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Chapter 11: Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood Physical and motor Development ● Size and strength increase significantly during middle childhood, although more slowly than in earlier years. Muscle mass and fat tissue both increase. ● Although height and weight are both influenced by genetic factors, environmental factors, such as nutrition and health play an important role. Ex: changes in diet in recent decade have contributed to an increase in childhood obesity ● Strength, agility, and balance all improve in middle childhood. Boys tend to be slightly advanced in motor abilities requiring power and force; girls often excel in fine motor skills and gross motor skills combining balance and foot movement ● Brain development in the early years of middle childhood includes: o Continued myelination, especially in frontal cortex o Continued synaptic pruning in late-maturing brain areas, with more stable connections among remaining neurons o A shift to more alpha activity (characteristic of engaged attention) than theta activity (characteristics of sleep states) o A significant increase in the synchronization of electrical activity between different brain areas, among them the frontal loves, with the areas functioning more effectively as coordinated systems. Concrete operational development ● According to Piaget, as a result of increasing decentration, at about age 7 or 8, children become capable of mental operations- of logically combining, separating, and transforming information. With the advent of this stage of concrete operations, children can think in a more organized, flexible way, and the world becomes more predictable to them. Concrete operations: term Piaget applied to the new stage of development in which children begin to engage in mental operations. Coordinated mental actions that allow children to mentally combine, separate, order and transform concrete objects and events that children experience directly. Conservation: Piaget’s term for the understanding that some properties of an object or substance remain the same even when its appearance is altered in some superficial way. Conservation of number: recognition of the one to one correspondence between two sets of objects of equal number, despite a difference in the sizes of the objects or in their spatial positions. o Children are presented with two rows of objects, one the child’s, the other the experimenter’s. Both numbers of objects are equal and child is asked to confirm. Then the experimenter’s row is either spread out or compressed and the child is asked if the numbers of objects in the two rows are still equal.

o In contrast, older children realize that the number must remain the same. Conservation of volume: understanding that the amount of liquid remains unchanged when poured from one container into another that has different dimensions. ● According to Piaget, children fully master the principle of conservation around the age of 8 ❖ “They were equal to start with and nothing was added, so they’re the same.” This mental operation is called identity; the child realizes that a change limited to outward appearance does not change the actual amounts involved. ❖ “The liquid is higher, but the glass is thinner.” This mental operation is called compensation; changes in one aspect of a problem are mentally compared with, and compensated for, by changes in another ❖ “If you pour it back, you’ll see that it’s the same.” This mental operation is called negation or reversibility; the child realizes that one operation can be negated or reversed, by the effects of another. *Childrens ability to conserve leads to the logical conclusion that a change in visual appearance does not change the logical reality of the amount. -Classification, with children now able to understand the relation between a superordinate class and its subclasses to categorize objects according to multiple criteria. Ex: stamp collections can be organized according to multiple criteria like countries, years, pictures etc. -Planning, which requires forming mental representations of actions needed to achieve a goal ● To make a plan, they have to keep in mind what is presently happening what they want to happen in the future, and what they need to do in order to get from the present to the future. -Metacognition, which children better able to think about and regulate their thoughts ● Preschoolers and kindergartners are especially prone to overestimating their knowledge. As metacognition develops over the course of middle childhood, children become more accurate in recognizing the limits of their knowledge and problem-solving skills Limitations of concrete operations ● The limitations of concrete operations are apparent in the difficulty children encounter when reasoning about abstract, unfamiliar situations. Information Processing Approaches ● Information-processing theorists account for cognitive changes during middle childhood by pointing to processes such as increased memory capacity and attention, more rapid and efficient mental operations and the acquisition of a variety of mental strategies

● The Role of Memory Three factors taken together appear to bring about the memory changes characteristic of middle childhood 1. increases in the speed and capacity of working memory 2. increases in knowledge about the things one is trying to remember 3. the acquisition of more effective strategies for remembering. Increase speed and capacity of working memory ● Working memory has gotten attention as a source of imporved intellectual functioning during middle childhood because it is considered the “active” memory system that holds and manipulates information needed to reason about complex tasks and problems ● Develop-mentalists are interested in capacity of children’s working memory to “hold” larger amounts of information with age, as well as in the increases of its speed in manipulating (or processing) information. Memory span: number of randomly presented items of information children can repeat immediately after the items are presented. o Most 4 and 5 year olds can recall four digits presented one after another, most 9 and 10 year olds can remember about 6; most adults can remember about 7. Ex: in order to store several randomly presented numbers into working memory, individuals must somehow represent each number to themselves. o By comparison, older children name individual numbers quite quickly, reducing the time interval between storing numbers, they have a greater likelihood of retaining the numbers in memory. o EEG studies indicate that the speed with which children’s brains can respond to complex stimuli increases gradually during middle childhood o In addition to processing speed, increases in the connections between brain regions have also been directly linked ot memory performance in children aged 7 to 16 years. Expanded knowledge base ● Second factor that contributes to improved memory during childhood is the greater knowledge that older children are likely to have about any given topic simply because they have accumulated more experience. This experience provides older children with a richer knowledge base, or store of information, with which to relate and remember new information Improved Memory Strategies ● Third source of improved memory ability is children’s increased use of memory strategies: their deliberate use of actions to enhance remembering. ● Rehearsal: process of repeating to oneself the material that one is trying to memorize, such as a word list, a song, or a phone number ● Organizational strategies: strategies of mentally grouping the materials to be

remembered in meaningful clusters of closely associated items so that remembering only one part of a cluster brings mind to the rest. o use of organizational strategies is often studied by means of a procedure called free recall. In a free recall task, children are shown a large number of objects or read a list of words one at a time and then asked to remember them. This is called free recall because children are free to recall the items in any order they choose. ● Elaboration: process in which children identify or make up connections between two or more things they have to remember. Thinking about memory ● Metamemory: particular form of metacognition. Knowledge about memory, including about memory limitations and strategies Increased Control of Attention ● During middle childhood children become better able to regulate their attention, staying focused on relevant aspects of a task and ignoring irrelevant distractions Executive Function ● Key component of cognitive development in middle childhood is the increasing ability to control and monitor one’s own thinking and behavior in order to make plans, solve problems and pursue goals. ● Executive function: developmentalists use to describe higher-level cognitive processes, such as planning and problem solving, that involve supervising and controlling lower-level cognitive processes, such as attention and memory. The Role of Social and Cultural Contexts ● Cross-cultural studies suggest the universality of concrete operations in middle childhood as well as significant cultural variations that influence performance. ● Across cultures, memory strategies used differences in planning relate to cultural differences in values Measuring Intelligence ● Definitions of intelligence differ among cultures and may focus on social, rather than cognitive, competence. ● Intelligence tests, as they have been developed since their introduction by Binet and Simon, attempt to measure cognitive competence by producing an IQ score based on a child’s performance compared with that of children of the same age. Questions about intelligence 1. Is intelligence a general characteristic or are there specific kinds of intelligence? -Two approaches taking the second position are ● Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences ( coincides with a different cognitive module and follows its own developmental path) and ● Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence, argues expression of each kind of intelligence depends upon a combination of 1. Innate biological brain

structures 2. Extent to which the particular kind of intelligence is emphasized in a given culture 3. Extent to which a child is provided deliberate instruction in activities associated with the particular kind of intelligence. ● Sternberg theory of intelligence proposes that there are three kinds of intelligence: 1. Analytic: abilities we use to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare and contrast. 2. Creative: abilities we use to create, invent, discover and image or suppose. 3. Practical: abilities we use to apply knowledge by putting it into practice. ● Sternberg reports that an individual’s performance level can vary from one kind of intelligence to another and argues that only analytic intelligence is measured by standard IQ tests. 2. What explains population differences? Are differences among individuals and among groups in performance on IQ tests the result of genetic or environmental factors? - Evidence for an environmental role comes from the Flynn effect, the increase across generations in performance on IQ tests. ● Worldwide there has been a steady increase in IQ test performance since testing began roughly; 100 years ago, called the Flynn effect. ● The general result for the 20 countries where intelligence testing has been widely carried out for may decades indicates that IQ scores have been going up an average of 10 to 20 points for every generation. Ex: average English person in 1900 would have been scored at the level currently considered to indicate mental retardation. 3. To what extent might IQ tests be culturally biased? All tests draw on learning that is culture-specific, limiting the conclusions that can be drawn. No scholar believes that the variation in intelligence test scores from person to person can be attributed entirely to either environmental or genetic factors. The cognitive changes of middle childhood are associated with children’s increasing control over their thoughts and actions. This is consistent with the greater independence that children of this age are granted by adults.

Chapter 12: School as a Context for Development The Contexts of Learning

● Formal education: most structured type of learning. Adults instruct the young in the specialized knowledge and skills of their culture. ● Not known if education existed among the hunger gatherer people ● Early hunter-gatherer societies most likely transmitted cultural knowledge and skills through social enhancement and imitation as children participated in everyday activities, rather than through explicit instruction. Increasing specialization led to the emergence of apprenticeship- an intermediate form involving some explicit instruction but relying mainly on participation- and to the emergence of education, or schooling. ● When societies achieve a degree of complexity and specialization in the roles people play, the tools they use, and the ways they secure food and housing, preparation for some occupations is likely to occur through apprenticeship: a form intermediate between learning through participation in family and community life and the explicit instruction of formal education. ● Formal education differs from traditional apprenticeship training in four main ways: 1. Motivation. Apprentices get to practice their craft from the beginning and see the fruits of their labor. Students in schools must work for years to perfect their skills before they can put their knowledge to use in adult work. In the meantime, tasks they are engaged in may seem pointless to them. 2. Social Relations. Unlike masters of apprentices, schoolteachers are rarely kin or family acquaintances, and they may not even live in the community. 3. Social organization. Apprentices are most likely to learn in a work setting among people of diverse ages and skill levels, so they have more than one person to turn to for assistance. At school, children typically learn in the company of other children who are about their age and one adult, who instructs them, and they are often expected to work individually (asking for help from peers can be considered cheating) 4. Medium of instruction. Apprenticeship instruction is usually conducted orally in the context of production. Oral instruction is important in formal schooling as well, but, as we will see later, it is speech of a special kind, closely associated wit h the use of written symbols as a means of acquiring skills and knowledge. ● Schooling differs from traditional apprenticeship training in dimensions including motivation, social relations, social organization, and mediums of instruction. Its problems are abstract, in contrast to those of everyday life. School Readiness ● By the time children start school they already possess a number of building blocks relevant to literacy and math instruction. ● Emergence literacy and Emergent numeracy: include knowledge, skills, and

attitudes that are precursors to learning to read, write and do math. Precursors to reading and writing ● First step to children learning how to read and write is to realize that there is a correspondence between the marks on the printed page and the spoken language. Once they have understood that a cluster of graphic signs, they still have to figure out how to each graphic sign is related to a linguistic sound. ● One of the most basic reading skills is decoding text: translating units of print, or graphemes (units of print), to units of sound or phonemes (units of sound). ● Must be able to distinguish between letters and detect and manipulate phonemes in order for the process of translation can occur. Requires ability to detect and manipulate the phonemes in words, an ability that comes with instruction. Precursors to learning mathematics ● Children must learn to translate their culture’s number words and symbols into an understanding of specific quantities. ● Children learn to envision the placement of numbers on an abstract number line and to manipulate numeric units. The Role of Family ● In many cultures, parents provide their children with special toys, games, and activities designed to promote learning mathematics, reading and writing. Preschools ● Preschools came early in the twentieth century, initiated by educators and physicians concern that the complexities of urban life were overwhelming children and stunting their development. ● Although worldwide preschool enrollment has tripled in recent decades, there are significant disparities in enrollment across and within countries, with lower enrollments among many groups of children who might most benefit from preschool, including immigrant children in the United States. ● Combinations of social, political and scientific factors led US Congress to declare a “war on poverty” in 1964. One key program was Project Head Start. Purpose was to provide poverty children at critical time in children’s lives with learning experiences that they may miss. ● Federal support enabled Head Start programs to offer these experiences at no charge to low-income families. ● Strategy of social reform through early childhood education rested on three crucial assumptions: 1. The environmental conditions of poverty-level homes are insufficient to prepare children to succeed in school. 2. Schooling is the social mechanism that permits children to succeed in the US society

3. Poor children could succeed in school, and thereby overcome their poverty, if they were given extra assistance during preschool years. ● Similar to finding that preschool participation is more effectiv3e for children who are economically disadvantaged or demonstrate lower levels of intellectual development, researchers indicate that children of immigrant families profit significantly from preschool experience. Specifically: -preschool enrollment has a larger impact on the language skills of Hispanic children that it does on those of non-Hispanic -Hispanic children who participate in Head Start preschools show significant gains in reading and math skills and diminished risk for having to repeat grades -Participation in preschool reduces the risk for later delinquency -Participation in preschool improves the English proficiency of immigrant children, especially those whose mothers have less than a high school education. In The Classroom Social Organization of the Classroom and Instructional Design ● There has been much controversy about how to design instruction more effectively. Two approaches are: -bottom-up processing: Instruction should proceed from the simple to the complex. Starts with the teaching of basic skills and then moves on to teaching skills to solve a variety of more complicated tasks. -top-down processing: Argues that a focus on basic skills cause children to lose sight of the larger goal- using reading, writing and arithmetic to accomplish interesting important purposes- and, thus, to lose motivation and fail to thrive in school. Focuses on teaching and developing skills to accomplish specific meaningful tasks. The Standard Classroom Format ● Most common classroom arrangement is for the teacher to sit at a desk or stand at a blackboard facing children. This reflect the assumption that teacher is an authority figure who is there to talk to and teach children who are there to listen and learn. Assumption is reflected by instructional discourse: unique way of talking that is typical in school but rarely encountered in everyday interactions in the community of home. Alternative Forms of Classroom Instruction ● Developmentalists argue that the standard classroom is not the best way of organizing instruction. Alternative forms of classroom instruction seek to counter the passivity of students in the standard format and make them active participants in their education. Educational process, a strategy closely aligned with developmental theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. o Reciprocal Teaching. Designed by Ann Brown and Annemarie Palincsar as a

way to integrate bottom up and top down processing through small group discussion at the time of reading. It was designed for children who are able to read in the sense that they can decode simple texts but who have difficulty making sense of what they read. -A teacher and a small gr...