Development
Early Brain Development
A long tube develops at 3 to 4 weeks old,
dividing into three round sections: the
forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain.
It splits into the anterior and posterior sections
by !ve weeks, with the midbrain remaining
undivided.
Around six weeks, the cerebellum becomes
visible, which plays a role in fear and muscle
activity.
Around the 20th week, the medulla oblongata
connects the upper brain to the spinal cord and
is responsible for automatic responses.
Parts of the Brain
The forebrain is located in the anterior part of
the brain and consists of two hemispheres.
The midbrain is situated in the middle section
of the central nervous system (CNS).
The hindbrain is found in the lower part of the
brain and includes the cerebellum, pons, and
medulla.
The Medulla Oblongata is a structure that
connects the upper brain to the spinal cord and
governs automatic responses (e.g., sneezing,
heart rate and breathing)
Anterior is the section of the brain that’s
directed towards the front
Posterior is the section of the brain that’s
directed towards the back
The Cerebellum controls the motor movements
of the body
Piaget’s Stages of
Development
During the Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years),
children rely on their senses and motor skills to
explore the world. They develop the concept of
object permanence, understanding that
something exists even if it's out of sight, and
often repeat actions.
In the Pre-operational stage (2-7 years),
children engage in symbolic play, using one
object to represent others. They tend to be
egocentric, viewing the world from their
perspective, and may display animism. They
have di"culty understanding conservation,
such as the idea that the volume of tall and
small glasses can be the same.
The Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)
focuses on concrete thinking and morality.
Children develop skills like seriation (sorting
objects by size), conservation, decentration
(considering multiple aspects), and reversibility
(mentally undoing actions).
In the Formal Operational Stage (11 years
and beyond), abstract thinking and a more
complex understanding of morality emerge,
allowing individuals to consider consequences
in a broader sense.
Application in Education & Intelligence
Concept Application
Egocentrism Recognising that egocentrism is
a part of development and the
ability to provide guidance and
support to understand other
individuals’ perspectives.
Sensorimotor Using mediums like rhythm and
Stage singing to stimulate language
development and incorporate
more hands-on experiences.
Pre- Incorporating more hands-on
operational exploration and experiment-
Stage based learning, Visual learning
approaches can be highly
e#ective.
Di#erence in Recognizing that children don't
Development think like adults and develop at
di#erent rates highlights the
importance of tailored teaching
approaches.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Piaget proposed that children learn through
schemas and mental frameworks for organizing
and interpreting information.
Schema/Schemata: Mental Representations of
the world based on one’s own experiences.
Assimilation: !tting new experiences into
existing schemas
Accommodation: when existing schemas are
modi!ed to make new experiences
Equilibrium: a balanced state of mind reached
when schemas can explain all an individual
experiences.
Strengths
Practical Application: can be integrated into
educational settings, supporting the idea of
designing of classroom activities
Evidence: support from studies such as the
Piaget & Inhelder (1956) Three Mountain Task
Weakness
Subjective Nature of the theory
Cultural and Social Considerations: the
theory doesn’t consider the other factors that
may a#ect the child's development.
Dweck’s Mindset Theory
Ability: what we can do
E!ort: Doing better using determination
Dweck introduced the idea of mindsets, which
are a set of beliefs
Two main mindsets are growth and !xed
mindset
Fixed Mindset: the belief that abilities are
!xed and are unchangeable
Growth Mindset: belief that there’s
potential for improvement through practice
and e#ort
Teachers play a pivotal role in shaping a child’s
mindset
This can a#ect a child’s performance in several
ways, such as refusal to take on challenges, low
self-esteem and ability to improve.
Strengths Weakness
Practical Application: Ecological
Presence in educational Validity: most of
settings, implementing the studies that
more growth mindset we’ve done were
praise mostly in
arti!cial settings,
which makes it
di"cult to apply
in real-life
settings
Evidence: Strong evidence Shift in focus:
to support their theory such the child may be
as Yeager & Dweck (2012): the focus when
Mindsets that promote problems arise
resilience (states that with their
students require a mindset progress in place
that allows them to face of the teacher’s
challenges and overcome quality of
failure); Gunderson et al. teaching.
(2013) shows the impact of
praise on e#ort on mindset
Positive Psychology (helps Evidence: Some
society as a whole) studies show
that the theory
may be
inaccurate, such
as Bouchard &
McGue (1981),
who show that
111 studies
showed a
correlation
between
genetics and
intelligence.
Willingham’s Learning Theory
Willingham's Theory emphasises the
importance of factual knowledge in problem-
solving and learning.
factual knowledge precedes skill
the importance of practice, and e#ort
Practice and E!ort
Practice and E#ort are essential for mastering
knowledge and skills.
Short-term memory bene!ts from practice.
Problem-solving and creativity are crucial for
success.
STM involves practice which must be
repeated for information to stick; with
enough practice, the information will be
!xed in the LTM (long-term memory)
Strategies for Cognitive, Physical and
Social Development
Cognitive development can be enhanced by
using new problems that align with a child's
stage of development.
Physical development requires practice,
focusing on appropriate movements. (e.g, using
scissors)
Social development involves building a child's
decentration ability, helping them control
impulsive behaviour, and fostering suitable
responses and friendships through delayed
rewards for self-control.
Strengths Weaknesses
Practical Individual
Application: Considerations: Due to
Presence in the universal strategies
education to proposed in his theory,
promote the positive it doesn’t account for
development of the individual
children di#erences in learning
for other children
Evidence: Repacholi Not one singular
& Gopnik (1997) theory: His ideas come
found that children from many areas of
needed prior neuroscience, memory
knowledge to and cognitive
perform the task in development, which
Piaget’s & Inhelder's means his ideas aren’t
study (referred to one singular theory.
later)
Piaget & Inhelder (1956):
Three Mountain Task
Aims:
To study children's perspectives and investigate
relationships between the child’s viewpoint and
their perception of the viewpoint of others.
Sample:
100 children were used:
21 were aged between 4 and 6 years old
30 were aged between 6 and 8 years old
33 were aged between 8 and 9 years old
16 were aged between 9 and 12 years old.
Procedure
1. Mountain Model Setup:
A 1-meter square model represents three
mountains.
The model, measuring 1 meter squared,
stood at approximately 12 centimetres
in height.
The lowest mountain was adorned in
green and featured a house on its
summit, along with a descending path.
The second mountain, brown in hue,
showcased a red cross on its peak and
had a $owing stream.
The third mountain, the tallest trio,
exhibited a grey colour with a white top
representing snow.
Four viewpoints labelled A, B, C, and D are
identi!ed around the model.
A doll is moved to each of these positions.