|
|
|
|
tng140
go to
|
EDUCATING: THE NEXT GENERATION
Frogs and Cognitive Development
|
|
|
|
|
"Dasa Avatar" an Abhinaya (story telling) dance in the
Odissi style performed by Asako Takami at the Cultural Integration
Fellowship in San Francisco on February 21, 1998.
|
|
tng141
|
Frog and Cognitive Development
The development from tadpole to frog exemplifies the concepts of
development and evolution. Even though the development from tadpole to
frog is continuous, it is normal and helpful to distinguish at least two
stages, i.e., tadpole and frog. One could, just as well,
distinguish more stages, e.g., tadpoles with legs and frogs with
tails. The basic utility of a stage "theory" of development is
to identify qualitatively distinguishable milestones in development.
|
|
tng142
|
Stages of Cognitive Development
Human cognitive development, i.e., the development of knowledge
structures, like frog development can be divided into stages despite being
essentially continuous. Jean Piaget has identified the following sequence
of stages in cognitive development: the sensori-motor stage, the
pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal
operational stage. The number and characterization of the stages can vary,
just as the number and characterization of frog stages can vary. Piaget's
basic point is that cognitive development is not simply a matter of
accumulating knowledge or simply the exercise of pre-existing structures.
|
|
tng143
|
Next Stage of Cognitive Development
Piaget's description of cognitive development essentially stops with
the attainment of formal operations. In a sense, this was inevitable,
since he was seeking to determine the genesis of formal operations. We can
still ponder whether the process of development that led to formal
operations terminates for some reason at that stage, or whether it
continues beyond formal operations. The answer proposed herein is
"yes".
|
|
|
|
|
