The Learner
What do we know that can be validated in our own experiences and in the experiences of these scholars that relates to the individual learner, namely: Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Viktor Lowenfeld, Benjamin Bloom, Robert Gagne, Lawrence Kohlberg, Lawrence Kubie, and many others who believe in the uniqueness of individuals engaged in becoming mature, compassionate, and competent adults.
A replication study of Jean Piaget’s work was conducted in nineteen sixty at Teachers College Columbia University under the direction of Professor Millie Almy. It was determined that his theory of genetic epistemology was valid, and his studies had widespread applications as attested to in Almy’s book entitled: The impact of Piagetian theory on education, philosophy, psychiatry, and psychology.
Piaget established The Center for the Study of Genetic Epistemology in Geneva, in 1955. As a biologist with interests in genetics, he became interested in intellectual development and became known as a developmental psychologist with a focus on epistemology. For him this study involves defining the origins of what one logically knows and can know at each level of intellectual development.
His theory of intellectual development features four phases or stages of development beginning with an automatic response to experiential stimuli followed by motor reactions, typical in early childhood before deliberately initiated intellectual activity involving reasoning or logic is possible. That next level of development is described as pre-operational or pre-logical behavior.
Logic and logical behavior are defined by “conservation exercises” used in collecting data. Logic requires the formation of concepts that are mental images retained or conserved in memory and applied in the translations and interpretations concerning each new experience. For example: picture a modified exercise involving two like sized and like shaped beakers filled partially with water. The subject, who can engage this exercise is more mature than one at a stage of motor sensory behavior.
A subject is first asked to adjust the level of water in each beaker to reach an agreement they contain the same amount of water. This idea might be retained as a concept (a mental image) or not retained if the act of conceptualization is yet to be developed.
Then the water from one beaker is carefully poured into a taller skinnier beaker, and the water appears higher in that beaker. The subject is then asked if there is still the same amount of water in the taller beaker as compared to the one that is left that contains water.
Despite the fact the subject said the amounts of water were the same before one beaker was emptied into the taller beaker, he or she who is acting at a pre-operational or pre-logical stage of development would now claim the taller beaker contains more water because it appears to be that way.
Judgment is based on perception of how things appear to be, rather than on conception based on an acceptance of "equalness", a concept that was agreed to at the outset. A concept is thought to be a mental image that is retained or conserved in the mind and then logically applied when making a judgment.
A youngster who is concrete operational with beginning capabilities for thinking logically about this problem states that if no water is lost in the pouring it must still be the same amount in each container despite the differences in appearance.
This judgment requires direct observation and hands on experience with the beakers and water, otherwise logical behavior would not occur. Take note: the procedure of the exercise remains the same for both subjects, the pre-operational and the concrete operational youngsters, and later for formal operational youngsters, but the responses are different at each stage due to the developmental changes in intellectual capabilities and readiness for learning.
These stages along with the next level called formal operations follow an invariant sequence controlled by each subject’s unique genetic code. This code determines when in the invariant sequence of growth these capabilities emerge much like when teeth will erupt or when puberty will appear. Experiences can encourage or discourage development, but they can’t alter the genetic code and its effects on development, nor can they predict the arrival of each change.
While the concrete operational youngster requires hands-on experience for logical behavior to occur, a youngster at the formal operations level is capable of logic with abstract and hypothetical experiences. He or she who is at the level of formal operations would assume a droplet of water likely remains in the empty beaker so therefore the amounts are not the same.
This judgment is based on hypothetical information based on past experiences. This requires prior motor sensory, pre-operational and concrete operational development that was allowed to develop as programed genetically by each unique code.
If not allowed to develop naturally, individual intellectual developmental capabilities will be diminished. Formal instruction in abstract language such as found in the conventional school embodies the daily potential for fostering a challenged intellectual development by instructing with developmentally inappropriate experiences, those experiences that are usually above the stages of readiness for learning.
The commutative and associative principles/laws illustrate a definition of logic in mathematics. In general, even though the order and groupings of symbols in mathematics are changed, that will not change the answer. (Recall the beaker exercise discussed earlier.) Even though the beakers gave the appearance of a change in the amounts of liquid, that change did not alter the amounts.
The rule of thumb is stated this way: if a correct answer can be gained with the current order and groupings of numbers, then if a change is made in the order and groupings, that will not change the answer. If this, then that, is a statement of simple logic that requires seeing relationships between one set of ideas and another, a current requirement in short supply that is dependent upon concrete, hands-on experiences.
Lev Vygotsky, a Russian Child Psychologist, suggested there are “zones of proximal development” that exist at each level of development, and others have suggested defining Piaget’s stages by differentiating those at the onset of a stage from fully acquired capabilities.
In all cases, if instruction ignores the existence of phases or zones of development and offers repetitive instruction that is beyond the current capabilities, that will cause severe psychological damage. This principle is violated every day in schools with developmentally inappropriate instruction. This damage is manifested in current anti-social behavior for many students, motivated by unconscious responses stemming from a steady diet of inappropriate experiences.
There are other developmental formulations to be discussed here that correlate with Piaget’s formulation. Understanding these can provide the portals into the developmental stages of functioning in everyone. The work of Viktor Lowenfeld, Lev Vygotsky, Benjamin Bloom, Robert Gagne, Lawrence Kohlberg and others will illustrate that effect.
The following chart will show the approximate percentages of learners at given ages who are judged by their ability to think logically. For example:
Students in the fifth grade, age ten, were found to be at four approximate levels. 12% are pre-logical, 52% are at the onset of fulfilled concrete operations. They will act inconsistently with logic, and only 35% are consistently logical, but only with concrete or direct experiences, 1% can begin to deal logically with abstract and hypothetical concepts.
Individuals reach these cognitive stages in an invariant sequence as shown in the chart below. These data are drawn from the work of Joyce L. Epstein, PhD, 1980, are validated within findings by this author in the 1970’s.
This chart shows a more complete picture of logical performance:
A replication study of Jean Piaget’s work was conducted in nineteen sixty at Teachers College Columbia University under the direction of Professor Millie Almy. It was determined that his theory of genetic epistemology was valid, and his studies had widespread applications as attested to in Almy’s book entitled: The impact of Piagetian theory on education, philosophy, psychiatry, and psychology.
Piaget established The Center for the Study of Genetic Epistemology in Geneva, in 1955. As a biologist with interests in genetics, he became interested in intellectual development and became known as a developmental psychologist with a focus on epistemology. For him this study involves defining the origins of what one logically knows and can know at each level of intellectual development.
His theory of intellectual development features four phases or stages of development beginning with an automatic response to experiential stimuli followed by motor reactions, typical in early childhood before deliberately initiated intellectual activity involving reasoning or logic is possible. That next level of development is described as pre-operational or pre-logical behavior.
Logic and logical behavior are defined by “conservation exercises” used in collecting data. Logic requires the formation of concepts that are mental images retained or conserved in memory and applied in the translations and interpretations concerning each new experience. For example: picture a modified exercise involving two like sized and like shaped beakers filled partially with water. The subject, who can engage this exercise is more mature than one at a stage of motor sensory behavior.
A subject is first asked to adjust the level of water in each beaker to reach an agreement they contain the same amount of water. This idea might be retained as a concept (a mental image) or not retained if the act of conceptualization is yet to be developed.
Then the water from one beaker is carefully poured into a taller skinnier beaker, and the water appears higher in that beaker. The subject is then asked if there is still the same amount of water in the taller beaker as compared to the one that is left that contains water.
Despite the fact the subject said the amounts of water were the same before one beaker was emptied into the taller beaker, he or she who is acting at a pre-operational or pre-logical stage of development would now claim the taller beaker contains more water because it appears to be that way.
Judgment is based on perception of how things appear to be, rather than on conception based on an acceptance of "equalness", a concept that was agreed to at the outset. A concept is thought to be a mental image that is retained or conserved in the mind and then logically applied when making a judgment.
A youngster who is concrete operational with beginning capabilities for thinking logically about this problem states that if no water is lost in the pouring it must still be the same amount in each container despite the differences in appearance.
This judgment requires direct observation and hands on experience with the beakers and water, otherwise logical behavior would not occur. Take note: the procedure of the exercise remains the same for both subjects, the pre-operational and the concrete operational youngsters, and later for formal operational youngsters, but the responses are different at each stage due to the developmental changes in intellectual capabilities and readiness for learning.
These stages along with the next level called formal operations follow an invariant sequence controlled by each subject’s unique genetic code. This code determines when in the invariant sequence of growth these capabilities emerge much like when teeth will erupt or when puberty will appear. Experiences can encourage or discourage development, but they can’t alter the genetic code and its effects on development, nor can they predict the arrival of each change.
While the concrete operational youngster requires hands-on experience for logical behavior to occur, a youngster at the formal operations level is capable of logic with abstract and hypothetical experiences. He or she who is at the level of formal operations would assume a droplet of water likely remains in the empty beaker so therefore the amounts are not the same.
This judgment is based on hypothetical information based on past experiences. This requires prior motor sensory, pre-operational and concrete operational development that was allowed to develop as programed genetically by each unique code.
If not allowed to develop naturally, individual intellectual developmental capabilities will be diminished. Formal instruction in abstract language such as found in the conventional school embodies the daily potential for fostering a challenged intellectual development by instructing with developmentally inappropriate experiences, those experiences that are usually above the stages of readiness for learning.
The commutative and associative principles/laws illustrate a definition of logic in mathematics. In general, even though the order and groupings of symbols in mathematics are changed, that will not change the answer. (Recall the beaker exercise discussed earlier.) Even though the beakers gave the appearance of a change in the amounts of liquid, that change did not alter the amounts.
The rule of thumb is stated this way: if a correct answer can be gained with the current order and groupings of numbers, then if a change is made in the order and groupings, that will not change the answer. If this, then that, is a statement of simple logic that requires seeing relationships between one set of ideas and another, a current requirement in short supply that is dependent upon concrete, hands-on experiences.
Lev Vygotsky, a Russian Child Psychologist, suggested there are “zones of proximal development” that exist at each level of development, and others have suggested defining Piaget’s stages by differentiating those at the onset of a stage from fully acquired capabilities.
In all cases, if instruction ignores the existence of phases or zones of development and offers repetitive instruction that is beyond the current capabilities, that will cause severe psychological damage. This principle is violated every day in schools with developmentally inappropriate instruction. This damage is manifested in current anti-social behavior for many students, motivated by unconscious responses stemming from a steady diet of inappropriate experiences.
There are other developmental formulations to be discussed here that correlate with Piaget’s formulation. Understanding these can provide the portals into the developmental stages of functioning in everyone. The work of Viktor Lowenfeld, Lev Vygotsky, Benjamin Bloom, Robert Gagne, Lawrence Kohlberg and others will illustrate that effect.
The following chart will show the approximate percentages of learners at given ages who are judged by their ability to think logically. For example:
Students in the fifth grade, age ten, were found to be at four approximate levels. 12% are pre-logical, 52% are at the onset of fulfilled concrete operations. They will act inconsistently with logic, and only 35% are consistently logical, but only with concrete or direct experiences, 1% can begin to deal logically with abstract and hypothetical concepts.
Individuals reach these cognitive stages in an invariant sequence as shown in the chart below. These data are drawn from the work of Joyce L. Epstein, PhD, 1980, are validated within findings by this author in the 1970’s.
This chart shows a more complete picture of logical performance:
The work of Viktor Lowenfeld who studied children’s graphic representations of their world through the lenses of each stage of development, determined that children’s drawings of familiar objects reveal a sequence of development consistent with Piaget’s formulation beginning with random scribbles followed by controlled scribbles, both considered to be automatic intuitive motor responses.
The next level is called pre-schematic drawing in Lowenfeld’s formulation. It is the first level of a child’s attempt to graphicly represent what is understood about a concrete experience. It may be controlled scribbles that appear floating in the air. Yet, the picture may be claimed to be a house as expressed by its author.
Home that is experienced daily is drawn as a two-dimensional building located at the bottom of the picture when a schematic level develops. If mother is in the picture she may be as tall as the house. There is lacking a sense of proportionality and overlapping wherein objects in front of other objects would block out portions of the image.
Later, the building will show beginnings of the third dimension, adding depth to height and width. This stage is called dawning realism. The building is moved deeper into the picture on a base plane wherein objects may appear in front, such as sidewalks or shrubbery. The front of the building shows the third dimension, but the rear remains two dimensional.
Eventually, the third dimension is incorporated in the drawing in a stage called realism. Here overlapping is shown along with accurate details of a realistic vision when mature levels have been reached.
If adulthood arrives containing capabilities for relatively free associations, individuals will freely select from the past the varied ways of expressing meaning that can result in the creation of abstract artistic representations.
The work of several other scholars feature similar sequences of development that reflect those of Piaget. These include: 1) Lev Vygotsky who described language development in children found first to be primitive in that the individual experiments with sounds, 2) The next phase is psychologically naïve language that becomes sign language that simply points to objects and events, and finally becomes 3) Internalized symbolic language that conveys concepts and connotative meanings.
Lawrence Kohlberg found that moral decision making is dependent upon the uses of logic and logical thinking consistent with Piaget’s concepts. The first two levels of moral decision making are called preconventional decision making when the child conceives of "right acts" as intuitive responses that enable avoidance of punishment or to make a good or fair deal.
The next two phases are called conventional decision making wherein "right acts" are those that gain the approval of others or that consist of doing one’s duty or following society’s rules that they recognize.
Finally, in the post-conventional stages the child is guided by respect for laws and morals and in addition by ethical principles of justice that often elicits criticism from conventional thinkers who believe in the primacy of imposed rules and regulations.
Robert Gagne created an eclectic theory of cognitive learning that begins with recognizing the source of all learning as experience. These experiences are first automatically responded to as associations, then translated and interpreted and expressed in non-verbal physical actions and later verbal language.
As experience continues there is engagement in a process of multiple discrimination wherein details of experiences are added and analyzed. These lead to the formation of concepts, mental images requiring logic that are retained and used in the interpretation and understanding of new experiences.
As these concepts are found to be repetitive, they form simple rules that later become principles and even later laws that govern problem solving activity. This sequence is found to be consistent with Piaget’s formulations.
Mastery requires completion of all stages of learning in order to be retained for future uses.
The work of Benjamin Bloom and his associates as described in the handbook on cognitive development begins with simple awareness of the existence of an object or process. The next level of cognition involves translation of this information, then its interpretation and extrapolation known as comprehension, followed by application, then analysis, then synthesis and finally critical and creative assessment and evaluation.
There are many other formulations to be found that correlate with Piaget’s formulations left to be elsewhere discovered by the readers of this treatise.
You may wonder if anyone is still interested in exploring the importance of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s work since they were initiated around the mid nineteen hundreds, seventy-five years ago. A 2021 report of proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research is titled: “Comparison and Contrast of Piaget and Vygotsky’s Theories.” The first sentence of the Abstract says: “Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are the two most influential developmental psychologists.” The author then proceeds to make distinctions based on selective aspects of each theory without a difference.
Nowhere in the report is there a reference to Vygotsky’s schematic that defines the stages of language development that correlates with Piaget’s schematic of cognitive development. Also, Vygotsky’s concept of a zone of proximal development is an extension of the concept of stages of development. It recognizes the range of opportunities for assimilation of content rather than a fixed point or stage as Piaget is often erroneously accused of promoting.
In the chart of findings by Joyce Epstein, PhD of percentages of levels that exist at each age recognizes the in-between stages as an onset before a complete fulfillment can occur.
It is important to place educational research in context since the report in the nineteen eighties, A Nation at Risk: An Imperative for Educational Reform, challenged educators to legitimize their professionalism by doing research. This meant reporting on the differences between theories and practices rather than emphasizing a search for seeing the relationships between one set of ideas and another. Furthermore, criteria for measuring progress rests with questionable devices that produce miniscule changes in scores on standardized tests.
Upon receiving additional feedback concerning the implications of this information, the following is another attempt to explain:
Here lies the crux of the troublesome and not so troublesome societal behaviors we see today among young and older adults. Decision makers are given the responsibility on high to mandate the required curriculum for all students, divided into grade levels based on age. They have developed standardized tests designed for all students regardless of developmental capacities for logical thinking, namely, sensory motor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational capabilities.
Assuming freedom from disabilities, a sensory motor youngster is programmed to respond physically to experiences with movements or vocal sounds. A pre-operational youngster can respond physically but in addition is able to intuitively respond to experiences by expressing them with vocal responses that do not reflect logical thinking. This youngster is free to express reactions however he or she desires. Hence, those at this level are known to express themselves in creative language using their imaginations and intuition with a minimum of interference.
However, instruction that does not match their levels of maturity is a form of interference in the natural processes of pre-operational youngsters that raises havoc on the status of their mental health. It results in deterioration in the sense of self worth. Due to their levels of immaturity, they are not capable of self-examination until they are more mature, making immediate repairs very difficult.
The youngster at the concrete operational level of logical thinking is limited to firsthand, concrete experiences. Their logical thinking does not include meaningful abstract and hypothetical information. Instruction at this level that does not match the needs of the concrete level of thinking raises havoc on the status of mental health.
These interfering instructions are referred to as developmentally inappropriate experiences, representing a principle frequently violated in conventional schools throughout the pre-ordained curricular offerings.
The formal operational youngster is relatively capable of sensory motor responses, pre-operational responses, concrete operational responses and logical thinking regarding abstract and hypothetical experiences. Without full development of those prerequisite responses those at the formal operations level will be limited and often distorted. This raises havoc on their mental health, as well.
Using percentages of age ten students, 5th grade: (approximately) 10% are still sensory motor, 35% are pre-operational or pre-logical, 35% are at the onset of concrete operations, sometimes beginning to be logical, sometimes not, and only 1% are fully concrete operational, none are above that level.
Instruction at age ten is mainly verbal information mostly abstract and advanced of being comprehended/ conceptualized for all but 6% of 13 year old students.
All students of the same age are graded on the answers they give on tests of what they can recall from earlier instruction. Instruction in a standardized, pre-defined curriculum, is almost a guarantee that all but 6% of age thirteen students will fail or do poorly on their tests, unless they correctly guess the answers.
It does not require rocket science to see the potential for psychological damage that occurs by virtue of developmentally inappropriate instruction mandated for all those ten year old students at the sensory motor, the pre-operational and those at the onset of logical thinking who will not excel with a high test score.
Instead, they will be left to endure the brand of deficiency stored among the records forever They are reminded that if they would only work harder, pay attention, and do their homework in a timely fashion they too could reap the rewards that perhaps only 1% at age ten could possibly achieve. This same scenario applies to all the other ages as well.
Understanding the full implications of this practice one must remember that all our experiences contribute to the formation of our unique attitudes, beliefs, values, and orientations with life that become the psychological forces, the unconscious patterns that shape what is acted upon, conforming them to reflect biased personality traits. These past experiences include all those years of conventional schooling in developmentally inappropriate experiences.
These patterns will remain and repeat themselves unless and until the owner is seriously engaged in developing self-knowledge and self-understanding that will reveal and perhaps change the results of past experiences such as those resulting from early conventional schooling.
An argument from educators in defense of instruction designed for groups of students is that it would be impossible to meet the needs of twenty-five individual students, so group instruction is the answer.
The Blogs that deal with group development, facilitation of learning, and concepts of the dimensions of mind will respond to that argument.
all
The next level is called pre-schematic drawing in Lowenfeld’s formulation. It is the first level of a child’s attempt to graphicly represent what is understood about a concrete experience. It may be controlled scribbles that appear floating in the air. Yet, the picture may be claimed to be a house as expressed by its author.
Home that is experienced daily is drawn as a two-dimensional building located at the bottom of the picture when a schematic level develops. If mother is in the picture she may be as tall as the house. There is lacking a sense of proportionality and overlapping wherein objects in front of other objects would block out portions of the image.
Later, the building will show beginnings of the third dimension, adding depth to height and width. This stage is called dawning realism. The building is moved deeper into the picture on a base plane wherein objects may appear in front, such as sidewalks or shrubbery. The front of the building shows the third dimension, but the rear remains two dimensional.
Eventually, the third dimension is incorporated in the drawing in a stage called realism. Here overlapping is shown along with accurate details of a realistic vision when mature levels have been reached.
If adulthood arrives containing capabilities for relatively free associations, individuals will freely select from the past the varied ways of expressing meaning that can result in the creation of abstract artistic representations.
The work of several other scholars feature similar sequences of development that reflect those of Piaget. These include: 1) Lev Vygotsky who described language development in children found first to be primitive in that the individual experiments with sounds, 2) The next phase is psychologically naïve language that becomes sign language that simply points to objects and events, and finally becomes 3) Internalized symbolic language that conveys concepts and connotative meanings.
Lawrence Kohlberg found that moral decision making is dependent upon the uses of logic and logical thinking consistent with Piaget’s concepts. The first two levels of moral decision making are called preconventional decision making when the child conceives of "right acts" as intuitive responses that enable avoidance of punishment or to make a good or fair deal.
The next two phases are called conventional decision making wherein "right acts" are those that gain the approval of others or that consist of doing one’s duty or following society’s rules that they recognize.
Finally, in the post-conventional stages the child is guided by respect for laws and morals and in addition by ethical principles of justice that often elicits criticism from conventional thinkers who believe in the primacy of imposed rules and regulations.
Robert Gagne created an eclectic theory of cognitive learning that begins with recognizing the source of all learning as experience. These experiences are first automatically responded to as associations, then translated and interpreted and expressed in non-verbal physical actions and later verbal language.
As experience continues there is engagement in a process of multiple discrimination wherein details of experiences are added and analyzed. These lead to the formation of concepts, mental images requiring logic that are retained and used in the interpretation and understanding of new experiences.
As these concepts are found to be repetitive, they form simple rules that later become principles and even later laws that govern problem solving activity. This sequence is found to be consistent with Piaget’s formulations.
Mastery requires completion of all stages of learning in order to be retained for future uses.
The work of Benjamin Bloom and his associates as described in the handbook on cognitive development begins with simple awareness of the existence of an object or process. The next level of cognition involves translation of this information, then its interpretation and extrapolation known as comprehension, followed by application, then analysis, then synthesis and finally critical and creative assessment and evaluation.
There are many other formulations to be found that correlate with Piaget’s formulations left to be elsewhere discovered by the readers of this treatise.
You may wonder if anyone is still interested in exploring the importance of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s work since they were initiated around the mid nineteen hundreds, seventy-five years ago. A 2021 report of proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research is titled: “Comparison and Contrast of Piaget and Vygotsky’s Theories.” The first sentence of the Abstract says: “Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are the two most influential developmental psychologists.” The author then proceeds to make distinctions based on selective aspects of each theory without a difference.
Nowhere in the report is there a reference to Vygotsky’s schematic that defines the stages of language development that correlates with Piaget’s schematic of cognitive development. Also, Vygotsky’s concept of a zone of proximal development is an extension of the concept of stages of development. It recognizes the range of opportunities for assimilation of content rather than a fixed point or stage as Piaget is often erroneously accused of promoting.
In the chart of findings by Joyce Epstein, PhD of percentages of levels that exist at each age recognizes the in-between stages as an onset before a complete fulfillment can occur.
It is important to place educational research in context since the report in the nineteen eighties, A Nation at Risk: An Imperative for Educational Reform, challenged educators to legitimize their professionalism by doing research. This meant reporting on the differences between theories and practices rather than emphasizing a search for seeing the relationships between one set of ideas and another. Furthermore, criteria for measuring progress rests with questionable devices that produce miniscule changes in scores on standardized tests.
Upon receiving additional feedback concerning the implications of this information, the following is another attempt to explain:
Here lies the crux of the troublesome and not so troublesome societal behaviors we see today among young and older adults. Decision makers are given the responsibility on high to mandate the required curriculum for all students, divided into grade levels based on age. They have developed standardized tests designed for all students regardless of developmental capacities for logical thinking, namely, sensory motor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational capabilities.
Assuming freedom from disabilities, a sensory motor youngster is programmed to respond physically to experiences with movements or vocal sounds. A pre-operational youngster can respond physically but in addition is able to intuitively respond to experiences by expressing them with vocal responses that do not reflect logical thinking. This youngster is free to express reactions however he or she desires. Hence, those at this level are known to express themselves in creative language using their imaginations and intuition with a minimum of interference.
However, instruction that does not match their levels of maturity is a form of interference in the natural processes of pre-operational youngsters that raises havoc on the status of their mental health. It results in deterioration in the sense of self worth. Due to their levels of immaturity, they are not capable of self-examination until they are more mature, making immediate repairs very difficult.
The youngster at the concrete operational level of logical thinking is limited to firsthand, concrete experiences. Their logical thinking does not include meaningful abstract and hypothetical information. Instruction at this level that does not match the needs of the concrete level of thinking raises havoc on the status of mental health.
These interfering instructions are referred to as developmentally inappropriate experiences, representing a principle frequently violated in conventional schools throughout the pre-ordained curricular offerings.
The formal operational youngster is relatively capable of sensory motor responses, pre-operational responses, concrete operational responses and logical thinking regarding abstract and hypothetical experiences. Without full development of those prerequisite responses those at the formal operations level will be limited and often distorted. This raises havoc on their mental health, as well.
Using percentages of age ten students, 5th grade: (approximately) 10% are still sensory motor, 35% are pre-operational or pre-logical, 35% are at the onset of concrete operations, sometimes beginning to be logical, sometimes not, and only 1% are fully concrete operational, none are above that level.
Instruction at age ten is mainly verbal information mostly abstract and advanced of being comprehended/ conceptualized for all but 6% of 13 year old students.
All students of the same age are graded on the answers they give on tests of what they can recall from earlier instruction. Instruction in a standardized, pre-defined curriculum, is almost a guarantee that all but 6% of age thirteen students will fail or do poorly on their tests, unless they correctly guess the answers.
It does not require rocket science to see the potential for psychological damage that occurs by virtue of developmentally inappropriate instruction mandated for all those ten year old students at the sensory motor, the pre-operational and those at the onset of logical thinking who will not excel with a high test score.
Instead, they will be left to endure the brand of deficiency stored among the records forever They are reminded that if they would only work harder, pay attention, and do their homework in a timely fashion they too could reap the rewards that perhaps only 1% at age ten could possibly achieve. This same scenario applies to all the other ages as well.
Understanding the full implications of this practice one must remember that all our experiences contribute to the formation of our unique attitudes, beliefs, values, and orientations with life that become the psychological forces, the unconscious patterns that shape what is acted upon, conforming them to reflect biased personality traits. These past experiences include all those years of conventional schooling in developmentally inappropriate experiences.
These patterns will remain and repeat themselves unless and until the owner is seriously engaged in developing self-knowledge and self-understanding that will reveal and perhaps change the results of past experiences such as those resulting from early conventional schooling.
An argument from educators in defense of instruction designed for groups of students is that it would be impossible to meet the needs of twenty-five individual students, so group instruction is the answer.
The Blogs that deal with group development, facilitation of learning, and concepts of the dimensions of mind will respond to that argument.
all