Cognitive Development Case Study

1. Describe an episode in the case study that demonstrates disequilibrium. Justify your response. Describe an episode that demonstrates assimilation. Justify your response.

When Amy says her grandpa died and went to heaven. She said the fish couldn't be dead because it was still there. It demonstrates disequilibrium because she sees an inconsistency in the way her Grandpa died and how the fish died. She doubts it, but she in turn teaches herself that the fish is dead, her cognitive development is thus growing and she is learning. Assimilation takes place when Amy responds to eating in heaven, she is not sure of the answer, but she says people eat when they get hungry, you would have to eat in heaven or you would be hungry all the time. She has a schema about hunger so she is using that schema to answer the question. I don't know do people need to eat in heaven?

2. Identify a possible instance of preoperational egocentrism in the case. Justify your response.

I think she is using egocentrism when she is looking at the fish in the bowl. The fish is not acting like it normally does, she is using her intuition to justify that something is definitely wrong with the fish. Of course something is wrong when the fish is laying on it's side and not swimming. Amy knew that fish did not sleep on their sides on top of the water.

3. How might a Vygotskian theorist suggest Ms. Bowman address the death of the class pet?


I would think that he would say that the water in the bowl was fouled in some way and that the fish died because it could not get enough air. The fish was dead too, because the children played with it too much and it got sick.

4. How might taking care of pets in the classroom promote students' cognitive development?

A child thinks an animal will act or react in the way that they want it to. If the animal then shows a different method of eating or acts different to the schema, the students have to form new schema to explain why the animal does what it does. They will need to make an accommodation to change the existing schema in their mind.