Discussion Questions

  1. Think about your own life.  Provide an example of a schema.
     
  2. Provide an example of how an infant may assimilate to the environment.  How may the infant accommodate?  What about a pre-school child, a middle school child, and a high school child?
     
  3. Give an example of a primary circular reaction, a secondary circular reaction, and a tertiary circular reaction.
  4. Do you think you could teach a child conservation? How would you do it?
     
  5. Provide an example of hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
     
  6. Why do you think teens go through a stage in which they feel as if they have an imaginary audience? Can you think of a time in which you felt like you had one? Share the example.
     
  7. Why do you think teens believe they have a personal fable? Can you think of a time in which you felt like you had one? Share the example.
     
  8. Do you think all individuals reach the formal operational stage of development? Why or why not?
     
  9. How do you explain cognitive differences among children from different cultures?
     
  10. Why do you think infants have an innate understanding of objects and how they function?
     
  11. After reading the theories presented in the chapter, do you believe object permanence is innate? Why or why not?  Which theory best fits your opinion?
     
  12. Give an example in which a child reaches his or her zone of proximal development.
     
  13. Provide an example of when a child would need scaffolding and how you would do it.
     
  14. What do you think about the correlation between attention at the age of 4 and college completion by age 25? What kind of child were you? Were you able to focus on activities or did you have problems sustaining attention?
     
  15. How might you intervene to help preschoolers who struggle to sustain attention?
     
  16. Do you multitask while studying?  After reading this chapter, do you plan to make any changes? If so, what are they?
     
  17. Do you know anyone who has ADHD? What was childhood like for that person? What were his or her challenges?
     
  18. Most people do not remember events before the age of 3.  What do you think about this? What is your earliest memory? How old were you?
     
  19. How is a script different from a schema?
     
  20. Do you have siblings? Can you think of an event in your childhood in which you remember details differently from your sibling? Do you ever argue with siblings about details of events?
     
  21. How would you suggest a parent help develop a child’s executive functioning ability?