (2001) summarizes the main teaching
implications drawn from Piaget as follows:

29. 1. A focus on the process of children’s thinking,
not just its products.
In addition to checking the correctness of
children’s answers, teachers must understand the
processes children use to get to the answer.
Appropriate learning experiences build on
children’s current level of cognitive functioning,
and only when teachers appreciate children’s
methods of arriving at particular conclusions are
they in a position to provide such experiences.

30. 2. Recognition of the crucial role of children’s self-
initiated, active involvement in learning
activities.
In a Piagetian classroom the presentation of ready-
made knowledge is deemphasized, and children
are encouraged to discover for themselves through
spontaneous interaction with the environment.
Therefore, instead of teaching didactically, teachers
provide a rich variety of activities that permit
children to act directly on the physical world.

31. 3. A deemphasis on practices aimed at making children
adultlike in their thinking.
Piaget referred to the question “How can we speed up
development?” as “the American question.” Among the many
countries he visited, psychologists and educators in the
United States seemed most interested in what techniques
could be used to accelerate children’s progress through the
stages. Piagetian-based educational programs accept his firm
belief that premature teaching could be worse than no
teaching at all, because it leads to superficial acceptance of
adult formulas rather than true cognitive understanding.

32. 4. Acceptance of individual differences in developmental
progress.
Piaget’s theory assumes that all children go through the same
developmental sequence but that they do so at different rates.
Therefore, teachers must make a special effort to arrange
classroom activities for individuals and small groups of
children rather than for the total class group. In addition,
because individual differences are expected, assessment of
children’s educational progress should be made in terms of
each child’s own previous course of development, not in
terms of normative standards provided by the performances
of same-age peers.

33. 5. Piaget emphasized the role of two types of
relationships: constraint and cooperation in moral
development.
Relationships of constraint involve unilateral respect and
the imposition of views from authority. In contrast,
relationships of cooperation are best suited for the
development of knowledge because they involve mutual
respect, and each person is obliged to listen to the other
and to fully explain themselves. This situation is most
likely to lead to mutual understanding, which is essential
in the development of all forms of knowledge.

35.  Use concrete props and visual aids whenever
possible. Preoperational
 Present problems that require logical,
analytical thinking. Concrete-Operational
 Help students develop their ability to see the
world from someone else’s point of view. Preoperational
 Give students the opportunity to explore
many hypothetical questions. Formal-Operational
 Give opportunities to classify and group
objects and ideas on increasingly complex
levels. Concrete-Operational

37. Limitations on Piaget’s
Theory
 Although Piaget’s influence on Developmental and
Educational Psychology has been enormous, recent
research do not support all of his ideas.
 Almost all psychologists agree with his descriptions
on the way children think, but many of them disagree
with his explanations on why thinking develops the
way it does.

38. Problems With Research
Methods
Much of the criticism of Piaget's work is in regards to
his research methods. A major source of inspiration for
the theory was Piaget's observations of his own three
children. In addition to this, the other children in
Piaget's small research sample were all from well-
educated professionals of high socio-economic status.
Because of this unrepresentative sample, it is difficult to
generalize his findings to a larger population.

39. Problems With Formal
Operations
Research has disputed Piaget's argument that all
children will automatically move to the next stage of
development as they mature. Some data suggests that
environmental factors may play a role in the
development of formal operations.

40. Underestimates Children's
Abilities
Most researchers agree that children posses many of the
abilities at an earlier age than Piaget suspected. Recent
research on theory of mind has found that children of 4- or 5-
years old have a rather sophisticated understanding of their
own mental processes as well as those of other people. For
example, children of this age have some ability to take the
perspective of another person, meaning they are far less
egocentric than Piaget believed.

42. The model underestimates young children's abilities and
overestimates older children's abilities.
In Piaget's model, children have limitations in logical thinking
until the age of seven due to "perceptual centration,"
"irreversibility" and "egocentrism." However, critics say many
children are able to overcome these limitations at the age of five
or six. So this generalization may not fit all children. Again
critics say there are many children who are not able to think
abstractly and hypothetically during the period of 11-15.
Particularly, the age of 11 is too early to start complex mental
operations.

43. The model overemphasizes biological influence on
cognitive development.
According to the model, every child goes through similar
stages of cognitive development and environment and
education have little influence on these stages. An important
implication of this assumption is that education's contribution
is not so powerful on cognitive development.

44. Piaget's model implicates that the teaching process should
be student-centered, that is, the student should be main
source of information in the educational process.
The major task of the teacher is to design an environment that is
conducive to active involvement and learning, but not
transmitting knowledge to the student directly. The teacher is a
facilitator only. The child will actively explore the outside world
and try to make sense based on his/her cognitive level of
operation. An imposition on him/her will confuse the child
especially if that impositions is not parallel to his level. This
position brings out an implication about the role of schools and
teachers in child's learning a passive one. This implication is
criticized by many educators since it underestimates children's
learning abilities and the influence of schooling on child's
cognitive development.

46. What would you do?
The District’s program demands a unit about poetry that includes a
lesson about symbolism. You are worried that many of your fifth grade
students are not ready to understand this concept so abstract, so you
decide to question some of them about what is a symbol.
“They are big metal plates that sound when you clap them” – says
Estela as she waves her hands like a big drum.
“Yes, -adds Juan-. My sister plays them in her highschool band.”
You realize that they are in the wrong road, so you try again. “I’m not
talking about the cymbals, but about symbols, like rings are the symbol
for marriage, or a heart is the symbol for love, or…”
You feel all the astonished looks. Pedro tries: “You mean like the
Olympic torch.”
“And what is what it represents, Pedro?”, you ask.
“I already told you, the torch”, he answers wondering how somebody
could be so obtuse.

47. Answer these questions:
1. What do these reactions tell you about the children
thinking?
2. How would you approach this unit?
3. What else could you do to “listen” to the thoughts of your
students and adapt what you are teaching to their level
of thought?
4. What would you do for your students to acquire the
concrete experience about symbolism?
5. How would you decide if the development of the
students is not enough for this material?

48. Compare and Contrast
 Share with a partner the answers you gave to the 5
questions. Are they similar? Are they very different?
 Talk with your partner. Discuss options of examples.
Write guidelines for the class.