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PRACTICE 3

Concepts and problem solving

Mar Baeras
Joana Bastardas
Aina Cadafalch
Nria Cardona
Helena Ginesta
Merc Soler
Group 71 - Seminar A

In this practice we have interviewed three students of the first, second and third cycle each
one to know what they think about concepts and topics such as friendship, racism, love,
science or politics. And we have also asked to the children from the second and third grade to
solve a problem.
Thereby, we would be able to compare the three answers so we could observe the differences
between the three students, considering their age and the grade they are coursing.
INTERVIEWS
According to the age of the girl of the 1st grade, she should be included in the concrete
operational stage (6-12 years) but we think that she better fits in the preoperational stage (26 years) because of the way she describes the different concepts is mainly related to her
experiences and her answers are still egocentric. E.g. What is happiness? When I play with
my best friend.

The girl from 4th grade belong to the concrete operational age (6-12 years old). In this case,
we think that she coincides with this stage taking into account the kind of answers that she
has given for each question. As an example when she is asked for the meaning of friendship
she answers expressing her feelings and she does not refer to any concrete experience.

The girl from 6th grade, she should be included in the concrete operational stage (6-12 years)
but we think that she better fits in formal operational stage (from 13 years) because she has
an abstract thinking. She has acquired the ability to think systematically about all logical
relations within a problem. As she is entering on the adolescence she displays keen interest
in abstract ideas like the concepts of love, friendship...and in the process of thinking itself.

If we compare the answers we can see a growing complexity and maturity with advancing age.
There is a huge difference between the girl from the first grade and the two girls of higher
grades, for example, in the first stage, most of the concepts are unknown for her (racism,
salary, politicians, crisis and salary), whereas the girl from the fourth grade is not only
answering the questions but providing examples of her experiences to make it clearer.
(Friendship: is to play with someone, to talk with someone and to be generous with them. And
for example when there is a new student in the school, go to play with him. If you have
friendship you can also have problems.). The girl of six grade has shorter answers and she
uses less experiences to complete the responses but she goes a step further and she classify
some words in categories (friendship: It is a feeling that you have for another person and it is

very beautiful.) for each concept. We can perceive a process of mental and personal
maturation. This is a process that involves a progressive evolution of the child skills thanks to
the teacher support and the knowledge that he or she transmits.
Those concepts influence directly in the process of personal cognitive development. This
process implies a lots of skills that children need to work in order to achieve knowledge.
Through the perception they receive the notions, thanks to the memory they are able to
accumulate and improve the information and finally teachers need to promote attention in
order to motivate kids to learn and to create an inspiring environment to achieve new goals.
Knowledge can be transmitted through a lot of different ways, and experiences is a really
interesting strategy to use because kids get more involved if they can share things of their life.
If we take a look to the interviews we can see that the three of them use their own experiences
to explain the different concepts because this is an easy way to do it for them. Knowledge is
basic in order to allow the growth personally and academically. Motivation its maybe one of
the most important value to use for the cognitive process because its basic to promote kids
active learning and participation.
We can find an influence of socio-cultural aspects in their answers, but not regarding all the
questions. For instance, the questions about explaining poverty, crisis and racism are more
linked to socio-cultural aspects. In other words, some of the children interviewed answered
these types of questions with according the point of view that has our society. The context is
a very strong aspect that influence on us and as we can just see in their answers it also
determines in part in our way of thinking and it shapes our attitude towards concepts too.
So, if we ask the same question in another context (for instance, if we change the country) the
answer could be quite different. As you can see what we have explained in the first paragraph,
here you can find some examples:
-What is the crisis?
A time that we are living right now in which people have less money, and it is a difficult time.
This girl (6th grade) has an influence of the socio-cultural aspect when answering the question
as it focuses the concept to what is living in her present days (something that affects the
society).
-Do you know what racism is?
Yes, normally are white person that think badly about people that is more brown or more black.
This answer from a girl (6th grade) shows the general point of view of society regarding racism.
-Do you think money brings happiness?
No I dont think so, but maybe for poor people yes.

In this case, even the girl (4th grade) herself think that it might be different according the own
economic situation of the person. So, since she lives in a good social context we could say,
she has an opinion which could be differently treated in the case she was poor and her social
environment had to survive in very poor conditions.

-What do you think about the poverty?


I think that we could help poor people more. But I also think that poor people should try to get
a job somewhere, and they will be able to be payed for it.
Also, this question like the previous one, it is influenced by the socio-cultural aspect as it is
answered through a society with welfare. Through this girls answer (4th grade) we realize that
she does not consider herself to be poor and that she might have seen poor people in her
near context who does not have job and consequently, he or she does not earn money.

Some individual differences can be observed among children. For example, the level of
knowledge they have, the way they write, how they express a concept (if they explain it in a
simplistic way or on the contrary, they do it quite complex).
To have some examples of these aspects:
1) What is friendship for you?
To have friends. Like me and my friends when we talk about the things we like.
2) What is friendship for you?
Friendship is to play with someone, to talk with someone and to be generous with them.
And for example when there is a new student in the school, go to play with him. If you
have friendship you can also have problems.
In the 2nd case, the student goes beyond the knowledge of the 1st student. She does not only
talk about friendship in an objective way but also thinks about the consequences that can
cause having friendships.
3) What is friendship for you?
It is a feeling that you have for another person and it is very beautiful.
Here we can see that the 3rd student even give a more complex understanding of friendship
since she talks about it in an emotive way.
Along the 3 cases we can see an evolution. Apart of having more ability in communication and
the language skills more developed, we can also see that that they gain in abstract thinking
and they can explain the same concept in a more complex way.

Finally, doing the interviews has allowed us to be able to observe by first-hand that improving
language skills leads to a more complex way of thinking. Language allows us to represent and
make sense of our experiences and at the same time it shapes the way we think. So, it is very
important to take into account language as we do not promote its development we are neither
promoting our cognitive improvement.

PROBLEM SOLVING

In this section of the work, we have asked to solve one problem to the students from the
second cycle and from the third cycle, who are eight and eleven years old. We havent asked
to the student from the first cycle to do it because the level of difficulty was not proportional
with her age (6 years old).
The problem is about reproducing the drawing of a house, but triplicating its dimension. The
results of the students have been:

SECOND CYCLE (girl from 4th grade)

THIRD CYCLE (boy from the 6th grade)

In the first drawing the child read the statement a couple times before starting but instead of
using a guide decided to start right away in nude eye proportion. Since she has not calculated
scientifically we can see a rawer stoke that indicates that shes had to redo the design of the
house. However that doesnt mean that she hasnt analysed and compared the sizing of the

house in order to make a reproduction of it. The windows and the door are well aligned so we
can see that if she had had more practice this task would have resulted in a more orderly way.
In the second drawing the child first read three times the statement of the problem so as to
make sure he understood correctly. Then he proceeded to think of similar situations than that
of the problem. For example in the problem of the house she started counting the squares with
a ruler before actually drawing anything. By doing so he synthesized the problem into an easier
one as he already knew the proportions of the house rather than doing it by naked eye.
Therefore he did plan and make decisions regarding how to solve the problem on his own by
his own methods.

They use critical thinking because they have done different models before to arrive to the final
ones, so they have had to judge the others and say that are not correct because it does not
represent the triple that was asked for.
They use creative thinking - the process we use to develop new ideas of further elaboration-.
For instance, the fourth grade girl has looked for many possible answers before giving the one
that we have put here because she was trying to get the best triple and finally she considered
the best that one. She has make suggestions developing its creative thinking, moreover, she
is drawing and improving its creativity. The sixth grade boy has also done some proofs before
arrive to that model. Nevertheless, he has not done so much proofs as the fourth grade girl.
They also use scientific thinking because of doing the triple and counting squares. The
scientific thinking was easier for the sixth grade boy because he had previous information
about what was doing the triple. However, the fourth grade girl have had to developed the
scientific thinking more because she has had to imagine what it was doing the triple and
thinking how she could do, which related to the creative thinking.
Furthermore, as they use the creative thinking to use it is always necessary the critical
thinking. Because while you are creating you are judging the image and drawing that you are
creating and learning why it is not right and proving how you can achieve the right, with a
different method or a different perception.
To sum up, they have used the scientific, critical and creative thinking; the scientific one to
know how to solve it, the creative for drawing and the strategies that they could use and the
critical to judge if the triple was being done correctly or not.
In drawing number one she didnt follow all the steps but determined the nature of the problem
and select the components of the appropriate performance to solve the problem like the
strategies and methods she would use. Regardless of the result she select a strategy that was
present in the procedure such as the proportion and the stroke. Given that she is attending
fourth grade is no wonder she did this way as they still have to learn about techniques for

proportion not solely nude eye reproduction. The feedback she received made her redo the
design and do it accordingly so as to improve her performance of the task.

In the second one he followed some of the steps, as for example he followed the one of
determining the nature of the problem and selecting the components of the appropriate
performance to solve the problem like the strategies and methods he would use. He also
selected a strategy and added it to his performance as well as used the relevant information
to solve it in as little time as possible but still did it at his peace and not rushed. However he
didnt monitor his performance as it was not a school task he didnt consider it as important
but more like a game, whether the problems were right or not did not change their performance
nor changed how he decided to act. He did like being praised for what he did right so it could
be considered interpreting feedback about efficacy of their efforts

In drawing number one we can see a try not as clear and polished than the second one but
nevertheless an accomplished exercise. As the result is not polished we cannot consider it a
complete success because it still has a long way to go to reach the level of the second drawing.
This happened because the girl is still inexperienced about proportion and is still young. The
ages in this case influenced a lot because drawing number two is clear, has a good stroke and
notion of proportion and measure and was not as rushed than the first one that is more matter
of fact than matter of reasoning. Therefore we would consider it neither failed nor succeed, as
they simply did what they thought was right according to their ages, no more no less

The perception, attention and memory are very important during all the process because in
that way children are able to create their own language to express the results of the process.
Analysing the three concepts we know that perception is formed by three steps. First of all,
there is an information organization, then the child has to interpret the information and the last
step is the representation. To pay attention is also important to select the information that has
already been perceived and trying to select the information that is useful for that task and the
one that is not. Moreover, if they pay attention they learn faster and they have the solution of
the problem with an efficient and economic perception. Therefore, if they pay attention
probably they will get the solution faster and better because they will be focus on the problem
and also they will memorize easily. Because if you only have one source of information, your
cognitive skills can focus on the solving of it.
Related to the memory there are three steps: codification, storage and retrieval. The
codification it happens when the information is registered in the memory, the storage is the
action of maintaining material in the memory and the retrieval is the localization of the storage

material. In the problem solving, both are using the procedural memory which is motor and
executive skills needed to undertake a task.
In that way, due to the perception, attention and memory there is a thinking process where
children is thinking about the correct answer to the problem. Finally, he or she solves the
problem with their scientific and critical thinking. In our cases, the girl from the second cycle
has not done well the draw of the house because probably its perception has failed but the girl
of sixth grade has done correctly the problem. Both has followed the same cognitive steps for
solving a problem but here the difference is the information and experience that they had
before the problem. For that reason, the oldest boy knows how to do the problem - due to its
previous knowledge- but the fourth grade girl does not know how to solve it, even so the
perception, memory and attention.
In conclusion, doing all the steps correctly means that you can achieve the result easily and
right, however the previous knowledge is also very relevant to get to the correct conclusion.

Experience has affected the result because probably the sixth grade boy has done a similar
tasks in the school, so it was not so difficult the task to him because he has already information
in its brain of how to do it easily, counting squares. While the fourth grade girl does not know
this resource that makes the problem easier, so she was doing it for perception.
Knowledge is close related with experience, because you learn through your past experiences.
In that problem knowing the easiest method (through squares) and what is doing three times
an image makes it the problem easier that if you do know exactly what is doing the triple.
Motivation is also very important because through motivation you can achieve whatever you
want and it is easily to understand and learn the problems and how can be solve. If you get
motivated in something you pay all your attention on it and you try to solve it right because of
your motivation and you want to know the right answer of a problem that is interesting for
yourself. Therefore, if you are motivated you look more for the previous knowledge and
information that you already have and you search for methods and create easiest strategies
for solving it.
For all that reasons, the experiences, knowledges and motivation are very important to solve
a problem in a better way and easily.

Both kids have the same cultural background as the system they are immersed in so in this
aspect there should not be any difficulties. They both belong to middle class families, however
the fact that 6th grade boys mother is a primary teacher which uses to help him, might have
increased the possibilities of this answers to be correct as he had a solid base beside him that
makes him more accessible to knowledge and resources such as grids, textbooks, immediate
feedback etc. The girl from the 4th grade has done it by herself no external influences until the

very end and we can see a greater amount of effort in redoing again the drawing, giving it
another try to make it better and that is part of the socio-cultural aspects which revolve around
the child.

We have also observed some individual differences among them. First of all, the way of
organising and thinking about how they will represent the triplicated house. On the second
cycles case we see how she immediately started to draw the lines, and she did wrong some
of them, so she decided to cross them out. And on the other hand, we can observe on the
image how the third cycle boy first counted the squares needed to do the triplication and made
a scheme with the pencil before to start drawing the definitive house.

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