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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 15, Issue 2, Article 1 (Dec., 2014) |
Piaget introduced his biologically motivated work early in the last century, and from that time until today, educators and researchers have eagerly worked to exhibit a link between students’ development level and their capacity for learning. Researches from different cultures considered that Piaget was right about many important aspects of cognitive development. In general, children move from being less systematic and less able to reason logically to being more able to think in these ways. Children seem to pass through Piaget’s four stages in the same order, although the age brackets of the stages show some variability. Also, reaching formal thinking stage depends on several different factors such as educational levels, the kinds of cognitive skills valued in a given culture, and biological aspects (Markwell & Courtney, 2006). Abstract thinking in the formal thinking stage is developed at 14 to 17 years of age, usually after some degree of education.
According to Piaget, cognitive development level reaches its fullest potential thought during adolescent period. Major changes occur in this stage: Adolescents gradually develop the ability to use hypothetic-deductive reasoning, and they extend their logical thinking to concepts that are abstract. For Piaget, the culminating achievement of cognitive development is the ability to use abstract thinking and hypothetic-deductive reasoning. Hypothetic-deductive reasoning is the use of deductive reasoning to systematically manipulate several variables, test their effects in a systematic way, and reach correct conclusions (Cook and Cook , 2005).
Velasquez (2013) defined the Cognitive Development, as: The process of acquiring thinking skills and increasingly advanced intellectual thought with ability to use problem-solving approach in life situations from early school to adulthood. Also, cognitive development is defined as "the individual's use of higher-order mental processes such as reasoning and logic" (Astin, 1997, p. 9). Cognitive development profile reveals the levels of the abstract thinking ability of the individuals. It could be measure through using a number of well-known intellectual tasks (Dunn, A. 2006; Ginsburg & Opper, 1988). Abstract thinkers can easily remove unnecessary details from scientific situation, generalize concepts, and discover patterns (Roberts , 2010). Individuals in the concrete operational stage are not good at systematically testing all of the factors affect in the experiment. Individuals using formal operations, however, start by considering all of the variables and all of their possible combinations, reasoning that any one factor could be responsible for the results. Students systematically test each factor one at a time, holding the other factors constant, until they arrive at the correct solution. The individual shows hypothetic-deductive reasoning, or formal scientific reasoning . That means she/he has the ability to plan tests with multiple variables. Our SRT test in the current study used the same strategy.
Cognitive development and capacity for learning science
Educators have eagerly worked to exhibit a link between students’ development level and their capacity for learning. The two levels which most college students are operating are concrete operations and formal operations. With the achievement of hypothetic -deductive reasoning and abstract thought, students gradually attain what Piaget considered mature cognition. They become able to reason about anything, real or imagined, and have the capability to use scientific reasoning to solve relatively complex problems. But this does not mean that no further changes in cognition will occur. Piaget claimed that we never reach a permanent state of equilibrium. He believed that we are forever adapting and reorganizing our cognitive structures and working “toward better equilibrium” (Piaget, 1985: 26).
The science students who are in the concrete operational stage have difficulties in understanding science concepts. These students may make it through the curriculum by rote learning. Understanding science concepts requires formal operational thoughts or abstract thoughts. There are 30 to 60 percent of the adult population who have some trouble with formal operational thought. Studies mentioned that close to half of entering college students are not operating at advanced stages of cognitive development (Foster, Bookman and, Whittington, 2010). Students may be unable to work the scientific problem either because of lack of knowledge or because of an inability to solve abstract problems. The university and postsecondary education may play a key role in exposing students to experiences that enhance the development of abstract thinking. That means the education system may be not significantly contributing to the intellectual development of students in schools or university. In other words, it does not succeed in developing or enhancing the abstract thinking and logical reasoning of students (Foster, Bookman and, Whittington, 2010). Woolfolk (2007) stated, “Some students remain at the concrete operational stage throughout their school years, even throughout university". That means we may find the first year university students who does not show mature formal thinking yet. This was shown in several studies such as: (Magoshi , 1991 ; McCormack et cl, 2009).
The study used Science Reasoning tasks (SRTs). McCormack and others (2009) used the same test (SRTs) to investigate the cognitive development level of the new student-teachers in the colleges of education in Ireland. Also, Magoshi (1990) used a similar approach to reveal the thinking skills of students teachers in King Saud University in the KSA.
Several tools were developed by the Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science (CSMS) team and were called the Science Reasoning Tasks (Adey and Shayer, 1994). Their function was to assess the ability of individuals to use concrete and formal reasoning strategies, as described by the Piagetian stages. Each stage of cognitive development was divided into late and early stages. Adey and Shayer (1994) use the notation shown down to indicate stages and sub-stages of the cognitive development scale.
Table 1. Stages of development and corresponding Age (years)
Stage of Cognitive Development
Piagetian Level Notation
Approximate Age -years
Pre-operational
1
Less than 5
Early concrete operational
2A
5/6
Mid concrete operational
2A/2B
7/9
Late concrete operational
2B
10/11
Transitional/concrete generalization
2B/3A
Early formal operational
3A
11/13
Formal generalization
3B
Begin 14/15 y
Figure 1. Results from the CSMS survey in UK show the proportion of children at different Piagetian stages in a representative British population (McCormack and et al., 2009).
Several tools were developed by the Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science (CSMS) team and were called the Science Reasoning Tasks (Adey and Shayer, 1994). Their function was to assess the ability of individuals to use concrete and formal reasoning strategies, as described by the Piagetian stages. Each stage of cognitive development was divided into late and early stages. Adey and Shayer (1994) use the notation shown down to indicate stages and sub-stages of the cognitive development scale.
