Case Study #1

Ch. 2 Analysis Questions:

1. From the perspective of Piaget's theory, in which stage of cognitive development is Laura? Justify your response.

Although according to Piaget’s age groups she would be in the formal operations stage. She is in the concrete operational stage. She can only think of a thing that have physical symbols to them and is un able to understand and grasp the deeper questions and concerns that her teacher is bringing up. She can’t look at the situation from another person perspective.

2. How is Laura's reasoning affected by her knowledge base--that is, by what she does and doesn't know about pollution?

She only thinks that pollution comes from gasoline, so we should just get rid of all of it. She is right that getting rid of gasoline would cut down on air pollution, but she is doesn’t understand all of the things that our society depends on from gasoline. She doesn’t realize that there are many ways that pollution is happening. She doesn’t understand how landfills work and the amount of trash that people go through in a day or week. It sounds like she thinks this would be an easy thing to change and that it wouldn’t affect people’s lifestyle that much.

3. By posing a series of questions, Mr. Marculescu continually challenges Laura to reconsider her thinking about the pollution problem. What are potential benefits of this strategy? Use terminology from Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories in your response.

By doing this he is trying to create disequilibrium in her so that she has to think more. She is just assimilating the situation and he is trying to show that she needs to at least accommodate it. He is using scaffolding or guided participation to try help her come to a reasonable solution.

4. How does this scenario represent Piaget's and Vygotsky's conceptions of play?

She is able to act out the scenarios in a fun environment. She gets interested in it when she understands that people want to hear what she has to say. She is able to manipulate the scenario continually when the teacher brings up new things.