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Monday, April 17, 2023

Intellectual Development | Introduction to Growth and Development | Course code 8610 | B.Ed Solved Assignment |

 

Give an overview of intellectual Development?

Course: Introduction to Growth and Development

Course code 8610

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER 

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT FROM INFANCY TO CHILDHOOD

Children gain cognitive maturity as they age. With time and experience, they advance their thinking skills and make transitions from simple to complex cognitive processes which add to their intelligence as well. This section emphasizes the processes (cognition) rather than the products of mental activities (intelligence). It examines how do children make cognitive and intellectual advancements from infancy to childhood. In doing so, it also highlights the cognitive characteristics of learners at different periods.

Piaget's theory of cognitive development

Piaget believed those children’s cognitive development progresses through four stages which involve sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational periods. These stages are treated as fixed and universal and represent a general sequence that is observable in all types of cognitive change. Piaget argued that children's thinking and the ways through which they make sense of their experiences (schemes) change with age. The infancy period is marked by sensorimotor action patterns during which a child acts on the objects around him/her to form schemes. Soon, he/she begins to form mental images that help to transform thinking and experiences into meaningful, manageable, and memorable patterns. This transformation in thinking is supported by two critical processes including adaptation and organization.

Adaptation involves the process of developing schemes by directly working on the environment through assimilation or accommodation. However, if the balance between these two is disturbed, it causes a cognitive conflict or disequilibrium within the minds of children. It is important to resolve the conflict through either assimilation or accommodation to bring the mind back to the equilibrium state. These resulted in developing more effective schemes that help the child to advance his/her thinking.

i.  The sensorimotor stage.

The sensorimotor stage is characterized by the first two years of life during which infants think through their five senses. At the beginning of this stage, the sensory reflexes of the child serve to make up for his/her intelligence. The child engages in circular reactions  (repeating chance behaviors) which help him/her to adapt to his/her surroundings. Later, the child deliberately employs intentional or goal-directed behaviors by coordinating different schemes to solve simple problems. Object permanence (the ability to understand that objects exist even when they are not seen) emerges towards the end of this period which helps to set the stage for mental representations and engage the child in make-believe play.

ii.  The preoperational stage.

As children grow, they enter the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years) which characterizes their immense representational or symbolic capacities. Children make advancements in their mental representations as they develop more effective schemes. For example, as they get past the first two years of their life, their make-believe play gets more sophisticated.

This cognitive change is seen when a child older than 2 years of age pretends to use an object (cup) in different ways, for example, using it to drink water as well as using it as a hat. Similarly, children's drawings get more mature, realistic, and detailed during the preschool years. However, their expanding cognitive capacities are limited by their inability to take into account someone else's perspective, referred to as egocentrism.

iii.  The concrete operational stage.

The concrete operational stage extends from 7 to 11 years. As children enter middle childhood, they accomplish several cognitive advancements. For example, children at this stage perform mental operations that follow logical rules. They are capable of thinking in more than one direction and are capable of seeing a problem from different angles (decentration). Consequently, they understand that certain characteristics remain the same even if they change their outward appearance (conservation).

Their understanding of space is more precise when compared with preschool children. They are capable of developing logical hierarchies and classification systems and can perform reversible actions which demonstrates that the children have now developed logical, flexible, and organized schemes than before.

iv.  The formal operational stage.

Children develop the capacity for abstract and systematic thinking around 11 years of age. Piaget referred to this stage as a formal operational stage. While the children can perform operations with real objects at the concrete operational stage, they are now ready to perform mental, abstract operations without any concrete things or events. The main features of this stage include hypothetical-deductive reasoning and propositional thought. These abilities refer to the children's capacity to form and evaluate logical propositions without referring to real-world circumstances and systematically reaching a conclusion. Accompanying this stage, comes the individual's desire to get noticed, often referred to as adolescent egocentrism. This is a heightened self-consciousness phase in which the growing adolescents tend to believe that others are interested in them in the same way as they are themselves. This state causes irresponsible and uncontrolled behaviors often leading to suicide attempts, negative thoughts, drug use, etc.

Although Piaget's theory presents a comprehensive explanation of how cognitive development occurs in children as well as highlights the characteristics of learners at different stages of cognitive development, it has not gone without criticism. One of the major arguments raised against Piaget's theory is that he underestimated the role of culture, language, and environmental influences while explaining children's cognitive development. The next section presents Vygotsky's socio-cultural approach which takes into account these important influences.

Vygotsky's sociocultural theory

Lev Vygotsky's socio-cultural approach builds upon the role of language and cultural tools in shaping human cognition and development. He believed that cultural influences, such as language, instruction, social interactions, etc have a profound influence on children's cognitive advancements. He introduced the concepts of the zone of proximal development  (ZPD) and scaffolding to demonstrate how do children move from one level of cognitive progress. ZPD refers to certain cognitive abilities that are in the process of developing, and that can be achieved with support from an adult or a capable peer. Whereas, scaffolding allows for adjustment of the level of support according to the learner's needs and performance. While Piaget focused on individual learners with a strong emphasis on the stages through which they pass during cognitive development, Vygotsky argued that social interactions, cultural tools, and collaborative processes set the stage for higher-level cognitive processes.

Information processing approach

The information processing approach presents another major perspective that helps us to understand cognitive development. This approach views the human brain as an active information processing system, like a computer machine. It examines how information enters the human mind, and how is it stored, processed, and retrieved when needed. It emphasizes two major cognitive processes including memory and thinking.

Overall, it is argued that children develop and refine their mechanisms to acquire, process, store and work with increasingly complex information and skills over time. In doing so, they develop improved cognitive resources, that is, the capacity and speed of processing information. This improved ability is further linked to better memory and problem-solving skills.


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