Development of concrete operational thought and information coding in schooled and unschooled children

Abstract

In this study, we examine the influence of schooling and age on the development of concrete and operational thought and information processing as measured by non-Piagetian tasks. One hundred schooled and 100 non-schooled children in the age brackets of 6-8 and 10-12, and 50 4-6-year-old preschool children from a relatively homogeneous socio-demographic baokground in a rural part of India were given four tests for informationcoding processes. Half of the subjects in each group were also given four Piagetian concrete operational tasks. As predicted, performance on Piagetian tasks increased as a function of age only, whereas the effects of schooling, age, and their interaction were clearly observed for coding processes. It is concluded that information-processing modes rather than concrete operational skills are more sensitive to cognitive consequences of schooling.

Effects of age and schooling on the acquisition of elementary quantitative skills.

“…The finding that conservation improves as a function of age, not schooling, provides within-system confirmation for several between-systems studies in which similar conclusions were reached (e.g., Dash & Das, 1984;Nyiti, 1976). This result also provides added weight to the argument that, in studies in which schooled children have been found to conserve better than supposedly comparable unschooled children, the competence of the unschooled children may have been underestimated (Dasen & Heron, 1981;Rogoff, 1981).…”

“…Exceptions to this generalization have been sufficiently frequent, however, to temper strong conclusions. For example, in some studies the effects of schooling were found to be minimal or negligible for performance on conservation tasks, even though performance increased markedly with age (e.g., Dash & Das, 1984; Nyiti, 1976). Moreover, the effects of schooling can vary across cultural groups.…”

Three Faces of Cognitive Processes

“…Such cultural differences have been observed in more recent studies: Japanese (Das, Sarnath, Nakayama, & Janzen, 2013) and Chinese (Deng, Liu, Wei, Chan, & Das, 2011) children prefer to use simultaneous processing and are significantly stronger; they are, nevertheless, not weak in successive processing. In contrast, Canadian Native children may have a particular weakness in successive processing but are close to the norm in simultaneous (Das et al, 2013); however, it is possible that this latter finding is mediated by their literacy status (Das, Janzen, & Georgiou, 2007).…”

Assessing cognitive outcomes in a rural African population: Development of a neuropsychological battery in Kilifi District, Kenya

“…Formal schooling is associated with enhanced cognitive development generally and with verbal skills in particular (Cahan & Cohen, 1989;Huttenlocker et al, 1998;Rutter, 1985). Previous studies comparing schooled and unschooled samples have found differences in the level of performance on formal assessment tasks, in the strategies applied to reasoning and memory tasks, and even in brain structure (CastroCaldas et al, 1999;Cole & Scribner, 1974;Dash & Das, 1984;Luria, 1971;Olson, 1976;Wagner, 1974). The superior performance of our school-going children also may have reflected an increased confidence and willingness to attempt the tasks, possibly as a consequence of greater familiarity with test content and expectations (Kamara & Easley, 1977;Miller-Jones, 1989;Rogoff et al, 1984).…”