Life Span Development The School Years: Cognitive Development Chapter 12 Psychosocial Development Ch

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Life Span DevelopmentThe School
YearsCognitive Development Chapter
12Psychosocial Development Chapter 13

• July 15 2004
• Class 11

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Building on Piaget and Vygotsky

• Concrete Operational Thought
• Piagets 3rd stage
• children reason logically about the things and
  events that they perceive
• Vygotsky did not believe the child was a socially
  isolated learner
• instruction by others is crucial

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Logical Principles

• Classification
• Identity
• Reversibility
• Reciprocity

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Logical Principles

• Classifying Objects Ideas and People
• Classificationprocess of organizing things into
  groups according to some shared property
• Children have an understanding categories can be
  any of the following
• hierarchical
• overlapping
• separate
• Children that can categorize can analyze
  problems derive correct solutions and ask
  follow-up questions

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Logical Principles

• Identity Reversibility and Reciprocity
• identitythe idea that certain characteristics of
  an object remain the same even if other
  characteristics change
• reversibilitythe idea that sometimes an object
  that has been changed can be returned to its
  original state by reversing the process by which
  it was changed
• Reciprocity occurs when 2 things change in
  opposite ways in order to balance each other out
  e.g. conservation experiment with liquid

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Logical Principles

• Identity Reversibility and Reciprocity
• all three concepts are relevant to mathematical
  processes
• these concepts can be (but are not always)
  applied to everyday social encounters

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Logic and Culture

• Piagets ideas still remain logical
• research shows that sometimes older children may
  make mistakes when applying new logic
• Vygotskys premise is that added to Piagets
  ideas the social cultural context of learning is
  important
• Most research in U.S. and England
• but in Brazil research has shown that street
  children who do not attend school can still think
  in complex ways and that a special relationship
  exists between thinking and experience

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Moral Development

• Focus is on Kohlbergs theory
• built on Piagets theory and research theory
  describes moral developmental stages

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Lawrence Kohlberg(1927-1987)

• Lawrence Kohlberg was for many years a
  professor at Harvard University
• He became famous for his work there beginning in
  the early 1970s
• He started as a developmental psychologist and
  then moved to the field of moral education

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Adolescents and MoralityKohlbergs Stages of
Moral Reasoning

• Kohlberg believed...and was able to demonstrate
  through studies...that people progressed in their
  moral reasoning (ethical behavior) through a
  series of stages
• He believed that there were six identifiable
  stages which could be more generally classified
  into three levels

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Level I Preconventional Morality

• Level I
• Typical of most children under the age of nine
  behavior tends to be selfish in nature
• Stage 1
• Moral values reside in external events (bad acts)
• The child is responsive to rules and evaluative
  labels but views them in terms of pleasant or
  unpleasant consequences of actions or in terms
  of the physical power of those who impose the
  rules
• Very selfish may do things just to stay out of
  trouble
• Obedience and punishment orientation or to gain
  concrete rewards
• Stage 2
• Basically the same as in stage one as bottom line
  is to satisfy ones own needs but occasionally
  others as well

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Level II Conventional Morality

• Level II
• By early adolescence moral values reside in
  performing the right role in maintaining the
  conventional order and expectancies of others as
  a value in its own right uphold laws and social
  order
• Stage 3 Good-boy/good-girl orientation
• Orientation to approval to pleasing and helping
  others
• Conformity to stereotypical images of majority or
  natural role behavior
• Action is evaluated in terms of intentions
• Stage 4 Authority and social-order-maintaining
  orientation
• Orientation to doing duty and to showing
  respect for authority and maintaining the given
  social order for its own sake

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Level III Postconventional Morality

• Level III
• Abstract reasoning that not everyone develops
• Stage 5
• Morality is defined in terms of institutionalized
  rules that have a rational basis
• Society vs. Individual (any conflict favors
  society)
• Stage 6
• The standards conformed to are internal and
  action-decisions are based on an inner process of
  thought and judgment concerning right and wrong
• Social laws are very important but conscience is
  what dictates behavior not what others might
  think
• Society vs. Individual (any conflict favors
  individual)

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The Heinz Dilemma Scenario 1

• A woman was near death from a unique kind of
  cancer. There is a drug that might save her. The
  drug costs 4000 per dosage. The sick womans
  husband Heinz went to everyone he knew to
  borrow the money and tried every legal means but
  he could only get together about 2000. He asked
  the doctor scientist who discovered the drug for
  a discount or let him pay later. But the doctor
  scientist refused.
• Should Heinz break into the laboratory to steal
  the drug for his wife Why or why not

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The Heinz Dilemma Scenario 2

• Heinz broke into the laboratory and stole the
  drug. The next day the newspapers reported the
  break-in and theft. Brown a police officer and a
  friend of Heinz remembered seeing Heinz last
  evening behaving suspiciously near the
  laboratory. Later that night he saw Heinz
  running away from the laboratory.
• Should Brown report what he saw Why or why not

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The Heinz Dilemma Scenario 3

• Officer Brown reported what he saw. Heinz was
  arrested and brought to court. If convicted he
  faces up to two years in prison. Heinz was found
  guilty.
• Should the judge sentence Heinz to prison Why or
  why not

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Dilemma II The case of the promised rock
concert

• Scene 1
• Judy is a 16-year-old girl. Her mother promised
  her that she could go to a special rock concert
  coming to their town if she saved up from
  baby-sitting and lunch money to buy a ticket to
  the concert.
• Judy managed to save up the fifteen dollars (the
  ticket cost) plus another twenty dollars and
  proudly told her mother she had enough saved to
  have a good time at the concert. Her mother
  said great this shows what you can do when you
  put your mind to it.
• But later that same evening her mother read a
  front page article on the dangers of the upcoming
  concerthow there would be a bad element
  present doing drugs. It was also mentioned that
  tattoos and piercings would be taking place as
  well.
• She called Judy and Judys 17 year-old sister in
  for a family meeting and for nearly an hour
  lectured on the evils of drugs sex and rock and
  roll.
• She told Judy that she had to spend the money on
  new clothes for school instead.
• What Kohlberg stage is Judys mother at Why

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Dilemma II The case of the promised rock
concert

• Scene 2
• The next day Judy screamed at her mother calling
  her a liar that should never be trusted
• The strong-willed Judy later decided to go to the
  concert anyway.
• That Saturday she told her mother she was
  forgiven that she was spending the day with a
  friend going shopping.
• In reality Judy and her friend went to the
  performance and had a great time
• A week passed without her mother finding out.
• In confidence Judy then told her older sister
  Louise that she had gone to the concert and had
  lied to her mother about it. Louise wonders
  whether to tell their mother what Judy did.
• What Kohlberg stage is Judy at Why
• If Judys sister was at the top level what would
  her actions be Why
• Portions of previouss taken from
  http//www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/kohlbe
  rg.dilemmas.html

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Kolhbergs Critics

• Kohlbergs basic scheme has been replicated but
  his ideas have been widely criticized
• Three Major Criticisms
• flawed research methods
• hierarchy biased in favor of Western elite
• moral development of women ignored

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Kolhbergs Critics

• Criticism 1 Methodology To avoid Kohlbergs
  cumbersome methodology James Rest devised
  Defining Issues Test (DTI) a questionnaire that
  measures moral thinking by asking people to read
  various dilemmas and then rank 12 statements as
  possible resolutions for each statement
• DIT confirms validity of Kohlbergs three levels

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Kolhbergs Critics

• Criticism 2 Cultural Differences
• research suggests that in non-Western cultures
  preeminent values are different from western
  ones making it harder for non-Westerners to
  score at Kolbergs preconventional level
• research suggests that Kohlbergs hierarchy may
  underestimate reasoning capacity of some
  school-age children in some cultures

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Kolhbergs Critics

• Criticism 3 Gender Issues
• Carol Gilligan (1982)
• females develop more of a morality of carea
  reluctance to judge right and wrong in absolute
  terms because they are socialized to be
  nurturant compassionate nonjudgmental
• males develop more of a morality of justicea
  tendency to emphasize justice over compassion
  judging right and wrong in absolute terms

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Overall Limitations to Kohlbergs Theory

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• Levels 1 and 2 appear universal Level 3 does not
  
• Moral judgments in some cultures do not fit into
  Kohlbergs stages
• Gender and Morality
• Men concerned with the abstract impersonal
  concept of justice
• Females concerned with protecting enduring caring
  relationships and fulfilling human needs

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Information Processing

• Piagets and Vygotskys theories in relation to
  moral development
• both recognize ages 7 to 11 are time for moral
  growth
• children eager to develop moral values in stages
  (Kohlberg inspired by Piaget)
• or in response to cultural norms (Vygotsky and
  Gilligan)

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Information Processing

• Information Processing Theory
• processes by which the mind
• analyses
• stores
• retrieves
• Mind is like a computer
• capacity can be upgraded with development

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Memory

• Sensory memory aka sensory registerstores
  incoming stimulus for split second then sends it
  on
• sensations become perceptions
• Working (short-term) memorywhere your current
  conscious mental activity occurs
• Long-term memorystores information for minutes
  hours days months years

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Speed of Processing

• Older children are quicker thinkers than younger
  children
• Thinking speed continues to increase throughout
  adolescence
• Automatization helps free up thoughts for speed
  of processing

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Knowledge Base

• Knowledge basebroad body of knowledge in a
  particular subject area that makes it easier to
  master new learning in that area
• Connections between bits of information improve
  as the knowledge base expands

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Control Processes

• Control processesregulate the analysis and flow
  of information within the system
• helped by maturation of prefrontal cortex

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Selective Attention

• Selective attentionability to concentrate on
  relevant information and disregard distractions
• Memory and thought depend on this ability
• focusing on what needs to be remembered
• Improved control
• emotional regulation shows it

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Metacognition

• Thinking about ones thoughts
• Older children approach cognitive tasks more
  strategically and analytically

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The Pragmatics of Language

• Pragmaticsusing language fluently in many types
  of situations from play through school years
  distinguished by
• logic
• memory
• ability to make connections between one bit of
  knowledge and another

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Teaching and Learning

• Worldwide many ideological debates swirl around
  the content and practice of elementary education
• A review of practices in 5 cultures found
• discrepancy between expressed claim and observed
  reality

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Which Curriculum

• Intended curriculumcontent political and
  educational leaders decide to endorse
• Implemented curriculumwhat teachers and school
  administrators actually offer
• Attained curriculumwhat students actually learn

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Which Curriculum

• Hidden curriculumunspoken and often unrecognized
  lessons children learn in school
• organization and schedule arise from hidden
  curriculum
• e.g. classroom size

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The Reading Wars

• Phonics
• Whole language
• Reading Warsclashes over these two methods of
  teaching children to read

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Phonics Versus Whole Language

• Phonics approachteaching reading by requiring
  children to learn the sounds of each letter
  before they begin to decipher simple words

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Phonics Versus Whole Language

• Whole-language approachteaching reading by
  encouraging children to develop all their
  language skills talking and listening reading
  and writingall with the goal of communication

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The Socioeconomic Divide

• Language development reading attainment
  correlate with socioeconomic status
• the lower the family income the less developed a
  childs vocabulary and grammar
• Crucial factor seems to be actual exposure to
  language (children exposed to language at home
  will have larger vocabularies)
• vocabulary size the best predictor of school
  achievement and overall intelligence

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The Math Wars

• Math and science are key areas in which children
  should be ready for the challenges of the future
• gains in U.S. have faded
• Traditionally taught through rote learning
• children came to hate math taught this way

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The Math Wars

• New curriculum developed that teaches
• concepts problem solving estimating and
  probability
• this approach may be working
• proportion of 4th graders who were proficient
  doubled (26)

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The Math Wars

• Technology is another area of controversy
• Specifically computers
• digital dividegap between rich and poor in
  computer access
• students in U. S. twice as likely to use
  computers in math and science than students in
  other nations . . . but our math and science
  scores relatively low

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Bilingual Education

• Learning a 2nd language
• best time to be taught it is in middle childhood

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Various Approaches

• Total immersionapproach that teaches a second
  language in which instruction occurs entirely in
  that language and the learners language is not
  used at all

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Attitudes and Achievement

• Success or failure in 2nd language learning seems
  to lie in the attitude of
• teachers
• parents
• the larger community
• Additive bilingualismboth languages valued and
  used
• Semilingualneither language learned well