Class 4: Early Childhood Cognitive Development

Review

				1.1	Quiz 1

				1.1.1	What were the most common errors?

				1.1.2	Please see me if your score is lower than 7! Please see me next time if you still get a 7.

				1.1.2.1	Most common reasons for doing poorly on quizzes according to students

				1.1.2.1.1	Did not do the readings

				1.1.2.1.2	Did not take notes on the readings but simply highlighted

				1.1.2.1.3	Did not take notes on lecture and video discussions

				1.2	Last class…

				2	Very Tentative: Demonstration by Dr Ava Bozoky Durbrow

				2.1	What’s it like learning in a Montessori preschool. Don’t worry if you can’t understand.

				2.2	Conservation task: Examine her EXPLANATION not just her choice.

				2.3	Seriation task: Examine her EXPLANATION not just her choice.

				2.4	The Heinz dilemma: Examine her EXPLANATION

Discussion: Here are ten or so learning objectives for today’s class. Be prepared to answer each using your notes on the readings, video, and class discussion.

				3.1	Le Ann: According to Piaget, what are three major characteristics of thinking during the ages of 3 to 5?

				3.1.1	UNEVENNESS IN DEVELOPMENT (NOTE: MOST DEVELOPMENTALISTS WOULD AGREE HERE)

				3.1.2	EGOCENTRIC THINKING

				3.1.3	Confusing appearances with reality

				3.1.4	Crude or semi-logical thinking (problems with cause and efect)

				3.1.5	Animistic thinking

				3.2	Brevnie: How might one modify the Three Mountain experiment to make it easier for young children to answer questions?

				3.3	Melissa: Briefly describe Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. Can you provide an example that is not in the textbook?

				3.4	Sara: Contrast Piaget and Vygotsky see the role of sociodramatic play as an influence in children’s development.

				3.5	DURBROW: Explain the unevenness of cognitive development during the early childhood period according to information-processing researchers.

				3.5.1	Increased hardware (also more efficient “software”)

				3.6	Gary: Explain the unevenness of cognitive development during the early childhood period according to biological researchers (i.e. modules).

				3.6.1	Differences in maturation of mental modules (examples of mental modules: GRAMMAR LEARNING, cause-and-effect detection, classification, etc)

				3.6.2	Differences in intake of experiences into skeletal principles and core domains

				3.7	Veronica: Explain the unevenness of cognitive development during the early childhood period according to cultural-context researchers (i.e. scripts).

				3.7.1	Scripts vary across cultures, contexts, ages, and even gender

3.7.2

3.7.3

3.7.4

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				3.8	Tim: Compare play in preschool play in European-American and Korean-American children: how does Farver explain the difference?

				3.8.1	Euro-American: more fantasy play

				3.8.2	Korean-American: more realistic play

				3.8.3	Why? Parenting influence but also context

				3.8.4	Lesson? cultural influences matter

				3.9	Jenn: A senator wants to use the Three-Mountain problem and the Maynard the Cat problem to assess whether Head Start is working for preschool-age children. If Head Start children are more likely to pass these problems than age-match control children then Head Start is working. If there is no difference between the two groups of children than Head Start does not work in accelerating cognitive development. Analyze.

				3.10	Essay: A three-year old testifies during the trial of her father who is accused of murdering her mother. The judge has asked you to brief the jury on the accuracy of memory and logical thinking during early childhood. What do you say?

				4	For more information

				4.1	Piaget

				4.2	Vygotsky

Video: Note that there are three videos. I will show just one for the first class and two in the next class (all short!)

				5.1	Journey Through Childhood: Early Childhood---Motor, Cognitive and Language Development (17 minutes)

				5.1.1	Motor Development

				5.1.1.1	Compared to gross-motor skills, it takes longer for ______-______ skills to develop.

				5.1.2	Cognitive and Language Development

				5.1.2.1	Younger children could probably improve their recall memory by using memory aids or strategies such as ____________ .

				5.1.2.2	Knowledge about familiar activities or routines are called mental ______________ . Can you provide an example?

				5.1.2.3	Piaget thought the biggest obstacle to children’s thinking during this period was ________ thinking.

				5.1.2.4	Children that successfully complete the ________ task are likely to be in the period of concrete operations.

				5.1.2.5	Vygotsky proposed that adults provide ____________ ___________ to help children learn new skills.

				5.1.2.6	While speech may first be used to control others, preschool-age children also use _______ to steer their own actions.

				6	NOTE: CALL ME OR EMAIL ME TOMORROW TO HELP PREPARE FOR QUIZ SATURDAY. WILL BE AT HOME THURSDAY AFTER 12 PM.

Assessment

				7.1	Essay 2

Preview

				8.1	Next class…