ch 6 piaget and vygotsky theories cshd

piaget basic principle

children are naturally curious and want to make sense of the world by creating theories about how it works

assimilation

when new experiences are readily incorporated into a child’s existing theories

example of assimilation

understanding their dog’s behavior and seeing an uncle’s dog do the same thing; fits their theory of what a dog is

accommodation

occurs when a child’s theories are modified based on experience

example of accomodation

infant who has never seen a cat revises its theory of dogs to include a new kind of animal

disequilibrium

child’s current theories are not accurate because they spend more time accommodating than assimilating 

equilibration

occurs when children reorganize their theories to a state of equilibrium

sensorimotor stage (0-2yrs)

-exploring their environment and learning basic motor functions
-object permanence

-using symbols & pretend play

preoperational stage (2-7yrs)

• symbols

• egocentrism

• animism

• centration

• conservation

order of piaget’s stages

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

egocentrism

young children’s difficulty in seeing the world from another’s viewpoint; can’t comprehend other people have feelings

object permanence

understanding that objects exist independently; infants lack this until 1.5 years old

animism

children’s tendency to associate inanimate objects with life and lifelike properties (believing the sun is sad bc it’s raining)

centration

children often concentrate on one aspect of a problem but ignore other, equally relevant aspects; demonstrated with conservation

conservation

juice problem; child shown two identical glasses filled w/same amt of juice; after child agrees the two have the same amount, it is poured into a taller glass; children think the tall glass has more

concrete operational stage (7-11 yrs)

• using mental operations

• conservation mastery

• thinking limited to the tangible and real

mental operations

internal, logical actions children can do in their minds to manipulate information and solve problems

formal operational stage (ages 11-adulthood)

• applying mental operations to abstract entities

• abstract thinking

• deductive reasoning

deductive reasoning

ability to draw appropriate conclusions from facts

piaget’s 2 main contributions to child development

1. the study of cognitive development itself

2. constructivism view

constructivism

view that children are active participants in their own development who construct more sophisticated understandings of their worlds

**4 educational approaches to Piaget’s theories

1. facilitate rather than direct children’s learning (don’t tell, guide)

2. recognize individual differences

3. be sensitive to children’s readiness to learn (be ahead)

4. emphasize exploration and interactions (don’t correct errors directly but encourage child to look at errors to figure out what they’re doing wrong)

4 weaknesses of Piaget’s theory

1. underestimates cognitive abilities in children and overestimates in adolescents

2. vagueness

3. doesn’t account for variability in children’s performances

4. undervalues influence of sociocultural environment

sociocultural perspective (vygotsky)

children are products of their culture; children’s cognitive development is not only brought by social interaction but cultural contexts

intersubjectivity

mutual, shared understanding among people in an activity (daughter and father completing a puzzle together- shared understanding of the goal to finish the puzzle)

guided participation

cognitive growth results from a child’s involvement in structured activities with others who are more skilled than them

what are vygotsky’s three most important contributions

zone of proximal development, scaffolding, and private speech

zone of proximal development

difference between what a child can do alone vs with assistance from a more skilled adult or peer

scaffolding

more educated people (peers, parents, teachers) support and guide children to learn concepts or skills faster than they would on their own

example of zone of proximal development

structuring the task of cleaning bedroom for child by saying “start by putting away your books, then toys, then dirty clothes”

example of scaffolding

early in learning a new task, teachers provide more direct instruction, but as they catch on to the task, the teacher provides less instruction; giving help but not more than needed

private speech

comments not directed to others but intended to help children regulate their own behavior; step toward self regulation of cognitive skills

inner speech

thought; children learn to think rather than talk aloud

when do students learn little?

when teachers provide too much instruction (think MC psych class) or too little instruction ( think watercolor class)

culture’s influence on thinking

provides tools that shape the way we think; defines what cognitive activities are valued, helps organize knowledge and communicate it

example of guided participation

child learns new video game from a peer

what did vygotsky emphasize in child development besides culture?

learning as a collaborative activity where students work together, they learn more when they’re around others who are more skilled

information processing theory

human cognition consists of mental hardware (sensory, working, and long term memory) and software

sensory memory

where info is held briefly in raw, unanalyzed form

working memory

ongoing cognitive activities and the info they require (ex.mental math)

central executive (executive functioning)

executive network of attention (inhibiting inappropriate thoughts, shifting from one task to another)

How does information change with development? (4 things)

Better strategies, more effective executive functioning, increased automatic processing, increased processing speed

core-knowledge theories

propose different domains of knowledge; innate capability to easily acquire knowledge

ex of core knowledge theory

language mental structure

modules

mental structures programmed to analyze one kind of data efficiently (ex. language model sensitive to speech sounds)

how do children understand living things? (6 things)

movement, growth, internal parts, inheritance, illness, healing

teleological explanations

children believe that living things and the parts that make them up exist for a reason

essentialism

child’s belief that all living things have an essence that can’t be seen but gives them their identity (dogs share a certain dogness)

theory of mind

2-5 year olds’ naive understanding of the relations between mind and behavior

wellman’s 5 phases of theory of mind

• understanding people’s different desires

• people have different beliefs

• different experiences=different knowledge

• people act on their beliefs (even when they’re wrong)

• understanding hiding strong emotions

taxonomies

organizational systems in the mind; children have difficulty differentiating smaller categories within larger ones

cognition

act of knowing and the ways we come to know things about the world; all mental activity

sensation

perceiving through the senses

perception

becoming aware of objects and their relations through the senses

3 things infants have core knowledge about

inanimate objects, people and their actions, representing numbers/quantities

ontogenetic development

development of an individual over their lifetime

microgenetic development

small change that happens quickly

phylogenetic development

development of a species over time

sociohistorical development

chronosystem

elementary mental functions (4)

attention, perception, sensation, and memory

sensory stores

stores our senses and tactile sensations

short term store

working memory

selective attention

unconscious turning off of senses when you’re really emmersed in something

schematic model of human info processing

perception to sensory store to short term; depending on attention, it’ll either go into long term memory or fade out

metacognition

thinking abt your own thinking

inhibition

brain attends to one thing and inhibits something else

recall

retrieving knowledge from long term memory