It is important then to give an explanation to the term egocentric, and to look at other Piagetian phrases or terms, so that we can make sense of them and perhaps reflect on them when looking at actual classroom experiences. Piaget saw that when a child is in the sensorimotor stage they cannot perceive the world from any other view than that of their own (egocentric), thinking that all other beings see exactly what they see. This was tested by Piaget and Inhelder with their ‘three mountains’ experiment where it was noted that a child only begins to see perspectives from other peoples view, known as to ‘decentre’ when they are in the preoperational stage or even concrete operational stage (Jarvis, 2005). Piaget also noted that children give innate objects humanistic attributes such as talking to a teddy bear or telling it off, referring to this quality as ‘Anamism’ which is seen in children aged between two to seven years old. (Jarvis, 2005).
Piaget reported that children aged two to seven years old were still at some length egocentric in the Preoperational stage. The child is only able to focus on one characteristic of an object and not able to think logically about things such as size or colour, known as centration. Fantasy and real life cannot at this stage be differentiated. Another limit to understanding in the preoperational stage is that of conservation when the presentation of objects can affect the child’s thinking of quantity. Many experiments have been conducted to test this theory such as having two glasses of water measured the same, then pouring one of the glasses of water into a taller glass and asking the child if there was the same amount of water in each. A child would perceive the taller glass to contain more water.
During the Concrete Operational stage when a child is between seven and twelve years old, Piaget discovered that a child’s mind has matured enough to be able to apply logic where operations have developed so they are able to deal with physical objects and deal in conservation. A child in this stage has also grown out of egocentrism and animism so can therefore differentiate between specifics of objects and beings. A child in this stage will usually be attending school and therefore learn to make sense of things such as mathematics and other complex operations, also maturing their use of language and communication.
The final stage in Piaget’s four stage theory is when a child grows into adolescence. From twelve years and over, and develops abstract thinking when operations enable the child to deal with concepts such as ethics, science fiction and politics. Thinking not just logically (although they are able to think fully logically at this stage), but being able to question and explore hypothesis and a systematic way of thinking. As well as being able to see perspectives from another beings view, the adolescent is able to recognise empathy for other beings. Cowen (1978 cited in McIlveen and Gross, 1997, p.46) stated that ‘formal operational thinkers can discover the world of the hypothetical’.
Piaget carried out most of his research on his own children. He categorised development and thought and said this could be looked at universally irrespective of culture. Piaget also stated that you could not move to the next stage until the previous stage was completed and once a stage was completed you could not move back. Thus Piagets work has been criticised, firstly for his reliability for not having a broader range of testing and secondly as he does not take into account cultural influences or differences. Another critique is to look at the ability of children being able to move back and forth within the stages.
However that said Piagets theory is still highly regarded and linked to education today with teachers making sure that the content they deliver to a classroom is appropriate to that of the child’s ‘stage’ of cognitive development. And to make sure that the child is actively engaged in learning to achieve. Piaget has also been very influential to other theorists. Most of Piaget’s contemporary psychologists were ‘behaviourists’ and Piaget was at the cutting edge of a constructivist approach to looking at cognitive development.
Jerome Bruner like Piaget looked at cognitive development from a constructivist point of view stating that children should be active learners, constructing knowledge for themselves. Bruner came up with a theory that children develop in a sequence of three modes of learning that represent the cognitive structure of how a child stores and retrieves information or schema. Some people have likened this to Piaget’s stage theory; however a major difference can be noted where, Bruner states that a child is able to move between the modes until all three have been reached. He also states that a child can understand things on their own level and not that determined by a ‘stage’. Bruner’s modes of learning are: Enactive, where a child explores its world through physical actions, developing their motor skills. Iconic, where organising and representing objects can be done visually or through its senses and finally Symbolic, where the child is able to adapt symbols of language to represent different objects such as mathematic codes and understand in depth meanings such as philosophy.
Jerome Bruner was also influenced by the work of Lev Vygotsky an early critique of Piaget, looking at the importance of social interaction during learning and the cultural influences. Vygotsky like Piaget and Bruner agreed that a child is an active agent of their own learning (Jarvis, 2005), but that as well as being born with basic cognitive schema such as perception, a child will achieve maximum learning through the support of an elder member of their culture. Vygotsky stated that within a Zone of Proximal development, a child can only reach a certain potential on their own. However they can achieve a higher level of understanding in the ZPD with help from a teacher. (Jarvis, 2005). Bruner and colleagues (e.g. Wood et al, 1976, cited in Jarvis, 2005) adapted this theory introducing the term scaffolding to describe the support a child is given by an elder or a teacher throughout the ZPD.
This led Bruner to develop the concept of the Spiral Curriculum with his belief contrary to Piaget’s that children’s learning could be speeded up: ‘any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development’ (Bruner, 1963, cited in McIlVeen and Gross, 1997). The Spiral Curriculum consists of teaching a discipline and structure of thought then revisiting it at later stages, but making them more complex so the child is building on existing knowledge to progress their level of understanding (Bentham, 2011).
As well as looking at cognitive theories on the way children learn, we can also look at various models of effective teaching and how the theory can be implemented to get maximum learning outcomes in the classroom. A Surface Level of Analysis looks at two constructs working together in maximising Active Learning Time which can be linked to Piaget’s concept of a child constructing knowledge by being actively involved in their environment. It is important when reflecting on teaching that the ALT is a child being ‘actively engaged’ (Kyriacou, 2009), rather than just referring to ALT as ‘amount of time’, (Kyriacou, 2009). The second concept which goes in hand with the first is that of Quality of Instruction, this is crucial for effective learning outcomes and to maximise ALT, so the two constructs work together which form the surface level of analysis.
The psychological effects have been researched into how a teacher and a pupil’s psychological state of attention, memory, expectations, motivation and information processing can affect the ALT and QI in a classroom. By looking deeper into these theories a teacher can be reflective in their practice and be aware of psychological effects of a child when trying to achieve maximum learning outcomes. Therefore a teacher consciously influencing a child’s psychological state to encourage pupil involvement and keep them motivated, also receptive to the class, making sure that the learning experience is age and content appropriate, linking the practical aspects of classroom teaching to Piaget’s stage theory.
The Psychological level of analysis allows us to look at earlier discussions of Piaget’s theory where he stated that a child was motivated when they experienced disequilibrium. More recent research has suggested that being in a cognitive state of disequilibrium may not result in motivation as Piaget suggested, but actually the opposite, having a negative effect where the child wants to give up, Susan Bentham (2011). This is why it is important to look at the way a child views their ‘mistakes’ to make sure it is a reflective experience, noted with a supportive ‘scaffold’ approach from the teacher to maximise the learning process. Research into the pedagogical level of analysis can also be linked to reflecting on a child’s motivation to learn, where a child may respond differently to how a teacher predicted the child would respond. This may be down to a child misunderstanding of what they have to do, or going back to the initial Surface level of analysis of Quality of Instruction.
The Pedagogical level of analysis, also referred to as the ‘craft’ of teaching, Is developed from a teacher and a pupils perception on what teaching is, exploring the inter relationship between teacher and pupil perceptions (Kyriacou, 2009). Therefore the delivery and responses to teaching which characterises behaviour and also the delivery and responses to tasks and activities that aims to achieve certain learning outcomes. The Pedagogical model has been researched into the best effective teaching skills such as communication skills, behaviour management skills and effectiveness of planned activities where also content specific skills need to be reflected such as the appropriateness of the content and delivery/structure of the learning activity to meet the needs of every child.
These models give teachers a practical and reflective structure to look at how best to meet the child’s needs, what a child think it needs and how to get them to understand and embrace the learning outcomes, to make sure that maximum learning outcomes are achieved. (Bandura,1997; Woolfolk et al, 2008, cited in Kyriacou, 2009) ‘Pupil self efficacy and teacher self efficacy plays an important role in shaping how pupils and teachers behave in a classroom’. And as we can see for the best learning outcomes to be met a teacher needs to be able to have a deep understanding of the psychological developmental theories behind how a child learns and then be reflective in their practice by looking at the three models of analysis.
This series of information and research, has given me an insight to the benefits psychological theory can give to classroom practice. In my observations as a classroom assistant I can note the link between Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum and how the national curriculum is structured. For example, in a class of year 2 pupils learning ICT the teacher recalls information they were taught in year 1, such as identifying where the ‘field’ is on the screen and being able to use the mouse to enter the ‘field’, then how to type their name, called ‘user name’ into this field. The teacher demonstrates how they did this in year 1, then progresses to build on that learning by giving new instructions on how to move to the next stage. As a classroom assistant I am actively involved in ‘Scaffolding’ in the ZPD by supporting the children to identify keys on the keyboard and support them with their learning, repeating the instruction and expected learning outcome. It is also important to note here the importance to look at the delivery of the instruction (QI) from the teacher and be aware of how this in turn can affect the learning outcome.
From my research into the Cognitive Theories that can be applied to effective learning and from looking at the different models of analysis. I can reflect on my experiences as a classroom assistant and see the importance of how these theories and models have affected the national curriculum. For example the influence of Bruner’s spiral curriculum, and how a teacher will in turn use their knowledge of these theories and models to adapt their pedagogical craft and be aware of their psychological effects while preparing for a lesson, taking into account things such as Piaget’s age specific categorisation and to make the most out of classroom assistants such as myself to provide scaffolding while a child develops through the ZPD to achieve maximum learning outcomes.
References/Bibliography.
McIlveen, R and Gross, R (1997) Developmental Psychology. Trowbridge: Hodder and Stoughton Educational.
Bentham, S (2011) A Teaching Assistants Guide To Child Development And Psychology in The Classroom. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Jarvis (2005)The Psychology Of Effective Learning And Teaching. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.
Kyriacou (2009) Effective Teaching In Schools, theory And Practice. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.
Piaget and Inhelder (2000) The Psychology Of The Child. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
Bruner (1996) The Culture Of Education. United States Of America: The President And Fellows Of Harvard College.
Bruner. Wikipedia. [online]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner [accessed 10th November 2011].
