FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGES

JANUARY / 2011

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COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

MATRICULATION NO IDENTITY CARD NO. TELEPHONE NO. E-MAIL LEARNING CENTRE

: : : : : 012-979 8777 9798777@gmail.com SERDANG RAYA

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Contents
1.0 Introduction 2

2.0

Piaget vs. Vygotsky: The Cognitive Development Theory

3.0

National Educational Philosophy Piagets Theory in Malaysian Schools

4.0

5.0

Journals that Support My Choice

6.0

Conclusion

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References Appendix Appendix 1.0 1.1

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1.0 Introduction
What is cognitive development? Cognitive development is building up or construction of thoughts ability to solve problems, memory and decisions making. [1] Childrens cognitive development focuses on children learning and processing information. It is to develop the childrens thinking and organise the system of the childrens minds. Cognitive development refers to the intellectual development of an individual which involves language, mental imagery, thinking, reasoning, problem solving and memory development.

Cognitive development is a gradual process that starts from childhood till adulthood. Many people believe that infants do not have cognitive skills, but according to psychologists infants also use their brain in a unique thought process.

Cognitive skills can be developed over time from our sensory and motor skills but do not depend on them. However, sensory and motor skills depend on cognitive development to give the signal, meaning and direction. Cognitive functions can bring the sensory and motor skills to a higher level and can be improved with training. For a child, walking is a natural development, but knowing which way is left and right, planning the specific route to walk, the speed of walking to arrive at a particular place and time requires cognitive ability.

There are many cognitive development theories put forward by different theorists. Two well-noted specialists in this area are Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and Lev Semionovich Vygotsky (1896-1934). Their theories have a major impact on education and the early years of development in children. The theory of cognitive development emerged during the 1950s when the work of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget was discovered and translated. Another important theory of cognitive development known as the social development theory attributed to translations of the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who was a contemporary of Piaget. 2

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2.0 Piaget vs. Vygotsky: The Cognitive Development Theory

Both Piaget and Vygotsky were regarded as constructivists. Constructivism is an approach to teaching and learning based on the premise that cognition is the result of mental construction. They believe children learned by fitting the new information together with what they already know. [2]

They also believe that the active and ongoing process of development is only the beginning, the development of a child is an ongoing and active process. The development and learning in a child is reliant upon one another.

Piaget theory of cognitive development consists of four stages. These stages are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Piaget also stressed two important elements in the cognitive development of a child assimilation and accommodation. [3]

Sensorimotor stage occurs between birth to two years of age. During this time, children understand their environment through senses and interactions. For example, when placing your finger on a babys hand, they will hold it or when we touch a babys face, they will begin rooting.

The preoperational stage takes place between the ages of two and seven. Throughout this stage, children are egocentric and they think that everyone thinks of or sees the world as they do. Children at this stage lack the skills of conservation.

Concrete operational stage begins with age 7 and 11. Children in this stage can think more logically and they gain better understanding at this stage but have trouble with

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abstract thinking. Four important aspects in this stage are inferred reality, seriation, transitivity and class inclusion.

Formal operational occurs from age 11 to adulthood. According to Piaget, not everyone reaches this stage. In this stage children learn how to deal with hypothetical situation and potential situations.

Piaget believes that assimilation happens when children mix new information into existing thinking and behaviour. Accommodation occurs when children comes in contact with a new object for the first time. First, he/she will assimilate it and try to relate the object with an existing experience they learned earlier. If they realize that the object differs from the experience created earlier, the process of accommodation occurs to accept the new experience. While Piagets theory has four clear stages, Vygotsky did not believe in stages of development. Vygotsky was used three themes in his theories; they are the importance of culture, the primary use of language and his own creation, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

The first aspect of Vygotskys idea is private speech. He found that private speech is important because it aids children in thinking and coming to a solution. When children are at this stage, they talk to themselves frequently. Through private speech, children will think through an issue and come out with a conclusion.

Vygotsky also believed that cognitive development were based upon learning through social interaction rather than the independence that Piaget focused. [4] He believes that the child and surroundings work together to form the cognitive growth and adult surrounding support the child by language. According to his theories, teachers/adult must work actively to improve childrens development level. He believes that speech precedes thinking; the child will find it helpful to speak out loud about what they are doing.

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Vygotsky coined the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), where he explained the fact that the children can do much more better if he/she has the help of someone more knowledgeable and more experienced than on their own. This is an important highlight of social interaction and learning from working with others.

Scaffolding is the notion of Vygotsky. It basically means providing the children with a lot of support during the early stage of learning and cutting down the support and having the child taking their own responsibilities after they are able to do it on their own.

The difference between the Piaget and Vygotsky theories is Piaget believes that children learn through his/her own actions and exploration but Vygotsky believes that teachers/adult who work actively may help to improve the childrens development level.

Another difference between Piaget and Vygotsky is their view of language learning. Vygotsky held the view of speech precedes thinking so the young children find it helpful if they speak out loud about what they are doing. Piaget believed that peers influenced a childs cognitive development. Peer interaction leads to opportunities of conflicts and this can cause them to look at things from different points of view. Piaget also believed that children can interact better with other peers because they feel that are equal and are more open to new ideas. When children are with adults, they do not have their chances for equalized conflicts; therefore, this interaction do not have room for any cognitive growth. Piagets theory of cognitive development has been a major force in educational classroom setups. Classrooms are setup to help to support children according the stage of their development. For example, the classrooms do not only have teachers teaching materials but the classroom will also be setup with materials that allow children to have their hands-on experience such as making paper lanterns as a project. Children will be provided with paper, glue, scissors, etc. In this way children will learn from hands-on experience and not only from sitting and watching the demonstration by the teacher.

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However, Vygotskys classroom will put into practice the Zone of Proximal Development. The classrooms could be set up by placing student with different level of knowledge in a few groups. Students with a higher levels of knowledge can help the student with lower levels of knowledge.

3.0 National Educational Philosophy

The principle of Malaysias education system is that education is a continuous process. The Malaysia Ministry of Education (MOE) reviewed and restructured our National Preschool Curriculum (KPK) in year 2010. The result was that in the year 2011, the National Preschool curriculums will replaced by a new curriculum programme, which is the National Standard Preschool Curriculum (KSPK).

The concept of this new preschool curriculum is to conform to our National Education philosophy. These new concepts also use the KBSR principles as a base, which includes overall individual development, equal chances and quality education for all students and education for life.

In this new curriculum programme, we emphasized more on the development of social emotion, spirituality, physical, personality, cognitive and preparation to school together with revealing 4M skills (write, read, count and to consider logically).

4.0 Piagets Theory in Malaysian Schools

My personal point of view is that Piagets theories are the most applicable theory that should be used in Malaysia school education system. According to Piagets theory, children learn through stages and this is similar to our education system which separates students into different level according to their age group. Children who are 4 years of age 6

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in one class, 5 years of age in the other class, etc. Preschool children are in their preoperational stage (between two to seven years old) and they tend to be egocentric. Childrens mental operations at this age are not fully developed, they need to gain their knowledge through their own personal experiences, playing is important in this stage. This is why Piagets classroom is set up with materials such as macaronis, beads, string, etc. Children use these materials to gain knowledge through experience themselves to do hands-on projects such as macaronis necklaces, bracelets, etc. In our preschool, we provide materials for the children in class. Children are more interested in learning and we can also develop their creative thinking. This is why hands-on projects were included in the method of learning in KSPK.

Learn through play is another method of learning which is emphasized in the KSPK. According to Piaget, children need to play to gain development. This is important because children at this stage cannot concentrate on doing one thing for long periods of time. Therefore, teachers need to know how to convey an interesting manner to catch the childrens attention. The best approach is to learn through play. Preoperational stage is the second stage in Piagets cognitive development theory. Children at this stage learn to use and represent objects by images, words and by drawing. The child is still not able to perform operations at this level, but the child can do it mentally rather than physically.

In our education system, children aged 4-6 years of age are in preschool level. Children at this age are taught through pictures to recognise words (using flash cards), singing songs (childrens rhymes), colouring or simple art projects such as macaronis necklace. There are two stages formed from Piagets preoperational thought The Symbolic Function and The Intuitive Thought sub-stage. Children aged 2-4 years old cannot manipulate and transform information in a logical way, but they can think in symbols and images. They are able to formulate the designs or shapes of the objects that are not present. Their mental abilities are in language and pretend play. 7

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Our school curriculum programme is similar to Piagets symbolic function sub-stage. In preschool, we use Circle Time to carry out storytelling or group activities such as drama and singing. Through this symbolic play in drama, children learn to cooperate, listen to instruction and respect peers. It is important to have symbolic play in the early childhood curriculum programme.

5.0 Journals that Support My Choice

According to an online article in Early childhood News (http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=240) written by Jill Engleb right Fox, PhD. She mentioned that Piaget (1962) defined play as assimilation, or the child's efforts to make environmental stimuli match his or her own concepts. Piagetian theory holds that play, in and of itself, does not necessarily result in the formation of new cognitive structures. Piaget claimed that play was just for pleasure, and while it allowed children to practice things they had previously learned, it did not necessarily result in the learning of new things. In other words, play reflects what the child has already learned but does necessarily teach the child anything new. [5]

She added, Observations of children at play yield examples to support by Piagetian theories of play. A child who puts on a raincoat and a firefighter's hat and rushes to rescue his teddy bear from the pretend flames in his play house is practicing what he has previously learned about fire fighters. This supports Piaget's theory. [6]

In our new KSPK, playing is very important in our curriculum. In the new educational philosophy, we realized that we cannot force children to read or write and we should not 8

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have a lot of exams or assessments for them. Children will learn through play, dramatic play is one of the best activities to learn in school. Preschool curriculum follows a series of themes for the teachers to teach accordingly. When teachers teach through these themes, teachers must prepare suitable materials and environment for the children.

In another journal I found on learningdomain.com, a writer mentioned as below:

(http://www.learningdomain.com/pIAGET.pdf+journal+%2B+piaget's+theory+in+cognitive+development &hl=en&gl=my&pid=bl&srcid)

Preschoolers, ages three to six, should be at the "preoperational" stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory, meaning they are using their imagery and memory skills. They should be conditioned to learning and memorizing, and their view of the world is normally very selfcentered. Preschoolers usually have also developed their social interaction skills, such as playing and cooperating with other children their own age. It is normal for preschoolers to test the limits of their cognitive abilities, and they learn negative concepts and actions, such as talking back to adults, lying, and bullying. Other cognitive development in preschoolers are developing an increased attention span, learning to read, and developing structured routines, such as doing household chores.
[7]

When children are in the Preoperational stage, the preschool curriculum must arrange more activities that can help develop the childrens interaction skills as emphasized in the new (KSPK) National Education Philosophys principles.

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6.0 Conclusion
Cognitive development is very important for children, Piagets theory believes that every person has an internal self-regulation mechanism that responds to environmental stimulation by fitting new experiences into existing cognitive structure (which is called Assimilation) and revising these structures to fit in the new data (Accommodation).[8] Childrens cognitive development consists of a few stages such as Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational and Formal Operational.

However, Vygotskys theory does not believe in stages. Vygotskys theory states that childrens cognitive development is based on social interaction. He believes that teachers/adults must work actively to improve their development. His Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) believes that children can do much better if they have someone more knowledgeable to help them in doing something. This is social interaction and learning from working with others. Vygotsky scaffolding means giving a lot of help in the early stages of learning and cutting it down to a minimum level when the child is able to do it on their own.

After I reviewed and studied both the theories of famous psychologists Piaget and Vygotsky, I would like to conclude that the Piagets theory is the most applicable in Malaysias curriculum system. Through Piagets theory, we understand that children learn through play. Activities such as drama in symbolic play is important for children to develop their languages and interactive skills.

Our new National Standard Preschool curriculum (KSPK) also introduces hands-on projects as important implements as mentioned in Piagets theory.

After reviewing the journals of Play in Early Childhood (Jill Engleb) (Appendix 1.0) and an article in learningdomain.com (Appendix 1.1). I noted that Piagets theory has been used in many curriculum systems in the world to enhance the cognitive development of 10

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young children. Piagets cognitive development theory has embedded his concepts into our educational structure. Although we are in the 21st century, Piagets theory is still important in educating the children.

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References
[1] What is Cognitive Development? (2000).[online]. Available at: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-cognitive-development.html. [2011, February 20] [2] The Cognitive Development Theory. (2011).[online.] Available at: http://associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type. [2011,January 31] [3] Malaysia. Open University Malaysia. (2010).HDPS3303Cognitive Planning and Teaching .P.5. [4] A look at Cognitive Development Theory.(P.2) (2011).[online.] Available at: http://associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type. [2011,January 31] [5] Back-to-Basics: Play in Early Childhood. (2008).[online.] Available at: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=240. [2011,February 24] [6] Back-to-Basics: Play in Early Childhood. (2008).[online.] Available at: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=240. [2011,February 24] [7] Back-to-Basics: Play in Early Childhood. (2008).[online.] Available at: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=240. [2011,February 24] [8] Piaget: Implications for Teaching. (2008).[online.] Available at: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=240. [2011,February 24] The Cognitive Development Theory. (2011).[online.] Available at: http://associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article1&content_type. [2011,January 31] What Was that Child Thinking?. (2011).[online.] Available at: http://associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article2&content_type. [2011,January 31] Piagets Theory of cognitive development. (2010).[online.] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piagets_theory_of_cognitive_development. [2011,January 31] Social Development Theory (L.Vygotsky). (1994).[online.] Available at: http://tip.psychology.org/Vygotsky.html.[2011,January 31]

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Appendix 1.0
Play in Early Childhood
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=240

Appendix 1.1
Piaget: Implications for Teaching
http://calteach.ucsc.edu/aboutus/documents/Webb-Piaget.pdf

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