Chapter 3 Cognitive Development Part 2

• English
• Year 3

Neo-Piaget Perspectives on Development

Case's Theory of Cognitive Development

• Short-term memory often called working memory, is a memory store of limited capacity and duration. 
• Case's emphasis on the development of the short-term capacity to explain development changes in thinking abilities differs from Piaget who believed memory changes occurred as a result of developmental stages.

Example

A 4-year old can draw a human figure that has many of the global features of human beings. 

A 6-year old's system of drawing figures and for drawing figures and for drawing the larger scene also represent integrations of skills that are not integrated for a 4-year-old.

Piaget's Theory of the Development of Moral Reasoning 

• Moral development refers to the process through which children develop the standards of right and wrong within their society, based on social and cultural norms, and laws.
•  Piaget conceptualizes moral development as a constructivist process, whereby the interplay of action and thought builds moral concepts. Piaget (1932) was principally interested not in what children do (i.e., in whether they break rules or not) but in what they think. In other words, he was interested in children’s moral reasoning.

Kohlberg's Stage Theory of Moral Develop.

• Kohlberg's theory proposes that there are three levels of moral development, with each level split into two stages. 
• Kohlberg suggested that people move through these stages in a fixed order and that moral understanding is linked to cognitive development.
• The three levels of moral reasoning include pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional.
• By using children's responses to a series of moral dilemmas, Kohlberg established that the reasoning behind the decision was a greater indication of moral development than the actual answer. 

Alternative Approaches to Constructivism

Constructivism is based on the idea that people actively construct or make their own knowledge, and that reality is determined by your experiences as a learner. Basically, learners use their previous knowledge as a foundation and build on it with new things that they learn.

Example

An elementary school teacher presents a class problem to measure the length of the "Mayflower." Rather than starting the problem by introducing the ruler, the teacher allows students to reflect and to construct their own methods of measurement.

Nature and Nurture

Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception, e.g., the product of exposure, life experiences, and learning on an individual.

Example

The development of personality is often part of nature versus nurture debate. People want to know how children develop their personalities. Is personality an influence of the parent through genetics or learned traits from their environment? Because a child acts like a mother suggests that they were predisposed to the hereditary influence of the mother. However, nurture advocates would suggest that growing up under the direct presence of the mother was a learned personality, not genetically passed.

Short-term memory often is called a____?

1. Developing Memory
2. Charging Memory
3. Working Memory
4. Limited Memory

Can children develop characteristics from their parents? If yes, How?

Active and Passive Learning

Active learning- involves the student in the instructional process through the use of relevant activities and discussions.

Ex. ~ Hands-on labs, Group problems, and Peer instruction

Passive learning-Holds the student responsible for absorbing the presented information on their own terms

Ex. ~ Direct Instruction, Watching Television, and etc.

Are you an Active or Passive learner?