Lifespan Development- Chapter 12

A federal project measuring achievement in reading, mathematics, and other subjects is the:

National Assessment of Educational Progress.

You are going to be watching video clips of three children of different ages as they perform the balance scale task. Notice the differences in the ways in which they approach the task while also noting whether they are able to solve the task. Our first children are 3-year-old Averi and 4-year-old Molly (although Averi does not say much). These girls are still in Piaget's preoperational stage of reasoning. Based on what you have learned in this activity, can you predict how Molly will perform on this task?

Now, compare the response of our next child, Lisle, an 8-year-old in Piaget's concrete operational stage. Note the differences in the way in which he approaches the task as compared to Molly's responses. Based on what you have learned in this activity, can you predict how Lisle will perform on this task?

The basic assumption of the information-processing perspective and subsequent research compares human thinking processes to _____.

computers

According to Jean Piaget, the stage of thinking that is characteristic of middle childhood is the _____ stage.

concrete operational

Jean Piaget's term for the ability to reason logically about direct experiences is "_____ thought."

concrete operational

Information processing theorists such as Robert Siegler have suggested that children can better and more quickly develop mathematic skills such as multiplication and division if children practice estimation through practicing on a _____.

number line

It is pretty clear to anyone who has watched a parent trying to reason with a young child having a meltdown in the supermarket that a four-year-old's reasoning abilities are significantly different from those of a 14-year-old. Jean Piaget and Bärbel Inhelder used a variety of elementary physics problems to explore children's reasoning and to study how this reasoning develops with age. One of their most interesting tasks has become known as the balance scale problem or the balance scale task. This challenge involves placing weights at various locations on a balance sale and then asking children to predict whether the scale will balance or tip one way or the other. Balance scales have several different styles. Some balance scales have pegs, and others have simple placement markers. In either case, all of the pegs or placement markers are spaced at equal distances from each other and equal distances from the fulcrum. All of the weights are identical. Try your hand at balancing the scale. How quickly can you figure out a formula for how to balance the scale? Click and drag the weights to any of the scale's pegs. You have up to 10 weights to place where ever you like. To start again, click the RESET button.

Take a look at this balance scale. Given the weights in these positions, will the scale balance or will it tip to the right or to the left? If you think that it will balance, press the equal sign under the fulcrum. If you think that the right side of the scale will go down, press the downward-pointing arrow under the right side of the scale. If you think that the left side of the scale will go down, press the downward-pointing arrow under the left side of the scale.

e top three countries listed on the 2011 Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMSS) were Singapore (1st), Hong Kong (2nd), and South Korea (3rd). The United States was ranked _____.

11th

Like computers, people can access large amounts of information. People then do all of the following with this information EXCEPT:

A. seek specific units of information. B. use this information to seek self-actualization. C. express their conclusions so that another person can understand. D. analyze the information. Answer: B

The balance scale problem is an excellent way to analyze a child's ability to use logical reasoning because it tests whether he/she can predict the outcome accurately while also offering researchers an opportunity to observe the explanation that the child uses to justify his/her prediction. The original research by Piaget and Inhelder found consistent age differences in performance on the balance scale task. More recently, these differences have been studied in detail by developmental psychologist, Robert Siegler. Please keep in mind that while research has revealed age parameters that generally mark different reasoning abilities, children, their brains, their experiences, and their development are unique, so please think of the age brackets as general guidelines. Young children under the age of six generally do not understand how to balance the scale. If you ask them to balance the scale, they place the weights at random, sometimes putting all the weights on the same side of the fulcrum! Children in elementary school realize that in order to balance the scale, there must be weights on both sides of the fulcrum. Until about age nine, children tend to focus only on weight and ignore the influence of the weights' distance from the fulcrum. When you ask them to predict whether the scale will balance, they generally guess that the side with more weights will tip down regardless of the position of the weights.

By the time children reach middle school, they generally can balance the scale if allowed to place the weights themselves. They tend to use a trial-and-error approach because they still do not completely understand the relationship between weight and distance even though they take both weight and distance into account. However, they do make errors when asked to predict whether a scale with weights placed by someone else will balance, and furthermore, they have trouble explaining how the scale works. Teens older than about 14 or 15 generally can anticipate the correct position for the weight needed to balance the scale without touching it. They demonstrate formal operational thinking by recognizing that weight and distance interact and can repeatedly solve the balance scale problem by understanding exactly how weight and distance are related.

Jean Piaget's term for the ability to reason logically about direct experiences is called _____ operational thought.

Concrete

Look at the weights on this balance scale. Will this scale balance or will it tip to the right or to the left? If you think that it will balance, press the equal sign under the fulcrum. If you think that the right side of the scale will go down, press the downward-pointing arrow under the right side of the scale. If you think that the left side of the scale will go down, press the downward-pointing arrow under the left side of the scale.

Consider the weights in this third balance scale problem, will the scale balance or will it tip to the right or to the left? If you think that it will balance, press the equal sign under the fulcrum. If you think that the right side of the scale will go down, press the downward-pointing arrow under the right side of the scale. If you think that the left side of the scale will go down, press the downward-pointing arrow under the left side of the scale.

Glenda does not speak English and is placed in a class with intensive English instruction so that she can be educated in the same classroom as native English speakers. This type of class is called _____.

ESL

Experts agree that school-age children have a great capacity to learn. This is fueled by their emerging concrete operational thinking. Mastery of logical principles, including conservation, classification, identity, reversibility, and reciprocity, are first grasped between ages 5 and 7 and then more securely between ages 7 and 11. Across the globe, school-age children use this thinking to better learn concepts, ideas, and skills that are valued by their cultures. Governments and schools select what should be taught, for how many years, by and to whom, and with what type of funding. The content and context of schooling is influenced, in part, by the curriculum, but curriculum is more than the formal, written, instructional agenda that guides children's experiences in school. It also contains a hidden entity.

Hidden curriculum is the unspoken and often unrecognized lessons that children learn when they are in school and when they are excluded from school. It refers to the kind of covert lessons and learning children derive from the very nature and organizational design of the educational environment and enrollment policies as well as the behaviors, expectations, and attitudes of parents, teachers, administrators, and the larger society (Wilson, 2007). When any group of children is under-represented or prohibited from attending school, this is a powerful and sobering message to all children!

Social scientists distinguish between sex differences, which are the biological differences between males and females, and gender differences, which are the culturally-imposed differences in the roles and behaviors of males and females. Every society has fundamental values and attitudes regarding preferred behavior for men and women. Every culture teaches these values and attitudes to their young. Even though the particular tasks assigned to males and females vary from one society to another, this passing down of values, attitudes, and knowledge of skills and tasks helps young children to establish a gender identity in the context of their culture. Play the video to learn about two girls from Bangladesh and Mali.

The sociocultural perspective suggests that many traditional cultures emphasize easily recognized gender distinctions. In societies where adult activities and dress are strictly separated by gender, girls and boys quickly adopt the patterns of talking, behaving, and even thinking that are prescribed for their sex. Expectations, decisions, and outcomes related to schooling or formal education are often gender-based. According to Erikson's theory, school-aged children work to solve the crisis of industry versus inferiority. Children busily strive to master whatever abilities their culture values. They judge themselves as either industrious or inferior—that is, as competent or incompetent, productive or failing, winners or losers. Throughout the world, many children, especially girls, try to resolve this internal struggle without the benefit or guidance of a structured, school-based education.

What can we conclude from watching these three individuals? Young children in Piaget's preoperational stage really do not understand how the balance scale works. They tend to focus on one aspect of the problem and ignore the other dimensions. Older children in Piaget's concrete operational stage understand that they need to consider both weight and distance, but they have not yet grasped the nature of the interaction between weight and distance. Adolescents who have reached Piaget's formal operational stage understand that they can solve the balance problem by multiplying weight by distance.

This activity on the balance scale task has given you a better understanding of how children's reasoning develops with age, but it does not answer the question of why these changes occur. Why do children perform better on various intellectual tasks as they get older? One possibility is that they think better and that as children grow older, their basic cognitive processes are more efficient. Another possibility is that they know better and that children have learned more and more facts and problem-solving strategies as they make their way through life. Piaget believed that both of these possibilities are true and suggested three aspects that influence the process of cognitive development: 1. Maturation of the brain; 2. Active experience with objects in the environment; 3. Social interaction with other children and adults. Piaget viewed each of these factors and their interaction as necessary for cognitive development, but none of these alone is sufficient to ensure healthy and proper cognitive development. He postulated that all these factors must be in play for cognitive developmental progress.

Universal education has been difficult to achieve. After decades of commitments from countries and groups around the world, more than 75 million of the world's children still do not have access to even a primary education. An additional 100 million children do not progress beyond the equivalent of an elementary-school level, and nearly a billion people are illiterate throughout their lives. Two-thirds of this latter group is female (UNICEF, 2006; UNGEI, 2007). Globally, many girls are denied access to formal schooling. In rural areas, they are often the most disadvantaged social group. They are unable to challenge the status quo from their position of acute vulnerability (UNESCO, 2006). Between 1999 and 2004, the worldwide number of children not in school declined rapidly from about 100 million to 77 million. Three-quarters of the decrease (16.7 million) took place between 2002 and 2004. However, girls still constitute 57 percent of all out-of-school children, down from 59 percent in 1999. For every 100 boys out-of-school worldwide, there are 117 girls out-of-school. Gender disparities in education still remain predominant in the Arab States (134 girls out-of-school for every 100 boys), in South and West Asia (129 girls out-of-school for every 100 boys), and in countries like Yemen (184 girls out-of-school for every 100 boys), Iraq (176 girls out-of-school for every 100 boys), India (136 girls out-of-school for every 100 boys), and Benin (136 girls out-of-school for every 100 boys) (World Bank, 2007). Play the video to learn of the numerous barriers that prevent girls from going to school.

Today, HIV/AIDS, conflicts, emergencies and other fragile situations, gender-based violence, and information technology gender gaps (UNESCO, 2006) have emerged as challenges that reduce girls' enrollment in primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Play the video to learn of efforts, including those supported by the UN, to help girls worldwide obtain an education.

_____, a noted Russian psychologist, stressed the importance of instruction by others in the development of cognition.

Vygotsky

Ben is given peas and green beans. When asked if he has more peas or more vegetables, he responds, "I have more vegetables." Ben is using the logical concept of _____.

classification

Carly is given grapes and strawberries. When asked if she has more grapes or more fruit, she responds, "I have more fruits." Carly is using the logical concept of:

classification

After age 5, children become more _____ with their vocabulary and can understand prefixes, suffixes, compound words, phrases, and figures of speech.

flexible and logical

Many aspects of language advance during early childhood. For example, by age 6, children have mastered MOST of the basic vocabulary and grammar of their first language, and many speak a second language:

fluently

Eight-year-old Bianca is from Holland and speaks only Dutch. At her school, all subjects are taught entirely in English. This method of teaching a second language is called _____.

immersion

Seven-year-old Skyla is from Holland and speaks only Dutch. At her school, all subjects (reading, social science, and so on) are taught entirely in English. This method of teaching a second language is called:

immersion

According to the text, children over the age of 5 become more flexible and _____ with their vocabulary and can understand prefixes, suffixes, compound words, phrases, and figures of speech.

logical

Achievement test scores indicate that fourth-grade reading scores among U.S. schools with the MOST _____-income children are 35 points below the national average.

low

Rob is taking a test. By answering the easy questions first so that he can devote most of his time to the more difficult questions, he is displaying:

metacognition

Some jokes may not be understood by younger children and are no longer found funny by teenagers. In middle childhood, however, understanding and appreciating such jokes is evidence of normally developing cognitive flexibility and social awareness. If a child does not "get" a joke, the lack of _____ understanding, even when a child has a large vocabulary, signifies cognitive problems.

metaphorical

Jessica is 10 years old. She can MOST likely add, subtract, multiply, and divide _____ numbers.

multi-digit

Jamila, a junior high school student, has learned to speak formally with her adult parents and teachers, and informally (using slang) with her friends. She has learned the _____ of language.

pragmatics

_____ refers to the practical use of language, including the ability to adjust language communication according to audience and context.

pragmatics

Ninety-five percent of 7-year-olds attend _____ throughout the world.

school

Which age group would find the classic joke: "Why did the chicken cross the road?" the MOST funny?

school-age children

The knowledge that things can be arranged in a logical series is called:

seriation

Sensory memory stores incoming _____ for a split second after they are received, with sounds retained slightly longer than sights.

stimuli

Sensory memory retains an impression of a(n) _____ on a sensory organ.

stimulus

Lev Vygotsky believed that children learn from their peers, culture, and _____.

teachers

The use of mental processes to search for information, analyze it, and then express the analysis of the information describes:

the information-processing theory.

_____ memory is the component of the brain in which current conscious mental activity occurs.

working