What is Development?
-Orderly, adaptive changes that occur in humans between conception and death and remain for long period of time
Physical development
-Changes in the body
Personal Development
-Changes in individual's personality
Social Development
-Changes over time in ways of relating to others
Cognitive Development
-Gradual orderly changes by which mental processes become more complex/sophisticated
Maturation
-Genetically programmed, naturally occurring changes over time
Three Questions Across the Theories
1)Nature v. nurture (heredity/biology v. environment/culture)
2)Continuity v. discontinuity in development
~Continuous, quantitative change compared to walking up a ramp to go higher; progress is steady
~Discontinuous, qualitative change compared to walki
General Principles of Development
-People develop at different rates
~Students of same age vary in size, maturity
-Development is relatively orderly
~Abilities develop in logical order: Babble before talking
-Development takes place gradually
~Not overnight, but over time
The Brain and Cognitive Development
Regions
-Cerebellum coordinates balance, skilled movements
-Hippocampus recalls new information, recent events
-Amygdala directs emotions
-Thalamus involved in verbal information and the ability to learn
Brain imaging techniques expand knowledge of brain
The Developing Brain: Neurons
-Neurons: Nerve cells; store and transmit information
~Processing capacity of small computer in each neuron
~Gray in color, called the brain's gray matter
~One-pound infant brain contains billions of neurons
-Neurogenesis: Production of new neurons
~Conti
Neurons and Synapses
-Components of a single neuron
~Dendrites bring messages to the neuron
~An axon sends messages to other cells
~2500 synapses per neuron at birth; increase in early life
-Neurons form network with other neurons
-Used neurons survive; unused neurons are pru
Glial Cells and Myelination
-Glial cells fill spaces between neurons
~White matter of the brain
~Many functions: Fight infection, control blood flow, communication among neurons, provide myelin coating
-Myelination: Process of coating axon neuron fibers
~Myelin coating: Fatty glial
The Developing Brain: Cerebral Cortex
-Regions develop at different rates
~First, area for physical motor movement
~Then areas for complex senses (vision, hearing)
~Then frontal lobe that controls higher-order thinking
~Temporal lobes develop later (emotions, judgment)
Lateralization
-Specialization of the two hemispheres of the brain cortex
~Left: Language processing
~Right: Spatial-visual, nonverbal information, emotions
-Mental activities require parts of brain to work together
~Right side better at figuring out meaning of a story
Adolescent Development and the Brain
Explanation: Limbic system and prefrontal cortex
-Limbic system develops earlier
~Involved with emotions, risk taking, pleasure seeking
-Prefrontal lobe takes more time
~Involved with judgment, decision making
How the brain works?
-All experiences sculpt the brain
-Brain always changing - plasticity
-Educational applications of neuroscience
~Many misapplications of neuroscience to education
~Can increase understanding of learning and development if applied correctly
~Advances under
Instruction and Brain Development
-Teaching can change organization and structure of brain
~Helps rehabilitate stroke victims to regain functioning
~Helps with adaptation in children's brains when one hemisphere is removed
-Brain research can explain why strategies for teaching reading ar
Lessons for Teachers: General Principles
1)Multiple ways to teach and learn a skill
2)Learners have preferred modes of processing
3)Active environments support cognitive development
4)Some learning disorders have neurological basis
5)Brain can change over time with teaching, reteaching
6)Life ex
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
-Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist, prodigy
~Developed model describing how humans make sense of world by gathering, organizing information
~Insightful descriptions of children's thinking, differences between adult and child thinking
-Three factors interact
Basic Tendencies in Thinking (All species inherit two)
-Organization: Arranging information into mental systems
~Schemes: Basic building blocks of thinking
-Adaptation: Adjustment to the environment
~Assimilation: Fit new information into existing schemes
~Accommodation: Alter existing schemes or create new o
Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development
-Sensorimotor: Age 0 to 2 years
~Act on the environment, learn object permanence
~Learn through reflexes, senses, movement
-Preoperational: Around age 2 to 7 years
~Develop language, think logically in one direction
-Concrete operational: Around age 6 or
Infancy: The Sensorimotor Stage
-Thinking involves seeing, hearing, moving, touch, taste
-Operations are carried out physically
-Develop object permanence
~Objects have a separate, permanent existence
~Beginning to construct mental representations
-Goal-directed actions: Deliberate acti
Early childhood to the Early Elementary Years: The Preoperational Stage
-Stage before child masters logical mental operations
-Ability to see actions carried out and reversed mentally
-Semiotic function: Use of symbols (language, pictures, gestures, signs) to represent actions/objects mentally
~Use language to represent objec
Guidelines: Helping Families Care for Preoperational Children
-Encourage families to use concrete props, visual aids
-Make instructions short, few steps. Use action words
~Model processes, then ask child to try
-Help children see world from another's point of view
~Think how other child feels, how they should be tre
Later Elementary to the Middle School Years: The Concrete-Operational Stage
-Mental tasks tied to concrete objects and situations
-Reasoning skills required to solve conservation problems
~Identity: Person or object remains same over time
~Compensation: Changes in one dimension can be offset by changes in another
~Reversibility:
Guidelines: Teaching the Concrete-Operational Child
-Use concrete props, visual aids
~Time lines, 3-D models, diagrams
-Allow to manipulate objects, hand-on experiments
-Use brief, well-organized presentations, readings
-Use familiar examples to explain more complex ideas
~Make relevant to their lives, the
High School and College: Formal Operations
-Abstract thinking, coordination of multiple of variables
-Level of thinking not reached by all high school students
-Thinking about thinking, thinking about mental operations
-Hypothetico-deductive reasoning ability
~Formal-operations problem-solving str
Guidelines: Helping Students to Use Formal Operations
-Use concrete-operational teaching strategies and materials
-Allow to explore many hypothetical questions
~Write position paper, debate social issues, create utopias
-Allow to solve problems and reason scientifically
~They design experiments to answer que
Information processing skills:
Attention, memory capacity, learning strategies
Executive functioning skills:
Focusing attention, inhibiting impulsive responses, planning, manipulating information
Neo-Piagetian theories: Information processing + Piaget
-Integrate findings about attention, memory, strategy with Piaget's insights about construction of knowledge
-Cognitive development stages are domain specific
~Practice using schemes in a domain leads to automaticity
-Learning a new skill goes through thr
Some Limitations of Piaget's Theory
Problems with the stage model
-Inconsistency in children's thinking
~Children conserve number before conserving weight
-Processes more gradual, continuous than they seem
~Not so much discontinuous qualitative leaps
-Piaget underestimated children's abilit
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Perspective
-Lev Vygotsky: Russian psychologist
~Believed human activities take place in cultural settings
~Social interactions shape cognitive development
~Major influence of his ideas in psychology and education
-Sociocultural theory: Emphasis on interactions betwe
Cultural Tools and Cultural Devlopment
Cultural Tools
-Tools that allow people to communicate, think, solve problems, create knowledge
~Real tools such as computers, plows, rulers
~Psychological tools such as symbol systems (numbers, language, graphs)
Children develop cultural tool kit by exch
The Role of Language and Private Speech
-Language and Cognitive Development
~Way to express ideas, ask questions, categorize concepts, link to past and future
-Private speech: Talk to self
~Piaget called it collective monologue, egocentric speech
>Collective monologue: Children talking in a gro
The Zone of Proximal Development
-Phase at which a child can master a task if given appropriate help and support
~Area between child's current performance and what child could achieve with adult guidance
~Area in which instruction can succeed�not too hard or too easy
-Private speech and
Role of Learning and Development
Piaget
-Development is active construction of knowledge
-Learning is passive formation of associations, must wait for readiness
-Learning is subordinated to development
Vygotsky
-Learning is an active process, a tool in development, does not have to wait
Limitations of Vygotsky's Theory
-Humans are likely born with more cognitive tools than Vygotsky or Piaget recognized
-Young children make sense of aspects of their world before having chance to learn from culture or teachers
-Theory consists of general ideas
~Vygotsky died at age 38 bef
Implications of Piaget's and Vygotsky's Theories for Teachers
Learning from Piaget
-Teach how to learn; children construct their own knowledge
-Listen/observe to understand children's thinking to match teaching methods to children's abilities
-Keep disequilibrium just right to encourage growth
-Actively engage stude
Strategies to Provide Scaffolding
-Model thought process for students
-Use organizers, starters (who, what, why, how, what next)
-Do part of the problem with students
-Give hints, cues
-Encourage short-term goals, small steps
-Connect new learning to interests, prior knowledge
-Use graphi
Guildelines: Applying Vygotsky's Ideas in Teaching
-Tailor scaffolding to students' needs
-Give students access to tools that support thinking
-Build on students' cultural funds of knowledge
~Tie assignments to family/community knowledge/skills
-Capitalize on dialogue and group learning
~Peer tutoring, co
Cognitive Development: Lessons for Teachers
Convergences of thought about cognitive development
-Requires both physical and social stimulation
-Involves mental, physical, linguistic activity (experiment, describe, discuss, reflect, write, solve problems)
-What students already know is boring; what