Children’s Thinking.pptVIP

Children’s Thinking The Important Questions How do children think when they are born? Are there measurable stages of development? How do those changes occur? Why do individuals differ in their thinking skills? What are the connections between physical brain development and the development of thinking skills? What Influence does culture have on thinking? Innate Thinking: How Do Children Think When They’re Born Common Western Perspectives on Innate Thinking Skills Include: Associationist Perspective Constructivist Perspective Competent-Infant Perspective Associationist Time Period: Late 1600s through 1800s Theorists: John Locke, Donald Hume, John Stuart Mill General Perspective: Infants enter the world with minimal capabilities. They can make associations among experiences. Learning: Process: Children learn everything through experience. “tabula rasa” – Latin for blank slate is how Locke saw the human brain at birth. Constructivist Time Period: 1900-1970 Major Theorists: James Mark Baldwin and Jean Piaget General Perspective: Children are born with the ability to make associations among experiences, to use important perceptual skills, and to use certain rudimentary motor skills that allow them to explore their environment and construct concepts Learning Process: Thinking skills develop in stages based on cumulative skills (physical/mental) Competent-Infant Time Period: 1990 to the Present Major Theorists: Carey and Gelman General Perspective: Infants are born with a wide range of perception skills and understanding Learning Process: Infants Learn through perceiving the world and classifying their experiences in rudimentary forms of adult thinking How Children Understand Distance: 3 Perspectives Associationist: Through experience: They move around and investigate objects to see their spatial relationships: No skills, they acquire them as they go along – through experience. Constructivist: Developed over time as thinking skills develop in stages. Few sk