Forum 4:
Based on what you’ve learned and your own experience, how does pretend play contribute to a child’s development?
What qualities and skills do you think are important for academic and vocational success? How many of those qualities and skill are assessed by traditional intelligence tests? What advice would you give to parents and teachers who want to nurture creativity and special talents with children?
Cognitive Development (Piaget) and Intelligence
The topic for this week is cognitive development and intelligence from the perspective of Piaget and Vygotsky. Additionally, we will learn definitions of intelligence, the predictive value of intelligence tests, variations in IQ, the role of early intervention in intellectual development, and the development of creativity.
Topics to be covered include:
· Cognitive Development: Piagetian, Core Knowledge, and Vygotskian Perspectives
· Role of Intelligence Testing in the Development of Educational Programs
· Case Studies Related to Intelligence
Cognitive Development
We will begin to examine cognitive development, or how the intellectual capabilities of infants transform into those of the child, adolescent, and adult. First, let us define cognition. Cognition refers to the inner processes and products of the mind that lead to “knowing.” In other words, how do we acquire, comprehend, and apply knowledge? What transformations must occur for individuals to develop increasingly sophisticated mental capacities?
JEAN PIAGET
You have likely heard the name of Swiss cognitive theorist, Jean Piaget. According to Piaget, people are not cognitive beings at birth; instead, they discover, or construct, all knowledge of the world through their own experiences. As they begin to construct knowledge, they refine and organize the information in order to effectively adapt to their environments. This theory of active construction of knowledge is known as the constructivist approach to cognitive development. This approach follows children through four invariant (fixed order) and universal (assumed to characterize all children) stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Throughout these stages, infants’ investigative behaviors gradually transform into the abstract, rational intelligence of more mature individuals.
PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
SENSORIMOTOR
PREOPERATIONAL
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL
FORMAL OPERATIONAL
Piaget identified specific psychological structures called schemes (organized ways of making sense of experiences) that change with age. Initially, schemes are patterns of action involving the senses and motor functions. For example, a baby may simply grab and release an object. As the baby gets older, this scheme becomes more deliberate, and she may begin to throw the object down the stairs, up in the air, or against walls. In other words, she is thinking before she acts. When there evidence of this, Piaget says the child has moved ...
HMCS Max Bernays Pre-Deployment Brief (May 2024).pptx
Forum 4Based on what you’ve learned and your own experience.docx
1. Forum 4:
Based on what you’ve learned and your own experience, how
does pretend play contribute to a child’s development?
What qualities and skills do you think are important for
academic and vocational success? How many of those qualities
and skill are assessed by traditional intelligence tests? What
advice would you give to parents and teachers who want to
nurture creativity and special talents with children?
Cognitive Development (Piaget) and Intelligence
The topic for this week is cognitive development and
intelligence from the perspective of Piaget and Vygotsky.
Additionally, we will learn definitions of intelligence, the
predictive value of intelligence tests, variations in IQ, the role
of early intervention in intellectual development, and the
development of creativity.
Topics to be covered include:
· Cognitive Development: Piagetian, Core Knowledge, and
Vygotskian Perspectives
· Role of Intelligence Testing in the Development of
Educational Programs
· Case Studies Related to Intelligence
2. Cognitive Development
We will begin to examine cognitive development, or how the
intellectual capabilities of infants transform into those of the
child, adolescent, and adult. First, let us define cognition.
Cognition refers to the inner processes and products of the mind
that lead to “knowing.” In other words, how do we acquire,
comprehend, and apply knowledge? What transformations must
occur for individuals to develop increasingly sophisticated
mental capacities?
JEAN PIAGET
You have likely heard the name of Swiss cognitive theorist,
Jean Piaget. According to Piaget, people are not cognitive
beings at birth; instead, they discover, or construct, all
knowledge of the world through their own experiences. As they
begin to construct knowledge, they refine and organize the
information in order to effectively adapt to their environments.
This theory of active construction of knowledge is known as the
constructivist approach to cognitive development. This
approach follows children through four invariant (fixed order)
and universal (assumed to characterize all children) stages:
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal
operational. Throughout these stages, infants’ investigative
behaviors gradually transform into the abstract, rational
intelligence of more mature individuals.
PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
SENSORIMOTOR
PREOPERATIONAL
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL
3. FORMAL OPERATIONAL
Piaget identified specific psychological structures called
schemes (organized ways of making sense of experiences) that
change with age. Initially, schemes are patterns of action
involving the senses and motor functions. For example, a baby
may simply grab and release an object. As the baby gets older,
this scheme becomes more deliberate, and she may begin to
throw the object down the stairs, up in the air, or against walls.
In other words, she is thinking before she acts. When there
evidence of this, Piaget says the child has moved from a
sensorimotor approach to a cognitive approach, which uses
mental representations (images and concepts) to develop
efficient thinking habits. This advancement in thinking relies on
adaptation and organization. Adaptation involves building
schemes through direct interaction with the environment, while
organization is an internal process that connects schemes to
create a powerfully interrelated cognitive system.
Piaget’s Impact
Although follow-up research has changed the way we look at
some aspects of Piaget’s theory, it is important to note the
major impact his theory had on educational practices. Teacher
training and learning procedures have reflected three
educational principles derived from his view: discovery learning
(providing exploration experiences to guide learning rather than
verbally offering facts), sensitivity to children’s readiness to
learn (introducing new activities when children are ready, not to
speed up development), and acceptance of individual
differences (using knowledge of each child’s specific rate of
development to plan small group activities).
CHALLENGES AND EXTENSIONS TO PIAGET’S THEORIES
4. At present, most experts agree that cognition is less stage-like
than Piaget suggested. They instead embrace the understanding
that children are continuously modifying their thinking and
obtaining new skills. Moreover, researchers typically disagree
on whether cognitive development is general or specific. These
challenges have led researchers to extend or modify Piaget’s
work. Those who believe differently than Piaget regarding the
limited cognitive capabilities of infants have proposed the core
knowledge perspective.
CORE KNOWLEDGE PERSPECTIVE
The core knowledge perspective is a second set of theories
related to cognitive development. Unlike Piaget, who believed
infants come into the world only with sensorimotor reflexes,
those who embrace this perspective believe that infants are
innately equipped with core domains of thought that support
rapid cognitive development. In other words, infants are
prewired to make sense of certain stimuli. Each core domain is
essential for survival and develops independently, resulting in
uneven, domain-specific changes.
PHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE AND NUMERICAL KNOWLEDGE
Two core domains have been studied at length in infancy:
physical knowledge and numerical knowledge. Physical
knowledge is the understanding of objects and their effects on
one another. Numerical knowledge is the capacity to keep track
of multiple objects and to add and subtract small quantities.
Observation of infants has shown understanding in these areas
occurring quite early, supporting the idea that some knowledge
must be innate. Children gradually build on that knowledge and
it becomes more intricate as through exploration, play, and
social interaction. They are viewed as naïve theorists, who
create explanations of events based on innate knowledge. Their
5. explanations, or theories, are tested with experience and revised
if needed. These revisions lead to increased reasoning about
cause and effect situations. While this is an intriguing idea
about how cognitive skills are able to emerge early and rapidly
develop, this theory has not offered clarity on how children
make the necessary revisions that prompt cognitive change.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
The sociocultural theory is the third set of theories related to
cognitive development and is founded in the work of Lev
Vygotsky. Vygotsky believed that infants are born with
elementary perceptual, attention, and memory capacities, which
develop in the first two years through interaction with others.
Vygotsky did not view cognitive development as individualistic,
but placed a significant emphasis on culture or community.
Unlike Piaget, who favored independent discovery leading to
construction of knowledge, Vygotsky asserted that acquisition
of knowledge is a consequence of social interactions.
Specifically, learning takes place within the zone of proximal
development, which is a range of tasks too difficult for the child
to do alone but possible with the help of adults and more skilled
peers. When these more knowledgeable individuals question,
prompt, and suggest strategies for mastering a specific task
within the zone of proximal development, the child is drawn
into more mature thinking processes. Support during learning
can gradually be adjusted, based on the child’s needs, a concept
known as scaffolding. Also, due to his emphasis on social
experience and language, Vygotsky saw make-believe play as a
major zone of proximal development for preschoolers.
VYGOTSKY’S IMPACT
When applied in the classroom, Vygotsky’s theory teaches us to
highlight collaboration. While we again see that children should
be active participants in learning, we now go beyond individual
6. discovery (Piaget) to discovery through teacher guidance and
peer partnerships. In preschool, there should be many
opportunities for make-believe play. In all grades, there should
be opportunities for talk, as this dialogue prompts reflection on
thought processes, which, in turn leads to increased cognitive
awareness.
Knowledge Check
1
Question 1
Which theory on cognitive development places a large emphasis
on language and social interaction as the foundation for
learning?
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Core Knowledge Perspective
I don't know
One attempt
Submit answer
You answered 0 out of 0 correctly. Asking up to 1.
7. Case Study
‹
1/2
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· STUDY 1
To highlight how children’s drawings can help identify
adjustment difficulties at school.
As noted in the text, a variety of factors—the realization that
pictures can serve as symbols, improved planning and spatial
understanding, and the emphasis the child’s culture places on
artistic expression—influence the development of children’s
artful representations.
According to Harrison, Clarke, and Ungerer (2007), drawings
can also provide insight into relationships with adults, as well
as children’s overall adjustment. In one study, researchers
recruited 125 six-year-olds and collected the following
information:
o Participants completed a 30-minute interview that addressed
general perceptions of themselves, their school, and their
teachers.
o Participants completed the School Liking and Avoidance
Scale. Using a three-point scale (yes=3, no=2, sometimes=1),
children were asked such questions as, “Is school fun?” “Do you
enjoy school?” “Do you ask your parents to let you stay home
from school?” “Does school make you feel like crying?” To
assess participants’ feelings about their teacher, they were
asked: “Do you like to see your teacher when you get to
school?” “Is your teacher nice to you?” “Does your teacher
8. smile at you?” “Does your teacher play or read with you?”
o Participants were asked to draw a picture of themselves and
their teacher at school. Drawing materials were provided but no
further instructions were given. Researchers recorded any
spontaneous comments, and once participants completed their
drawings, they were asked to identify the people and objects in
the picture. Pictures were scored on the following dimensions,
which are commonly used to assess child/family drawings:
§ Creativity—going beyond the instructions and adding lively,
colorful, or imaginative features.
§ Pride/happiness—showing an emotional connectedness to the
teacher, such as holding hands or doing something fun with the
teacher.
§ Vulnerability—using overwhelming, exaggerated, distorted, or
displaced body images.
§ Emotional distance/isolation—using expressions of anger,
negative affect, physical distance from the teacher, or physical
barriers between the child and teacher.
§ Tension/anger—showing rigid and constricted features or
scribbling out the teacher’s face.
§ Role reversal—representing the child as larger, more
powerful, or more potent than the teacher.
§ Bizarreness/dissociation—including unusual signs or symbols,
angry facial features, or morbid fantasy themes.
o Teachers rated their relationship quality with each child on
five dimensions: conflict/anger, warmth/positive emotions, open
communication, dependency, and troubled feelings.
9. o Teachers rated participants’ overall school adjustment by
identifying the prevalence of problem behaviors (for example,
acting out, aggression, learning problems) and
strengths/competencies (for example, leadership, frustration
tolerance, social skills).
Results
Findings revealed significant relationships among children’s
reports, children’s drawings, teacher-rated relationship quality,
and teacher-rated school adjustment. That is, children who
reported negative feelings about their teacher also included
negative themes in their drawings, such as scribbling out the
teacher’s face. Their teachers, in turn, were likely to report
strained teacher–child relationships and problematic classroom
behavior. Taken together, these findings suggest that children’s
artistic representations of relationships with teachers are an
important tool for identifying adjustment difficulties at school.
Definitions of Intelligence
How do you view intelligence? When you consider a highly
intelligent person, what behaviors stand out to you? It is
probably not surprising to learn that experts disagree on the
attributes that make up intelligence and that the definition of
intelligence has evolved over time. You may recall that the first
intelligence test was created by Alfred Binet and his colleague,
Theodore Simon, in 1905 in response to educators’ needs to
identify students who were unlikely to benefit from standard
classroom instruction. Binet was asked to develop an impartial
means of assigning students to classes, one which focused on
mental aptitude and not disruptive behavior. Factors such as
memory and reasoning skills were considered and compared to
children of the same ages.
10. PSYCHOMETRIC APPROACH
FACTOR ANALYSIS
OTHER APPROACHES
Louis Thurstone, in contrast, viewed intelligence as less of a
single, general ability and more of a set of distinct abilities. His
factor analysis on more than 50 intelligence tests suggested that
independent, individual factors of intelligence exist. He called
these factors primary mental abilities, and categorized these
abilities as follows: verbal comprehension, reasoning,
perceptual speed, numerical ability, word fluency, associative
memory, and spatial visualization.
Eventually, both Spearman and Thurstone recognized each
other’s perspectives, and current theorists combine both
approaches when designing tests. Subtest scores are used to
determine an individual’s specific strengths and weaknesses
(Thurstone’s original theory), but can also be combined into an
overall general intelligence score (Spearman’s original theory).
However, many researchers believe that merely combining these
two perspectives is not enough, as factors on intelligence tests
have only partial value if we cannot recognize the cognitive
processes accountable for those factors. If we are able to do
that, we will better understand what skills must be reinforced to
improve a particular child’s performance. To facilitate this,
psychometric and information-processing approaches were
combined and componential analyses conducted, looking for
relationships involving components of information processing
and children’s intelligence test performance. While this helps to
detect cognitive skills that contribute to intelligence, this
approach does not include cultural and situational factors that
may affect intelligence.
STERNBERG
11. GARDNER
Measuring Intelligence
Although we have discussed some limitations to intelligence
testing, they are often helpful in identifying highly gifted
children and diagnosing learning problems. Standardized
intelligence tests utilize the scores of a large, representative
sample of individuals as a standard for interpreting individual
scores. Scores produce an intelligence quotient, or IQ, which
indicates the extent to which the number of items passed (raw
score) deviates from the average performance of individuals of
the same age. Group-administered standardized tests are useful
for instructional planning, while individually administered tests
consider both the child’s answers and behaviors, which paints a
more accurate picture of the child’s abilities. Two of these
individual tests – the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth
Edition, and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–IV
(WISC–IV) – are used most often.
APTITUDE AND ACHIEVEMENT TESTS
Aptitude and achievement tests are similar to intelligence tests.
Aptitude tests assess a child’s propensity for excelling in a
specific type of activity, such as music or language. On the
other hand, achievement tests measure the attainment of
particular knowledge and skills, such as reading comprehension
or concepts covered within a particular class. Achievement test
are often given by teachers to assess their students’
understanding of a particular subject area. There are even tests
to measure the intelligence of infants, although these present
unique challenges, as babies are unable to answer questions or
follow directions. Tests performed with infants typically
measure perceptual and motor responses; however, more recent
tests also attempt to determine early language, cognition, and
12. social behavior.
Ethnic and Socioeconomic Impact on IQ scores
We know that many factors affect child development and that
both heredity and environment shape a child’s unique qualities.
What are the roles of nature versus nurture in regards to
determining IQ? You will not be surprised to learn that there
has been much debate regarding this question, as researchers are
concerned with locating the cause of IQ disparities between and
among certain ethnicities. Either heredity or environmental
factors must be responsible for the variations in test
performance.
HEREDITY
Heritability estimates, or measures which researchers use to
correlate the IQs of family members who share genes, reveal
that heredity does play a role in IQ test performance. Adoption
studies have also supported these findings, as children in the
study eventually became more similar in IQ to their biological
mothers and less similar to their adoptive parents. However,
within the same studies, it was noted that the IQ of children
were adopted into privileged homes benefited from a rise in IQ
in comparison with non-adopted children who remained in
disadvantaged homes.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
This reminds us that environmental factors also contribute to
individual differences in intelligence, as do family beliefs about
intellectual success and expectations for children’s educational
attainment. Other factors, such as communication styles, lack of
familiarity with test content, reactions to testing conditions, and
fear of being judged on the basis of negative stereotypes can
lead test scores to underestimate minority children’s
13. intelligence. An approach to testing, known as dynamic
assessment, seems to discover what a child can attain with
social support, thus reducing bias in testing.
USE OF TESTING‹
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· Intervention Programs for Lower Achieving Students
Because research shows a correlation between socioeconomic
status and performance in intelligence tests, intervention
programs for economically disadvantaged students have been
implemented. The majority of these programs begin as early as
preschool, with the hopes of offsetting learning challenges
before formal schooling begins. You may have heard of Project
Head Start, which is one of the largest federal programs,
offering academic support, as well as nutritional and health
service and promoting parental involvement. Research on early
intervention programs indicates that, although instantaneous
gains in IQ tend to rapidly dissipate, enduring benefits are
noted in school adjustment, attitudes, and motivation. A
program in which high-quality intervention starts early, is
intensive, emphasizes parent involvement, and focuses on the
whole child is likely to have a more far-reaching impact in all
areas, including IQ.
Knowledge Check
1
Question 1
Which type of standardized test provides us with knowledge
about a child’s potential proficiency with a particular talent?
14. Aptitude tests
Achievement tests
Intelligence tests
I don't know
One attempt
Submit answer
You answered 0 out of 0 correctly. Asking up to 1.
Case Study
Research studies provide examples various types of intelligence
testing and the use of testing results. The first case study
examines the relationship of emotional intelligence and
successful intelligence to leadership skills in gifted students.
The second case study inspects the relationship among low birth
weight, social disadvantage, and children’s IQ scores at ages
six, 11, and 17.
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· STUDY 1
15. Emotional Intelligence, Successful Intelligence, and Leadership
Skills
Emotional intelligence is positively associated with self-esteem,
empathy, prosocial behavior, cooperation, leadership skills, and
life satisfaction. In addition, Sternberg’s theory underscores the
importance of analytical, creative, and practical skills—skills
that are often overlooked on intelligence tests—for life success.
To examine the relationship among emotional intelligence,
successful intelligence, and leadership skills, Chan (2007)
recruited 498 gifted students in grades 4 through 12 and
collected the following information:
(1) Participants completed a leadership rating scale, which
measures leadership self-efficacy, leadership flexibility, and
goal orientation (related to leadership and achievement). (2)
Participants completed an emotional intelligence scale that
assesses social skills, empathy, management of emotions, and
utilization of emotions. (3) Participants completed Sternberg’s
Successful Intelligence Questionnaire, which measures
analytical, creative, and practical abilities.
Results
Results indicated that both emotional intelligence and
successful intelligence predicted leadership skills. That is,
participants who scored high in emotional and successful
intelligence scored higher in overall leadership skills than
participants who scored low in these areas. When looking at
specific aspects of emotional and successful intelligence,
practical abilities and management of emotions were especially
strong predictors of leadership skills. These findings suggest
that the abilities to apply intellectual skills in everyday
situations and to manage and regulate emotions are important
leadership qualities. No significant age or gender differences
were found.
16. Overview
During the first two decades of life, the human body
continuously and dramatically changes, a process regulated and
controlled by a number of biological and environmental factors.
Heredity, nutrition, infectious disease, and parental affection all
contribute to physical growth and overall health. Stimulation of
the brain is vital during periods in which it is growing most
rapidly in order to enhance cognitive development. Both Piaget
and Vygotsky have created theories centered around cognitive
development that have impacted our view of the way children
acquire, comprehend, and apply knowledge. As children grow
older, puberty causes their bodies to drastically change, which
is also accompanied by psychological changes, as teenagers
strive to adjust to what is happening in their bodies.
Information-processing research seeks to understand how
children develop the attention, memory, and self-management
skills to succeed with complex tasks. Those who study this
approach compare the human mind to a computer, or an
intricate, symbol-manipulating system through which
information flows. Attention to task is essential to thinking
because it helps an individual determine which information
needs to be considered. Development of attentional strategies
occurs in phases and, over time, children gain an increased
capacity for planning. As the ability to sustain attention grows,
memory also improves, and the implementation of memory
strategies increases a child’s likelihood of transferring
information from the working memory to the long-term memory.
Children also develop metacognition, which is another form of
knowledge that influences how well children remember and
solve problems. Fundamental discoveries about information
processing have been applied to children’s mastery of academic
skills, particularly in the areas of reading and mathematics.
Identifying differences in cognitive skills between weak and
17. strong learners can lead to strategies and interventions to
increase performance. In addition, intelligence tests are helpful
in identifying highly gifted children and diagnosing learning
problems. The use of various types of intelligence testing has
led to specific educational programs for diverse groups of
students.
Key Terms
ADAPTATION
COGNITION
COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY
CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH
CORE KNOWLEDGE PERSPECTIVE
DEFERRED IMITATION
EGOCENTRISM
MENTAL REPRESENTATION
INTENTIONAL (GOAL DIRECTED) BEHAVIOR
OPERATIONS
ORGANIZATION
SCAFFOLDING
SCHEMES
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
18. ACHIEVEMENT TEST
APTITUDE TEST
COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
CREATIVITY
DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT
FACTOR ANALYSIS
GIFTED
INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT (IQ)
THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
Sources
Brainerd, C.J., Forrest, T.J., Karibian, D., & Reyna, V. F.
(2006). Development of the false-memory illusion.
Developmental Psychology, 42, 962–979.
Breslau, N., Dickens, W. T., Flynn, J. R., Peterson, E. L., &
Lucia, V.C. (2006). Low birth weight and social disadvantage:
Tracking their relationship with children’s IQ during the period
of school attendance. Intelligence, 34, 351–362.
Chan, D. W. (2007). Leadership and intelligence. Roeper
Review, 29, 183–189.
Friedman, N. P., Haberstick, B. C., Willcutt, E. G., Miyake, A.,
Young, S. E., Corley, R. P., & Hewitt, J. K. (2007). Greater
attention problems during childhood predict poorer executive
19. functioning in late adolescence. Psychological Science, 18,
893–900.
All graphics are public domain images or stock images from
123RF.
Play
from
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development
Introduction
This entry reviews the main different types of play, and the
kinds of developmental benefits they may bring to children. The
ubiquity of play in childhood (and in most species of mammals
when young) strongly suggests its benefits for development, but
what these benefits are, and how important or essential they are,
are still debated. Classic perspectives on the development and
function of play can be found in the writings of Piaget and
Vygotsky. Let us begin by tackling the issue of what constitutes
play, and then turn to how it undergoes age-related changes.
Defining play
Play is often defined as activity that is both done for its own
sake, and characterized by ‘ means rather than ends’ (i.e., the
process of the play is more important than any end point or
goal). These criteria contrast play with, for example,
exploration (which may lead into play as a child gets more
familiar with a new toy or environment), with work (which has
a definite goal), and fighting (different from play fighting as
discussed later). Additional characteristics of play are
flexibility (objects being put in new combinations, roles acted
out in new ways), positive affect (children often smile and
laugh in play, and say they enjoy it), and pretence (use of
20. objects and actions in non-literal ways).
Main types of play
Although classifications differ, the following main types of play
are well recognized: object play, pretend play and sociodramatic
play, and physical activity play (exercise play; rough-and-
tumble play). Of these, object play and physical activity play
are seen widely in other species of mammals. Pretend and
sociodramatic play are only seen in humans, apart from some
possibly very elementary forms of pretence in great apes.
Besides play, there is the related concept of games. Games with
rules are more organized forms of play in which there is some
goal (e.g., winning the game) and are not reviewed further.
Object play
This starts in infancy and may help children develop creative
problem-solving skills. Researchers such as Jerome Bruner and
Kathy Sylva have reported experiments with children in which
they are given a chance to play with objects, then solve a task.
Those with the play experience solved the task better. However,
subsequent research has suggested that instruction can often be
equally effective (Johnson, Christie, & Yawkey, 1999). The
benefits of play need to be balanced against those of instruction,
bearing in mind the ages of the children, the nature of the task,
and the specificity of the learning expected - whether for
specific skills or a more generally inquisitive and creative
attitude.
Pretend play
This develops from about 15 months, with simple actions such
as ‘ pretending to sleep’ or ‘ putting dolly to bed,’ developing
into longer story sequences and role play (Fig. 1). Much early
pretend play can be with parents, and older siblings. In Western
21. societies especially, it is common for parents to model or ‘
scaffold’ early pretend play actions. By 3 to 4 years, pretend
play becomes common with same-age peers.
Pretend play among children is seen very widely in different
societies. It is often imitative of adult roles (e.g., in rural
societies, children may play at ‘ herding cattle’ with stones and
at ‘ pounding maize’ with sticks and pebbles). Such play might
be considered as ‘ practice’ for the adult activities concerned.
However, rather more ambitious developmental benefits for
pretend play have been put forward.
Leslie (1987) argued that pretend play is an early indicator of
theory of mind abilities. In simple object substitution pretence,
the knowledge or representation that ‘ this is a banana’ becomes
‘ this banana is a telephone.’ Correspondingly, in theory of
mind, the representation that ‘ this is a banana’ is related to the
representation that ‘ X believes that the banana is a telephone.’
Leslie argued that this similarity suggested that pretence might
be very important in theory of mind acquisition. However, this
early pretend play before 3 years is often very imitative, and it
is not clear whether a young child who talks into a banana is
actually having the cognitive representations that Leslie
describes, or is simply imitating what older children or adults
do. The nature of any relationship between pretend play and
theory of mind is still disputed.
Figure 1. Pretend play. Photograph by John Walmsley.
Sociodramatic play
Defined in terms of social play with others, sustained role
taking, and a narrative line, this is something that children from
about 3 years of age engage in a lot. Such play can be quite
complex, involving an understanding of others’ intent and role,
sophisticated language constructions, and the development of
22. sometimes novel (sometimes less novel!) story lines. Smilansky
(1968) suggested that sociodramatic play assists language
development, cognitive development, creativity, and role
taking. She also claimed that pretend and sociodramatic play
were less frequent and less complex in disadvantaged children.
This led her and others to develop play tutoring (intervention by
an adult) to raise levels of these kinds of play; adults would
provide suitable props, visits, etc. and encourage the
sociodramatic play of children in nurseries and kindergartens,
such that subsequently they became more able to sustain this
play themselves.
Smilansky's ideas about the value of sociodramatic play were
tested by a number of experimental studies, including play-
tutoring studies. In these, a group or class of children that
received play tutoring were compared with those who did not.
Generally, the play-tutored children improved more on measures
of cognition, language, and creativity, apparently supporting
Smilansky's views.
A number of critiques were made of these studies. Many of
them pointed to flaws due to selective interpretation of results,
effects of experimental bias, and the use of inappropriate
control groups. For example, in the traditional play-tutoring
study, the play-tutored children received more stimulation and
adult contact generally, so one cannot really conclude that it is
the extra play that brought about the developmental benefits.
Further studies took account of these criticisms. This step
included balancing play-tutoring with skills tutoring (e.g.,
coloring, picture dominoes) and assessing outcomes blind to the
child's treatment condition. Doing so failed to reveal many
differences (P. K. Smith, 1988), which suggests that benefits of
socio drama tic play need not be essential for development.
Nevertheless, play-tutoring does work out as equal to skills
tutoring in many domains, and it is generally enjoyable and
sociable for children in the preschool years, so there are sound
23. reasons to encourage it in the nursery curriculum.
Table 1. Some criteria distiguishing play fighting and real
fighting.
Criterion
Play fighting
Real fighting
Facial expression
Smiling, laughing
Frowning, tearful
Restraint
Kicks and blows are not hard or do not make contact
Kicks and blows are hard or make contact
24. Role-reversal
Voluntarily take it in turns to be ‘ on top’ or be ‘ chased'
Aims to be ‘ on top’ or to chase the other
How encounter starts and finishes
Starting by invitation and ending with continued play or
activity together
Starting with challenge and ending in separation
One kind of pretend play, often not encouraged in nurseries, is
war play, which is pretend play with toy guns or weapons, or
military action figures. Many educators believe that this play
encourages real aggression, though others emphasize its pretend
nature and feel that no real harm results from it.
Physical activity play
This refers to playful activity involving large body activity,
particularly exercise play that includes running, climbing, and
other large body or large muscle activity, as well as rough-and-
tumble play, that covers play fighting and play chasing. These
forms of play have been reviewed by Pellegrini & Smith (1998).
25. Exercise play
This increases in frequency from toddlers to preschool children,
peaks at early primary school ages, and then declines. Young
children seem to need opportunities for physical exercise more
than older children, and are more likely to get restless after long
sedentary periods and to run around when released from them.
Boys do more of this kind of play than girls. It is often
hypothesized to support physical training of muscles, for
strength and endurance, and skill and economy of movement.
Another hypothesis is that exercise play encourages younger
children to take breaks from being overloaded on cognitive
tasks (the cognitive immaturity hypothesis). The argument here
is that younger children have less mature cognitive capacities,
so benefits of concentrating on a cognitively demanding task
decrease after a shorter time than for older children. The ‘ need’
to exercise thus helps children ‘ space out’ these cognitive
demands.
Figure 2. Rough-and-tumble play. Photograph by John
Walmsley.
Rough-and-tumble play
This seems to increase from toddlers through preschool and
primary school children, to peak at late primary age, and then
decline in frequency. It takes up some 10 percent of playground
time, though varying by the nature of the surface, physical
conditions, etc. Boys do more than girls, especially play
fighting. Rough-and-tumble play looks like real fighting, but
can be distinguished from it by several criteria (Table 1; Fig.
2).
Most children can distinguish playful from real fighting, and
from 8 years give similar cues to those described in Table 1. In
one study, English and Italian children were found to be
26. accurate in judging videotapes of play fighting and real
fighting, irrespective of which nationality they were watching.
During the primary school years, only about 1% of rough-and-
tumble episodes usually turn into real fighting, although many
teachers and lunchtime supervisors think it is as much as about
30%. However, ‘ rejected’ children (those disliked by many
peers and seldom liked much) more often respond to rough-and-
tumble aggressively (around 25% of episodes). So, it is possible
that teachers or lunchtime supervisors are making general
judgments about children, based on these ‘ rejected’ children
who may be taking up a lot of their supervisory time.
Rough-and-tumble is often between friends. By early
adolescence, however, there appears to be some change, with
dominance/status becoming important in choosing play partners,
as well as friendship, with a greater risk of play fights turning
into real fights. It is hypothesized that rough-and-tumble play in
younger children may (in addition to benefits of exercise play)
provide practice in fighting/hunting skills, at least in earlier
human societies. By adolescence, however, it may involve
dominance relationships (e.g., using rough-and-tumble play to
establish or maintain dominance in the peer group).
What do children learn from play?
Evolutionary arguments suggest that the propensity to play has
been selected for, so we can expect there to be benefits to
playing, and that these may vary by species, and by types of
play. There can be a lot of incidental benefits to play such that
it keeps children active and provides them with opportunities to
encounter new situations. With human children, and with object,
pretend, and sociodramatic play, there may be a balance to draw
between benefits of playing and of instruction. Instruction can
be more focused on a precise goal, but play is often more
enjoyable for young children and, even if less efficient for a
27. precise goal, may foster a more generally inquisitive and
creative approach to problem-solving.
Conclusions
Among the theoretical issues in play research remaining
unresolved, two are currently especially noteworthy. The first
relates to rough-and-tumble play. We know that this is primarily
friendly and non-exploitative in preadolescents, but how does
this change as children move into adolescence? Does the
function of this form of play then change and, in particular, is it
used for purposes related to dominance, especially for boys?
The second issue relates to pretend play. An earlier phase of
research queried the findings from play tutoring studies, but,
more recently, pretend play has been proposed as an important
component of developing a theory of mind. Greater conceptual
clarity and empirical evidence are called for here, together with
a willingness to learn from the problems encountered in the
earlier studies (e.g., experimenter bias).
Amongst practical issues, the issue of war play continues to be
debated in early education. There have been moves to ban war
play in many nursery schools; however, there is also a
recognition that such play may be generally harmless in itself
and a rather natural play format, especially for boys (Holland,
2003). Regarding educational practice through the school years,
there has been a general movement toward shortening or
eliminating playground breaks. However, leaving aside social
benefits of playtime, the benefits for physical activity and for
providing breaks between instruction (cf., the cognitive
immaturity hypothesis), argue for retaining playground breaks.
More systematic study is still needed in these areas.
Questions
28. What value does physical activity play have in providing
spacing for concentration on school-based tasks?
How does rough-and-tumble play change in form and
function from the primary to secondary school ages?
Does young children's war play have any connection with
later aggressiveness?
Does pretend play have any important role in helping young
children develop a theory of mind?
See also
Cross-cultural comparisons
Cross-species comparisons
Theories of the child's mind
Social development
Aggressive and prosocial behavior
Peers and siblings
Sex differences
Anthropology
Jeromes s. Bruner
29. Jean Piaget
Lev S. Vygotsky
Donald Winnicott
.
Further reading
Lancy, D. F. 1996 Playingon the Mother-Ground: Cultural
Routines for Children's Development
New York: Guilford Press
.
Pellegrini, A. D. 2002 Rough-and-tumble play. P.K. Smith,
C. Hart, Handbook of Social Development
Oxford: Blackwell,
pp. 438-453 .
Power, T. 2000 Play and Exploration in Children and
Animals
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ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT and: CULTURAL
TOOLS SCAFFOLDING GUIDED PARTICIPATION
in
SOCIAL COGNITION
33. from
Key Concepts in Developmental Psychology
MEANING
Although Vygotsky devoted only limited space to the zone of
proximal (i.e. next) development in his description of socio-
cognitive theory, this concept has become the best-known part
of his account. The ZPD (as it is always referred to) expresses
Vygotsky's belief that children's cognitive development occurs
essentially as a result of interacting with more knowledgeable
and competent others, who are willing to provide guidance and
support in problem solving situations and will sensitively adjust
their help in such a way that the child is challenged to
participate in activities just beyond his or her current level of
understanding. The ZPD is thus –
the region between what children already know and what they
are capable of learning under guidance.
It is in this region that children are most receptive to new
learning; it is there that any new intellectual skill is first of all
performed jointly with a competent adult before it is in due
course taken over by the child and internalized. It is the region
where children are not quite capable of managing on their own
but where the adult can stretch their abilities by suitably pacing
demands so that the child can gradually assume responsibility
for performing the task in a solo capacity.
The ZPD is an expression of the basic proposition that Vygotsky
set out to convey, namely that cognitive development is not a
process that occurs spontaneously nor can it merely be
explained by the child's interaction with the physical
environment. It occurs because children are embedded in a
social context, surrounded by people of greater expertise willing
to share their knowledge with the child. Cognitive development
34. can thus be seen as a progression from
intermental
to
intramental
, from joint regulation to self-regulation. The adult acts as tutor,
the child as apprentice, but the interaction of the two is of a
dynamic, mutually adjustive nature, for the child is no mere
passive participant but an active partner in the learning process,
albeit a junior one. Cognition is socially created, and the ZPD is
a means of bringing this about.
According to Vygotsky, the ZPD has one further use, namely in
the assessment of intelligence. Vygotsky was convinced that
children's potential is best demonstrated when working with a
more competent person than when working on their own. Such
an assertion goes, of course, directly counter to the generally
accepted view, as seen in psychometric and other assessment
procedures, that children's true capacities can only be revealed
by tests administered to them in isolation. However, Vygotsky
argued that children's ability to profit from help can tell us
more about their eventual capacities than their efforts at
unsupported problem solving. As he put it, it is in the ZPD that
the 'buds of development' are to be found rather than the 'fruits',
and it is the former that he considered to be of greater
diagnostic value with respect to an individual's future progress.
ORIGINS
Although Vygotsky became aware of Piaget's writings, he did
not formulate his ideas in direct opposition to them – as an
effort, that is, to correct the latter's view of children as lone
learners. Rather, Vygotsky (1896–1934) was very much a child
of his time and place – a Russian steeped in Marxian theory who
saw human nature as a socio-cultural product and childhood as
the time when the accumulated wisdom of previous generations
is handed on to the new generation.
35. The ZPD was conceived by him as the primary setting in which
such handing on is accomplished; the significance of these
encounters, therefore, extends beyond the cognitive benefits
derived by individual children: they also play an essential role
in bringing the child in contact with the culture, the continuity
of which is thereby ensured. To explain this process Vygotsky
used the concept of
CULTURAL TOOLS
, these being –
the psychological and technological devices perfected in the
course of each society's history for the purpose of supporting
and extending our understanding of the world.
Psychological tools include language, writing, counting systems
and scientific theories; among technological tools are books,
clocks, calendars, calculators and computers. All these serve to
channel our thinking in particular culturally valued directions:
clocks and calendars, for example, ensure that we organize our
ideas in a time dimension, the importance of which we set out to
convey to children from an early age.
However, by far the most important cultural tool is language,
for it is the preeminent means of passing on society's
experience. Children first encounter language as an integral part
of their social exchanges with their caretakers, who sensitively
(though usually quite unconsciously) adapt both the complexity
and the content of their speech to the child's ability to
comprehend, thus facilitating the eventual acquisition of
language in children themselves (see
motherese
). Language thus begins in a social setting and, according to
Vygotsky, is also initially used solely for social purposes, that
is, to influence the behaviour of others. Eventually its function
becomes extended: private speech (or what Piaget called
36. egocentric speech) appears, whereby children talk to themselves
in order to regulate their own behaviour, to be replaced
subsequently by internal speech which forms the beginning of
thought. Thus, what was in the first place behaviour that took
place between child and others is transformed in the course of
development to an internalized activity: the intermental
becomes the intramental; an essentially social function evolves
into the principal tool for cognitive functioning.
Vygotsky did not produce any fully fledged theory, nor did he
leave behind a coherent body of research, and it was not until
many years after his early death that his two major books,
Thought and language
(1962) and
Mind in society
(1978), were translated into English and began to attract
international attention. Even in his own country his work was
neglected when his writings were suppressed during the
Stalinist purges – an ironic fate to overcome a convinced
Marxist who firmly believed that human behaviour is moulded
by social organization and that the historical forces shaping our
society need to be taken into account if we are to understand
how children's development takes place. Indeed his aim was not
merely to throw light on the nature of individual development;
he was also convinced that by understanding the processes
responsible for children becoming adults one can help to create
a better socialist society. His vision was thus much wider than
that of any other child psychologist: it extended beyond
psychology to history, sociology, politics, economics, education
and linguistics, all of which he regarded as relevant to the study
of individual development. No wonder his theory is variously
characterized as socio-cultural, socio-historical and socio-
cognitive.
CURRENT STATUS
37. In the past few decades Vygotsky's writings have attracted
enormous attention, and most of all serious consideration has
been given to his belief that we need to think of the child-in-
context as the basic unit rather than the child-in-isolation (see
context
). He is also responsible for stimulating a considerable amount
of research on topics such as the analysis of parent–child joint
problem solving (e.g.
Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976
), peer tutoring (e.g.
Foot & Howe, 1998
), the role of private (egocentric) speech (e.g.
Bivens & Berk, 1990
) and cross-cultural comparisons of socialization and training
practices (e.g.
Rogoff, Mistry, Goncu & Mosier, 1993
). The notion of the ZPD in particular has been the starting
point for a lot of further work.
However, Vygotsky's conception of the ZPD has also been
seriously criticized. Much of this has been directed at the
following features:
Vagueness regarding processes
. The ZPD has been condemned for using a unidimensional
concept to represent a multifaceted phenomenon (
Paris & Cross, 1988
). It does not specify the many and diverse processes that
socially supported learning involves, nor does it provide a
guide to the variations in zones that one can expect across
different domains, settings and teachers.
The failure to consider developmental aspects
. Vygotsky conceived of a prototype child, who functions in
38. the ZPD in the same way at the age of 2 as at the age of 12.
The roles of adult and child remain fixed; the appearance of
new motives, needs and abilities are neglected, as are
children's changing definitions of what constitutes their
social context.
The disregard of children's individuality
. Although Vygotsky stressed the active part played by the
child in the ZPD, he paid more attention to the adult's
contribution. At any one age children differ in what they
bring to a social interchange, but Vygotsky had nothing to
say about individual differences in such aspects as learning
style, motivation and emotional regulation, nor about the
various relationship qualities that distinguish different
adult–child dyads.
Vagueness concerning the precise means whereby learning is
produced
. Just what are the processes taking place between child and
partner that result in children taking over responsibility for
more and more parts of the task and inernalizing them as
skills of their own? Vygotsky did not go into detail; it has
been left to others to pursue this line of enquiry.
One attempt to provide an answer to this last question is built
around the concept of
SCAFFOLDING
, first put forward by
Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976)
. Scaffolding is –
the process whereby a more expert partner offers help to a child
in problem solving by adjusting both the amount and kind of
help to the child's level of performance.
39. In order to determine precisely what adults actually do in a joint
task in order to help children become independent problem
solvers, Wood and his colleagues observed the teaching
techniques adopted by mothers when their 3- to 4-year-old
children were confronted by a construction task that they could
not initially cope with on their own. They observed a great
range of actions employed by the mothers to keep the children
on task and simplify the problem to an appropriate degree, but
their use appeared to follow two rules: first, when a child is
struggling the tutor should immediately offer more help;
second, when the child is succeeding the tutor should give less
help and fade into the background. By offering support that is
always contingent on what the child is achieving, the child is
given considerable autonomy and yet also has the opportunity at
every step of relying on assistance, this diminishing as the child
increasingly takes over responsibility for completing the task. A
scaffold is thus put in place, but used in a far more flexible
manner than this metaphor might suggest, in that the two
contingency rules mean that the adult's behaviour is constantly
modified in the light of what the child is achieving, thus leading
the child step by step to eventual success.
Such a notion of scaffolding certainly expresses the essence of
what Vygotsky had in mind for the ZPD, and has been used in a
large number of studies investigating a range of problem
solving tasks. Yet this concept too is not without its critics (e.g.
Stone, 1993), mainly because it pays insufficient attention to
the communicative processes taking place in the adult–child
interaction; also because it does not allow for the fact that the
effectiveness of adults' actions is dependent on the particular
relationship they have with the child. Another approach, that
based on the concept of
GUIDED PARTICIPATION
, has attempted to correct these deficiencies.
Guided participation is a term proposed by
40. Barbara Rogoff (1990
,
2003
) as one of the mechanisms employed to advance a socio-
cultural view of human development. Children, that is, become
immersed in the practices of their particular culture from the
moment of birth onwards; everything they experience transmits
to them the accumulated beliefs and values of their society, and
the main setting in which this occurs is in the child's exchanges
with its caretakers, teachers and other concerned adults. Thus,
as
Rogoff (1998)
put it, 'Cognitive development occurs as new generations
collaborate with older generations in varying forms of
interpersonal engagement and institutional practices.' Guided
participation may therefore be defined as –
the process by which children develop through their
involvement in the practices of their community.
By its use Rogoff wanted to emphasize that adult and child play
essentially complementary roles in the latter's development,
namely guidance by the adult and participation by the child. On
the one hand the adult acts as guide to the culturally valued
practices the child is expected to adopt – a role that can be
played in many ways, some didactic as in structured teaching
situations (which Vygotsky mainly concentrated on), others
informal as when the child is given the opportunity to observe
and join an adult in performing some activity. On the other hand
the child acts as apprentice – not merely as passive bystander,
that is, but as an active contributor to the activity that is the
joint focus of the partner's attention. Thus guided participation
is not some particular method of support for learning, nor does
it depend on some conscious, previously formulated goal. A lot
of joint teaching-learning is of an informal nature, and Rogoff
uses a wealth of observations from different cultures to
41. illustrate its role in enabling children to participate in the
activities of their society and to advance from their present to a
more advanced level of understanding.
The general theme conveyed by Vygotsky, Rogoff and other
socio-cultural theorists, as signalled by the concepts they
employ such as the ZPD and guided participation, is that
cognitive growth can only be understood if we acknowledge the
social origins of mental processes and recognize that cognitive
functions, especially in the early years, extend beyond the skin.
This is in marked contrast to the customary individualistic
assumption of psychologists – an assumption difficult to
abandon despite the lipservice now paid to the importance of
context, but well illustrated by the complete failure to take up
Vygotsky's suggestion that intellectual assessment should take
into account children's performance in joint sessions. Vygotsky
was convinced that thinking is not just something that goes on
inside an individual's head but is an activity that can be shared
– indeed of necessity has to be shared in the early stages of
development. As
Rowe and Wertsch (2002)
have put it, 'Study of the "I" is thus abandoned in favour of
study of the social, cultural and historically situated ways by
which "we" create "I's".'
Further reading
Faulkner, D., Littleton, K., & Woodhead, M. (Eds.) (1998).
Learning relationships in the classroom. London: Routledge.
Written mainly from an educational point of view, this
collection contains a lot of material relevant to the concepts
described above.
Fernyhough, C. (1997). Vygotsky's sociocultural approach:
43. Key concepts in developmental psychology
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