Chapter V.

Developmental Dimensions of Learning.

Charlon Aleson B. Bautista

Educ 3A Sched 4.

1 . How children Think and Learn

Piaget’s contributions to our understanding of the learning process are as important as his

contributions to our understanding of stages of development.

Children are a bundle of ideas and thoughts. If you ever lookn at a child you will see that

these thought patterns are much different than that of an adult and can certainly be expressed in

many different ways. Cognitive growth of children is even more dramatic. For example , pupils

move from barely dealing with the printed word in the primary grades to possessing well

developed reading and writing skills at the end of sixth grade.

Sensorimotor Stage

Lasting from birth to approximately 24 months, in this stage the child learns about the

world primarily through sednsory experiences and movement. However the infant’s and

toddler’s intelligence, For example, and show us this through intentional behavior. The child

learns to experience environment. The child touches things, holds, listens, tastes, feels, bangs,

and shake everything in sight. For them, the sense of time is now and the sense of space is here.

When the child learns motor skills such as creeping and walking, his/her environment expands

by leaps and bounds. The child begins to explore his environment with both senses and the

ability to get there.

Preoperationals Stage

From 2 to approximately 5 or 6 years of age, the child develops the important skill of

using symbols but is not yet capable of mentally manipulating them in logical order. The symbol

systems children develop include using pictures and spoken words to represent objects and ideas,

using letters to represent sounds, and then moving a step further and using the written word to

represent meaning. This is the time when a child learns by asking questions.

Concrete Operational stage

During this stage, from approximately 6 to 11 or 12 years of age, childrenbecome capable

of what Piagets refers to as mental operations and of applying logical thought to concrete

situations. However, at this stage, Children’s use of mental operations and their ability to apply

logic is affective only if they have concrete, tangible objects to which they can refer. This is a

wonderful age as this is when children begin to manipulate data mentally. They take the

information at hand, begin to define, compare, and contrast it. They, however still think

concretely.