School Journals
Judging from observing and interacting with Asha her behaviour suggested that she did not quiet fit into Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Asha is an intellectually mature 7 year old. For quite a young girl she conducted herself in a very grown up manner though she still displayed typical child behaviour. For example she was well mannered and had a good grasp of her vocabulary well but when I declined her offer to race back to the classroom she was disappointed and sulky. Asha’s sophistication and her grasp of language strongly indicate that she would not fit into The Preoperational Stage of Piaget’s theory. More evidence to suggest that Asha was no longer in The Preoperational Stage is that she was not at all egocentric. I would relate this to her being the oldest sibling in the family and having to grow up faster and realise her place as a role model and care taker of her younger siblings. Through out my visit Asha often mentioned her younger sister, especially how she was very pleased to be picking up and “playing mum” to her after pre-school today.
With Easter arriving shortly after our first visit to Aranda I questioned Asha on her anticipation of the Easter Bunny, she replied excited “Yes he [The Easter Bunny] is coming on Sunday and is going to bring me and Kate [younger sister] lots of eggs” This shows a strong belief in mythical and un-logical characters which implies Asha has not yet reached The Concrete Operational Stage however other behaviour that Asha displays indicates otherwise. While reading the example question about siblings and reversibility in Piagets theory
“Do you have a brother?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his name?”
“Jim.”
“Does Jim have a brother?”
“No”
It got me thinking as to what Asha response would be. In the second lesson I posed a similar to question her
“Do you any siblings?”
“Yes, a little sister Kate”
“Does Kate have a sister?”
“Yes, me”
At first I was taken aback by her ability to reverse relationships but...
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