The Importance of Cognitive Development in Understanding Childhood Stages

Discuss about the Narrative and Rhetorical Problems of Education.

The understanding of how an individual can learn or conceptualize ideas and process information is based on the individual’s cognitive development. The knowledge of cognitive development helps in understanding both the psychological and neurological development of childhood stages (Barrouillet, 2015).  The primary emphasis of the cognitive event is on the understanding of different levels of information conception, information perception as well as processing as a significant indicator of brain development.

Piaget theory of cognitive evolution is one of the most rated theory in both psychology and sociological studies in its efforts to explain child cognitive development and enhance the understanding of how children can learn (Dennick, 2012). Piaget was both a biologist and a psychologist and lived between the years 1896 and 1980 (DeVellis, 2016). His scope of knowledge in the subject of cognitive development rubbished the current assumption in psychology that helps that children were less competent regarding thinking compared to adults by arguing that is the difference in their think which makes them different. This essay will, therefore, help us in understanding the cognitive development theory by Piaget and its contribution to understanding students learning and teaching behaviors.

The genesis of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was the observation of his children and how they used to make sense of the world around them (Efklides, 2012). Psychologist before Piaget had the idea that intelligent of individuals was a fixed trait. However, he disagreed with this popular idea and posited that cognitive development was and is a process which occurs due to individual biological maturation as well as their interaction with the environment (Pipitone, 2018). One of the things which were of interest in his studies of children’s learning and thinking behavior as well as cognitive development was the reasons most children gave for their wrong answers which required logical difference which brought significant differences between the thinking of children and adults (Schneider et al., 2014). He, therefore, developed a four-stage development approach in which he argued children progressively follow in their cognitive development. His goal in these four stages of cognitive development was to provide an understanding of the mechanisms and processes through which an infant develops to a child and into an adult who can make this and reason appropriately.

Piaget theory of cognitive evolution is, therefore, a description of four distinct phases of childhood cognitive development. These include; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation and formal stages of cognitive development (Chengjiu, Flanagan, & Yoshiyuki, 2014). He described the sensorimotor stage occur between the age of birth to two years. In his observation and understanding, he acknowledged that infants at this stage start developing an ability to understand him or herself (Taylor, 2017). However, his knowledge of the reality is based on the interactions of the infant with the environment. The infant can differentiate the various objects on the situation from him or herself. This is the first stage of learning and Piaget’s describes that the child learning and cognitive development occurs through assimilation as well as through accommodation. His perspective of cognitive development is differentiating from another school of thoughts because of his ability to identify or develop a schema. He, therefore, emphasized on the importance of schema in cognitive development arguing that a child may have an existing schema even before interacting with the environment or can also develop new schema during her interaction with the situation. Therefore assimilation process of cognitive development employs the use of an existing schema, and a good example would be the sucking reflex of babies which is enhanced when something touches the babies’ lips or even the grouping reflex which is enhanced whenever an object touches the babies’ palms (Demetriou et al., 2016). Accommodation, on the other hand, occurs due to the failure of an existing schema and the child has to develop a new schema to deal with new objects from the environment.

The Genesis and Development of Piaget’s Theory

The second stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is the preoperational stage of development and Piaget argues that it occurs between the ages of 2 years to 4 years. However, learning in this stage is through symbolism where the child can construct or conceptualize an object with physical situations. The child cannot think of other people as the thinking is still egocentric as he or she cannot create meaning for other people. The child is, therefore, able to identify or classify objects in a simple way by the use of standard features.

Concrete operations form the third stage of cognitive development according to Piaget, and in this case, he argues that assimilation process of development becomes weaker as physical experiences in the child which increases the cognitive accommodation abilities of the child develop. This stage of cognitive development is mostly experienced between the ages of 7 to 11 years. The child is, therefore, able to create logical structures representing or explaining his or her physical experiences.  Lastly, Piaget’s describes the last stage of cognitive development to be the formal operations stage (Barrouillet, 2015). He posits that at this stage cognition abilities reach their final forms and the child who is developing into an adult does not need concrete objects to help them in making their rational judgments and reasoning. The thinking becomes similar to that of an adult as the development occurs between the ages of 11 years to adulthood. In his argument, Piaget provides that it is not possible to skip any stage of cognitive development however it is possible to have differential characteristics during these stages varying from one child to the other as learning may not be equal. Therefore it is possible to find some children are cognitively growing faster compared to others.

Despite the many criticisms of this theory, it has remained remarkably relevant in its application as a social learning theory. Many researchers have extensively carried out research positing the impact of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development on education. However, the approach was not meant to be used for educational purposes but has found significant applications in the field of education, teaching and learning (Siegler, 2016). A good example was the UK review of their primary curriculum which was done back in the year 1966 was based on the ideas of Piaget’s theory.

Learning is a process, and so it is to students, which means that it is possible to have different learning capabilities among children as the process of cognitive development may not be similar to each student. The argument of Piaget’s theory that these stages cannot be skipped by any individual is due to the role they play in cognitive development despite the differential in their event of happening. The theory’s central concepts are based on the idea that children can learn best through discovery or do activities which are actively involving and explorative (Parkay et al., 2014). The theory, therefore, can be used to emphasize critical issues in learning such as focusing on individual learning, developing a flexible curriculum that is sensitive of student’s cognitive development and the impact of environment on learning capabilities.

The Four Stages of Cognitive Development According to Piaget

Piaget theory of cognitive development employs the concept of biological and maturation stages. This has been described as a fundamental concept in learning as it brings the idea of preparedness or readiness. Learning is achieved efficiently or facilitated in an environment of readiness. It is effective in cases when your cognitive abilities can absorb specific or specific information (Rutten & Soetaert, 2013). Student’s capability to learn is therefore determined on their readiness or their cognitive skills as readiness is used to bring an understanding of when accurate information should be taught to students (Kozhevnikov et al., 2014). In his argument, Piaget’s provides that students should only be shown particular concepts after they reach certain appropriate stages of cognitive development. Therefore the theory impacts the learning process of students as it presents the idea that school’s curriculum should be designed according to the levels of cognitive development.

Student learning according to the theory should be contrary based on playing. He argues that it is during this playing that students or children can construct the meaning of different concepts or information. His theory emphasizes on two essential concepts of learning in a child life where he speaks of assimilation and accommodation processes as key to cognitive development. Piaget argues that the means of assimilation, as well as accommodation, can only take place effectively in an active environment which requires an active learner (Kolb, 2014). Problem-solving skills in a student learning experience are fundamental and in most cases, they are developed by the students in activities which require discovery. Paget then argues that these problems solving skills can only discover and not taught. Based on the theory we can conclude that it contributes positively to the development of student learning capabilities by ensuring that learning is student-centered and not based on an imposed curriculum. It is essential therefore for teachers or parents to apply these concepts or ideas in training their children and helping them discover their cognitive capabilities. This paper also evaluates Bruner’s Theory of culture, mind, and education.

Piaget theory emphasis most on providing an understanding of individual cognitive development and the process may be different in one child to the other. It singles out that cognitive development may vary from one individual to the other however the stages of development cannot be skipped as they are progressive. This concept of learning implies that learning should be centered on student and can only be achieved if the students have engaged actively (Bouckenooghe et al., 2016). There is need to integrate more active and participative activities in the learning curriculum as well as playing time for the students as this will provide more opportunities for cognitive development.

Relevance and Application of Piaget’s Theory in Education

The theory deposit that, problem-solving skills for the students during learning cannot be taught but can only be discovered through active engagement.  Therefore this adds to the implication that the role of teachers in education is to facilitate and not to direct. Teaching should only be promoted by providing the necessary conditions. Materials and environments but not through addressing the students on learning and therefore teachers should be focused on the process of learning more than the product of it. When the process of learning is right then the product is also a function of the process. Teaching or education should be done through the use of active materials in classrooms, and outside classes and these materials should require reconstructing or even rediscovering of truths (Schneider et al., 2014). Such an initiative will facilitate active learning to the students and enhance their cognitive development. The teachers should employ the use of both individual and collaborative activities for the student during their teaching as this will provide the opportunity for the students to learn from each other. The teaching and learning materials should also be set according to the child development level. Therefore the theory has great implications for teaching and learning and can be used to enhance the efficiency of teaching and learning institutions.

Learning is a process that enables an individual to solve problems by reflecting on personal past experiences and the already existing knowledge. The process takes place in almost every aspect of life, in schools homes, churches, and fields. Students interact with objects, teachers, environment, and store the gained information in mind for future reference (Chengjiu et al., 2013). At times the students can either retrieved the acquired information,   or not in same situations depending on the model and theory used to dispatch the pieces of information, as some models make it difficult to grasp and retrieve information from the memory. For the purpose of this paper, we will explore the Burner’s Theory of culture, mind, and education and the contributions of the theory in understanding the ways students learn. The section further examines the implications of the theory of the learning process concerning culture.

Factors influencing learning process such as the mental health and status, the nature of surrounding culture and among others. The various theories applied in learning include Problem-Based Learning, Simulation-Based Learning, Incidental Learning, and Case-Based Learning, Transformative Learning Theory, instrumental learning theory, Piaget’s Theory of cognitive development, Vygotsky’s Social Cognition, Bruner’s theory and among others (Zuckerman, 2015).

Student Learning According to Piaget’s Theory

Bruner’s theory of culture, mind, and education developed by Jerome Bruner, is a framework stating that learning is a continuous and active process whereby learners are required to construct new concepts based on the acquired knowledge.  The intellectual ability of an individual develops in stages and steps that determine the growth of the mind, and the capability to store and retrieve   information for future references and applications (Chang, 2018). The current and the past acquired knowledge selection and transformation aid in making decisions based on the cognitive structures.

The theory comprises four main elements that are: prediction towards learning, methods of structuring the knowledge for easy grasping by the students thus curriculum should aim at fostering the development of problem-solving skills via an inquiry and discovery process (Flanagan & Yoshiyuki, 2013). The second aspect is the effectiveness and sequence of knowledge presentation. Therefore, the subject matter delivered to the learner should be in a similar way the learner is viewing the world. Additionally, the concepts organization should be in such a way that ignites learning and discovery process, finally the third aspect which is the nature and speed of delivering punishment and rewards to motivate the learning process.

Bruner observes that education is capable of ushering children into the own culture, unfortunately most of the education system often fails to do so, thus, prompting the application of cultural psychology in the learning curriculum (Hass, 2018). The theory states that mind tends to gain the full potential status through cultural engagement only, thereby changing a leaner’s ways of thinking, perceiving things, feeling, and carrying out discourse. Bruner observed that a child is always born in a specific culture, raised, and developed in the same culture, and therefore, the mind conforms to the nature of the culture. According to Bruner, culture entails environment, set of skills, values, and way of life (Tomasello, 2016). Bruner further identifies communication styles, modes and channels as elements of culture: as communication uses language tends to enhance actions, thoughts, and perceptions. Education is not merely the process of processing and sorting out information, but rather a process that aids the learner to construct proper meanings that require an understanding of individual ways of cultures. Unlike the computational view of learning, that learning is about the mastery of the content, Bruner says that human beings are determined by the internalization of their culture that takes place in a toolkit.

Implications of Piaget’s Theory for Student Learning and Development

Bruner’s theory has three stages of representations that are inactive, iconic, and symbolic representation. Elaborating these stages will further help us how culture contribute to the development of the mind of an individual and hence the education system.

The enactive stage is the first stage of learning and happens between the ages of 0-1 years. The stage mainly entails the stage of encoding action based information, sorting, and then storing in mind. At this stage, a child always learns to move the muscles memory for example, when a baby caretaker shakes a rattle to a baby, the action movement will be absorbed by the baby’s mind and stored. The stored muscle movement will later be retrieved from the memory, and the baby will be capable of shaking the baby by her/himself.  The learning stage is limited to the baby’s, however in the adulthood; the learning process is applicable in performing a variety of motor tasks such as sewing clothes, operating a lawn mower, and typing on a keyboard.

The iconic is the second stage of learning and takes place between the ages of 1-6 years, a step whereby visual objects are stored in the form of images. The pictures observed  always connects to the mind’s eye of an individual, thus allow many learners to remember objects and grasp information more quickly through the use of diagrams and charts that accompany the verbal report.

The symbolic stage is the last one and develops after the ages of seven and above. At the symbolic step, information is stored in forms of symbols that are flexible and can be manipulated such as language. The stored of the flexible codes enables the user no to be constrained by actions and images. Bruner’s theory states that the symbolic stage, individual determines the perceived actions in advance hence allowing the quick response to the stimulus.

The learning process applies to all learners even to the adults as long as the information is coding and representation is in the correct ways. Language is critical aspect in understanding the learning process as it increases the ability of the learner to deal with the abstract concepts. According to Bruner’s theory, learning process entails communication that enables the encoding of the symbols into the mind, and culture does a lot in shaping the perception itself. The process is understood  better through examining the psychological theories that help the learners to construct world-views during the educational activities. Bruner further dictates that learners are not merely receptacles of the facts, nor culture a mare collection of changeless truths; instead, culture is a changing thing, and individuals have the capability of constructing meanings. Therefore, knowledge acquired through a process of the negotiation between the learner and the culture.

The cultural process entails three levels that are: the mastery of learner’s cultural valuable knowledge and skills, the level of comprehension of other people’s intentions, desires, and beliefs, and lastly the level of the student’s understanding through communication with teachers and colleagues that enables them to remember to think and gauze. Both the learner as the teacher always does the communication process on language that is understandable since grammar, vocabulary, beliefs, values contained inside. The first level, the mastery of the learner’s cultural valuable knowledge and skills enables the leaner to participate and collaborate in ordinary activities resulting in better education. Through narrative, a learner is capable of finding own cultural identity, cultivate and nurture the knowledge to influence the future learning process (Rutten & Soetaery, 2013).

The second level which is the comprehension of other people’s intentions enables the learner to construct meanings rather than receiving that foster the curiosity development. The teacher method of instructions determines a lot on the learner’s amount of knowledge grasped. The theory states that the folk pedagogies reflect a lot in the teacher’s assumptions about children that need protection against the vulgar society. Young learners are more like empty vessels and therefore filling them with knowledge needs socialization with the adult, whereby they will imitate the skills through demonstrations from the adults and teachers.

 Pedagogy also perceives learners as thinkers that focus on the development of inter-subjective interchange that allows teachers to determine what the learner is thinking in mind (Pipitone, 2018). The third aspect that involves the level of communication between the student teacher and the colleagues is related to the cultural elements determine the level of information grasped by the learner. Cultural difference defines educational scale and style, for example, some cultures such as Asian embrace class quietness and eye contact with the teacher, unlike the European culture that fosters active participation of learners in the class (Kosslyn, 2016). The active involvement of students allows students to make the lessons meaningful and attractive, as their attention and stimulation are activated. The cultural individualism requires students to work independently since helping one another is considered as a mode of cheating. However, the culture of collectiveness embraces group work, a method that assists subtends to learn ideas and share with one another.

The Bruner’s theory of culture, kind, and education is purposed to facilitate the learner’s thinking and problem-solving skills that are applicable in some life situations. The cultural aspects absorbed by learners, tend to affect the children participating in education likewise, the teacher’s cultural knowledge also affect the dissemination of the experience to the learners (Yilmaz, 2011). Bruner’s work led to the development of scaffolding and the spiral curriculum, such as bedtime stories and read-aloud that aided the children to learn by taking responsibility and being independent. The process commenced on the enactive stage and progressed into the latter stages through the guidance of parents and teachers, thus a child has the capability of taking in complex pieces of information as much as there is an honest process.

For the learner to grasp enough information, then the teacher must repeat the experiments, the lesson, and if possible using diagrams that are easier to store in mind (Willan, 2018). The Bruner’s theory suggests that learners should be able to construct self-knowledge and categorize the gained information in the coding system.  A systematic coding enhances the learner ability to retrieve information for future use (Dennick, 2012). Bruner suggests that teacher’s role should be mainly on facilitating the learning process rather than passing the information to the student. The designed learning process enables the student to establish the teacher provides the relationship between vast amounts of data. The spiral curriculum intended by Bruner is an excellent aid for teachers to facilitate the learning process.

The learning process is always a step by step activity and starts at the infant age developing to adulthood (Bell, 2015). The learning process is categorized into three stages that are enactive, iconic and symbolic and all scenes are critical in all ages as one influenced by the preceding stage, and the teacher should have the capability of identifying the learner’s stage. Many factors determine the ability of an individual to grasp knowledge, store, and retrieve the information in the futures. A good number of the theorist, state that learning is the act of receiving the report, however, Bruner Jerome, in the theory of culture, mind, and education status.

 The theory further argues that learning is useful in a participatory, proactive collaborative and communal process. Hence, students that focus on teachers tend to learn less than those that embrace teamwork. The culture of an individual shapes the mind development since a child is always born and raised throughout a specific culture. The practical learning process should entail the spiral curriculum that aims at allowing the learners to construct their knowledge and relate the bits of information.

Conclusion

The developments of cognitive development theory have provided useful concepts in the understanding of child cognitive development. It has also played a vital role despite criticisms in shaping the education curriculum in different regions globally. Among the impacts is the ability to develop a curriculum that is student-centered and laying more emphasis on the process of teaching and learning as opposed to focusing on the final product. Intelligence as a product of education is therefore not a fixed trait in an individual but rather a social cognitive development process which occurs as a result of biological maturation and most important through interaction with the environment.

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