· What stages of development do the two children appear to be in? How would Piaget explain what is happening here?
The first child appears to be in the the pre-operational stage of Piaget's four stages of cognitive development while the girl is most likely in the concrete operational stage. The boy seems to exhibit what Piaget calls cent ration which is the inability for a child to focus on two dimensions at the same time. The young boy had a difficult time realizing how the first and second cards related to one another. The little boy understood that the glass would break if it were hit by a hammer and not by a feather because of experiences he has had in the past. The girl on the other hand was able to engage in what Piaget called two-way thinking by reflecting possible events and actions in the physical world. Although what the lady was telling the girl did not really make sense to her she was able to understand that she was not being given a real life instance.
· What sort of techniques could you use to teach each child? Why must the techniques differ?
The techniques must differ because the young boy and girl are in two different stages of their cognitive development. For the younger boy I would try to get him away from his one-way thinking and on to learning concrete materials and logical thinking. I would give him examples of situations and concrete evidence to why the answer is what it is. He needs to understand that not everything is going to be like his past experiences. The girl already exercises two-way thinking and just needs to start thinking more abstractedly and logic-mathematically. I would use techniques such as giving her math problems starting with simple math such as adding and subtracting. You do not want to push either of them too hard since they will both be new to the next stage of their life.
The reason why Piaget did not critique any of Vygotsky's work is because he never read any of them (Page 125).
ReplyDeletePiaget was a Swiss scientist and philosopher (therefore probably a very important man) where as Vygotsky was an educational psychologist. Piaget was focused on philosophy when he came up with these theories, whereas Vygotsky was more focused on the educational side of learning and development(Page 119).
This was an interesting comment. It seems I misinterpeted the stages when I watched the video. I thought the boy was in the formal operational stage because he was able to think outside of what the woman was telling him. Although I wasn't sure whether he was supposed to answer according to the given situation or according to the laws of physics in real life. I agree that teaching these two children should be taken slow. If they were to be pushed too hard out of their level of development it may end up hindering instead of helping their learning.
ReplyDelete*Blog post not "comment" in the first line
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on your standpoint on each child and what stage of development they were in. I wish that you could have backed up your choice of stages with a little more detail as to why you chose the stages you chose. Especially with the first child, he said a lot of important phrases and words that probably made you choose the stage that you did. On the other hand, the techniques that you chose to help the children in their specific stage were very detailed and would have helped the children succeed. You could have chose more specific techniques or exercises in your comment that you would have perhaps done in the classroom with each student.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your second paragraph, I think games could be very effective in the young boy's learning. From the scenario in the video, he obviously could not understand a premise or a set of rules other than those of the physical world. Take for example the simple game of tag. In the boy's normal concept of life, when someone touches him, he doesn't have to start chasing them around. But when he is with other children, and they designate that they want to play tag, he needs to understand a new set of rules. In the time that he plays tag, the boy is going to have different actions and responses than when he isn't engaging in the game of tag. Playing games like this will advance his development, and teach him the concept of two way thinking.
ReplyDeleteHow can you tell that the girl is not in formal operations?
ReplyDeleteI agree that there appears to be some form of centration. It seems to me that the boy can't hold the concept of 'feather' (cannot break glass) from his past experience in his mind at the same time as the new concept of 'feather' (CAN break glass) being introduced to him.
REMEMBER, Piaget believed that you CANNOT change a child's stage. In other words, you cannot make the boy think abstractly by giving him more advanced tasks (Vygotsky would disagree). Piaget would advise that you give him concrete (stage appropriate) tasks that would cause disequilibrium with his past experience. So, a video or visual scenario of a feather breaking a glass would be an example of this.