Piaget: assimilation and accommodation

Piaget: assimilation and accommodation

Suppose an infant of 4 months is presented with a rattle. He has never before had the opportunity to play with rattles or similar toys. The rattle, then, is a feature of the environment to which he needs to adapt. His subsequent behaviour reveals the tendencies of assimilation and accommodation. The infant tries to grasp the rattle. In order to do this successfully he must accommodate in more ways than are immediately apparent. First, he must accommodate his visual activities to perceive the rattle correctly, for example, by locating it in space. Then he must reach out, adjusting his arm movements to the distance between himself and the rattle. In grasping the rattle he must mold his fingers to its shape: in lifting the rattle he must accommodate his muscular exertion to its weight. In sum, the grasping of the rattle involves a series of acts of accommodation, or modifications of the infant’s behavioural structures to suit the demands of the environment. At the same time, grasping the rattle also involves assimilation. In the past the infant has already grasped things; for him, grasping is a well-formed structure of behavior. When he sees the rattle for the first time he tries to deal with the novel object by incorporating it into a habitual pattern of behaviour. In a sense he tries to transform the novel object to something that he is familiar with – namely, a thing to be grasped. We can say, therefore, that he assimilates the objects into his framework and thereby assigns the object 'a meaning.'
(Ginsburg and Opper, 1979: 19)

Here is a link with a diagram to explain this:

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm

My own example of a recent personal experience that involved both accommodation and assimilation is when I change my daughters nappies – we always have the wet wipes right beside her. When she first grasped for it she had to experiment and found that she could pull tissues from the packet. Now whenever I change her nappie she automatically goes for the packet and pulls out the tissues; understanding the function of the packet.

This experience involved 'constructivist learning' because my daughter has gained knowledge as to the function of the packet. This experience could be more successfully explained in terms of behaviourism as it is a baby’s instinct to grab and experiment with new things

The Montessori method

The Montessori method is primarily designed to support pre-school children in directing their own learning. They are encouraged to choose from among a range of graded materials within their classrooms, created to develop their abilities in the following areas:

• Practical Life (to refine manual and motor skills)
• Sensorial activity (to train the senses)
• Language development (to develop the ability to listen, speak, read and write)

In The Secret of Childhood, Montessori develops this radical principle of child-centred education through a critique of the traditional view of the child as an empty vessel which the adult must try to fill:

The adult has become egocentric in relation to the child, not egotistic, but egocentric. Thus he considers everything that affects the psyche of the child from the standpoint of its reference to himself, and so misunderstands the child. It is this point of view that leads to a consideration of the child as an empty being, which the adult must fill by his own endeavours, as an inert and incapable being, for whom everything must be done, as a being without an inner guide, whom the adult must guide step by step from without. Finally, the adult acts as though he were the child’s creator, and considers good and evil in the child’s actions from the standpoint of relation to himself. The adult is the touchstone of good and evil. He is infallible, he is the good on which the child must model himself. Any way in which the child departs from the characteristics of the adult is an evil that must be speedily corrected. And in adopting such an attitude, which unconsciously cancels the child’s personality, the adult feels a conviction of zeal, love and sacrifice.
(Montessori, 1936: 19)

Scaffolding

David Wood and his colleagues (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976) were the first to use the word 'scaffolding' in an educational context. They defined scaffolding as 'a form of adult assistance that enables a child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which would be beyond the child's unassisted efforts'.

Scaffolding is very similar ' to the concept of the 'zone of proximal development'. The scaffolding is the assistance from peers or an adult.

In Thought and Language Vygotsky (1962) referred to several types of assistance that might be given when a child was engaged in a problem-solving activity:

• providing the first step in a solution
• asking a leading question
• explaining
• supplying information
• questioning
• correcting

'Ddifference that makes the difference' (Webster et al., 1996, p. 151) was how teachers 'scaffolded' the learning process. By 'scaffolding' they meant 'the complex set of interactions through which adults guide and promote children's thinking'. This definition emphasised that 'scaffolding' was much more than teachers simply providing help. It was a collaborative process involving dialogue in which learners had as important a role as teachers making the child explain.

Scaffolding involves:

• getting children involved in the task
• helping children to represent tasks in terms they understand
• helping children to adapt and develop concepts
• helping children to externalise their learning. listening to how the children are pursuing the learning activities
• reviewing the process of learning and its worth

Here is an example of using scaffolding is in a recent English as a Second Language (ESL) lesson I taught. The lesson started with a warmer for which I moved all furniture out of the way; this was the prepares for assembly (PFA) stage. I then gave the students instructions “Take it in turns to run to the board, grab a pen, write 1 word which is related to the topic, run back and bass the pen to a team mate, the team with the most words, wins” This is Specific Verbal Instruction (SVI), as I was saying this I ran to the board, grabbed a pen and wrote down a word, then I ran to a student gave them the pen and told them to GO! This was the Demonstrate (DEM) stage. This introduced the topic, which in my opinion was a General Verbal prompt (GVP) stage. Once students were on topic we had a discussion and moved on to the target language for the lesson. I introduced some new vocabulary, "If something is glamorous and shiny, how else might we describe it? Its 6 letters, first letter is G"  another example of GVP. I wrote five blank spaces on the board G _ _ _ _ _ , students started to guess other letters; GL_ _ZY, a student's shouts “Is it glitzy”, I reply ‘Yes, well done”, praising his enquiry skills. This process goes on for other words and phrases using other methods such as mime, pictures and descriptions once again utilising the GVP stage. Later we looked at a reading comprehension with all the vocabulary (which I anticipated would cause problems) highlighted, this was the vocabulary we went through earlier on, this made use of the Indicates Materials (IM) stage. The students answered various comprehension question then we had another discussion followed by a role play. The role play was demonstrated with two strong students, using DEM once again. To finish off students were tested on the target language. I handed out two piles, pile was definitions the other was the target language. "Now, in pairs, I want you to match the correct definition (pointing to the pile of definitions) with the correct word (pointing to the pile of words), Maritsa, what do I want you to do" Maritsa repeats to check understanding and instruction; this incorporated GVP (giving instructions) and IM (pointing to each pile).

The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Here is Vygotsky's grandly-named 'general genetic law of cultural development':

Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological), and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relations between human individuals.
(Vygotsky, 1978: 57)

I believe that social interaction enhances the mind but it is not the be all and end all. There are other factors involved in cognitive development, these could involve the child’s self esteem, hobbies, interests, behavior and how a child is nurtured and the home environment.

Vygotsky explains how children internalise collective, shared experience through his famous concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (the ZPD). 'Proximal' means 'next to'. Some Vygotskian scholars believe that this Russian phrase should have been translated as the 'Zone of Potential Development'.

I believe potential would be a better translation because it gives more he ZPD is ahead of what a child can already achieve unaided.flexibility and allows for the factors I mentioned above.

I taught a lesson recently on ‘using critical thinking when evaluating the reliability of sources’. Students were able to practice deconstruction skills, understand how claims should be supported by evidence, evaluate evidence and see how it is used in an argument. Most students were able to follow instructions and follow the critical path unaided, occasionally asking questions to clarify their own thinking;; the task challenged them and was within the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and the pupils showed signs of being ‘ripe’ to learn. 3 other students needed guidance and help, they asked me probing questions and needed occasional help on a couple of occasions, they asked their class mates later on, with this guidance they were developing problem solving skills and understood what was expected, their conceptual learning was being developed within the ZPD in collaboration with an adult and peers; when given the same style or similar task in a future lesson these students will be able to do it confidently with no guidance needed. As a conceptual tool for teachers the ZPD is helpful when assessing what year group a student should go into or when developing a curriculum that will challenge pupils and enable them to enquire, it also brings to light scope for effective pupil grouping so weaker students can learn from peers.

Vygotsky's central ideas

Here are 4 famous quotations by Vygotsky:

• Education must be orientated not towards the yesterday of a child's development, but towards its tomorrow (1987a)

I agree with this – it is saying that education should prepare pupils for the future, teaching them the skills necessary to succeed in modern society. Very similar to the view of White, Trilling and Hood.  We must provide students with modern multi media equipment and formulate a relevant curriculum. We must also use modern day teaching methods which appeal to children today.

• It is through others that we become ourselves (1987a)

I somewhat agree with this. From what I understand from this quote is that we learn from society, teachers, parents and peers. Although I think we as individuals have more control over the person we become and the choices we make.

• What a child can do in co-operation today, he can do alone tomorrow (1986: 188)

This I agree with, children who are apprehensive to the approach of learning learn best collectively in groups and from peers. It also states the importance of team work which is a valuable skill to have in a career.

• Therefore, the only good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of development, and leads it (1986: 188)

I don’t agree with this. This is stating that the only teaching worthwhile is that which teaches about the present and future and our impact in the future, but it is also important for students to have an understanding of history and the past to know who they are and learn from past progressions which could be applied to the future.

Criticisms of Piaget

There are many who criticize Piaget, one is Margaret Donaldson, she was a pupil of Piaget's who challenged his theories in a her 1978 book, Children's Minds.

pre-school children are not nearly so limited in their ability to 'decentre', or appreciate someone else's point of view, as Piaget has for many years maintained.
(Donaldson, 1978: 30-31).

The evidence she gives to support this is that the experiments Piaget uses are not explained properly to younger children, two of the the same experiments were carried out by Martin Huges and explained properly to a child; they were able to do it.

In  another  study,  Hughes  used  a  simplified  version  of the
mountains task and found that it was possible, by taking great care
over the way  in which the problem was introduced, to get a high
proportion · of correct responses  from  pre-school children.  So  this
lends  further  support  to  the  view  that  Piaget's  subjects  did  not
understand.                                                                                                      (Donaldson, 1978: 23).

Donaldson also refers to the ‘mountains experiment’ as being to abstract, she also states that a person preforming these experiments is accustomed to abstract and formal  modes of thought. These abstract experiments seem bewildering and senseless to a child.

Donaldson also shows evidence that Piagets idea that a child belives an object ceases to exsist when it is coverd; Tom  Bower  and  Jennifer Wishart, report that in these circumstances  children quickly reach out in the appropriate direction to find  their  toy  again:  Thus  Piaget'.  claims  about  egocentrism  are once again challenged. They are yet to develop  a  full appreciation of spatial relations  such as on,  in,  in front  of,  and  behind. * They  do  not derive  from  the complete lack of a notion of a world of 'other things'.

Another experiment was done by David Lloyd in which a talking toy panda asked for help. He found that, though the children would try to help the
panda, they were not so ready to signal when they themselves needed help. They were not given to indicating that a message which they had received was inadequate. 

Therfore, the evidence shows that its not so black and white; pre-school children are not nearly so limited in their ability to 'decentre', or appreciate someone else's point of view.

Piaget: theory of stages

Piaget argues that intellectual growth is continuous, he also maintains that particular mental abilities tend to appear at certain stages of a child's development. Some children might show the ability earlier and some later, but children in all cultures will pass through these stages at some point:

• The sensory motor stage (or pre-language stage), which usually occurs between birth and two years.

- lasts until the baby is about 2.

- Action stage before speaking.

- unable to make distinctions between self and other

- ‘object permanence’ – babies realise objects exsist

• The pre-operational stage (usually between two and seven)

- Children are able to represent things eg. Doll = baby

- Spoken language is developed

- childs thinking is; what is seen not logical principles

- can see that the self is different from the rest of the world

- can’t understand anothers point of view

- understand that something remains the same even though it has been transformed in appearance.

• The concrete operational stage (usually between seven and twelve)

- become much better at classification.

- better at conservation operations by the end of this stage but only when the concrete objects are physically present.

• The formal operational stage (or stage of propositional operations), usually from eleven to twelve onwards

- the highest level of thinking

- development of abstract thought.

- become concerned about the future and about ideological problems.

- allows mastery of complex systems like science, religion and mathematics. Teenagers can make and test hypotheses about things which they haven't actually experienced themselves.

Piaget says that all children pass through these stages in the same order but at different speeds. Intellectual development is always an extension of what has preceded it.

My Account of a Formal Operational Student

Here is my account of a child who show characteristics of one of Piaget’s Theory of stages. I will keep the identity of the student anonymous and refer to him as pupil A. Pupils A falls into the formal operations stage. He is a 14 year old who shows leadership skills and concern for world issues and future occurrences. He has full development of abstract thoughts and understands all his subjects by making hypothetical judgments before investigating the answers; an example of this is when he began using a video editing software program of which he had no knowledge, he was able to experiment and teach himself the basics of this program, only referring to a user manual when his experimentation had run its course.

His thinking is very typical of this stage as he likes to know about things in lots of detail, he is very inquisitive. He shows concern and empathy for his peers and at times (when working in groups) will assist others. He recently volunteered to join a mock UN Summit investigating different world organizations which involved taking part in various debates; he has a clear understanding of world issues. A lot of his learning comes from experience, in and out of school and he always comes to school with probing questions regarding an experience or something he has watched on TV. If you are to have a conversation with' ‘pupil A’ it is very adult like and as a teacher and student we are able to have meaningful discussions which result in understandings of new theories and perspectives. His writing has advanced over the year I have known him and he uses many different synonyms and complex phrases.

These are all signs that this student has flourished into a  ‘formal operational’ thinker.