Question

Do you think that there is any connection between the cognitive shifts that children make between about five and seven years of age and the fact that most cultures with formal education systems begin children's schooling at this age period? Are these shifts continuous or discontinuous?

To answer this question, address the following points, some of which are covered in detail in one of Watson's lectures:

Detail the many shifts that occur between five and seven years of age.

Talk about the cognitive characteristics of the end product, the child in the concrete operational stage.

Discuss the differences between the preschooler (age 3-5) and the school age (age 7-11) child in terms of how they think differently.

Speculate as to why this shift might or might not make children ready for school.

Are these shifts continuous, as Bandura would assert, or they discontinuous, as Piaget believed? Defend your answer.

Answer 1

Jean Piaget, believed that every individual goes through four stages in life that shapes their cognitive development. The four stages being; sensorimotor stage (0-2 years), preoperational stage (2-7 years), concrete operational stage (7-11 years) and finally the formal operational stage (11-adulthood).

An individual at birth, in the first stage of cognitive development only relies on his reflexes. It is during the course of time that he learns to imitate actions. It's during this stage that he assimilates and accommodates new information which reflects in his thinking process. It is in the second stage of development, preoperational stage, that a child learns to use language, symbol and gestures for cognitive development. At concrete operational stage an individual is egocentric, It does not mean that he/she is selfish but they focus only on their feelings and thoughts and feel that everybody else around them feel and think the same way. The final stage of cognitive development is the formal operational stage where an individual is capable of making logical decisions and solving abstract problems in a more systematic and logical way.

In the preoperational stage, a child lacks to understand relational terms like, lighter, bigger and softer. For instance, there are two lumps of clay, both weighing the same in weight and volume. The first lump of clay is flattened to make it look like a giant cookie while the second lump is made into a small hill. When the child is asked whether do both the lumps of clay measure and weigh the same? The child suggests otherwise and says no. A child at the preoperational stage clearly does not understand relational terms that when the shape changes, the properties do not change. However, this stage shows cognitive growth, as in the sensorimotor stage, a child only learns the concept of object permanance.

The child in the concrete operational stage comes to understand 'reversibility', which suggests that 'physical changes can be undone by a reversal of the original action. For instance, there are two beakers kept, one is wider and shorter, the other is longer and slender. The child at concrete operational stage, comes to the understanding that the volume of water is the same irrespective of whichever beaker it is kept in. Just because the slender beaker looks longer, does not mean that it contains more water than the wider beaker.

Also, at the concrete operational stage, children begin to indulge in 'logical thought'. For instance, if a child is asked 'why did his father go to work?', the child replies back with a logical answer, 'because he is the breadwinner of the house'. Younger children would have had a different answer illogical answer like, 'he goes to meet his friends'.

There are massive shifts that occur in the cognitive development of a child as he grows older.