Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood Zembar and Blume Middle Childhood Development: A Contextual Approach, First Edition ©2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved

Theoretical Viewpoints Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory: – Is a constructivist view of cognition – Children learn by building and adapting schemata as a result of direct interaction with their environment – When confronted with a new experience, children eliminate cognitive disequilibrium by employing assimilation and accommodation

Theoretical Viewpoints Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development: – Sensorimotor Stage (ages 0-2): Children predominantly learn and act upon the world through their senses and motor abilities – Preoperational Stage (ages 2-7): Children learn about and act upon the world through symbols and language. They rely on their perceptions and how things appear to them

Theoretical Viewpoints Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development: – Concrete Operational Stage (ages 7-11): Children apply logical thought to concrete problems – Formal Operational Stage (ages or older): Preadolescents and adolescents are able to apply logic to all types of problems including abstract ones

Theoretical Viewpoints The concrete operational child develops: – Operations – The ability to conserve – Decentration – Reversibility – Transformation – Hierarchical classification – Seriation – Causality

Theoretical Viewpoints Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory: – Cognitive development is influenced by both biological maturation and environmental stimulation – Cultural backgrounds and exposure to formal schooling influence children’s progress through the stages

Theoretical Viewpoints Limitations of Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory: – The clinical interview method is too flexible and inconsistent – The problem-solving tasks are too unfamiliar to children – Mechanisms for development (e.g., assimilation) cannot be measured – Tasks are not sensitive to diverse experiences

Theoretical Viewpoints Contributions of Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory: – Provided a unique way of looking at cognitive development – Is a comprehensive theory – Has direct educational implications

Sociocultural Perspective Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development: –Children’s cognitive growth is constructed out of their interactions with others as well as the roles and expectations that are assigned to them in a given context –The unit of analysis is: –What the child says and does –How others respond to the child –How these dynamics change over time

Sociocultural Perspective Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development: –Children’s learning through social interactions is elicited by: A zone of proximal development Private speech Scaffolding Guided participation

Sociocultural Perspective Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development: –Biology and the environment are intertwined forces that co-construct development –There are no universal stages and competencies because children’s learning is created by their individual sociocultural histories –Culture is the context necessary for cognitive development to take place

Sociocultural Perspective Limitations of Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development: –Some of the developmental components are too vague –Never describes what or how mental representations are formed –Unclear how children’s newly developed cognitions influence the way they interact with their environment

Sociocultural Theory Contributions of Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development: –Redirected attention to how language and social interaction are tools of cognitive development –Emphasis on culture and context predicts cultural variation seen in children and multiple pathways of cognitive development