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Senegal (W. Africa) only about half of 10-13 year olds understood conservation of
liquid. Confirmed in the jungles of New Guinea, Brazil and Australia. However,
training is possible, and children perform better when researchers from their own
culture, who use reasoning tasks that are related to domains important to the culture.
Ability to perform concrete operations depends on developmental experience.
Memory Improvements
Short-term memory improves significantly. For example, they are increasingly able
to hear a string of digits and repeat it in reverse order. At beginning of preschool
they can only do this with two digits, by beginning of adolescence they can do this
with up to 6 digits. Can also use more sophisticated strategies for recalling
information, which can be improved with training.
Could the inability to conserve in preoperational stage be due to memory
limitations?
Metamemory, an understanding about the proceses that underlie memory, also
improves during middle childhood. By the time they enter first grade and their
theory of mind becomes more sophisticated, children have a general notion of what
memory is, and they are able to understand that some people have better memories
than others.
Understanding of memory becomes more sophisticated as they grow older and
increasingly engage in control strategies conscious, intentionally used tactics to
improve cognitive processing. School-age children are aware that rehearsal is a
useful strategy. Also make progressively more effort to organize material into
coherent patterns for better recall.
Improving memory
Yes, can be taught particular strategies, but it is not simple. They have to know
not only how to use a memory strategy but also when and where to use it most
effectively.
Key-word strategy foreign language pair a Spanish word with an English
word pato and pot and then link the two with a visual image.
Also may relate words with imagery cognitive elaboration
Techniques rehearsal, organization (placing material into categories), keyword, cognitive elaboration
Vygotskys Approach to Cognitive Development and Classroom Instruction
Cognitive advances occur through exposure to information within a childs zone of
proximal development. The ZPD is the level at which a child can almost, but not
quite, understand or perform a task unassisted. Also promoted the idea that children
should actively participate in their educational experiences, so children should be
given opportunities to experiment and try out new activities. This is consistent with
Deweys ideas about progressive education. Education should focus on activities
that involve interaction with others. Both child-adult and child-child interactions can
provide the potential for cognitive growth. The nature of the interactions must be
carefully structured to fall within each individual childs ZPD.
Classroom techniques:
Cooperative learning children work together in groups to achieve a common
goal. Benefits from the insights of others, and brought back on course by others
(not every child will benefit equally depending on the character of the task
some might be more competent than others).
Reciprocal teaching a technique to teach reading comprehension strategies.
Students are taught to skim the content of a passage, raise questions about its
central point, summarize the passage, and finally predict what will happen next.
In the beginning, teachers lead students through the comprehension strategies.
Gradually, students progress through their ZPDs, taking more and more control
over use of the strategies, until the students are able to take on a teaching role.
Has impressive success, especially for children with reading difficulties.
Language Development
Mastering the mechanics of language:
Vocabulary increases in school years. 6 year old 8,000 to 14,000 words.
Grows by another 5,000 from 9-11.
Mastery of grammar also improves increasing use of passive voice and
conditionals.
Phonemes first graders may still have difficulty pronouncing j, v, th, and
zh sounds. Improves.
Intonation increase in ability to distinguish meaning based on tone.
Pragmatics parallel conversations become more give and take.
Metalinguistic Awareness
An increasing understanding of ones own use of language.
By 5 or 6, children understand that we can abstract rules from language.
Understanding becomes more explicit in middle childhood.
Helps children achieve comprehension wheninformation is fuzzy or
incomplete. Preschoolers rarely ask for clarification when being given
directions, and blame themselves if they do not understand. By7 or 8, they
understand that miscommunication by themselves or other can occur, and
are more likely to ask for clarification.
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Print familiarity
Knowing the alphabet
Higher level of parental educational attainment
The family owning a lot of books
Having a computer in the home
Watching less T.V.
Taken to museums, participation in dance, art, music, or crafts classes.
Living in a stable home (no more than 2 moves).
words, children are encouraged to make guesses about the meaning of words
based on the context in which they appear. Through such a trial-and-error
approach, children come to learn whole words and phrases at a time, gradually
becoming proficient readers.
Whole language approach has less support from research and so is being
dropped.
Educational Trends Beyond the Three Rs
U.S. schools are experiencing a return to the educational fundamentals embodied in the
traditional three Rs. Last few decades have focused on the childs social well-being and
on allowing students to choose study topics on the basis of their interests instead of
following a set curriculum.
Elementary school classrooms also stress individual accountability, both for teachers
and for students. Teachers are more likely to be held responsible for their students
learning and both teachers and students are more likely to be required to take tests,
developed at the state or national level, to assess their competence.
U.S. schools have also p aid increased attention to issues involving student diversity and
multiculturalism. Cultural, as well as language difference affect students socially and
educationally.
Multicultural Education
Education is often seen as providing a formal mechanism to transmit the information a
society deems important. So in a multicultural classroom what society are we educating
students for? For a U.S. society? A democratic society? A global society? A British
society? The school context society?
Students cultural backgrounds have a substantial impact on the way that they, and their
peers are educated. Does a multicultural education apply to our teaching contexts?
Helping students become enculturated in the dominant culture while maintaining
positive group identities that build on their original cultures.
Do we promote a cultural assimilation model or a pluralistic society model?
Shouldnt our kids learn about their cultural heritage?
Fostering a bicultural identity Schools should encourage children to maintain their
original cultural identities while they integrate themselves into the dominant culture.
The idea is that an individual can live as a member of two cultures, with two cultural
identities, without having to choose one over the other.
Should Schools Teach Emotional Intelligence?
The set of skills that underlie the accurate assessment, evaluation, expression,and
regulation of emotions. David Goleman. Lessons in empathy,self-awareness, and social
skills, caring and friendship.
Some think that emotional literacy should be taught as a standard part of the
curriculum. That would mean programs to help children manage their emotions more
effectively. Critics argue that this is best left to others (like families). Also, there is no
clear set of well-specified criteria for what constitutes emotional intelligence.
Expectation Effects: How Teachers Expectancies Influence Their Students
Teachers do treat children differently when they have expectations of improvement vs.
from those for whom they have no such expectations. This is a hooray for the teachers,
because the children were assessed on an intelligence test that was identical at the
beginning of the year and at the end. So the I.Q. test score went up more for those kids
the teachers thought would bloom this year.
The teacher expectancy effect the cycle of behavior in which a teacher transmits an
expectation about a child and thereby actually brings about the expected behavior.
Similar to the self-fulfilling prophecy effect, or the effect of placebos.