Q.4 Explain ygotsky's socio-cultural theory and link it with school education.

Albert's theory cognitive

development is a comprehensive theoty about the nature and development of hnan intelligence. Albert
believed that one's childhood plays a vital and active role in a persen's development. Albert's idea is
primarily known as stage theory. The theety deals with the nature of knowledge itscelf and howy
humans gradually come to acquire, constradt, and use it.To Albert, cogmtive developmenvas a
progressive reorganization of mental progesss resulting from biological matytion and environmental
experience. He believed that childndonstruct an undersandmg of the world around them, experience
discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment, then
adjust thein ideas accordingly. Moreover, Albert claimed that cognitive development is at the center of
the human organism, and language is contingent on knowledge and understanding acquired through
cognitive devetopment. Albert's earlier work received the greatest attention. Many parents have been
encguraged to provide a rich, supportive environment for their child'snatum lon nsig togto and "open
education" are direct applications of Albert's views. Despite its huge success, Albert's theory has some
limitations that Albert recognized himself: for example, the theory supports sharp stages rather than
continuous development (decalage). Albert noted that reality is a dynamic system of continuous change
and, as such, is defined in reference to the two developmental S6084|child-centered
classroomsconditions that define dynamic systems. Specifically, he argued that reality involves
transformations and states. Transformations refer to all manners of changes that a thing or person can
undergo. States refer to the conditions or the appearances in which things or persons can be found
between transformations. For example, there might be changes in shape or form (for instance, liquids
are reshaped as they are transferred from one vessel to another, and similarly humans change in their
characteristics as they grow older), in size (for example, a series of coins on a table might be placed close
to each other or far apart), or in placement or location in space and time (e.g., various objects or
persons might be found at one place at one time and at a different place at another time). Thus, Albert
argued, if human intelligence is to be adaptive, it must have functions to represent both the
transformational and the static aspects of reality. He proposed that operative intelligence is responsible
for the representation and manipulation of the dynamic or transformational aspects of reality, and that
figurative intelligence is responsible for the representation of the static aspects of reality. Operative
intelligence is the active aspect of intelligence. It involves all actions, overt or covert, undertaken in
order to follow, recover, or anticipate the transformations of the objects or persons of interest.
Figurative intelligence is the more or less static aspect of intelligence, involving all means of
representation used to retain in mind the states (i.e., successive forms, shapes, or locations) that
intervene between transformations. That is, it involves perception, imitation, mental imagery, drawing,
and language. Therefore, the figurative aspects of intelligence derive their meaning from the operative
aspects of intelligence, because states cannot exist independently of the transformations that
interconnect them. Albert stated that th hgurative or the representational aspects of intelligence are
subseryient to its operative and dynamic aspects, and therefore, that understanding essemtially de ves
from the operative aspectointelligence. At any time, operative intelligence frames ho the world is
understood and it changes if understanding is not successful. Albert stated understanding and change.
involves two basic functions: Assimilation and Accemmodation Through his study of the fieldof
education, Albert focused on tyorocesses, which h named assimilation and accofm elements into
structures of lives or environments, or thosoate could have through experience. Assimilation is how
humans perceive and adapt to new information. It is the process of fitting new mbranon into pre-
existing cognitive schemas. Assimilation in which new experiences are interpreted to fit into, or
assimilate with, old ideas. It occurs when humans are faced with new or unfamiliar information and
refer to previously learned information in order to make3 S08411 this process of olation. To Albert,
assinpilomeant integrating external sens contrast acomaodaron is the process of taking new information
in one's environment and altéring pre-exlsting schemas in order to fit in the new information. This
happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a
new object or situation. Accommodation is imperative because it is how people will continue to
interpret new concepts, schemas, frameworks, and more. Albert believed that the human brain has
been programmed through evolution to bring 5515779equilibrium, which is what he believed ultimately
influences structures by the internal and external processes through assimilation and accommodation.
Albert's understanding was that assimilation and accommodation cannot exist without the other. They
are two sides of a coin. To assimilate an object into an existing mental schema, one first needs to take
into account or accommodate to the particularities of this object to a certain extent. For instance, to
recognize (assimilate) an apple as an apple, one must first focus (accommodate) on the contour of this
object. To do this, one needs to roughly recognize the size of the object. Development increases the
balance, or equilibration, between these two functions. When in balance with each other, assimilation
and accommodation generate mental schemas of the operative intelligence. When one function
dominates over the other, they generate representations which belong to figurative intelligence.
Cognitive development is Jean Albert's theory. Through a series of stages, Albert proposed four stages of
cognitive development: the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational
period. The sensorimotor stage is the first of the four stages in cognitive development which "extends
from birth to the acquisition of language". In this stage, infants progressively construct knowledge and
understanding of the world by coordinating experiences (such as vision and hearing) with physical
interactions with objects (such as grasping, sucking, and stepping). Infants gain knowledge of the world
from the physical actions they perform within it. They progress from reflexive, instinctual action at birth
to the beginning of symbolic thought toward the end of the stage. Children learn that they are separate
from the environment. They can think about aspects of the environment, even though these may be
outside the reach of the child's senses. In this stage, according to Albert, the development oobject
permanence is one of the most important accomplishments Object permanence ista dhild understands
that objects continue to exist even though heor she cannot see or hear themt Peek-a-boo is a good test
for that. By the end of the sensorimotor period, children develop Dermanent sense of self and object.
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