The Concrete Operational Stage (7-11)
After many experiences interacting with and observing their
environment, children enter the concrete operational stage.
What are the characteristics of this stage?
According to Piaget, a significant change in thinking occurs at around the
age of 7 years when the child develops the ability to perform mental
operations for interacting with the world.
What is an operation?
The term operation is used specifically to refer to powerful, internal,
schema, that enables logical thought processes.
What type of operations can the child perform?
Operations compromise:
o Compensation
o Reversability
o Addition
o Subtraction
o Multiplication
o Division
The child now understands the rule that:
Adding something makes it more and subtracting makes it less.
, Using these operations what exactly can children do in the concrete
operational stage that they could not do in the pre-operational
stage?
The child is now able to perform operations, which enables them to:
1) Understanding things from a variety of angles and viewpoints –
significant decline in egocentrism
2) Be able to conserve, though the concrete operational stage is well
advanced before most children have grasped all types of conservation.
Of all the operations that affects the child’s ability to conserve what is the most
critical?
Of all the operations that affects the child’s ability to conserve, Piaget thought the
most critical was irreversibility, that is, the ability to perform reversible mental
operations.
How does this operation differ in the two stages?
Whereas, the pre-operational child cannot mentally reverse the transformation in a
typical conservation study, a child in the concrete operational stage can mentally
reverse the action of pouring the water into the long, thin beaker and can therefore
understand that the amount of water is no different to what it was at the start.
What other mental operation can the concrete operational child do?
Similarly, the mental operation of compensation enables the concrete operational
child to understand that one feature of the beaker, such as tallness, can be
compensated for by another feature, such as width.
3) Classification
Between the ages of 7 and 10 what do children become aware of?
Between the ages of 7 and 10 children become vary aware of categories and
classification.
What can the concrete operational child now do?
The child is now able to classify objects, a task which requires a recognition of
common features.
Concrete operational children understand the relationship between subclasses and
the whole class.
For example, they know that four roses and two daffodils give six flowers.
After many experiences interacting with and observing their
environment, children enter the concrete operational stage.
What are the characteristics of this stage?
According to Piaget, a significant change in thinking occurs at around the
age of 7 years when the child develops the ability to perform mental
operations for interacting with the world.
What is an operation?
The term operation is used specifically to refer to powerful, internal,
schema, that enables logical thought processes.
What type of operations can the child perform?
Operations compromise:
o Compensation
o Reversability
o Addition
o Subtraction
o Multiplication
o Division
The child now understands the rule that:
Adding something makes it more and subtracting makes it less.
, Using these operations what exactly can children do in the concrete
operational stage that they could not do in the pre-operational
stage?
The child is now able to perform operations, which enables them to:
1) Understanding things from a variety of angles and viewpoints –
significant decline in egocentrism
2) Be able to conserve, though the concrete operational stage is well
advanced before most children have grasped all types of conservation.
Of all the operations that affects the child’s ability to conserve what is the most
critical?
Of all the operations that affects the child’s ability to conserve, Piaget thought the
most critical was irreversibility, that is, the ability to perform reversible mental
operations.
How does this operation differ in the two stages?
Whereas, the pre-operational child cannot mentally reverse the transformation in a
typical conservation study, a child in the concrete operational stage can mentally
reverse the action of pouring the water into the long, thin beaker and can therefore
understand that the amount of water is no different to what it was at the start.
What other mental operation can the concrete operational child do?
Similarly, the mental operation of compensation enables the concrete operational
child to understand that one feature of the beaker, such as tallness, can be
compensated for by another feature, such as width.
3) Classification
Between the ages of 7 and 10 what do children become aware of?
Between the ages of 7 and 10 children become vary aware of categories and
classification.
What can the concrete operational child now do?
The child is now able to classify objects, a task which requires a recognition of
common features.
Concrete operational children understand the relationship between subclasses and
the whole class.
For example, they know that four roses and two daffodils give six flowers.
