What is he thinking? Psychologists weigh in on the fourth grade mind.
What You Need to Know
Psychologist Jean Piaget outlined these characteristics of fourth grader’s minds: They can classify objects in various ways.
- They can handle multi-part problems.
- They know that the way they see the world is not how everyone else does.
- They can analyze their work and see flaws.
- They can compare the physics of two objects.
Psychologist Benjamin Bloom laid out six levels of cognitive learning that children progress through, much like climbing a staircase. They are:
- knowledge,
- comprehension,
- application,
- analysis,
- synthesis, and
- evaluation.
How You Can Help
- Remember that children progress cognitively at different paces. Don’t be alarmed if your child can’t do all of these things, but do try to offer opportunities for him to progress through the learning stages.
- Bloom devised a list of questions and activities designed to foster each of the six learning steps. It’s called Bloom’s Taxonomy, and it can help you devise things for your child to do and ways to ask him about a concept that will help ascend the cognitive staircase.
For more information about how your child thinks, please see the full article:
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/How_child_thinks_fourth_graders/
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