There are four theorists interested mainly in thinking, or cognition. They include Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, David Elkind, and Benjamin Bloom. Cognitive theorists examine how people think and the difference in their thinking patterns across the lifespan. Cognitive development is influenced by brain development, but they are not similar. Brain development covers the physical structures of neurons and the connections between them. Cognitive development deals with abstract ideas and thoughts and their uses. They are similar because it is difficult to think without proper brain function.
Jean Piaget understood human beings as organisms that are engaged into activities within their environment that help them adjust and survive which is considered adaption. In 1962, Piaget decided that humans are different from other organisms. People are humans of their own thinking which are controlled by thoughts for specific purposes. Piaget considers adaptation as a lifelong process known as constructivism meaning that individuals construct meaning from interacting with other and the environment. Each one of these interactions organized a thought structure called a schema which helps them organize information about the environment and how they adapt to it. Adaption is achieved through balancing with the use of two processes: assimilation and accommodation. Accommodation causes you to change a pre-existing thought structure due to the intake of new information while assimilation doesn't. When these thought structures are in balance, they are said to be in a state of equilibrium, but when the individual is presented with new information it is considered disequilibrium.
Piaget theorized that development occurs through four different stages of thinking: sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations (Piaget, 1967). During the sensorimotor stage, children from age 0-2 develop the thoughts of motor schemas, sensory info, and imitation. During preoperations children from ages 2-7 develop the thoughts of egocentrism, symbolic, representation, and animistic thought. In the concrete operations stages children from ages 7-11 develop concrete and logical types of thought. The children ages 11 and up develop abstract thought.
Although Piaget theorized these four different stages of thinking they have been criticized by many. One critic is that his proposed stages for each stage actually take place later in reality. He has also been criticized about his research methods. When testing he used his own three kids through the first few years of life.
Vygotsky theorized that development is sociocultural, meaning that an individual develops through their interactions with others. Vygotsky suggested that development happens specifically through cultural interactions and that as development occurs, it transforms both the individual and the culture (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky's theory is situated in culture, focused predominantly on language. Language and thought interacting with one another is the mechanism of development. and these two are always shaped by the individual's history, cultural context, and social environment (Vygotsky, 1978).
Children use langauage to think through problems and learn new skills. Private speech is used to communicate with others and for a child to direct their own personal thoughts and manage their emotions. Inner speech is what a child uses inside of their head to talk them through something which will eventually become private speech. Vgotsky's sense of development also includes the ZPD, Zone of Proximal Development which is what the child can accomplish with the help of an adult or peer, someone more knowledgeable than them. The idea of the helps from the adult or peer is defined as scaffolding, or acting as a resource.
Elkind, a student and colleague of Piaget, took Piaget's egocentric thought from the formal operational stage and gave it the name adolescent egocentrism which is composed of three patterns: the imaginary audience, the personal fable, and the invincible fable. The imaginary audience(Elkind, 1967) is the "belief that others are preoccupied with his appearance and behavior that constitutes the egocentrism of the adolescent" (p. 1030). Elkind's personal fable is when an individual comes up with the idea that their family and friends don't understand what it is like to be them. The invincible fable and personal fable can perform together, this is when the adolescent believes that something won't ever happen to them because they are different.
Bloom's taxonomy is the coincidence of Piaget's, Vygotsky's, and Elkind's theories. This taxonomy, a method for classifying items into order categories, are the more complex types of thought. Bloom's taxonomy is seen as six different levels starting with the basic level of thinking which is remembering. Remembering is followed by, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Bloom's Taxonomy is one of the most comprehensive pictures we have to of how to help students develop critical thinking skills (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).
Jean Piaget’s theory of development consists of four different stages of thinking. The four stages of thinking are sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations. During the preoperational stage, ages two to seven years old, children begin to understand the concept of symbols and they understand what they represent. However, during this stage children also have a hard time understanding reality causing them to adapt to egocentrism. Egocentrism is the child’s thought that the only thing that matters is their selves, leaving all other points of view absent. Egocentrism is also considered the development of self-centeredness, without a care for any other social causes. Piaget’s idea of egocentrism does not happen to all kids, but it does in most.
I am always with my family when I am home for a break or just a weekend trip home. We have quite a few smaller children in our family. They pick on and argue with one another the entire time they are together and without them knowing, I watch them. They always go through the stage of “that’s mine”, “give me that back”, “I’m telling on you,” and numerous other things to upset each other. The youngest of them all, Ja’Miya, always cries because she the older kids take her toys when she’s done playing with them. However, she still believes that they took it from her, such as out of her hand, and she cries until they give it back. Ja’Miya does not have the idea of sharing together because even though they are cousins she does not think that they are supposed to touch her toys. Ja’Miya is three so she is fairly into her stage of egocentrism and it shows in everything that she does. She is more into the idea that it’s her world and we just live in it!
This connection is meaningful to me because I can break the thought process of egocentrism in my classroom. I will always make sure my students share with their classmates. I will also teach them that sharing is the right thing to do because it’s easier to get along with one another if you share. I am not sure how easy it will be to break the thought process of egocentrism, but I will do the best I can to break this cycle. As a parent, I will ask my child to tell me about how their day was so they can think more about what took place around them. I will also make sure that I do not spoil my child or set a bad example because that also causes them to develop egocentric thinking.
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