SCHOOL YEARS (Middle childhood and Adolescence):
GROWING INDIVIDUAL ABILITIES (cognitive, physical, etc.):
- Piaget: Operationalism and complex reasoning
- Concrete operational thought (~age 7-11): Trial and error thinking
- Formal operational thought (after ~age 10): Logical and hypothetical thinking as well;
Metacognition: Thinking about thought and memory ("How I remember things")
Development of memory strategies (mnemonics, poems, taking notes)
EXAMPLES of MNEMONICS:
| Length of months
| "Thirty days hath September; April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one, except for February alone,
Which has but eight days and a score,
'Til leap year comes to bring one more."
| | Spelling
| "I before E, except after C, or when followed by G, as in 'neighbor' or 'eight'."
| | Lines on G-clef (music)
| "Every Good Boy Deserves Fun"
| | Spectrum colors
| R O Y G B I V (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
| | Neonatal health
| A P G A R (appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, respiration)
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Answers to "What is a chair?"
| Preoperational stage:
| "This" (pointing or touching)
| Concrete operational stage:
| "You sit in it"
| Formal operational stage:
| "It's a piece of furniture with four legs and a seat that you can sit on"
(Dictionary-type definition, using Aristotle's "genus and differentiae")
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- Ethnic and family differences:
Child learns important family or ethnic traditions, habits, activities, etc.
- Theories of intelligence:
- Gardner: "Multiple intelligences"
1. Linguistic (word meanings)
2. Logical-mathematical
3. Spatial
4. Musical
5. Kinesthetic (body movements)
| 6. Interpersonal = Emotional intelligence
(recognizing other people's feelings)
7. IntRApersonal (recognizing your own emotions)
8. Naturalistic (understanding nature)
9. Existential (purpose of life and death)
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- Sternberg: "Theory of Successful Intelligence":
- Analytic ability -- ability to suggest different solutions or hypotheses
- Creative ability -- ability to adapt to new situations
- Practical ability -- ability to figure out what works (or is likely to work)
- Binet-Simon and Stanford Binet tests:
- Original motivation: identify students who need remedial help
- Determine average age of various tasks or answers
- Intelligence Quotient (IQ) = Mental age x100 / Chronological age
— (Lewis Terman, at Stanford Univ.)
- Predicts school success
- NOT innate or unchangeable!
- Early adoption studies seemed to show hereditary effects
- Army alpha tests in World War I, analyzed in 1920s:
15-point difference for historically discriminated groups
(many subsequent studies found similar results in other countries)
- Later analysis in 1960s:
Effects of schooling by state-- BIGGER environmental differences
Improvement after migrating to higher-performing state
- Transracial adoption studies
- Philadelphia study with matched samples-- no difference
- Many studies show that educational interventions can improve IQ scores!
- Culture-fair tests:
- Honus Wagner example
- Raven Progressive Matrices
- Stereotype threat: performance suffers from anxiety about conforming to stereotype
- "Gifted" children: show creativity and divergent thinking
Early (precocious): 1 reading, 2 math, 3 musical abilities
It's never too early
to learn to read
| Musical talent very young:
Mozart Sammy Davis Jr.
Schubert Brenda Lee
Chopin Stevie Wonder
Mendelssohn Michael Jackson
Louis Armstrong Dolly Parton
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- Intellectual disabilities:
- Biomedical factors: chromosome abnormalities, malnutrition, measles during pregnancy,
brain trauma (low fetal O2; fetal alcohol syndrome, etc.)
- Social factors (poverty, etc.)
- Behavioral factors: child neglect, domestic violence
- Educational: inadequate parenting or inadequate schooling
- Learning disabilities, esp. dyslexia and word comprehension
Strategy #1: better reading fonts
Strategy #2: teaching step-by-step what most children grasp without help
(like "un-" as a prefix, or "-s" to show plural)
- Math disability (dyscalculia)-- poorly understood
- ADHD-- child fidgets, doesn't focus, easily distracted
- often gets into trouble
- if minority, wrongly attributed to poor upbringing
- often become successful innovators later in life
- controversial: drug treatment with Ritalin
- Reading:
- Phonological awareness: PHONICS, letter=sound
(but English is not always consistent):
'ch' in 'church', 'character', 'charisma';
"The violinist laid down his bow on the bow of the ship
before taking a bow; his wife's hair was tied with a bow."
"Although he had enough dough, the baker thought he had a
rough time with his cough."
- Word recognition: Start early with familiar signs (EXIT, STOP, store names, etc.)
- Comprehension of meaningful sentences
- Sight-reading for familiar words: The, On, Was
- READ OFTEN; visit the library often and allow child to sample and select what appeals to them
(They will be more motivated to read what they themselves have selected.)
- Writing:
- Begins with story-telling (Initially, just sentences strung together)
- Mechanics of writing: easier if capitals used first
- Effective story or essay writing: POW-TREE
- P=Pick my idea O=Organize notes
W=Write, say more
- T=Topic sentence first R=Reasons to support topic
- E=Explain more E=Ending
- Math concepts: learned at first by counting small objects (Cheerios, raisins, toy soldiers);
Multiplication by putting things in rows
Handling money, making change
ALLOWANCE when child is ready (small amount OK; explain what you can get
only by spending it; also explain value of saving it up for something big)
Good idea to have the child open a small bank account to encourage savings
(It also encourages independence if they know they have their money that they can spend
on everyday treats OR SAVE UP for something they can look forward to in the future!)
Schools and teachers:
- Comparing U.S. schools with other industrialized countries-- rather poorly (low scores)
- High-performing countries include Korea, Japan, Switzerland, Netherlands, Finland, Singapore
- These countries have more school time, more homework
- Parents give more encouragement, higher expectations, encourage students to work harder
- Good teachers are rewarded and esteemed; great respect for good teachers
- U.S.: Best students OK, but low scores for many, esp. poorly funded schools,
poor neighborhoods, families in poverty
- Good schools--
- Caring teachers who attend to students' needs individually
- Supportive staff, facilities, etc.
- Administrators who recognize and reward good teachers (many do not,
others pay attention to wrong criteria)
- School is safe and nurturing
- Parents and community are involved and supportive
- Progress is monitored and rewarded multi-dimensionally
(poetry, math, music, sports, dance, science fairs, building things, etc.)
- Good teachers--
- Manage classroom to promote learning
- Feel responsible for outcomes
- Respect each student
- Interactive teaching (2-way) that engages students
- Use peer tutoring sometimes (smart student helps lagging student understand)
- Teach students to monitor their own progress
- Proper pace
- Frequent feedback, assessment of both students and teacher
Physical activity and sports:
- Growth (mostly in legs and arms): Increased strength; Boys generally taller and stronger
- Motor skills increase in both sexes; Boys usually stronger, faster, throw and jump farther
- Examples: Long jump; How far can you throw a ball?
- Important to get ALL children to be active, NOT JUST those good in sports
EXAMPLES of beneficial activities (school or home): running, climbing, hiking, dancing,
bicycling, carrying things, rowing or canoeing, gardening or lawn care, building things,
carpentry, long walks, etc.
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