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What would the world be like if people had tails?

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• What do you need to be able to do to answer that question?

• How might the responses of younger children differ from yours?

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Today’s session

You are learning about... You are learning to...• Piaget’s formal operational

stage• Tests of systematic &

abstract thinking

• Compare and criticise ways of investigating children’s cognition

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• What are operations?• How do you think concrete and formal

operations might be different?

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Formal operations

• Concrete operations are carried out on things whereas formal operations are carried out on ideas.

• From about 12 years children can follow the form of a logical argument without reference to its content.

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Formal operations

Concrete problem:• Cristiano is older than

Beyonce. Chardonnay is younger than Wayne. Wayne is younger than Beyonce. Beyonce is older than Chardonnay.– Christiano (oldest)– Beyonce– Wayne– Chardonnay (youngest)

Formal problem:• A>B; C<D; D<B; B>C

– A>B>D>C

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Formal operations

• In the stage of formal operations people can think logically about:– Relationships between abstracts– Hypothetical situations (e.g. the ‘tails’ question)

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Formal operations

• Arrange yourselves in groups of four. Decide who will be children and who researchers.– Children: use the apparatus provided to work out

what determines how fast a pendulum swings.– Researchers: observe carefully and note the

strategies used by the children.

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Formal operations

• Children become systematic in their thinking and make logical plans in order to solve problems.

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Formal operations

• Pendulum problem:– Concrete operations – haphazard approach, with

many variables being changed simultaneously. Solutions are accidental.

– Formal operations – systematic approach, one variable altered whilst others held constant. Solution is logically arrived at.

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Piaget & Inhelder (1958): The four beaker problem

• 4 beakers labelled 1-4 containing colourless liquid• One beaker labelled ‘g’ which contains a chemical that can be

added to the others using an eye dropper• Spare empty beakers• A few drops of ‘g’ are added to two further unlabelled

beakers containing colourless liquid– One turns yellow while the other remains colourless

• Participants have to use the liquids in the four beakers to try and get the same yellow colour as the researcher

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• How would you expect a 10-year-old’s approach to differ from a 16-year-old’s?

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• What difference can we expect between a Year 7’s and a Sixth Former’s thinking?

• How can we test this?