COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

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COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

• Part 4

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Jean Piaget

• Swiss psychologist neo-structuralist
  developed concept of genetic epistemology
  meaning the study of the development of knowledge
• Observed his own children and others to develop
  theory of Stages of Cognitive Development

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PIAGET

• Noticed that even infants have certain skills in
  regard to objects in their environment, which
  directed the way in which the infant explored
  his or her environment and so how they gained
  more knowledge of the world and more
  sophisticated exploratory skills
• Piaget called these skills schemas (e.g.
  assimilation, accommodation)

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Piaget Cognitive Theory

• Constructivsim People are active processors of
  information Humans are actively involved in
  constructing their own knowledge from the
  information they received from the environment
• Knowledge can be described in terms of structures
  that change with development (schemas)

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Schemas

• Schema is the basic structure through which an
  individuals knowledge is mentally represented
• As children develop, new schemas emerge, and
  existing schemas are repeatedly practiced,
  occasionally modified and sometimes integrated
  with one another into cognitive structures
• The development of cognitive structures that
  govern logical reasoning structures that Piaget
  called operations

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Schemas

• Assimilation - knowledge that is similar to our
  previous learning or knowledge fitting new
  experience into an existing mental structure
  (schema)
• Accommodation - is making learning that is
  different from our previous framework fit with it
  revising an existing schema because of new
  experience
• Equilibrium seeking cognitive stability through
  assimilation and accommodation

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Piaget Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development results from the
  interactions that children have with their
  physical and social environments
• By interacting with the environment growing
  children develop and modify their schemas
• Young children are egocentric have difficulty
  understanding that others dont share their
  perspective of the world

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Piaget Cognitive Development

• The processes through which people interact with
  the environment remain constant
• People are intrinsically motivated to try to make
  sense of the world around them
• Cognitive development occurs in distinct stages,
  with thought processes at each stage being
  qualitatively different from those at other
  stages
• The rate of cognitive development is controlled
  to some extent by maturation (internally
  programmed rate of development nature)

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Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development
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Characteristics of the Stages

• Invariant sequence
• Universal (not culturally specific)
• Related to cognitive development
• Generalizable to other functions
• Stages are logically organized wholes
• Hierarchical nature of stage sequences (each
  successive stage incorporates elements of
  previous stages, but is more differentiated and
  integrated)
• Stages represent qualitative differences in modes
  of thinking, not merely quantitative differences

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Examples

• Object permanence children are able to form
  mental representations of objects that are not
  there
• Conservation properties of an object remain the
  same despite changes in appearance

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Lev Vygotsky

• Russian psychologist and philosopher in the
  1930s
• Social constructivist theory
• Emphasizes the influences of cultural and social
  contexts in learning and supports a discovery
  model of learning
• This model places the teacher in an active role
  while the students mental abilities develop
  naturally through various paths of discovery

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Vygotskys Theory

• Making meaning the community places a central
  role, and the people around the student greatly
  affect the way he or she sees the world
• Tools for cognitive development the type and
  quality of these tools (culture, language,
  important adults to the student) determine the
  pattern and rate of development

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Vygotskys Theory

• The Zone of Proximal Development problem
  solving skills of tasks can be placed into three
  categories
• Those performed independently by the learner
• Those that cannot be performed even with help
• Those that fall between the two extremes, the
  tasks that can be performed with help from others

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ZPD Zone of Proximal Development
VYGOTSKYS DEFINITION The distance between
the actual developmental level as determined by
independent problem solving and the level of
potential development as determined through
problem solving under adult guidance, or in
collaboration with more capable peers. ZPD is
the students range of ability with and without
assistance from a teacher or a more capable
peer.
?________________Zone of Proximal
Development_____________? Range of
Students ability level Students ability
Students ability level with assistance
level without assistance
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ZPD

• Challenging tasks promote maximum cognitive
  growth
• ZPD relates to the gap or difference between what
  the child can learn unaided and what he or she
  can learn with the help of an adult or a more
  capable peer
• Assisting the learner is known as scaffolding

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SCAFFOLDING

• The teacher should act as a scaffold, providing
  the minimum support necessary for a student to
  succeed according to ZPD theory.
• The challenge for the teacher, then, is to find
  the optimal balance between supporting the
  student and pushing the student to act
  independently.
• To effectively scaffold the student the teacher
  should stay one step ahead of the student, always
  challenging him or her to reach beyond his or her
  current ability level.
• However, if instruction falls outside of the zone
  (above or below) a students ZPD, no growth will
  occur.

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To Effectively Scaffold

• Teacher modeling behavior for the student
• Student imitating the teachers behavior
• Teacher fading out instruction
• Student practicing reciprocal teaching
  (scaffolding of others) until the skill is
  mastered by all students in the classroom

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METACOGNITION

• Metacognition is knowing what you know and how
  you know it and being able to explain it
• Metacognition allows the student to organize or
  construct their learning and make it fit with
  their previous knowledge
• The more skills students develop and the more
  they widen their repertoire, the greater their
  ability to master an even greater range of skills
  and strategies

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Knowledge Control of Self
Successful students are aware of, monitor, and
control their learning. Central to this knowledge
of self and self regulation are commitment,
attitudes, and attention. Commitment - Students
who choose to commit themselves to tasks align
Skill with will Attitude - Successful
students attribute their success to their own
efforts Attention - Conscious control of
attention helps students understand that the
level of attention required for a task varies
with the task and that they can adjust the focus
of their attention accordingly
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Knowledge Control of Process
Types of Knowledge Declarative information
factual and involves knowing the concepts of a
given task Procedural Knowledge refers to
information about how to apply metacognitive
strategies Conditional Knowledge is an
awareness of when and why one strategy may be
superior to another or more appropriate to
use
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Executive Control of Behavior

• Evaluation refers to students ongoing
  assessments of their knowledge or understanding,
  resources, tasks goals
• Planning involves the purposeful selection
  of strategies for specific tasks and is dependent
  on declarative and conditional knowledge
• Regulation includes the monitoring and revision
  of progress towards goals
• Evaluation, planning, and regulating should take
  place at, before, during and after stages of
  tasks.
• Teachers who identify and teach these components
  of tasks are helping students to exert
  metacognitive control over a process.