According to Jean Piaget, middle childhood is a time for __ thought. Select one: a. concrete operational b. formal operational c. preoperational d. metacognitive
The correct answer and explanation is:
Correct Answer: a. concrete operational
Jean Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist, proposed that children’s cognitive development occurs in stages. According to his theory, middle childhood, which typically spans from ages 7 to 11, is characterized by the concrete operational stage of cognitive development.
In this stage, children begin to develop logical thinking skills, but these are limited to concrete or tangible situations. They can perform mental operations on objects that are real and can be directly experienced. Children start to understand concepts such as conservation, reversibility, classification, and seriation.
For example, during this stage, a child can recognize that the amount of liquid remains the same even if it is poured into a container of a different shape. This is known as conservation. Children also begin to classify objects by more than one characteristic. For instance, they can sort objects not just by color but also by shape or size. They can place things in a logical order, such as lining up sticks from shortest to longest, which is called seriation.
However, their thinking is still tied to concrete information. Abstract thinking, hypothetical reasoning, and systematic planning typically do not develop until the next stage, which Piaget termed the formal operational stage, beginning around age 12.
The concrete operational stage marks an important shift from the earlier preoperational stage, where thinking is more egocentric and less logical. In middle childhood, children gradually become more flexible and organized in their thinking, and they are better able to take the perspective of others.
This period is critical for educational development, as children are now ready to engage in more structured learning involving numbers, measurements, and logical problem-solving, all of which require concrete operational thinking.