In the video, the boy seemed to be in the pre-operational stage of development. He was egocentric; he said that the feather would not break the glass because "it was soft." Although that is what he thought (probably since he gained this information from previous experience), this was not the correct answer because it didn't agree with what the first card said--"If you hit a glass with a feather, it will break." He also was exhibiting centration because he couldn't focus on two parts at once. Even though the first card told him that the feather would break a glass, he could not concentrate on that because of the knowledge that he previously knew about feathers and glass.
The girl in the video was in the concrete operational stage of development. He could not only remember and understand what the first card said, but she could also apply it to the information given in the second card. In other words, she didn't exhibit centration. She could understand the concept of reversibility.
To teach the boy, the teacher needs to focus on the centration. One way to do so, that would work in this specific example, would be to go back to the first card after he answered the question the wrong way. The teacher could hear his answer and ask him what the first card said to remind him that he needs to pay attention to both pieces of information when answering questions. Sorting is also a great way for centration to be avoided. When children are given many different shapes in many different colors, they can see two different dimensions. The teacher could first ask her students to sort the objects by shape. This would cause them to have groups of the same shape, but many different colors. The next time, she could have them sort them based on color, not shape. This would result in many groups of the same color, but different shapes. This could help the students differentiate between the different dimensions.
How can you tell whether the girl is in concrete operations or formal operations?
ReplyDeleteYou have a good example of an activity for a classroom, but Piaget would not recommend this. He wouldn't say you can push or help them overcome centration. You need to remain within the space of communicating through one way thinking, and teach them using that form, until they further develop.