Cognitive, Social and Moral Development application

Cognitive, Social and Moral Development application paper

Monique Lide

National University
Cognitive, Social and Moral Development application

You learn something new everyday, is a saying I was raised with since I was a little girl. I

never really understood what it meant until about 30 years later. 30 years later because most

often challenges and obstacles and all the things I would face meant nothing until I was in the

action of those challenges and obstacles. Going through those obstacles and challenges gave me

knowledge. The knowledge that I actually already had, but didn’t understand until I went through

certain situations. This is like Piaget’s theory. Piaget’s view is knowledge comes from action (,

p.24). He also stated development depends in large part on the child’s manipulation of and active

interaction with the environment ( ,p.24). He suggested there were 4 stages of development that

children progressed through. Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete operational, and formal

operational.

Sensorimotor is the first stage. It includes children from birth to 2 years. The focused

goal was for the child to develop the formation of concept of “object permanence” and gradual

progression from the reflexive behavior to goal directed behavior (, p.26) The next stage of

development is the preoperational. This included children ages 2 to 7 years. The focus of this

stage was to develop the ability to use symbols to represent objects in the world. Thinking

remain egocentric and centered (, p.26). Concrete operational included children ages 7 to 11 and

the focus was on ​Improvement in ability to think logically. New abilities include the use of

operations that are reversible. Thinking is decentered, and problem solving is less restricted by

egocentrism. Abstract thinking is not yet possible (,p.26). The last stage was the formal

operational stage. This included children ages 11 to adulthood. The focus of this was to be able
Cognitive, Social and Moral Development application

to display the most Abstract and purely symbolic thinking is possible. Problems can be solved

through the use of systematic experimentation (,p.26)

Piagets theories and stages of developments are constantly being utilized in the school

environment where I teach. I teach 4th grade and a high Ell populated school. Even though these

students are in 4th grade and their ages range between 9&10. I observe them in the

preoperational stage.After scaffolding they can and have entered the concrete operational stage,

but they have not reached mastery in this stage as of yet. I see the most of my students in the

preoperational stage especially in the domain of math. Students use manipulatives to mimic the

problem. Than they transform or maneuver the manipulatives to try to come to an answer or an

end state. They need to do this on every math problem they receive until they can reach the

concrete operational stage. Most of the population of my class does not reach this stage until the

end of 4th grade.

Paigets stages of developments are the perfect example of how ELL learners learn. They

go through all these stages and most often slower than those who are not Ell learners. Being a

teacher in a high ELL population, I can relate to all the stages in Paigets theory. I push for

mastery in each standard to get the child moved into the next stage of development in order to be

successful in the classroom. I think the most important part is knowing what stage your students

are at or in, in order to be able to move them into where they should or need to be.
Cognitive, Social and Moral Development application

Slavin, R. (2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11 ed.