4. Cognitive development

Cognitive development

One of the most famous authors related to Determinist theories (based on the belief that endogenous factors determine the development of the individual) is Piaget. Extremely concerned about epistemology (the study of the nature of knowledge), Piaget focused his research on how individuals construct knowledge along their developmental process. Through his investigation, he was able to realize that some children made the same mistakes at similar ages. This led him to come up with one of the most important theories regarding endogenous development: the Cognitive theory in which, one of its main parts, is the definition of four main stages according the way of creating knowledge. In this post, this theory will be analyzed in deep, meaning that not only the four stages of Piaget will be considered but also the cognitive processes that are carried out when acquiring and adding new knowledge.

How do we acquire new knowledge?

According to Piaget’s Cognitive theory there are three main steps that each individual carries out when acquiring new knowledge. First of all it is needed to be assumed that each subject has his own mental schemes that structure his existent knowledge. Through such schemes, the subject is able to interpret the information received from the context. When new information is acquired, the subject tries to add it to the schemes that he previously had come up with. This process is called assimilation, as the individual tries to incorporate new knowledge to the old one, but he has not been able to adapt it to his previous beliefs yet. Finally, the last stage regarding the acquisition of knowledge is the accommodation and, in this part of the process, the individual attempts to not only acquire new knowledge or information but also to restructure his previous schemes in order to adapt them to what has learnt recently.

Regarding this aspect, our job as teachers will be to provide the students a huge variety of stimulus that the students can react to and learn from them. By doing this, students will be able to come up with new and richer schemes formed by an interconnected net of information that will allow them face different situations and possible scenarios in their daily life and context. Besides, if we as teachers are able to carry out this job successfully, we will help students to develop their own critic sense, since by analyzing and treating with a huge range of information they will have the opportunity to create their own point of view and thus be critic according it.

Some factors that strongly determine the acquisition of knowledge are the basic cognitive processes. The latter are considered to be the mental processes that the subject carries out since the realization of a stimulus and the answer given according to it. These basic cognitive processes are four: sensations, perception, attention and memory. The first, as its name says, are the different feelings experienced along the process of reception and answer to the stimulus. Perception is the process carried out when realizing about the existence of a determined stimulus. This process is extremely influenced by the prior knowledge and preconceptions, meaning that, we are more likely to perceive what we are expecting to and not new things that we cannot even image nor have in mind. The attention is the capability of focusing on a topic or task. The individual tries to pay attention that information that he believes that will be useful when carrying out the task established. Finally, the memory process is based on the storage and latter retrieval of the information acquired in relation with the stimulus perceived.

I would like to focus on the last two since I think that are the most essential all basic cognitive processes. First of all, in relation to a determined task, teachers should be able to focus the attention of the students on the topic that they are dealing with. This could be done by sharing the objectives of the activity with the students, so they are able to understand the finality of what they are doing and also stick to the task and not get lost by exploring other fields or issues. The fact that the students are aware of the objectives that have to be achieved regarding a determined task means that they have a path established that they can follow and, therefore, find easier what they need or have to do in order to success. In terms of memory, for us as future teachers, it is needed to differentiate between the long-term and the short-term memory. The first is considered such memory that the individual is able to recall even time has passed, while the latter only prevails for a short time. All of us know that most of the times we tend to use the short-term memory, especially when speaking about exams, but it is a huge mistake that we are making. The use of long-term memory should be promoted as we should be teaching students prepared for life-long learning and not those who are able to apply what they have learnt in a determined period of their life. For this reason, teachers should come up with aesthetic activities in which students found meaning in what they learning and, therefore, never forget it. Such activities should involve the reflection of what has been learnt and not only the reproduction of facts and statements. Being able to apply and reflect about what an individual has learnt, makes him capable of carrying out similar tasks along his life and, therefore, competent.

In which stage am I?

As it has said previously, one of the most important ideas about Piaget’s theory are the stages of cognitive development. Through them, Piaget has been able to classify children from zero to twelve years old according to their cognitive possibilities. It is important to mention that this theory is strongly rooted on the belief that the endogenous factors determine the development rhythm and thus, no social or contextual influence is taken into account.

The following grid summarizes the stages defined by Piaget and some of their characteristics: 

Regarding the stages of cognitive development, I had the opportunity to carry out an experiment in which different children, considered to be in the same stage, performed the same experiment. This experiment shows how external conditions may influence in the children's cognitive development:

For us as teachers, it is important to take into account these stages since through them we will be able to have an idea of the characteristics of our students’ cognitive development. Nevertheless, we cannot rely only on the data and facts attributed to each stage because all children are different among them and their learning rhythm or pace will vary depending on the individual. For us, this classification should represent just a guideline to be aware or define the activities previous to the first meeting with the children. Since that moment, we should base our teaching action in observation and the satisfaction of the individual needs of each student. 

Language and thinking

Finally, to end with this issue, we will be discussing the acquisition and development of both language and thinking. Both aspects and the relation among them is such a controversial topic since, several authors have opposite beliefs regarding it. A clear example of authors with differences among approaches are Piaget and Vygotsky, whose point of view about the utility of language in the development of the individual was antagonistic. But before arguing about this topic, is important to take into account the developmental process of the language acquisition.

When we are born, we have a predisposition to communicate and we are also prepared to develop the skills and abilities needed to talk, in other words, we have the natural conditions that will let us express ourselves in a future.  Moving on the next stage, the following thing we try to do is to communicate by imitation. We try to reproduce what we see and hear in others in order to be able to express ourselves with other people. Of those things we are imitating, we create a mental image that will allow us to progressively develop our thinking capacity. The more things we try to reproduce, the more mental images we will have and thus, our thinking capacity will develop progressively towards a more complex thought.

Regarding this topic, as it has been said before, Piaget and Vygotsky have different opinions. Piaget argued that the language is not useful when constructing knowledge nor on the cognitive development of the individual since, the language we use with ourselves (internal speech) is different than the one that others use Therefore, the communication with others is not useful to learn because we do not understand anyone but ourselves. Whereas Piaget defended the lack of utility of language in the cognitive development, Vygotsky argued that one of the most important conditions regarding this issue is language itself. Vygotsky stated that the communication among peers should be fostered in schools as it is one of the first means of obtaining language structures that will later be converted into structures of thought. Moreover, the development of the internal speech will allow the students reach superior psychological processes such as the critical thought or the reflection and argumentation. These superior psychological processes are useful tools to self-regulate one’s own behavior.

If I were asked to choose between these two approaches, I will be definitely in favor of Vygotsky’s theory. As I have been able to experience, the communication among peers is essential to learn. Although Piaget argues that the use of different language does not allow learning from others, I think that is the common structures of the language that peers use what sometimes leads us to understand better the explanation of a classmate than the one done by the teacher. Nevertheless, I believe that other things such as the fact that “one of us” is explaining something is also more motivating since, shared experiences among us made us know each of us more in depth and thus, be able to identify what kind of explanation or guidance we need in order to understand a determined thing. The following image shows the percentage of success that each of the defined practices has when acquiring knowledge. According to the results that it shows, we could conclude that in classrooms the communication among students should be fostered as it has better results than any other practice. We should provide the students of experiences in which they are able not only to interact but also to learn from the experiences each one of them has gone through. 

Piaget's discussion
La lengua de las mariposas