what will you know? - napa valley college 120...piaget: preoperational thought four limitations of...
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WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?
Are young children selfish or just self-
centered?
Do children get confused if they hear two
languages?
Is preschool for play or learning?
Thinking During Early Childhood
Piaget: Preoperational intelligence
• Occurs between the ages of about 2 and 6
• Suggests thinking occurs in symbols, not just
via senses and motor skills (symbolic thought)
• Includes language, imagination, animism
Piaget: Preoperational Thought
Four limitations of preoperational thought that make logic difficult until about age 6.
Centration• Includes characteristic of preoperational thought
whereby a young child focuses (centers) on one idea, excluding all others; may include egocentrism
Focus on appearance• Characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a
young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent
Piaget: Preoperational Thought
Static reasoning
• Characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a
young child thinks that nothing changes. Whatever
is now has always been and always will be.
Irreversibility
• Characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a
young child thinks that nothing can be undone. A
thing cannot be restored to the way it was before a
change occurred.
Piaget: Preoperational Thought
All four characteristics of preoperational thought are evident in classic conservation task errors.
Young children fail to understand conservation of liquids because they focus (center) on what they see (appearance) noticing only the immediate (static) condition.
It does not occur to them that they could reverse the process and re-create the liquid’s level of a moment earlier (irreversibility).
Piaget: Preoperational Thought
Conservation– Principle that the amount of a substance remains the same (i.e.,
is conserved) when its appearance changes.
Demonstration of Conservation. Sarah, here at age 5., demonstrates
Piaget's conservation-of-liquids experiment.
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Piaget: Preoperational Thought
Limitations of Piaget’s research
• Piagetian conservation tasks require words.
• Modification of tasks resulted in better
performance of younger children.
• Piaget underestimated cognition during early
childhood.
Vygotsky: Social Learning
Vygotsky: Social learning• Every aspect of children's cognitive development is
embedded in the social context.
Apprentice in thinking• Someone whose intellectual growth is stimulated and
directed by older and more skilled members of society
Mentors• Present challenges
• Offer assistance (without taking over)
• Add crucial information
• Encourage motivation
Vygotsky: Social
Learning
Guided participation• Process by which people
learn from others who guide
their experiences and
explorations
Zone of proximal
development (ZPD)• Skills that a person can
exercise only with assistance,
not yet independently
Words Fail Me
Could you describe how to tie
shoes?
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Vygotsky: Social
Learning
Scaffolding• Temporary support that is
tailored to a learner's needs and
abilities and aimed at helping the
learner master the next task in a
given learning process.
• A large, attractive abacus could
be a scaffold. However in this toy
store, the position of the balls
suggests that no mentor is
nearby.
• Children are unlikely to grasp the
number system without a
motivating guide.
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Vygotsky: Social Learning
Overimitation
• Tendency of children to copy an action that is
not a relevant part of the behavior to be learned
• Common among 2- to 6-year-olds when they
imitate adult actions that are irrelevant and
inefficient
Vygotsky: Language As a Tool
Words are the mediator between brain potential and comprehension.
Language advances thinking
• Internal dialogue or private speech
• Social mediation
STEM learning (science, technology, engineering, math)
• Practical use of Vygotsky’s theory
• Examples: Math learning
Vygotsky: Language As a Tool
Words enable many children between 2 and 6
to learn math.
• Using one-to-one correspondence
• Remembering time and dates
• Understanding sequence
• Knowing what numbers are higher than others
Children’s Theories
Theory-theory
• Children attempt to explain everything they see
and hear.
• Theories do not appear randomly.
• Children develop theories about intentions
before they employ their impressive ability to
imitate.
Children’s Theories
Theory of mind• Involves person's theory
of what other people might be thinking
• Is slow to develop but typically beginning in most children at about age 4
• Can be seen when young children try to escape punishment by lying
Candies in the Crayon Box
Any one would expect crayons in a
crayon box, but once a child sees
that candy is inside, he expects that
everyone else will also know that
candies are inside!
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Brain and Context
What strengthens theory of mind in young
children?
• Child's ability to develop theories correlates with the
maturity of the prefrontal cortex and with advances in
executive processing.
• Context and experience are relevant.
• Context and culture matter.
Is Child Testimony Accurate?
• People of all ages misremember.
• Young children do not have adult-like
stereotypes, but they may confuse a variety of
other things.
• False ideas can be created with words and
expressions.
Brain and Context
Child’s ability to develop theories
Correlates with neurological maturation
Correlates with advances in executive processing
Language Learning
Language is pivotal to every kind of
cognition in early childhood.
• Early childhood is a sensitive period or best
time to master vocabulary, grammar, and
pronunciation.
• The average child knows about 100-2000 words
at age 2 and more than 5000 to 30000 at age 6.
Language Learning
Vocabulary explosion
• Vocabulary builds quickly and comprehension is greater than production.
• Verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and many nouns are mastered.
Fast-mapping• Speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which
children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning
Characteristic or Achievement in First
Language
Let’s take a closer look at vocabulary,
sentence length, grammar, and questions.
• Age 2 years
• Age 3 years
• Age 4 years
• Age 6 year
Words and the Limits of Logic
Logical extension
• Closely related to fast-mapping
• Occurs when children use word to
describe other objects in same category
• Bilingual children often use code-
switching.
Language Learning
Grammar of a language• Structures, techniques, and rules that communicate meaning
• Word order and word repetition, prefixes and suffixes, intonation and emphasis
Overregularization• Application of rules of grammar even when exceptions occur
• Makes language seem more “regular" than it actually is
Pragmatics• Practical use of language that includes the ability to adjust
language communication according to audience and context
Learning Two Languages
Language-minority children
• Lower school achievement, diminished self-
esteem, and inadequate employment
• Both languages sited in the same areas of their
brains
• Adult second language learners usually show
different activation sites for each language and
are slowed down.
Mastering English: The
Younger, the Better
Mastering English: The Younger, the Better
Of all the schoolchildren whose home language is not English, this is the proportion who, according to their parents, speak English well.
Immigrant children who attend school almost always master English within five years.
Should a Nation Have One Official
Language?
Positions
1. National unity is threatened by language-minority speakers.
2. International understanding is crucial and everyone should speak several languages.
Which position is best? Justify you response.
Language Losses and Gains
Language shifts
• Becoming more fluent in the school language
than in their home language
Balanced bilingual
• Being fluent in two languages, not favoring one
over the other
• Occurs if adults talk frequently, listen carefully,
and value both languages
Strategies and Experiences to Support
Literacy Learning
• Code-focused teaching
• Book reading
• Parent education
• Language enhancement
• Preschool programs
Early Childhood Education
Homes and schools
• Quality matters.
• If the home educational environment is poor, a good preschool program aids health, cognition, and social skills.
• If a family provides extensive learning opportunities and encouragement, the quality of the preschool is less crucial.
Early Childhood Education
Child-centered programs
• Stress children's natural inclination to learn through
play rather than by following adult directions.
• Encourage self-paced exploration and artistic
expression.
• Show the influence of Vygotsky, who thought that
children learn through play with other children and
through cultural practices that structure life.
Early Childhood
Education
Child-centered
programs
• Montessori schools
emphasize individual
pride and
accomplishment,
presenting literacy-
related tasks (such as
outlining letters and
looking at books). ELIZ
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Early Childhood Education
Teacher-directed programs• Stress academic subjects taught by a teacher to an
entire class
• Help children learn letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, as well as how to listen to the teacher and sit quietly
• Make a clear distinction between work and play
• Are much less expensive, since the child/adult ratio can be higher
Learning from One
Another
Every nation creates its
own version of early
education.
In this scene at a
nursery school in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, note
the head coverings,
uniforms, and distance
between sexes.
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Comparing Child-Centered and Teacher-
Directed
Most child-centered programs
• Advocate child-centered programs
• Believe learning comes from within
• Resist legislative standards and academic tests
• Argue social skills and creative play are essential
Most teacher-directed programs
• Instruct, rather than facilitate learning
• Are more consistent in beliefs and behaviors
• Are often influenced by parents who want academic skills and respect for authority to be taught
Early Childhood
Education
Intervention programs: Head Start
• Most widespread early-childhood education program in the United States
• Begun in 1965 and funded by the federal government
• Initially, the program was thought to be highly successful at raising children's intelligence; ten years later, early gains were found to fade © J
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Long-Term Gains from Intensive Programs
Early intervention is effective if it is
sufficiently intense and involves effective
teachers.
Evidence
• Perry(High/Scope)
• Abecedarian
• Child-Parent Centers