Aim: To overview cognitive

development theory and

application in the classroom
Objectives:
•To explain the main theories of
cognitivism
•To reflect upon the implications
for the role of the teacher
•To analyse the use of cognitive
theory within teaching and
learning strategies.
Get ready to go green!
Cognitive Development is…..
• The process of actively gaining,
classifying, storing, recalling and
using information using the inter-
related components of memory,
concentration and perception.
• The way our thought processes
develop. It is about the way we
organise our thinking and come
to an understanding of our
environment
Jean Piaget's theory
• Development is children’s
attempts to make sense of the
world
• Development by interaction
between innate capability &
environment
• Progression by hierarchical
stages
• Everybody passes through in the
same order
• Not culture specific but universal
Schema
• A schema is a mental
structure which organises
past experience
• They provide a way of
understanding future
experience
• Schema become
increasingly complex by
processes of ‘assimilation’
and ‘accommodation’
Concepts
• Assimilation - practise by which
new information is incorporated
into existing schema
• Accommodation - the
modification of existing schema
to create new ones
• If existing schema are
inadequate then state of
cognitive disequilibrium exists
and accommodation occurs
• Assimilation + Accommodation 
Adaptation
4 stages
• Sensorimotor stage birth – 2 yrs
– child learns through its senses and by
acting on the world
• Pre-operational stage 2yrs-7 yrs
– child is egocentric and unable to take
perspective of another
• Concrete-operational stage 7yrs-
11yrs
– child now capable of logical thought but
only when ‘concrete’ objects present
• Formal operations stage 11 yrs+
– can think hypothetically - "what if ..."
Piaget: the role of the teacher
• Teachers must create disequilibrium
by encouraging questions

• Should encourage discussion &

opposing views in order to break
down egocentrism

• The curriculum be presented in a

logical fashion

• The teacher does not simply pass on

ready made knowledge, rather the
students is active in creating a
pattern of what it means to them.
Go Green – Individually
 Lev Vygotsky's theory
• The ability to think & reason is the
result of social interaction
• Cognitive development occurs by
interaction between students and
those with whom they have
contact
• Piaget – students are scientists
• Vygotsky – students are
apprentices
• Vygotsky: “any function in
development appears twice... first
on the social plane then on the
psychological plane”
Zone Of Proximal Development
(ZPD)
• Each student has a zone
of ability and a zone of
proximal development
(ZPD)
• ZPD is ‘potential ability’
if the student is guided
(‘scaffolded’) by a more
able adult or peer
• Vygotsky recommended
peer tutoring as an
effective way of teaching
ZPD
• With a partner consider
how the zone of proximal
development could be
evidenced within your
subject area.
• You might also be able to
define the role of the
teacher through the
various steps.
Vygotsky: the role of the teacher
• Teachers control activities and
thus challenge students to go
beyond what they can do
• More advanced students should
act as tutors to the less able
• The language used in the class
room is particularly important
• To “actively challenge the
student to move on from their
present understanding to the
ZPD”
Vygotskian Principles in the
Classroom
• The ZPD can be used to design
appropriate situations in which
the student can be provided
with the appropriate support for
optimal learning
• Learning should take place in
the context in which the
knowledge is to be applied
• Real experiences should be
related to classroom
experiences
Go Green in a group