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How Children Learn

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10 views

How Children Learn

Uploaded by

nabilahhuwaidah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How children learn

Teaching English to Young Learner- Week 5


Piaget
One of the best-known theorists in developmental psychology

● “tried to work out how children thought and developed cognitively”


● children actively construct knowledge from their experiences from birth, children try to make sense
of the world through their actions
Developmental stages of children

1. Sensori-Motor Stage (from months) children seem to learn through interaction with the world around
them, and through the use of their senses. Children are particularly egocentric, able to think about
things in terms of how they interact and link with themselves.
2. Pre-operational stage (from 18 months - 7 years) children are developing towards the next stage,
start using some aspects of the concrete world around them, begin to internalize information in a
very basic way through the use of their imagination and memory.
3. Concrete Operational Stage (from years7 ) able to operate and learn through their interactions with
the concrete world around them, moving towards the final stage which would involve more abstract
thinking.
4. Formal Operational Stage (from approximately 11 years of age to adulthood) able to develop more
abstract thought and understanding in this final stage of cognitive development Coincides with
puberty and the development into adulthood.
Influential findings in Piaget's work

● Identified how children could assimilate (add new knowledge to support old knowledge already
established by them ) and accommodate (change their present understanding of something based
on the new experience they have had), and how they might develop their cognition and
understanding using both.
● Believed the stages were fairly fixed in age and children went through them in this particular
sequential order - children could only move onto the next stage when they had completed the stage
before and were ready to do so.
● “Children should be given thinking time when faced with an experience or problem that they are
trying to solve.”
Issues with Piaget's work

Margaret Donaldson recreated many of Piaget’s experiments and found that:


● Piaget’s observations and measurements didn’t really reflect the way children were actually able to
think.
● Piaget didn’t consider the role of language to be an important catalyst in the cognitive development
of the child.
● Children were able to achieve and understand more than Piaget believed they could.
● Piaget had not taken into account what sense children were making of the type of adult questioning
that was used in the experiments he carried out, or the fact that the experiments were taking place
in very unnatural and child-unfriendly settings, such as science laboratories.
Implication
● Active learner
● Active thinker (sense maker)
● The world as offering opportunities for learning (learning through experience)
Vygotsky
● The child as social
● Zone Proximal Development (ZPD)
Vygotsky
Issues Implication in education

1. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is unclear in


that it does not account for a precise picture of a child’s 1. Word and meaning
learning needs, a child’s present capability level, or a
child’s motivational influences. The ZPD also does not 2. ZPD: teacher as adult can mediate what
explain the process of development or how development
actually occurs (Chaiklin, 2003, pp. 42-46).
next it is the child can learn

2. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory disregards the role of the


individual, but regards the collective. Vygotsky asserted
that the mind is not considered separate from the group.
That is, Vygotsky maintained that knowing is relative to the
situation in which the knowers find themselves. In turn, the
theory does not recognize that individuals can rise above
social norms based on their ability to bring about personal
understanding (Lui & Matthews, 2005, p. 392). Such
individuals would include gifted students or child prodigies.
Bruner
● Scaffolding
● Routines
Bruner
1. The theory is specific due to which it has certain Implication
limitations.
2. Individual differences are not taken into account in ● Scaffolding
Bruner’s theory of cognitive development.
● Routines
3. Learners may not be willing to be vocal about their
experiences.
4. Not everyone may be able to achieve intellectual
development according to the three stages of
representation.
5. Many researchers consider the stages of
intellectual development to be inaccurate.
6. Different learners have different learning abilities
due to which the theory may not be applicable for
all learners alike.
7. The major criticism of Bruner’s theory is that it
cannot be observed directly.
Questions for your discussion
1. What is the difference between ZPD and Scaffolding?
2. Compare Piaget, Bruner and Vygotsky theory? what differences and
similarities can you find?
Comparing Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner
● Vygotsky emphasize the role of culture and experience
● Vygotsky believed that what drives cognitive development is social
interaction- a child’s experience with other people. (culture shapes cognition)
● Piaget believed that most important source of cognition is the children
themselves (ability to adapt to the environment by a process of self discovery
and play), Bruner agree with it
● Piaget: cognitive development determines language use
● Vygotsky: social interactions determines language use, Bruner agree with it

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