After reading and learning about Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development I was left with a lot of questions. I understand that there are certain tasks and knowledge that one must achieve before being promoted to the next stage but I do not completely understand when you know a student has fully reached the next level of cognitive development. Each and every student has their own way and pace in which they learn and I do not see how every two-year old could possibly go from the sensorimotor stage to the pre-operational stage at the same time as one another. Is there a possibility that Piaget’s theory on the Stages of Cognitive Development may be too vague? Module seven does not discuss students with learning disabilities. Do Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development include students with a learning disability?
Unfortunately for mothers and fathers a child cannot form words to tell them when they are hungry, thirsty, tired, etc. One scenario in which a child would be demonstrating internalization is the gesture or formation of words telling their parents that they need or want something. If a child is sat in a high chair every day when it is time for them to eat, he/she will eventually catch on to the fact that their high chair means they are going to be fed. When the child takes the next step of realizing that instead of crying about being hungry they should instead crawl over or point to the high chair hoping to signal to their parents that he/she is hungry, they are demonstrating internalization.
It's fine that you have a lot of questions about Piaget, but try to think of some confusions or questions that you may ask about Vygotsky or grouping. Even if you don't post them here, it's an important method of processing what you're reading.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that Piaget's stages have boundaries that are much more fuzzy than the ages listed. That's the biggest piece of criticism of Piaget, and I think that Piaget himself would acknowledge it if asked.... However, the stages are really just descriptions of particular kinds of thinking that children exhibit. If you think about it in this way, generally, children do move through those kinds of thinking in that order (at their own pace). There is no test to determine which stage a child is ABSOLUTELY within. You can only observe them or interact with them while trying to determine their capacity to think in particular ways. You could see whether they show object conservation, or if they are able to think abstractly. Also, one child may appear to be in a more advanced stage for ONE task, while appearing to be in a lower stage for another. Again, the stages can be useful just as descriptors. Also, it's important to learn from Piaget that some children don't have the CAPACITY to think in particular (abstract) ways, and it's the teacher's job to recognize this and change instruction to a more appropriate level.
I like your example of internalization. I think this is a good way of describing the child internalizing the meaning of the high chair, and using it as a way of communicating his internal state of hunger. Your description gets very close to something like Behaviorism (which we will talk about next week) if you're saying the child associates the chair with food.... This is not how Vygotsky would describe things.