Priyanka IGCSE
Topic 1 – Development
Brain development 3 to 4 weeks in the foetal stage is when the brain
first starts developing. Initially, it has the shape of
Foetus brain at 3 or 4 weeks; a tube consisting of:
Forebrain (top)
Midbrain (middle)
Hindbrain (bottom)
5 to 6 weeks, the brain and hindbrain separates
into 5 sub-sections.
Forebrain breaks into:
At 5 – 6 weeks; Anterior section – frontal
Posterior section – back
Midbrain doesn’t split into anything.
Hindbrain splits into:
Pons – responsible for certain behavious,
message sending, receiving sensory messages in
relation to our face.
Cerebellum – dictates balance, motor
coordination and muscle memory.
Medulla oblongata – needed for functioning of
the central nervous system (as it is a part of the
At birth; brainstem which connects to the spinal cord). It
carries out involuntary functions (ex-sneezing,
sleep regulation, blood pressure, blinking, heart
rate).
Cerebellum triples in size within the first year due
to sudden increase in motor movement.
Brain reaches 80% of its full size within first 3
years. During this time trillions of neural
connections are made (total of 700-1000 neural
connections)
Priyanka IGCSE
(Jean) Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Cognitive development is the changes we go through in terms of our thinking, problem solving, perception
and language.
4 Stages of development
Piaget suggested that all children go through FOUR stages of cognitive development like a transition. These
stages are UNIVERSAL1 and INVARIANT2.
1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
Infants explore and get information about the world using their senses. They learn through smell, hearing and
touch.
At 4 months, they tend to repeat actions.
At 6 months, they develop object permanence3 and often repeat actions such as dropping items.
At 8-9 months, they develop death perception.
2. Pre-Operational (2-7 years)
This stage is divided into two aspects:
1. Symbolic Play Stage (2-4 years)
is when children use symbols to represent objects.
They tend to imitate others.
Animism4 can also be seen.
Children are egocentric5.
They think in pictures, and it is the start of language development.
2. Intuitive Thought Stage (4-7 years)
is when children use reasoning to understand the world, so they ask a lot of questions and want to know
more.
They have a hierarchical thought process which is not logically set (still use basic senses).
1
Relating to everyone.
2
Never Changing.
3
They know that an object exists even when it is out of sight.
4
Believing that all objects are alive ex., children talk to their teddies and dolls.
5
They only see the world from their own view.
Priyanka IGCSE
Children can only focus on one aspect of a situation. This is known as Centration.
There is also Irreversibility. This is when a child is not able to use thought to reverse an event (knowing that
water from a wide glass poured into a tall glass is the same when the water is poured back into the wide
glass).
3. Concrete Operational (7-12 years)
Children can apply rules and strategies to aid their understanding and thinking.
Abilities in this stage include:
Seriation: Sorting objects, such as into size.
Classification: Naming and identifying objects.
Reversibility: Recognize that numbers or objects changed can be reversed.
Conversion: Understanding quantity and length stay the same despite appearance.
Decentration: Taking multiple views of a situation.
They use concrete objects and have difficulty with abstract ideas.
4. Formal Operational Stage (12+ years)
Children’s thinking has more control.
Can think about more than two things.
They can understand abstract thoughts.
Understand how time changes things.
See that actions have consequences.
Understand that events have sequence.
Awareness of other people’s separate existence.
Evaluating Piaget’s stages of Cognitive Development
Strengths:
Real work application: Piaget’s work has practical applications and can be used in education to help
children to develop into the next stage.
Research support: Research shows the existence of the stages which increase the validity of the theory.
Useful: Piaget’s data came from interviews and observations with children which means there is a lot of in-
depth data which increases the validity of the theory.
Weaknesses:
Priyanka IGCSE
Lack of research support: Some studies show children develop earlier than Piaget thought which reduces
the validity of the theory.
Lacks ecological validity: Piaget’s theory did not look at the influence of social interactions or cultural
settings which could impact on a child's development.
Lacks ecological validity: Piaget’s data came from interviews and observations with children. The children
may have lied or provided socially desirable responses and the observations may be subjective to the
interpreter.
Unreliable: Repeating Piaget’s research in a more natural setting produced different results therefore the
theory is not reliable.
Cognitive and Intelligence Development
Includes building knowledge and skills.
The child absorbs the world through schemas.
Schema development
Assimilation: Children incorporate new information and experiences into their already existing schemas. E.g.
A child learns about new animals = assimilation
Accommodation: when new information or experiences cause you to modify your existing schemas.
This is the process of adaptation to achieve equilibrium.
Equilibrium: When children experience the world around them and the schemas work and explains everything
for them. For example, a child sees an animal with four legs and calls it a horse, this is their schema.
Therefore, every four-legged animal is a horse = equilibrium. This is a state of mental balance.
Disequilibrium: As they experience new things in life, new information is added which does not make sense in
terms of their schema. E.g. A child sees a zebra, it has four legs but it's not a horse?? = disequilibrium
Dweck’s Mindset Theory
Mindset: A set of beliefs we have about our ability to succeed.
Growth mindset: Believing that practice and effort can improve abilities.
1) A child is praised for their effort.
2) They believe they can achieve something, so carry on trying.
This allows for the idea of effort, leading to success.
Priyanka IGCSE
Challenges become worthwhile.
They accept feedback.
Teachers with growth mindset sees that a child can improve with perseverance.
Fixed mindset: Believing that your abilities are fixed (at birth) and is unchangeable.
1) A child is praised for being good at something so,
2) They think this ability is fixed at birth.
3) So when the child is not praised for something,
4) They believe they do not have the ability and give up.
They stop taking on challenges.
Can become depressed and stop trying.
Teachers with fixed mindsets can only see that children are lacking a particular ability.
Strengths
Research Support: Dweck’s theory of development has been supported by scientific evidence. For example,
Yeager and Dweck found that using a growth mindset improved 1500 low achieving student's grades.
Free will: Dweck’s theory acknowledges that we have free will. Dweck believes we have the power to change
our thinking and thoughts about challenges and that we can move mindsets.
Practical Application: Dweck’s theory is useful. For example, we can use the theory in schools. Teachers are
now instructed to praise effort and give continuous feedback about how to improve their work, rather than
being grade focused.
Weaknesses
Validity: Uses artificial settings so lacks ecological validity (exception”
Lacks research support: For example, David Dadau (2017) wrote an article questioning the theory as he
believed that just because you believe you have a growth mindset doesn’t increase your abilities.
Validity: For example, the methods used to support the theory include questionnaires which lack validity
because participants might lie and provide socially desirable responses.
(Daniel) Willingham’s Learning Theory
Willingham suggested that to learn and develop skills you must have previous knowledge. (Factual knowledge
precedes skill).
Knowledge frees up space in our working memory (because less processing power is needed to solve a
problem and aid understanding). This allows us to use our mental skills such as to practice problem solving
and reasoning.
When your working memory frees up, it allows for more brain capacity to be used for analytical purposes.
Practice and effort
Priyanka IGCSE
Practicing allows knowledge and skills to move from STM to LTM (building knowledge). Enough practice
allows you to do things automatically through repetition of skills. This leaves space in your working memory to
learn new things (building skills).
Cognitive, Physical and Social Development
Willingham believed that we could boost children’s cognitive, physical and social development and
suggested strategies that teachers should do to support this:
Cognitive development:
Use problems that are new and require effort
Plan activities within the student’s stage of development.
Remember that students’ abilities are variable.
Consider factors other than development level (ex-student may not understand the task).
Physical Development (through muscle movements):
Focus on the suitable movements and order should be carried out for the task.
Practice muscle movements (to make muscle commands automatic) in front of children -demonstration.
Use conscious effort as you make changes, to develop motor skills.
Break down the task into pieces so they can be more digestible for the learner - scaffolding
Social Development:
Encourage decentration.
Help to stop impulsive behaviour by encouraging self-regulation. Control impulsive behaviour by using an
organized classroom environment and removing triggers.
Demonstrate appropriate social behaviour for children to model (social learning)
Delay awards for a task and encourage the child to keep working with self-control.
Evaluating Willingham’s theory of cognitive development
Strengths:
Real work application: Willingham’s work can be applied to education and other situations to promote a
child’s development in a positive way.
Research support: Betty Repacholi and Alsion Gopnik’s (1997) study provides experimental support, showing
that young children needed the knowledge in Piaget’s experiment before they could understand the skills.
Weaknesses:
Lacks Generalizability: Willingham ignored the importance of individual differences in learning. His theory
gives universal strategies for change even though he acknowledges genetic contributions.
Priyanka IGCSE
Not reductionist (holistic): Willingham’s ideas come from many areas of neuroscience, memory theory and
cognitive development. This means that his ideas are not really one singular theory.
Studies
1) Piaget and Inhelder (1959)
Background: Children in the pre-operational stage see the world from their own viewpoint. Understanding
there are other viewpoints is something that develops. This helps move into the concrete operational stage
where they ‘decenter’.
Aims: The extent to what ages children take the view of another person and children’s system of putting
together different views of what they see.
Procedure: 100 participants took part between the ages of 4-12
4 – 6.5 years = 21 children
6.5 – 8 years = 30 children
8 – 9.5 years = 33 children
9.5 – 12 years = 16 children
Materials:
1. A model of three mountains including a house, red cross, snow and two paths
2. 10 pictures of the three mountains from different positions
3. Pieces of card in the shape of mountains to represent the mountains
4. A wooden doll
Ways of questioning:
1. Place the shapes to show how the mountain looked for them and the doll
2. Pick out of 10 pictures of what they could see, and what the doll could see
3. Choose a picture and position the doll to see that view
Findings:
Pre-operational stage (4-6.5 years): Chooses pictures and shows pictures for what they can see.
Concrete operational stage (7-9 years): Start to understand that others see the model differently. Children 9-
10 years old understand the doll has a different view.
Conclusions:
• Children up to 7 were egocentric
• Older children were non-egocentric
• The ‘three mountains’ task supports Piaget’s stages of development
Piaget and Inhelder (1959) Evaluation
Strengths
Priyanka IGCSE
Validity: Piaget provided a lot of detail about children’s development. We know when children stop being
egocentric.
Reliability: Piaget used careful controls in his study. The same mountain was used every time. It was a
standardized procedure.
Validity: Piaget used qualitative data. Data is in detail and from the individual which makes it valid.
Validity: Children were from Switzerland and familiar with mountain scenery, so the task is argued to be a
natural task.
Weaknesses
Validity: Piaget’s study did not have a realistic task. Children were asked to look at mountains, so the study
lacks mundane realism.
Validity: Piaget used qualitative data. Participants may give socially desirable responses which reduces the
validity.
Generalizability: Piaget did not have a range of cultures. He only used Swiss children.
Counter research evidence:
Helen Borke (1975) stated that children were not egocentric, but they found the ‘three mountains task’ too
hard as the task was unrealistic.
Borke changed the wooden doll to Grover (a character from Sesame Street) and the mountain model was on a
turn table that the children could turn themselves.
Borke found that children of 3 years old accurately recalled the view of Grover over 79% of the time and
children ages 4 years old correctly recalled 93% of the time.
2) (Elizabeth) Gunderson et al (2013)
Background: Parent praise to 1–3-year olds predicts their motivational frameworks 5 years later (it impacts
their later ideas about reason for behavious and beliefs).
Person praise
-> you praise a child personally
-> they believe they are born with or without an ability
-> leads to fixed (mindset) theory
-> hence, develops entity theory/motivational framework
-> belief that behaviour or ability results from a person’s nature
-> and gives up
Process Praise
Priyanka IGCSE
-> you praise a child’s behaviour and effort
-> they believe that their abilities are changeable
-> leads to growth (mindset) theory
-> hence, develops incremental theory/motivational framework
-> belief that effort drives behaviour and ability, which can change
-> tries to do better without giving up
Aims:
• Are children affected by different types of parental praise?
• Do parents give more person praise to girls than boys?
• Does the type of parent's praise predict their motivation in later life?
Procedure:
The sample included 29 boys and 24 girls. This included a range of cultures e.g., 64% were white, 17% were
African American, 11% were Hispanic, and 8% were multiracial.
Longitudinal study – Children were assessed at 14 months, 26 months and 38 months. Five years later their
motivation was reviewed. A 24-item questionnaire was given, including a range of questions about their
motivation, morality, beliefs and intelligence
Results: Overall parents gave more process praise than person praise. Process praise was given more to boys
than girls.
Process praise = 18%
Person praise = 16%
Boys = 24% process praise
Girls = 10% process praise
A strong correlation between process praise and motivation was strengthened.
Conclusion:
•Clear relationship between parent's use of process praise and a child’s later use of incremental motivational
framework (ability being changeable)
•Did not find that parental use of person praise led to an entity motivational framework (ability to fixed)
Evaluating Gunderson et al (2013)
Strengths:
Validity: Gunderson et al conducted their research in naturalistic settings. This increases the ecological
validity of the study.
Priyanka IGCSE
Validity: The researchers who videotaped and analyzed the data did not know what the study was on. This
means the interpretation is less likely to be influenced by bias.
Generalizability: There were a mixture of participants cultures.
Weaknesses:
Ethical issues: Ethics can be criticized. The participants were told that the study was on child development.
(There was no debrief of the study.)
Validity: The parents were observed during the research and so they may have changed their behaviour
towards their child.
Issues and Debates: Morality
Morals: Understanding what is right and wrong. This can differ depending on situations and culture.
Morality: Separating good behaviour from bad behaviour.
Moral development: Children’s growing understanding about right and wrong and how they make moral
decisions in regard to it.
Piaget (1932) Theory of Moral Development.
From 5-10 years old ->
• child believes that rules cannot be changed.
• rules are about punishment and right and wrong.
• other people provide rules which govern our behaviour and we must obey it = heteronomous.
From 10 years onwards ->
• understanding that bad actions could have good consequences.
• Individuals are responsible for their own behaviour and decide what is right or wrong = autonomous.
• Following rules is about more than the consequences of not following them.
Kohlberg – Heinz’s dilemma
To assess at what moral stage a child is at, Kohlberg used ‘Heinz’s dilemma’. How children responded to the
dilemma indicated their moral stage.
Heinz’s wife was dying from a particular type of cancer. Doctors said a new drug might save her. The drug had
been discovered by a local chemist, and the Heinz tried desperately to buy some, but the chemist was
charging ten times the money it cost to make the drug, and this was much more than the Heinz could afford.
Heinz could only raise half the money, even after help from family and friends. He explained to the chemist
that his wife was dying and asked if he could have the drug cheaper or pay the rest of the money later.
The chemist refused, saying that he had discovered the drug and was going to make money from it. The
husband was desperate to save his wife, so later that night he broke into the chemist’s and stole the drug.
(Lawrence) Kohlberg’s (1958) stages of moral development
Obedience and punishment: The child is good to avoid punishment.
Priyanka IGCSE
Individualism: Children realize that adults may have different viewpoints.
Relationships: The child is good to look good for other people.
Law and order: The child is good at upholding rules in society and not feel guilt.
Social contract: Children realize that sometimes rules might change for the greater good.
Universal Principals: Children develop their own set of morals and laws
Pre conventional (stage 1 & 2) – Obedience and punishment; they believe rules cannot be changed.
Conventional (stage 3 & 4) – Relationships/ Law and order.
Post Conventional (stage 5 and 6) – Universal Principals/ Social contract.
Evaluating theories of moral development
Weaknesses:
Not useful: Piaget and Kohlberg used made up unrealistic stories which means they lack ecological validity
as the answers given might not be the real decisions they would make.
Not useful: Kohlberg used an all-male sample, so his findings are not generalizable to women’s morality.
William Damon’s Theory (1999)
Explains how our moral development is influenced by nature and nurture factors.
Nativist theories: view morality as a part of nature.
Damon’s ideas on development of empathy and its link to a child’s level of understanding:
Early infancy: Global empathy – children feel the same way about others and themselves.
1 to 2 years: Realise others are upset but don’t know what to do about it.
Early childhood: Able to decentrate so are more responsive to someone’s distress.
10 to 12 years: Realise there are bigger problems such as poverty.
