Module 7: Post 2

In this video there are two situations being shown here, a little boy and a older girl. The little boy is going through the pre-operational stage. During this stage children go through what is called semiotic formation. Semiotic formation is the ability to represent an object or item with signs of symbols. He is using semiotic formation because he knows that a hammer is heavy and a feather is light. He understands that a hammer will break a glass, but when told that a feather will break a glass he uses his semiotic formation and knows that a feather is light and will not break the glass, even though he was just told that the feather will break the glass. He is using his own cognitive knowledge to answer the question, and is not obtaining the information he was just told. Pre-operational thinkers only have a one-way thinking strain so it is difficult for the boy to believe that feather can break glass when in reality it cannot. It is important for teachers to always teach both sides of information to students even though that in reality one may or may not be true. The girl on the other hand is in the concrete operational stage of development. In this stage students are able to have a two way thinking strategy. So, unlike the boy the girl is able to respond correctly to the card when asked what happens when the feather hits the glass, it breaks, because stated before the glass will break when the feather hits it. Students at this stage are able to reverse information even though it may not be correct. For students in this stage students should use a more complex way of teaching and always have students question both sides of everything they are taught. Even though if it doesn't make sense, students can understand more fully why it doesn't then not considering it at all.