Transcript What would the world be like if people had tails?

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What would the world be like if
people had tails?
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• What do you need to be able to do to answer
that question?
• How might the responses of younger children
differ from yours?
Today’s session
You are learning to...
• Compare and criticise ways
of investigating children’s
cognition
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You are learning about...
• Piaget’s formal operational
stage
• Tests of systematic &
abstract thinking
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• What are operations?
• How do you think concrete and formal
operations might be different?
Formal operations
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• Concrete operations are carried out on things
whereas formal operations are carried out on
ideas.
• From about 12 years children can follow the
form of a logical argument without reference
to its content.
Formal operations
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–
–
–
Christiano (oldest)
Beyonce
Wayne
Chardonnay (youngest)
Formal problem:
• A>B; C<D; D<B; B>C
– A>B>D>C
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Concrete problem:
• Cristiano is older than
Beyonce. Chardonnay is
younger than Wayne.
Wayne is younger than
Beyonce. Beyonce is older
than Chardonnay.
Formal operations
• In the stage of formal operations people can
think logically about:
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– Relationships between abstracts
– Hypothetical situations (e.g. the ‘tails’ question)
Formal operations
• Arrange yourselves in groups of four. Decide
who will be children and who researchers.
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– Children: use the apparatus provided to work out
what determines how fast a pendulum swings.
– Researchers: observe carefully and note the
strategies used by the children.
Formal operations
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• Children become systematic in their thinking
and make logical plans in order to solve
problems.
Formal operations
• Pendulum problem:
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– Concrete operations – haphazard approach, with
many variables being changed simultaneously.
Solutions are accidental.
– Formal operations – systematic approach, one
variable altered whilst others held constant.
Solution is logically arrived at.
Piaget & Inhelder (1958): The four beaker
problem
• 4 beakers labelled 1-4 containing colourless liquid
• One beaker labelled ‘g’ which contains a chemical that can be
added to the others using an eye dropper
• Spare empty beakers
• A few drops of ‘g’ are added to two further unlabelled beakers
containing colourless liquid
– One turns yellow while the other remains colourless
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• Participants have to use the liquids in the four beakers to try
and get the same yellow colour as the researcher
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• How would you expect a 10-year-old’s
approach to differ from a 16-year-old’s?
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• What difference can we expect between a
Year 7’s and a Sixth Former’s thinking?
• How can we test this?