By 8 months of age, object of permanence begin to emerge because infants begin to develop memory for objects that are not perceived (Myers, 2013). 1c. Piaget further explains that after object permanence emerged, children at 8 months start to develop stranger anxiety where they would often cry in front of strangers and reach for someone who is familiar to them (Myers, 2013). Both object permanence and stranger anxiety emerge around the same time because children are able to remember and build schemas. While Piaget’s cognitive theory consists of four stages (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational) that children go through as they grow, McCrink and Wynn proposed a different theory of cognitive development.
Gopnik first uses a personal experience to captivate her audience then proceeds to provide scientific evidence on the psychological abilities of children, beginning with newborn babies to toddlers about the age of four. The author informs readers on the thought capabilities of children by providing examples of the changes in mind development in different age categories. She suggests that "newborn babies (the youngest tested was only 42 minutes old) can imitate facial expressions" (Gopnik, 238) and how children that are nine months old can already distinguish between internal feelings such as happiness, sadness and anger. Gopnik recaps experiments that discover how children have learnt about people's wants and how they may conflict with their own in this portion of her writing. Two year old children seem to turn intentionally difficult and challenge their parents constantly, letting desire take control.
It will then briefly describe Piaget’s theory by providing an overview of the four stages of cognitive development which include sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational, before presenting two of the most common criticisms of his theory. Finally the essay will conclude with a brief summary of the points discussed. Prior to the development of his theory, Piaget worked for Albert Binet, a psychologist who was working to test the intelligence of both adults and children. During this time Piaget’s role was to conduct tests on children. His interest in children’s cognitive processes developed when he started to notice that children of similar ages made the same kinds of mistakes on test questions.
By two years old, children begin testing and exploring this idea. Three year olds understand visual perception and the concept of hiding objects. By the time a child is four, they understand that people can have incorrect thoughts about the world. In opposition to the traditional understanding that babies and young children learn and think differently than adults, Gopnik suggests that babies and young children use the same learning methods as scientists. They “observe, formulate theories, make predictions, and do experiments” (Gopnik, 237) to learn about people, objects, and their surroundings.
This side of the nature-nurture debate suggests that we are a certain way because of the way we were bought up and our life experiences. Biological programming - this comes down to your genes. Biological programming suggests that you will have similar medical conditions to your parents supporting the idea of natural selection and genetics. Maturation theory - this theory sees child development as being controlled by evolution and that genetically there is a series of events that will occur automatically. It is believed the development has a biological process and this can be predicted over time.
Proving that our intelligence was inherent, however the research was found to be inaccurate. On the other hand, the nurture side of the discussion said that intelligence was learnt from the environment. Jean Piaget claimed that your intelligence is developed in stages as your brain matures and children are “little scientists “discovering their own knowledge via their environment. Another developmental stage that the nurture-nurture debate comes up in is language. The
Based on what level they are on, then move them into a group of children that are at the same level. Then, as a teacher, build upon their knowledge at their level and pace. The guide the students into learning new words on their own, this could be done by reading and practicing writing. Alternative #3: Embedded Phonics Instruction, on pages 235 and 236, is a literature-based instruction. Students learn new words based on
Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson offer different views of how a child’s mental abilities progress throughout their education. Piaget believed that children, at certain stages in their lives, regardless of intelligence, were not able to understand things in particular ways, simply because they were not old enough. He thought that development had to precede learning. Vygotsky, on the other hand, theorized that children acquire their level of intelligence by the culture they live in and that children learning different things helped them to develop intellectually. Erikson felt as if the environment played a major role in a child’s development and that every person goes through specific stages in their lives.
Erikson for his theory of psychosocial development, who believed that personality develops in a series of stages. However, each author has their own view regarding the educational implication of the various processes, as well as, the role of various environmental components. The following articles (Horn 2009), will attempt to support and the educational implications of each theory. The articles highlight the major theories, research and opinions of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erik Erikson’ on how children develop and learn. The first article by (Webb 1980) talks about Piaget belief that within each person there is an internal self-regulation mechanism that responds to environmental stimulation by constantly fitting new experiences into existing cognitive structures called schemas developmental stages in teaching.
Piaget’s theory of intellectual development is broken down into four stages; Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete operational, and Formal operational (Nixon & Aldwinckle, 2002). The “Sensorimotor stage” is the period of infancy to early toddlerhood (usually from birth to two years of age)and is divided into six sub stages, where children move from reflex dominated responses, to the beginnings of symbolic thought, as language starts to be used to represent reality. Children in this stage obtain and use knowledge primarily through motor action and sensory information (Nixon & Aldwinckle, 2002). The “Preoperational stage” covers the period between two and seven years of age, and is divided into two sub stages (Nixon & Aldwinckle, 2002). During this stage of cognitive development, children begin to think independently of actions and hold representation.