Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T18:03:23.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Contributions of central conceptual structure theory to education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Sharon Griffin
Affiliation:
Department of Education, Clark University, USA
Andreas Demetriou
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
Athanassios Raftopoulos
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
Get access

Summary

Cognitive change lies at the very heart of the educational enterprise. It is what schooling is intended to produce. It underlies the changes in performance that are expected in school, in a variety of subject areas, as students progress through the grades and it underlies the competencies that are routinely measured in year-end assessments. Evidence of cognitive change is the single biggest factor that can earn a school a commendation, and the lack of such evidence the single biggest factor that can put a school out of business. Given the importance of this construct to education, it is disappointing that research in the field of cognitive change has not been made more available or accessible to educators – so that it can inform practice – and conversely, that current dilemmas in the field of education have not been made more salient to cognitive psychologists – so that insights gained in efforts to map the mind can be used to offer potential solutions to educational problems. A primary goal of the present chapter is to bridge this gap.

The three questions posed in the present volume – What is it that changes in cognitive development? How does change occur? Why does change occur? – provide an excellent starting point for this endeavour. By highlighting central aspects of cognitive change – aspects that any particular theory must address – they provide an opportunity for each author to describe (1) core postulates of a recent theory and (2), in the present chapter at least (see also Fischer, this volume; Adey, this volume), the educational implications that can be derived from each postulate.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cognitive Developmental Change
Theories, Models and Measurement
, pp. 264 - 295
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adey, P. (this volume). Accelerating the development of general cognitive processing
Bransford, J., Brown, A. and Cocking, R. (1999). How people learn. Washington, DC: National Academy Press
Case, R. (1992). The mind's staircase: exploring the conceptual underpinnings of children's thought and knowledge. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Case, R. (1996). Re-conceptualizing the nature of children's conceptual structures and their development in middle childhood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 61, serial no. 246, 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Case, R. and Bereiter, C. (1982). From behaviourism to cognitive behaviourism to cognitive developmental theory: steps in the evolution of instructional design. Paper presented at the Conference for Educational Technology in the 1980s, Caracas, Venezuela, June 1982
Case, R. and Griffin, S. (1990). Child cognitive development: the role of central conceptual structures in the development of scientific and social thought. In E. A. Hauert (ed.) Developmental psychology: cognitive, perceptuo-motor, and neurological perspectives (pp. 193–230). North-Holland: ElsevierCrossRef
Case, R. and McKeough, A. (1990). Schooling and the development of central conceptual structures: an example from the domain of children's narrative. International Journal of Educational Psychology, 8, 835–55Google Scholar
Case, R. and Okamoto, Y. (1996). The role of central conceptual structures in the development of children's thought. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 61, serial no. 246CrossRef
Case, R., Griffin, S., McKeough, A. and Okamoto, Y. (1992). Parallels in the development of children's social, numerical, and spatial thought. In R. Case (ed.) The mind's staircase: exploring the conceptual underpinnings of children's thought and knowledge (pp. 69–284). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Case, R., Griffin, S. and Kelley, W. (2001). Socioeconomic differences in children's early cognitive development and their readiness for schooling. In S. Golbeck (ed.) Psychological perspectives on early childhood education: reframing dilemmas in research and practice (pp. 37–63). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
Dennis, S. (1992). Stage and structure in the development of children's spatial representations. In R. Case (ed.) The mind's staircase: exploring the conceptual underpinnings of children's thought and knowledge (pp. 229–45). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Fischer, K. (1980). A theory of cognitive development: the control and construction of hierarchies of skills. Psychological Review, 87, 477–531CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, K. (this volume). Building general knowledge and skill
Griffin, S. (1997). Number worlds: grade one level. Durham, NH: Number Worlds Alliance Inc
Griffin, S. (1998). Number worlds: grade two level. Durham, NH: Number Worlds Alliance Inc
Griffin, S. (2000). Number worlds: preschool level. Durham, NH: Number Worlds Alliance Inc
Griffin, S. (2002). The development of math competence in the preschool and early school years: cognitive foundations and instructional strategies. In J. M. Royer (ed.) Mathematical cognition: current perspectives on cognition, learning, and instruction (pp. 1–32). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing
Griffin, S. (2003a). Laying the foundation for computational fluency in early childhood. Teaching Children Mathematics, 6, 306–9Google Scholar
Griffin, S. (2003b). Number Worlds: A research-based program for young children. In D. H. Clements, J. Sarama and A. M. DiBiase (eds.) Engaging young children in mathematics: standards for early childhood mathematics education (pp. 325–42). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc
Griffin, S. and Case, R. (1995). Number worlds: kindergarten level. Durham, NH: Number Worlds Alliance Inc
Griffin, S. and Case, R. (1996). Evaluating the breadth and depth of training effects when central conceptual structures are taught. Society for Research in Child Development Monographs, 59, 90–113Google Scholar
Griffin, S. and Case, R. (1997). Re-thinking the primary school math curriculum: an approach based on cognitive science. Issues in Education, 3, no. 1, 1–49Google Scholar
Griffin, S., Case, R. and Sandieson, R. (1992). Synchrony and asynchrony in the acquisition of children's everyday mathematical knowledge. In R. Case (ed.) The mind's staircase: exploring the conceptual underpinnings of children's thought and knowledge (pp. 75–97). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Griffin, S., Case, R. and Siegler, R. (1994). Rightstart: providing the central conceptual prerequisites for first formal learning of arithmetic to students at-risk for school failure. In K. McGilly (ed.) Classroom lessons: integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice (pp. 24–49). Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books MIT Press
Griffin, S., Case, R. and Capodilupo, A. (1995). Teaching for understanding: the importance of central conceptual structures in the elementary mathematics curriculum. In A. McKeough, I. Lupert and A. Marini (eds.) Teaching for transfer: fostering generalization in learning (pp. 121–51). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Hiebert, J. (1997). Making sense: teaching and learning mathematics with understanding. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Press
Kalchman, M. (2001). Using a neo-Piagetian framework for learning and teaching mathematical functions. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto
Lakatos, I. (1974). The role of crucial experiments in science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 4, 309–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKeough, A. (1992). Testing for the presence of a central social structure: use of the transfer paradigm. In R. Case (ed.) The mind's staircase: exploring the conceptual underpinnings of children's thought and knowledge (pp. 207–25). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Minstrell, J. (1989). Teaching science for understanding. In L. B. Resnick and L. E. Klopfer (eds.) Towards the thinking curriculum: current cognitive research (pp. 129–49). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Moss, J. (2003). Introducing percents in linear measurement to foster an understanding of rational-number operations. Teaching Children Mathematics, 9, no. 6, 335–9Google Scholar
Moss, J. and Case, R. (1999). Developing children's understanding of the rational numbers: a new model and an experimental curriculum. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 30, 122–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. (1969). Cognitive development and style: a general theoretical integration. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Geneva
Pascual-Leone, J. (1970). A mathematical model for the transition rule in Piaget's developmental stages. Acta Psychologica, 32, 301–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pascual-L eone, J. and Goodman, D. (1979). Intelligence and experience: a neo-Piagetian approach. Instructional Science, 8, 301–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, D. and Soltis, J. (1998). Perspectives on learning. New York: Teacher's College Press
Salter, D. (1992). A cognitive developmental analysis of the interpretation of family stories by adolescents and pre-adolescents. Master's Thesis, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
Siegler, R. (1976). Three aspects of cognitive development. Cognitive Psychology, 8, 481–520CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegler, R. S. and Robinson, M. (1982). The development of numerical understanding. In H. W. Reese and L. P. Lipsitt (eds.) Advances in child development and behavior (pp. 241–312). New York: Academic PressCrossRef
Stigler, J. W., Lee, S. Y. and Stevenson, H. W. (1990). Mathematical knowledge of Japanese, Chinese, and American elementary school children. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Wadsworth, B. (1996). Piaget's theory of cognitive and affective development. New York: Longman

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×