PSYC 200: Chapter 12

what is the concrete operational stage?

• lasts ~7-11 yrs

• can perform concrete operations - reasoning logically and applying it to real specific/concrete examples

  ex: imagining rolling a thin piece of clay into a ball to conclude that both forms are the same object

• decentered thinking - focusing on more than one characteristic of an object

  ex: height and width of the long, thin piece of clay

• understanding interrelationships/classifications

  ex: your dad has a brother who also an uncle at the same time

• seriation - quantitively ordering objects

  ex: given sticks of different lengths → can order from smallest to largest instead of "in categories of small, medium, and large because understand that each stick has a different length and not at all similar

• transitivity - understanding the relationships between objects

  ex: understanding that stick A is longer than B and stick B is longer than C

what are criticisms of concrete operational stage?

• abilities in this stage do not happen at the same time for children (stages)

• doesnt include education and culture being a strong influence on how different children of different ages can enter this stag stage

• Neo-Piagetians - add onto Piaget’s ideas; focuses more on the child’s thinking, speed of processing info, etc. rather than generalizing child into a stage (assuming that once in a stage, they alr have such abilities)

• Vygotsky - focuses on social contexts

how can Piaget’s theory be applied to education?

• take a constructivist approach - encourage children to be active rather than passive learners

• design situations that enable children to learn rather than direct teaching

• consider children knowledge and level of thinking

• do not force children to learn

how is memory here?

• short term memory improves but improvement slows down after

• long term memory improves

• working memory (“conscious”) - develops slowly; processing and manipulating info

• being experience in something like chess will only have a good memory in that field, nothing else

• strategies: mental activities to help improve the processing of info

  • elaboration - an important strategy; associating info w/ yourself

    ex: the word “win” → recalling that you won a race

• fuzzy trace theory: memory is best understood by verbatim memory and gist (other than knowledge and strategies)

  • verbatim memory - precise details of info (used more by young)

  • gist - central idea of info (used more by older)

what are ways to help improve children’s memory?

• aiding them w/ organizing info

• explaining info

• develop images of info

• repeat new info in various ways and connect it to what children already know

• embed memory-relevant language when teaching children

what is thinking like?

• executive function - involves controlling thoughts to behave goal-directly and exercise self-control

• critical thinking - involves thinking reflectively & productively

• creative thinking - involves thinking in novel/unusual ways to solve problems

  • has been declining in US bcuz increased tech use and lack of activities in school

• scientific thinking

  • keep original hypotheses despite not being true

whats the difference between convergent thinking and divergent thinking (as recognized by J.P. Guilford)?

• convergent thinking - requires one answer to a question

• divergent thinking - requires many answers to a question

how can they become better thinkers?

schools should develop metacognition - knowing about thinking

• when to use strategies

• memory capabilities

how are vocab, grammar, and metalinguistic awareness?

• vocab is expanded based on conceptual categorization

• development of metalinguistic awareness (knowledge abt language) helps improve grammar and vocab

how is reading and writing?

• reading:

  • 2 approaches to learning how to read used

    • phonics - learn basic rules then whole material

    • whole language - given whole material to learn

• writing:

  • starts w/ scribbles

how is dual language and second language learning?

• learning a second language as child can have pros and cons, but is difficult to identify what they are because its taught different in different households

• learning a second language during child or adult has both pros and con