cognitive development and sociocultural approaches

what is learning

• A relatively permanent change in an indivs behaviour 

• Changes in the amount or type of knowledge we have or the way in which we reason with the world 

• Dif theories place different emphasis on the indiv or the context 

what is cognition

• Cognitive psychology is dedicated to examining how people think 

• Cognitive processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem solving 

how do we learn

• Different theories attempt to explain how we learn 

• Different approaches in developmental psychology use different techniques to understand processes of learning and cognition 

explain cognitive development

• Mental processes of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning and judgement 

• Mental processes that include memory, producing and understanding language, learning, reasoning, problem solving, thinking 

who is jean piaget

• 1896-1980

• Born in switzerland 

• Avid reader with wide interests - biology, philosophy, psychoanalysis 

• By the early 1960s Piaget’s theory of cognitive development dominated the study of child development 

• 1969 - given APA distinguished scientific contribution award

whats piagests infleunces in early biology

• P gained a phd for his study of mollusks 

• Can mollusks accommodate to a new environment 

• They did adapt 

• They reproduced and P argued that the accommodation changed the internal structure of the mollusks, and this change was passed down to the next generation 

• Biological theory is prominent in P studies of children 

explain the connection between piaget and genetic epistomolgy

• Interested in genetic epistemology, how do we come to know something 

• Experimental epistemologist - rejected the armchair approach for empirical data 

• Knowledge is a process rather than a state 

• Believes is ‘readiness’ kids can only learn something when ready

explain the connection between piaget and constructivism

• The fundamental problem with the behaviourist approach was that it characterised learning as passive 

• Constructivist approaches - we construct new understandings of the world based on what we already know 

• Children construct their own knowledge 

• Actively select and interp info 

• Active agents and ‘little scientists’ - influences on early education ‘sand’ , ‘water’, exploration 

explain the connection between piaget and structuralism

• Set of mental operations underlie thinking 

• Infants cognitive structures are ‘schemes’ 

• Scheme is a basic unit of understanding 

• Cognitive structure that form the basis of organising actions and mental representation so that we can understand and act upon the environment 

what methodology did piaget use

• observation

• classification

• clinical method

• interested in mistakes

• manipulation of objects

• experiments

• baby diaries

what are the three basic schemes babies are born with

sucking, looking and grasping.

reflective actions that can be performed on objects

explain scheme development

• Action schemes we are equipped with at birth develop and multiple 

• Descendants of early schemes come to form intelligent through processes 

• schemes adapt and evolve 

• Schemes may be coordinated or brought together to perform complex actions

what are piagets key conceppts

• Equilibrium - disequilibrium/adaptation - equilibrium 

• Assimilation - the process whereby a new idea is understood in terms of schemata that child already possesses 

• Assimilation is applying an existing scheme to a novel task 

• Accommodation is modifying a scheme to adapt to a new application 

explain equilibrium - disequilibrium / adaption - equilibrium

• E.g child says dog in front of family and everyone claps and awards behaviour as they've gotten it right (child enter equilibrium) the behaviour is continued in front of other adults who award this behaviour (maintaining equilibrium) child knows what a dog is but may not know what animals are not dogs, so again they may now call a sheep a dog, expecting to be rewarded but when they are not they enter a state of disequilibrium. 

what are the stages of piagets cog development

1. Sensorimotor 

2. Preoperational 

3. Concrete operations 

4. Formal operations 

what are piagets understanding of cog development

• Each stage allows a different form of interaction between child/environment

• Stages must proceed in a linear order 

• Stages are universal 

• Regression is impossible 

• There are variations in age where stages are expected to be entered and left (like Freud)

• Child develops more sophisticated ways of thinking mainly as a consequence of maturation 

explain the sensorimotor period

• Infants understand the world through their overt physical actions 

• Move from simple reflexes through several steps to an organised set of schemas

• Gain Object permanence - understand that an object still exists even when they cannot see it  

explain the preoperational (1)

• Roughly 2-7 years 

• Dominated by Egocentrism - inability to decentre (see the world from strictly your perspective) 

• ‘Collective monologue’ of the playground (they turn take and speak but often not on the same topic) 

explain preoperational (2)

• Three mountains task (famous experiment of egocentrism) 

explain the preoperational (3)

• Difficulty with conservation e.g. if a liquid is poured into a glass where it looks like a larger volume they will believe there is more liquid in this glass 

preopertional (4)

• Semilogical reasoning, they may know what the answer is but now why 

explain the concrete operational stage

Once moves past preoperational they move to concrete operational 

• Logical 

• Can conserve 

• Egocentrism shifts 

• Concrete objects predominate 

• But - difficulty with purely verbal logical statements 

• Theres a movement away and a new understanding thats there verbal logic that does marry with the real world

image to help understand verbal logic - deductive reasoning

explain the formal operational stage

• Mental operations are no longer limited to concrete objects 

• Can Apply purely verbal or logical statements 

• Understand what is possible aswell as real 

• What's in the  future as well as present 

what are piagets stages of moral development

• Stage 1 - moral realism

• Stage 2 - moral relativism

explain moral realism

• judgements made in the view of the act’s consequence

explain moral relativism

• judgements made in view of the actor’s intention

who built on piaget’s model

kohlberg

in what area did kohlberg build on piagets model

moral development

what levels did kohlberg add to moral development

1. preconventional level - avoid punishment, get rewarded

2. convetional level - conform to majority norms

3. post conventional level - indiv. principls of conscience, percpetion of laws based in a social contract

what did piaget believe the role of teaching was

• Horticulture analogy 

• Provide rich, stimulating and supportive environment 

• Excessive pruning? 

• Direct instruction can inhibit child’s understanding if it gets in the way of their own exploration 

• Emphasis on learning to the exclusion of teaching 

how has the role of tecahing been applied

• Kamil (1994-2004 see wood et al) 

• Children need to rediscover and reinvent mathematical principles for themselves 

• Mathematical procedures taught to children inhibit their ability to rediscover and reinvent 

• Teaching adult conventions can be counterproductive as children are forced to reject their own ways of learning 

give an example of the limitation of teaching

• classroom maths

• Children's preference is to add columns from left to right 

• Adult procedure is the opposite 

• Children’s first methods are inefficient, but if they are free to do their own thinking, they invent increasingly efficient procedures 

outline the addition experiment

• US classroom 8- year old kids 

• 2 conditions - taught adult standard procedures/ encouraged to develop own approaches 

• Vertical sum tests - no significant difference 

• Horizontal presentation (more familiar to children) 

• Results - 45% and 12% 

• This supports piaget horticulture analysis 

what did stafford 2004 do

evaluated the piagetian approaches

what 2 approaches did stafford 2004 evaluate and what did he find

1. piagetian reasoning task lll pendulum

2. tradiitional methode clinique

found concurrent validity acorss both tests

what are limitations of piagets techniques

• indiv, dif.

• Some indivs produced disparate performances across the two setting 

• PRT lll test conducive to social distractions - ‘she was almost entirely distracted by her male neighbour’

• Methode clinique interactive testing situation - ‘his teacher reported that he seemed to experience some difficulty relating to people on a one to one basis’ 

what are general limitations of piaget

• Issues of universalism (he worked with mostly european middle class kids) 

• Lack of emphasis on social and emotional aspects of development (complete focus on the cognitive)

• Underestimation of children's abilities (Donaldson 1984) the three mountains task has been repeated since by other psychologists and they argue if the framing of the questioning is changed slightly, children are not as egocentric as originally believed 

• Methodological barriers - Piaget’s reporting of his experiments is frustrating to contemporary psychologists - absence of N and demographics 

who was Lev Vygotsky

• 1896-1934

• Began working in institute of psychology moscow in 1924 

• However he drew interest and aligned more with western writers

• This was viewed as suspicious and in the 1930s the russian gov accused him of being bourgeoise psychologist 

• In 1934 he published ‘thought and language’ in russia 

• But he was blacklisted and after his death between 1936 and 1956 his publications were banned in russia 

• His work was not available in english until 1962

what was the socio-political landscape like during vygotsky life

• Construction of new socialist state 

• Russian revolution - great social upheaval 

• Marxism 

• New soviet view each person was responsible for the hole of society ( pretty durkheim view) 

• Aligning with marxist theory Vygotsky saw society as having an important influence on the development of the child’s mind 

what was the psychological landscape of the 1920s

• 3 major groups of psychologists in Soviet Union when Vygotsky began his work 

• Dominant behaviourist group led by Pavlov 

• Small, non-influential group led by Chelpanov focussing on consciousness 

• Group led by Kornilov who argues for a synthesis of the two perspectives 

what was vygotskys perspective

• He rejected all three perspectives 

• Pavlov’s behaviourism and the introspective psychology championed by Chelpanov both retained the conceptual isolation of mind and behaviour (psychoanalysis too focused on internal processes, behaviourism ignores the individual person instead focuses on social environment as what dictates behaviour) - rene descartes 

• Kornilov’s attempt to synthesise relied on old concepts 

• V insisted that a new system of concepts be developed 

how was vygotsky influenced by piaget

• He was influenced by P but Vs sociocultural theory differed and placed more emphasis on the social 

how did vygotsky understand the learning process

• For V learning processes cant just be understood by the internality of the individual or just the context 

• He believed the unit of analysis is the person in action with the context 

how did vygotsky understand the indiv and the environment

• V emphasised the interrelated roles of the indiv and the social world 

• Should not separate an event into elements that no longer function as the whole 

• Impossible to render any domain accessible without reference to another  

what research methods did vygostky use

• Child-in-activity-in-cultural-context as a unit of study 

• V and colleagues observed kids activity in a number of experiments in different local cultures 

• Placed learners in problem solving situations that were above their natural capacities 

• Provided coloured cards or pictures 

• Studied the ways learners of different ages struggled or successfully used these aids 

• Documented changes in learner activity and cognitive functioning 

what theory did vygitsky develop

socio-cultural theory

how did vygotsky develop the socio-cultural theory

• Dialectical approach - combination of biological and social processes 

• Higher mental functions and goal directed thought 

• Any higher mental function was external and social before it was internal (piaget swung in other direction, internal before external for V its always external)

what functions did vygotsky use to conceptualise the mind into

• general gentic law

• mediated mind

• sociocultural tools (the importance of language)

• speech and behaviour

• zone of proximal development

explain general genetic law

• Any function in the child’s development appears twice or on two planes 

• It appears first between people as an intermental (between minds) category and the within the child as an intramental (within mind) activity 

explain the mediated mind

• Fundamental premise in sociocultural approaches- human mind is mediated 

• Humans do not act directly on the physical world but rely on tools and labour activity 

• Symbolic tools or signs to mediate and regulate our relationships with others

• Tools are artefacts created by human cultures over time, passed on generationally 

• Arithmetic systems, music, art, language (habitus, cultural capital) 

ecplain sociocultural tools (the importance of language)

• The infant is social and through interaction has a growing awareness of the self and capacity for reflection 

• Development from the social to the individual through language, discussion and argument become internalised 

• Language is a tool of thought (and used for problem solving)

• With older children, this train of thought would be internalised rather than spoken out loud 

explain speech and behaviour

• Speech and behaviour interact dynamically and change in relation to development 

• First speech accompanies action e.g. learning to count 

• Then speech precedes (goes before) action 

• The speech displaces action 

• Speech assumes the planning function 

explain the zone of proximal development (ZPD)

• V argues that the economic collectivist principle of shared goods runs parallel to socially shared cognition 

• Adults are responsible for sharing knowledge with children 

• Zone of proximal development (ZPD) - the difference between what the child can achieve alone and what can be achieved with the help of more knowledgeable others (opposite of horticulture analogy) 

• Child as an active speaker of knowledge - not a passive receiver (unlike behaviourism) 

• Learning the zone is possible because of intersubjectivity (through interaction with others and tools) 

what is the name of freunds 1990 relevant study

the doll house experiment

outline the doll house experiment

• Puppet moving house 

• Arrangement of furniture into different rooms 

• There was a practice phase where: 

• Group 1 = mother supports child throughout the activity 

• Group 2 = child works alone but experimenter shows correct answer at the end 

• After the post - test - phase = children in group 1 performed better 

• Supporting the premise of the ZPD

what is the apprenticeship model

The ZPD is still used today, seen often in group work e.g. mixed ability group 

• The child’s knowledge develops through guidance - scaffolding - adults guidance scaffolds the childs development and learning, without scaffolding building a house is much harder (jerome bruner) 

• Development as an apprenticeship (jean lave) 

• Building bridges between the child’s present abilities and new skills (barbara rogoff) 

• Construction of knowledge is seen as a fundamentally social activity - a co-construction 

• Intermental (between minds) - intramental (within mind) (all learning begins in the instrumental plane and then moves to the intramental plane) 

why did vygotsky place such a large importance on culture

• Thinking is always social and reflects the dyads (containing two elements) culture 

• Culture flows through adults to children 

• Cultures have different tools (language) 

• Cultural contexts e.g. global, local, family, school religion, beliefs, values, knowledges, physical and historical influences 

outline key strengths of vygotsky

• Attention to social-cultural context 

• Broader sociohistorical context development 

• Fluid boundary between self and others (learning is relational) 

• Specific processes between child and setting - joint operation of forces in the child and in the environment 

• Integration of learning and development - learning drives development 

• Sensitivity to the diversity of development - rejects universalism- differences within and between cultures  

outline key weaknesses of vygotsky

• Ambiguity in some of the work - early death - prevented refinement 

• Working on the edge of disciplines 

• Translations difficulties and truncation - references to marx were expunged from the first english language translation 

• V of the 1970s in the west was not the V of the 1920s and 30s in soviet union (global, political and developmental landscapes changing, he was fitted in much later when his theories aligned better)