Abstract
The ability to think clearly and sensibly, which involves being able to follow a line of reasoning, to grasp concepts and to initiate lines of enquiry oneself, is obviously central to a child’s educational progress. No matter what subject he is studying, failure to understand what is required of him, and to identify and tackle the problems it involves, are obvious barriers to any real progress. Although they are fully aware of this, some teachers are unclear of the level of thinking they can reasonably expect of a child at a given age. Much educational failure, indeed, stems from the fact that forms of thinking are demanded of children that they are incapable of supplying.
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References
Bryant, P.E. and Trabasso, T. (1971) Transitive inferences and memory in young children. Nature, 232, 456–458.
Povey, R. and Hill, E. (1975) Can pre-school children form concepts? Educational Research, 17, 180–192.
Annotated reading
Inhelder, B. and Piaget, J. (1958) The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Provides a comprehensive outline of Piaget’s ideas on cognitive development for the non-specialist.
Piaget, J. (1970) Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child. London: Longmans. A survey of Piaget’s main concerns within education.
Flavell, J.H. (1963) The Developmental Psychology of Jean Piaget. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Usually regarded as the most complete summary of Piaget’s work.
Phillips, J. L. (1975) The Origins of Intellect: Piaget’s theory (2nd edn). New York: Freeman. Shorter than Flavell, but a splendid book that makes even the more complex areas of Piaget’s theories fully comprehensible.
Beard, R. (1969) An Outline of Piaget’s Developmental Psychology for Students and Teachers. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Another good short survey of Piaget’s ideas.
Boden, M.A. (1979) Piaget. London: Fontana Modern Masters. A very readable brief survey of the whole range of Piaget’s work and its relevance to philosophy and biology as well as to psychology and education.
Bryant, P. (1974) Perception and Understanding in Young Children: An experimental approach. London: Methuen.
Burton, A. and Radford, J. (eds) (1978) Thinking in Perspective: Critical essays in the study of thought processes. London: Methuen. These two books contain important criticisms of Piaget’s work, essential reading for the student with particular interests in this area.
Bruner, J., Goodnow, J. and Austin, G. (1956) A study of Thinking. New York: Wiley. Bruner is easily tackled through his own writings, since he presents his ideas clearly and engagingly (and see chapter 8 for other references to his work). This book deals particularly with cognitive development.
Vygotsky, L. (1962) Th ught and Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Sets out his own ideas fully, but not an easy book for newcomers to the field.
Turner, J. (1975) Cognitive Development. London: Methuen, A very useful, brief introduction to the general field of cognitive development.
Mussen, P.H., Conger, J.J. and Kagan, J. (1979) Child Development and Personality (5th edn). New York: Harper & Row. The chapters on cognitive development and allied topics, like the rest of the book, are first class.
Additional reading
Brown, G. and Desforges, C. (1979) Piaget’s Theory: A psychological critique. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Provides an excellent survey of Piaget’s theory, together with detailed criticism of some of his findings and the inferences drawn from them.
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© 1981 The British Psychological Society
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Fontana, D. (1981). Concept Formation and Development. In: Psychology for Teachers. Psychology for Professional Groups. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16944-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16944-3_5
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