1. Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood
Children 13
Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood
John W. Santrock

2. Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood
What Is Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood?
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
What Characterizes Children’s Achievement?
What Changes in Language Development Occur in Middle and Late Childhood?

3. Concrete Operational Thought
What Is Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood?
Concrete Operational Thought
Ability to classify or divide things into different sets or subsets and to consider their interrelationships
Ability to do reversible mental actions on real, concrete objects
Ability to focus on more than single property of an object

4. Concrete Operational Thought
What Is Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood?
Concrete Operational Thought
Seriation: ability to order stimuli along a quantitative dimension
Transitivity: the ability to logically combine relations to understand certain conclusions

5. Classification: An Important Ability in Concrete Operational Thought
A family tree of 4 generations; a preoperational child has trouble classifying the members
Fig. 13.1

6. Piaget and Education Take constructivist approach
What Is Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood?
Piaget and Education
Take constructivist approach
Facilitate rather than direct learning
Consider child’s knowledge and level of thinking
Use ongoing assessment
Promote student’s intellectual health
Turn classroom into setting of exploration and discovery

7. Evaluating Piaget’s Theory
What Is Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood?
Evaluating Piaget’s Theory
Contributions
Founded children’s cognitive development
View of children as active, constructive thinkers
Inventive ways to discover how children act and adapt
Criticisms
Cognitive abilities can emerge earlier or later
Stages not unitary structures of thought
Some can be trained to reason at higher stage
Culture and education exert stronger influence

8. Neo-Piagetians Argue Piaget got some things right
What Is Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood?
Neo-Piagetians
Argue Piaget got some things right
Reinterpret information-processing perspective
More emphasis on attention and memory
Important to consider children’s strategies

9. Memory Long-term memory Relatively permanent; has huge capacity
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Memory
Long-term memory
Relatively permanent; has huge capacity
Process guided by schemas
Fuzzy trace theory:
Verbatim memory trace: precise details
Gist: central idea of information

10. Central Knowledge and Expertise
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Central Knowledge and Expertise
Knowledge and Expertise
Superior recall of details and patterns
Accumulate and organize information for understanding of topic (i.e., chunking)

11. What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Strategies
Cognitive processes that do not occur automatically but require work and effort
Organization
Elaboration
Imagery

12. Critical Thinking Grasping deeper meaning of ideas
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Critical Thinking
Grasping deeper meaning of ideas
Keeping an open mind
Deciding for oneself

13. Critical Thinking Ask what happened, how, and why
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Critical Thinking
Ask what happened, how, and why
Ask questions, look beyond the known, create new ideas and information
Recognize that more than one answer may exist
Examine supposed “facts” closely
Compare various answers; select best one
Evaluate what is said before accepting it as truth

14. Stimulating Critical Thinking
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Stimulating Critical Thinking
Discuss controversial topics
Open-mindedness
Intellectual curiosity
Planning and strategy
Intellectual carefulness

15. Creative Thinking Intelligence and creativity
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Creative Thinking
Intelligence and creativity
Many highly intelligent children are not creative
Most creative children are quite intelligent

16. Creative Thinking Creativity Convergent thinking Divergent thinking
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Creative Thinking
Divergent thinking
Convergent thinking
Creativity
Produces many answers to the
same question and is characteristic
of creativity
Produces one correct answer; is characteristic of kind of thinking tested by standardized intelligence tests
Ability to think in novel and unusual ways and come up with unique
solutions to problems

17. Strategies Promoting Creativity
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Strategies Promoting Creativity
Foster flexible and playful thinking
Introduce children to creative people
Provide stimulating environments
Encourage internal motivation
Don’t overcontrol
Brainstorming

18. Scientific Thinking Often aims to identify causal relations
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Scientific Thinking
Often aims to identify causal relations
Preadolescents have greater difficulty separating prior theories from evidence
More influenced by happenstance events than by overall pattern of occurrences

19. Metacognition Cognition about cognition Knowing about knowing
What Is the Nature of Children’s Information Processing?
Metacognition
Cognition about cognition
Knowing about knowing
Children 5 to 6 years of age don’t understand:
Related items easier to remember
Gist of a story is easier than remembering information verbatim

20. What Is Intelligence? Verbal ability and problem-solving skills
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
What Is Intelligence?
Verbal ability and problem-solving skills
Ability to learn from and adapt to experiences of everyday life
Can only be measured indirectly
Focus is on individual differences

21. How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
The Binet Tests
Mental age (MA): measure of an individual’s level of mental development
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
Normal distribution MA CA
X 100 IQ

22. The Normal Curve and Stanford-Binet IQ Scores
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
The Normal Curve and Stanford-Binet IQ Scores

23. How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
The Wechsler Scales
Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence – Revised (WISC-R)
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Revised (WISC-R)

24. The Wechsler Scales Both provide Overall IQ
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
The Wechsler Scales
Both provide
Overall IQ
Verbal IQ: six verbal subscales
Performance IQ: five subscales
Patterns of strengths and weaknesses shown

25. Multiple-factor theory
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Factor Approaches
Two-factor theory
Spearman’s theory that individuals have both general intelligence, g, and specific intelligences
Multiple-factor theory
Thurstone’s theory that intelligence consists of seven primary mental abilities: verbal comprehension,
number ability, word fluency, spatial
visualization, associative memory,
reasoning, perceptual speed

26. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Verbal
Mathematical
Spatial
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Musical Skills
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalist

27. Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom
Allows students to discover and explore the domains in which they have natural curiosity and talent
Gives attention to understanding oneself and others

28. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
Three main types of intelligence
Analytical
Creative
Practical

29. Triarchic Theory in the Classroom
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Triarchic Theory in the Classroom
Conventional schools prefer analytic ability
Few tasks are purely analytic, creative, or practical; some combination required
Creative students may be reprimanded or marked down for nonconformist answers

30. Emotional Intelligence
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Emotional Intelligence
Ability to perceive and express emotions accurately and adaptively
Understand emotion and emotional knowledge
Use feelings to facilitate thought
Manage emotions in oneself and others

31. Do People Have One Intelligence or Many Intelligences?
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Do People Have One Intelligence or Many Intelligences?
Theories of multiple intelligence have much to offer; have motivated educators
Existence of general intelligence has support; evidence of specialized abilities
Controversy still exists

32. Heredity and Environment in Intelligence
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Heredity and Environment in Intelligence
Genetic Influences on intelligence
Heritability: fraction of variance in IQ in a population that is attributed to genetics
Refers to specific group, not individuals
Treats genetic and environment as factors that can be separated

33. Heredity and Environment in Intelligence
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Heredity and Environment in Intelligence
Environmental influences on intelligence
Environment influences intelligence, are complex, not due to heredity
Flynn effect: nothing is guaranteed
Culture and ethnicity’s role in intelligence
Culture-fair tests - intelligence tests intended to not be culturally biased

34. Culture and Ethnicity’s Role in Intelligence
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Culture and Ethnicity’s Role in Intelligence
Cultural bias in testing
Development of culture-fair tests
No bias intended
1st type: questions familiar to people from all social and ethnic backgrounds
2nd type: no verbal questions

35. Culture and Ethnicity’s Role in Intelligence
How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Culture and Ethnicity’s Role in Intelligence
Ethnic comparisons
Gap narrows in college
Criticism of the Bell Curve
Cultural-familial retardation
Gifted children
Have less problems, more mature
No relationship to mental disorder

36. How Can Children’s Intelligence Be Described?
Giftedness
Above-average intelligence and superior talent for something
Precocity
March to their own drummer
Passion to master

37. What Characterizes Children’s Achievement?
Achievement motivation (need for achievement)
Desire to accomplish something
Reach standard of excellence
Expend effort to excel

38. Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
What Characterizes Children’s Achievement?
Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation
External incentives such as rewards and punishments
Intrinsic motivation
Internal factors such as self-determination, curiosity, challenge, and effort

39. Mastery Orientation Helpless orientation Mastery orientation
What Characterizes Children’s Achievement?
Mastery Orientation
Helpless orientation
Attribute difficulty to lack of ability
Mastery orientation
Task oriented; concern with learning strategies and process of achievement
Performance orientation
Focus only on winning

40. What Characterizes Children’s Achievement?
Self-Efficacy
Belief that one can master situation and produce favorable outcomes
Critical factor in achievement
Linked to intrinsic motivation

41. Goal-Setting, Planning, and Self-Regulation
What Characterizes Children’s Achievement?
Goal-Setting, Planning, and Self-Regulation
Self-efficacy and achievement improve when individuals set goals that are
Specific
Proximal
Challenging

42. Ethnicity and Achievement
What Characterizes Children’s Achievement?
Ethnicity and Achievement
Diversity among ethnic minority children
Important to distinguish difference from deficiency
May be just culturally different from White, middle-class standards
SES more important than ethnicity
Racial prejudice and poor schools exist

43. International Achievement Comparisons
Cultural differences
U.S. students perform badly in math and science tests
Gap widens with age
Asian teachers spend more time on math
U.S. parents have lower math expectations

44. Vocabulary and Grammar
Reading and writing have prominent role in language
Learn to use in more complex ways
Metalinguistic awareness
Allows children to think about their language
Use language in culturally appropriate ways

45. Whole-language approach
What Changes in Language Development Occur in Middle and Late Childhood?
Reading
Whole-language approach
Instruction should parallel children’s natural language learning; reading materials should be whole and meaningful
Basic-skills-
and-phonetics
approach
Stresses phonetics and basic rules for translating symbols into sounds; early reading instruction should involve simplified materials

46. Bilingualism Ability to speak two languages
What Changes in Language Development Occur in Middle and Late Childhood?
Bilingualism
Ability to speak two languages
Learning 2nd language easier for children
Child’s ability to pronounce 2nd language with correct accent decreases with age
Bilingualism has positive effect on children’s cognitive development
Bilingual education

47. Children 13
The End