Blog Post 2, Cognitive Development

The young boy in the video seems to be in the pre-operational stage. He understood the concept of the glass breaking, despite the fact that there was no glass present. Piaget defines this as a "semiotic function" - the ability to represent an object (in this example, by language). This is an indicator the pre-operational stage. Also, he understood that the feather would not break the glass, even though he was told differently. He remembered what he knew about a feather, and applied that to the situation. This is another indicator of the pre-operational stage. However, he is not in the concrete operational stage because he hasn't acquired reasoning skills quite yet. Even though he was told that the feather would break the glass, he used one way thinking and automatically said that the feather wouldn't break it, even though given the information he was told, it would.

The girl in the video seems to be in the concrete operational stage. She used reasoning for her answer - she was told a feather would break the glass, therefore, if a feather hit the glass, it would break. She was able to use logical thinking, a good indicator of the concrete operational stage. I wouldn't, however, say she was at the formal operational stage yet, because she didn't display any abstract reasoning or search for any alternatives.

To foster both of these student's developmental stages, I would use different techniques. For the boy in the pre-operational stage, I would really hit home the concept of semiotic functions. I would use a lot of symbolism and language to represent things that weren't in the classroom., so they could really practice representing that object cognitively. Conservation games are always great for this stage, so they can begin to understand the concept and hopefully leave the stage with an understanding. For example, pouring water into two different cylinders (one fatter one and one taller one), and showing they have the same amount of water.

For the older, concrete-operational staged student, I'd focus on tasks that require reasoning skills to really hit home the concept of two way thinking. Math is always a great topic for this age - the concept of multiplying two numbers makes sense to them because of their reasoning skills. Rhythm, a musical concept that requires some mathematics, would be a good idea for this age group as well. I'd also begin to slowly bring in more abstract concepts, to begin the transition into the formal operational stage.

It's important to treat these stages differently, because they are different! Students who are in a lower stage will struggle with concepts of reasoning or abstract thought, whereas students who are in higher stages will quickly become bored or disinterested with lower stage activities such as conservation or object permanence. These stages are important to understand so that teachers they can accurately choose ways to promote learning in the classroom setting!