CHAPTER 2: Cognitive Development and language

Development; Orderly, adaptive changes we go through from conception to

death.

 Physical development; Changes in body structure and function over time.

 Personal development; Changes in personality that take place as one
grows.
 Social development; Changes over time in the ways we relate to others.
 Cognitive development; Gradual orderly changes by which mental
processes become more complex and sophisticated. Maturation Genetically
programmed, naturally occurring changes over time. changes in thinking.
 Maturation; Genetically programmed, naturally occurring changes over
time.

General principle of development:

1. people develop at different rates
2. Development is relatively orderly
3. Development takes place gradually

The developing brain: neurons;

 Synapses; The tiny space between neurons – chemical messages are sent across these
gaps.
 Plasticity; The brain’s tendency to remain somewhat adaptable or flexible.
 Myelination; The process by which neural fibers are coated with a fatty sheath called
myelin which makes message transfers more efficient.

The developing brain: cerebral cortex;

- The cerebral cortex develops more slowly than other parts of the brain,
and parts of the cortex mature at different rates. The part of the
cortex that controls physical motor movement matures first, then the
areas that control complex senses such as vision and hearing, and last,
the frontal lobe that controls higher-order thinking processes. The
temporal lobes of the cortex that play major roles in emotions and
language do not develop fully until the secondary school years and
maybe later.

 Lateralisation; The specialization of the two hemispheres (sides) of the brain cortex.
 Figure 2.1 A view of the
cerebral cortex

Learning and brain development; Research from animal and human studies shows
that both experiences and direct teaching cause changes in the organization
and structure of the brain. For example, deaf individuals who use sign
language have different patterns of electrical activity in their brains
compared to deaf people who do not use sign language.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

According to Piaget (1954), certain ways of thinking that are
quite simple for an adult, are not so simple for a child. For
example, a child might have difficulty understanding that she is
English but also a Londoner because she is unable to classify
one concept (London) as a subset of another (England). There are
other differences between adult and child thinking, for
instance, their concepts of time may be different from your own.
They may think, for example, that they will someday catch up to
a sibling in age, or they may confuse the past and the future.

Basic tendencies in thinking;

As a result of his early research in biology, Piaget concluded that all
species inherit two basic tendencies, or ‘invariant functions’. ;

Organization;
 Ongoing process of arranging information and experience into mental
systems or categories.
 People are born with a tendency to organize their thinking processes
into psychological structures.
  schemes. In his theory, schemes are the basic building blocks
of thinking. They are organized systems of actions or thought
that allow us to mentally represent or ‘think about’ the objects
and events in our world.
ex.,
the sucking-through a-straw scheme or the recognizing-a-rose
scheme. As a person’s thinking processes become more organized
and new schemes develop, behavior also becomes more
sophisticated and better suited to the environment.

Adaptation;
 Adjustment to the environment. In addition to the tendency to organize
their psychological structures, people also inherit the tendency to
adapt to their environment. Two basic processes are involved in
adaptation: assimilation and accommodation.
 Assimilation: takes place when people use their existing schemes to
make sense of events in their world. Assimilation involves trying to
understand something new by fitting it into what we already know.
 Accommodation: occurs when a person must change existing schemes to
respond to a new situation. Altering existing schemes or creating new
ones in response to new information.

Equilibration; Search for mental balance between cognitive schemes and

information from environment.

Disequilibrium; In Piaget’s theory, the ‘out of-balance’ state that occurs

when a person realizes that their current ways of thinking are not working to
solve a problem or understand a situation.

Four stages of cognitive development

stage Approximate age Characteristics

sensorimotor 0-2 years old Begins to make use of imitation, memory

and thought. Begins to recognize that
objects do not cease to exist when they
are hidden. Moves from reflex actions
to goal-directed activity.
Preoperational 2-7 years old Gradually develops use of language and
ability to think in symbolic form. Able
to think operations through logically
in one direction. Has difficulties
seeing another person’s point of view.
Concrete 7-11 years old Able to solve concrete (hands-on)
operational problems in logical fashion.
Understands laws of conservation and is
able to classify and seriate.
Understands reversibility.
Formal operational 11- adult Able to solve abstract problems in
logical fashion. Becomes more
scientific in thinking. Develops
concerns about social issues, identity.
Infancy: the sensorimotor stage (birth to two years approximately);

 Sensorimotor; Involving the senses and motor activity. this is the

earliest period and the child’s thinking involves seeing, hearing,
moving, touching, tasting, and so on.
 Object permanence; The understanding that objects have a separate
permanent existence.
 Goal-directed actions; Deliberate actions towards a goal.

The early childhood years: the preoperational stage (two to seven years
approximately);

 Operations; Actions a person carries out by thinking them through

instead of literally performing the actions.
 Preoperational; The stage before a child masters logical mental
operations.
 Semiotic function; The ability to use symbols – language, pictures,
signs or gestures – to represent actions or objects mentally.
 Reversible thinking; Thinking backwards, from the end to the beginning.
 Conservation Principle; that some characteristics of an object remain
the same despite changes in appearance.
 Decentring; Focusing on more than one aspect of a time. The
preoperational child cannot understand that decreased diameter
compensates for increased height, because this would require taking
into account two dimensions at once
 Egocentric; Assuming that others experience the world the way that you
do.
 Collective monologue; Form of speech in which children in a group talk
but do not really interact or communicate.

Middle childhood: the concrete-operational stage (seven to eleven years

approximately);

 Concrete operations; ‘hands on’ thinking. Mental tasks tied to concrete

objects and situations.
 Classification; Grouping objects into categories.

 According to Piaget, a learner’s ability to solve conservation problems

depends on an understanding of three basic aspects of reasoning:
1. Identity; Principle that a person or object remains the same over time.
2. Compensation; The principle that changes in one dimension can be offset
by changes in another.
3. Reversibility; A characteristic of Piagetian logical operations – the
ability to think through a series of steps, then mentally reverse the
steps and return to the starting point; also called reversible
thinking.

 Seriation; Process of making an orderly arrangement from large to small

or vice versa. Arranging objects in sequential order according to one
aspect, such as size, weight, or volume.
Late childhood and adolescence: formal operations;

 Formal operations; Mental tasks involving abstract thinking and

coordination of a number of variables
 hypothetico-deductive reasoning; A formal-operations problemsolving
strategy in which an individual begins by identifying all the factors
that might affect a problem and then deduces and systematically
evaluates specific solution.
 Adolescent egocentrism; Assumption that everyone else shares one’s
thoughts, feelings, and concerns.

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective

Psychologists today recognize that culture shapes cognitive
development by determining what and how the child will learn
about the world. For example, young Zinacanteco Indian girls of
southern Mexico learn complicated ways of weaving cloth through
informal teachings of adults in their communities. In Brazil,
without going to school, children who sell sweets on the
streets learn sophisticated mathematics in order to buy from
wholesalers, sell, barter and make a profit.

 Sociocultural theory; Emphasizes role in development of cooperative

dialogues between children and more knowledgeable members of society.
Children learn the culture of their community (ways of thinking and
behaving) through these interactions.

Vygotsky assumed that ‘every function in a child’s cultural development

appears twice: first, on the social level and later on the individual level;
first between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child
(intrapsychological)’ (1978: 57). In other words, higher mental processes
first are:

 Co-constructed process; shared activities between the child and another

person. A social process in which people interact and negotiate
(usually verbally) to create an understanding or to solve a problem.
The final product is shaped by all participants.
Private speech: Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s views compared;

It is commonly accepted that young children often talk to themselves as

they play. Piaget called children’s self-directed talk ‘egocentric speech’.
He assumed that this egocentric speech is another indication that young
children can’t see the world through the eyes of others.

Vygotsky had very different ideas about young children’s private

speech. Rather than being a sign of cognitive immaturity, Vygotsky suggested
that these mutterings play an important role in cognitive development by
moving children toward self-regulation: the ability to plan, monitor and
guide one’s own thinking and problem solving.

 Private speech; Children’s self-talk, which guides their thinking and

actions. Eventually, these verbalizations are internalized as silent
inner speech.

Differences between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories of egocentric or private speech

Zone of proximal development( ZPD)- Phase at which a child can master a task
if given appropriate help and support.

“Piaget defined development as the active construction of knowledge and

learning as the passive formation of associations (Siegler, 2000). In other
words children build (construct) their own understanding and base it upon
what they already know. He was interested in knowledge construction and
believed that cognitive development has to come before learning – the child
had to be cognitively ‘ready’ to learn. He said that ‘learning is
subordinated to development and not vice-versa’ (Piaget, 1964: 17).”
Piaget was more interested in understanding children’s thinking than in
guiding teachers. He did express some general ideas about educational
philosophy, however. He believed that the main goal of education should be to
help children learn how to learn so that they construct their own meanings
and that education should ‘form not furnish’ the minds of learners (Piaget,
1969: 70).

Piaget has taught us that we can learn a great deal about how children think
by listening carefully, by paying close attention to their ways of solving
problems. If we understand children’s thinking, we will be better able to
match teaching methods to children’s current knowledge and abilities.

 Scaffolding; Support for learning and problem solving. The support

could be clues, reminders, encouragement, breaking the problem down
into steps, providing an example or anything else that allows the
individual to grow in independence as a learner.
 Assisted learning; Providing strategic help in the initial stages of
learning, gradually diminishing as learners gain independence.

Nature or nurture?

Three key approaches have been suggested to explain language acquisition.

These are behavioral theories ( nurture), nativist theories ( nature) and
social interactionist theories ( combination of nature and nurture).

Behavioral approaches were popular in the early and middle part of the
twentieth century and they proposed that children basically learn language
through reinforcement (Skinner, 1957). Therefore an accidental babbling
sound such as ‘dadadada’ from an infant would be responded to (reinforced)
by the parent/ caregiver perhaps with, ‘Daddy? What a clever girl! You
said “daddy” didn’t you?’ and so on. This makes the child more likely to
repeat the sound again in order to gain the attention or recognition
given.

Nativist approaches suggest that children have an inbuilt facility for

language and thus they are biologically programmed to develop language.
The work of Noam Chomsky (1957) is the cornerstone of this nature approach
which is radically different from the behaviorist understanding. Chomsky
argued that the reason children are able to unravel the complexities of
their native language so easily is because they have an innate neural
device (the language acquisition device or LAD) which allows them to
absorb and decode language easily. This device is triggered by hearing
language spoken and is flexibly able to adapt to any language.

Social-interactionist perspectives agree that humans are biologically

prepared for language in a way that other species are not. However, they
see the environment as an important part of language development too.
 Language development in the school years;
Pronunciation; The majority of five- to six-year-olds have mastered most of
the sounds of their native language, but a few may remain unconquered. The j,
v, th and zh sounds are the last to develop.

Grammar; Children master the basics of word order, or syntax, in their native
language early.

 Syntax; the order of words in phrases or sentences.

Vocabulary and meaning; The average six-year-old has a vocabulary of 8,000 to

14,000 words, growing to about 40,000 by age 11.

Pragmatics; involves the appropriate use of language to communicate. For

instance, children must learn the rules of turn-taking in conversation. The
rules for when and how to use language to be an effective communicator in a
particular culture.

Metalinguistic awareness; Around the age of five, children begin to develop

metalinguistic awareness; Understanding about one’s own use of language.

Partnerships with families; especially in the early years, the child’s home
experiences are central in the development of language a

Dual language development; Many school-aged children speak a language other

than English at home. The number grows each year. It is a misconception that
young children learn a second language faster than adolescents or adults.

Cross-cultural similarities in cognitive development;

In spite of these cross-cultural differences in cognitive development, there
are some convergences. Piaget, Vygotsky and more recent researchers studying
cognitive development and the brain probably would agree with the following
big ideas:

1 Cognitive development requires both physical and social stimulation.

2 To develop thinking, children have to be mentally, physically and

linguistically active. They need to experiment, talk, describe, reflect,
write and solve problems. However, they also benefit from teaching, guidance,
questions, explanations, demonstrations and challenges to their thinking.

3 Play matters. It is the way children and adolescents try out their thinking
and learn to interact with others.

4 Teaching what the learner already knows is boring. Trying to teach what the
child or young person is not ready to learn (too difficult, too complex, too
little background knowledge) is frustrating and ineffective.

5 Challenge with support will keep learners engaged but not fearful.
CHAPTER 1: Teachers, Teaching and Educational
Psychology

Educational psychology; Refers to the broad area of training and work of

educational psychologists who apply psychological theories, research and
techniques to help children and young people who may have learning
difficulties, emotional or behavioral problems.

Psychology of education; The discipline concerned with teaching and learning

processes; applies the methods and theories of psychology to teaching and
learning and has its own methods and theories as well.

Reflective; Thoughtful and inventive. Reflective teachers think back over

situations to analyze what they did and why and to consider how they might
improve learning for their pupils.

Expert teachers; Experienced, effective teachers who have developed solutions

for common classroom problems. Their knowledge of the teaching process and
content is extensive and well organized.

IS IT JUST COMMON SENSE?

Common sense answer Teachers should call on children randomly so that
everyone will have to follow the reading carefully. If a teacher were
to use the same order every time, the class would know when their turn
was coming up.
Answer based on research Years ago, research by Ogden et al. (1977)
found that the answer to this question is not so simple.

Descriptive studies:
 Descriptive studies; Studies that collect detailed information about
specific situations, often using observation, surveys, interviews,
recordings or a combination of these methods.
 Ethnography; A descriptive approach to research that focuses on life
within a group and tries to understand the meaning of events to the
people involved.
 Participant observation; A method for conducting descriptive
research in which the researcher becomes a participant in the
situation in order to better understand life in that group.
 Case study; Intensive study of one person or one situation.
Correlation studies:
 Correlations; Statistical descriptions of how closely two variables
are related.
 Positive correlation; A relationship between two variables in which
the two increase or decrease together. Example: calorie intake and
weight gain.
 Negative correlation; A relationship between two variables in which
a high value on one is associated with a low value on the other.
Example: height and distance from top of head to the ceiling.

Experimental studies:
 Experimentation; Research method in which variables are manipulated
and the effects recorded.
 Participants/subjects; People or animals studied.

One common way to make sure that groups of participants are essentially the
same is to assign each person to a group using a random procedure.

 Random; without any definite pattern; following no rule. Means each

participant has an equal chance of being placed in any group.

 Statistically significant; not likely to be a chance occurrence.

 Single-subject experimental studies; Systematic interventions to

study effects with one person, often by applying and then
withdrawing a treatment.

 Microgenetic studies; detailed observation and analysis of changes

in a cognitive process as the process unfolds over a severalday or
week period of time.

Teachers as researchers:

 Action research; Systematic observations or tests of methods

conducted by teachers or schools to improve teaching and learning
for their learners.

Theories for teaching:

 Principle; Established relationship between factors.

 Theory; Integrated statement of principles that attempts to explain
a phenomenon and make predictions.
CHAPTER 3: Personal, Social and Emotional
Development
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Preschool; Preschool children are very active. Their gross-motor (large muscle) skills improve greatly
over the years from ages two to five.

The early school years; During the early school years, physical development
is fairly steady for most children. They become taller, leaner and stronger,
so they are better able to master sports and games.

Adolescence
 Puberty; The physiological changes during adolescence that lead to the
ability to reproduce.
 Bulimia; Eating disorder characterized by overeating, then getting rid
of the food by self-induced vomiting or laxatives.
 Anorexia nervosa; Eating disorder characterized by very limited food
intake.

Freud: Stages of Individual Development

Sigmund Freud, who moved from being a medical doctor to
psychologist is probably the most famous and influential
twentieth-century thinker.

He is probably best known as the ‘father’ of

psychoanalysis and it is his ideas about the development
of personality which are of particular interest to us
here. Freud described human personality as a dynamic
mechanism consisting of the id, the ego and the
superego.
  Id; The instinctive needs and desires of a person present from birth.
 Ego; Responsible for dealing with reality and meeting needs of the id
in a socially acceptable way.
 Superego; Holds all the moral principles and ideals acquired from
parents and society.
 Conscience; Includes information about those things viewed as bad by
parents and society – punishes with guilt.
 Ego-ideal; Includes standards of good, desirable behavior approved by
parents and society – rewarded with feelings of pride.
 Psychosexual stages; The stages through which humans pass as they
develop their adult personality.
 Fixated; A person remains fixed at a certain psychosexual stage and
their personality reflects this throughout life.
 Regress; A person returns to an earlier stage of development when in
stressful situations.

Freud’s psychosexual stages of development

ATTACHMENT THEORY
Attachment; The emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver.

1. Anxious/avoidant; where the child may not be distressed by the mother

leaving and may avoid or turn away from her when she returns.
2. Securely attached; where the child is distressed by the mother’s
departure and easily comforted when she returns.
3. Anxious/resistant; (anxious/ambivalent) where the child may be
extremely ‘clingy’ during the first few minutes and become very
distressed when she leaves. When she returns the child will seek
comfort at the same time as distance from the mother, for example,
crying and reaching up to be held but trying to wriggle away when
picked up.
  Secure base; The attachment figure provides a safe foundation for the
child to explore the world.
 Sensitive responsiveness; A mother/caregiver’s ability to respond
accurately, promptly and appropriately to an infant’s needs.

THEORY OF MIND AND INTENTION

 Theory of mind; An understanding that other people are people too, with
their own minds, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, desires and perceptions.
 Perspective-taking ability; Understanding that others have different
feelings and experiences.

Erikson: The Individual and Society

Like Piaget, Erik Erikson did not start his career as a
psychologist. A meeting with Sigmund Freud in Vienna led
to an invitation to study psychoanalysis. Erikson then
immigrated to America to practice his profession and to
escape the threat of Hitler.

Erikson’s psychosocial theory has much in common with

Freud’s psychosexual one but the emphasis moves from
sexual to social identity. Erikson emphasized the
emergence of the self, the search for identity, the
individual’s relationships with others and the role of
culture throughout life.

 Psychosocial; Describing the relation of the individual’s emotional

needs to the social environment.
 Developmental crisis; A specific conflict whose resolution prepares the
way for the next stage.
Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development
  Autonomy; Independence. Erikson’s second stage, autonomy versus shame
and doubt, marks the beginning of self-control and self-confidence.
 Initiative; Willingness to begin new activities and explore new
directions.
 Industry; Eagerness to engage in productive work.

ADOLESCENCE: the search for identity

 Identity; Principle that a person or object remains the same over time
 Identity diffusion; Uncentredness; confusion about who one is and what
one wants.
 Identity foreclosure; Acceptance of parental life choices without
consideration of options.
 Moratorium Identity; crisis; suspension of choices because of struggle.
 Identity achievement; Strong sense of commitment to life choices after
free consideration of alternatives.

BEYOND THE SCHOOL YEARS: The crises of Erikson’s stages of adulthood all
involve the quality of human relations. The first of these stages is
intimacy versus isolation. Intimacy in this sense refers to a willingness
to relate to another person on a deep level, to have a relationship based
on more than mutual need.

 Generativity; Sense of concern for future generations.

 Integrity; Sense of self-acceptance and fulfilment.

BRONFENBRENNER: THE SOCIAL CONTEXT FOR DEVELOPMENT: Urie Bronfenbrenner went

further to map the many interacting social contexts that affect development
with his bioecological model of development.

 Bioecological model; Bronfenbrenner’s theory describing the nested

social and cultural contexts that shape development. Every person
develops within a microsystem, inside a mesosystem, embedded in an
exosystem, all of which are a part of the macrosystem of the culture.

FAMILIES

 Blended families; Parents, children and stepchildren merged into

families through remarriages.
 Parenting styles; The ways of interacting with and disciplining
children.
1. Authoritarian parents (low warmth, high control) seem cold and
controlling in their interactions with their children.
 2. Authoritative parents (high warmth, high control) also set clear
limits, enforce rules and expect mature behaviour but they are
warmer with their children.
3. Permissive parents (high warmth, low control) are warm and
nurturing but they have few rules or consequences for their
children and expect little in the way of mature behaviour
because ‘They’re only children’.
4. Rejecting/neglecting parents (low warmth, low control) don’t
seem to care at all and can’t be bothered with controlling,
communicating or caring for their children.

PEER CULTURE;Peer cultures are groups of learners who have a set of ‘rules’
about such things as how to dress, talk or style their hair.

PEER AGGRESSION;
 Instrumental aggression; Strong actions aimed at claiming an object,
place or privilege. Not intended to harm, but may lead to harm.
 Hostile aggression; Bold, direct action that is intended to hurt
someone else; unprovoked attack.
 Overt aggression; A form of hostile aggression that involves physical
attack.
 Relational aggression; A form of hostile aggression that involves
verbal attacks and other actions meant to harm social relationships.

RELATIONAL AGGRESSION; also called social aggression because the intent is

to harm social connections.

- 10% of children are chronic victims – the constant targets of physical

or verbal attacks.

SELF-CONCEPT- Individuals’ knowledge and beliefs about themselves – their

ideas, feelings, attitudes and expectations.

SELF-ESTEEM -The value each of us places on our own characteristics,

abilities and behaviors. evaluations and feelings about themselves.

THE STRUCTURE OF SELF-CONCEPT -A learner’s overall self-concept is made up of

other, more specific concepts, including non-academic self-concepts about,
for example, social relations or physical appearance, and academic self-
concepts in English, mathematics, art and other subjects.

The self-concept evolves through constant self-evaluation in different

situations.

Research has linked self-concept to a wide range of accomplishments – from

performance in competitive sports to job satisfaction and achievement in
school.

Teachers and child abuse

Certainly, one critical way to care about learners is to protect their
welfare and intervene in cases of abuse. Accurate information about the
number of abused children is difficult to find; most experts agree that an
enormous number of cases go unreported. Of course, parents are not the only
people who abuse children. Siblings, other relatives and even teachers have
been responsible for the physical and sexual abuse of children.

It is part of the teacher’s role to alert the head teacher or principal,

school psychologist or school social worker if abuse is detected. The legal
definition of abuse has been broadened to include neglect and failure to
provide proper care and supervision

DIVERSITY AND IDENTITY

 Racial And Ethnic Pride; A positive self-concept about one’s racial or
ethnic heritage.
 Emotional Competence; the ability to understand and manage emotional
situations.
 Theory Of Mind; An understanding that other people are people too, with
their own minds, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, desires and perceptions.
 Perspective-Taking Ability; Understanding that others have different
feelings and experiences.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT
 Moral Reasoning; The thinking process involved in judgements about
questions of right and wrong.
 Distributive Justice; Beliefs about how to divide materials or
privileges fairly among members of a group; follows a sequence of
development from equality to merit to benevolence.
 Morality Of Cooperation; Stage of development wherein children realize
that people make rules and people can change them.
 Moral Realism; Stage of development wherein children see rules as
absolute.
KOHLBERG’S THEORIES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT -Lawrence Kohlberg

MORAL DILEMMAS- Situations in which no choice is clearly and indisputably

right.

ETHNIC AND RACIAL IDENTITY; People who belong to ethnic or racial groups
are conscious of their ethnic identity as they negotiate being members of the
larger culture as well. Because ethnic minority learners are members of both
majority and minority group cultures it is complicated for them to establish
a clear identity.

four outcomes for ethnic minority youth in their search for identity:
1. assimilation; fully adopting the values and behaviours of the majority
culture and rejecting their ethnic culture
2. separated; associating only with members of their ethnic culture
3. marginality; living in the majority culture, but feeling alienated and
uncomfortable in it and disconnected from the minority culture as well.
4. biculturalism (sometimes called integration); maintaining ties to both
cultures. There are at least three ways to be bicultural
CHEATING
cheating seems to have more to do with the particular situation than with the
general honesty or dishonesty of the individual. In 1996, Steinberg reported
that 66% of the adolescents in his study admitted to cheating on a test in
the last year, and figures as high as 90 per cent have been reported for
university students.

Essential social emotional skills