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The 26th Annual JPS Symposium

Symposium Sessions & Invited Addresses


Program Table of Contents | Program Overview

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SYMPOSIA

Symposium 1:
(Ormandy West, Thursday 10:30 - 12:00)

Homage to Bärbel Inhelder: The legacy of her research on adolescent development

Organizer: Trevor G. Bond, James Cook University

The research into the development of inductive strategies by adolescents originally undertaken by Bärbel Inhelder, her assistants and students in the 1940's, was subsequently subjected to the (in)famous logical analysis by Jean Piaget and published as De la logique de l'enfant à la logique de l'adolescent (Inhelder & Piaget, 1955). It appeared in English translation as The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence: An essay on the construction of formal operational structures, in 1958. Although both the English and the French editions of this landmark text are currently out of print, LELA/GLT remains the most-referenced single title of the Piagetian oeuvre. In this symposium, three generations of researchers into formal operations (including one of Inhelder's assistants on the LELA/GLT project) consider the impact that formal operation research has had over the last half-century. In turn, they address fundamental theoretical criticisms of the model of formal operational thought; evaluate the variety of empirical strategies used to investigate formal thinking; and demonstrate how the LELA/GLT research can generate new research tasks and tests which empirically examine the principles earlier enunciated by Inhelder and Piaget.

Symposium 2:
(Ormandy East, Thursday 10:30 - 12:00)

Affect, cognition and Piaget

Organizer: William Arsenio, Yeshiva University

This symposium focuses on the implications of Piaget's monograph Affectivity & Intelligence for understanding how affect and cognition interact in several aspects of children's development. A brief summary of Piaget's ideas is followed by presentations and a discussion which address the following: The role of children's understanding of sociomoral emotions in relation to "remembered affects" and conflicts of the will; and the communicative and regulatory functions of emotions with reference to how interactions in affect and cognition contribute to socially competent and incompetent behavior. Strengths and limitations of Piagetian theory are highlighted.

Symposium 3:
(Ormandy East, Thursday 1:30 - 3:00)

Children's reflections following academic work: Lessons about self-regulative processes and about fostering self-regulation in school settings

Organizer: Andrew Biemiller, University of Toronto

There has been great interest in the role of reflective processes both as a part of developing consciousness and self-regulation, and as a crucial component of effective construction of knowledge in academic learning. "Reflective processes," or self-dialogue about the outcome and quality of performance, appears to be necessary if one's learning is to move from repeating what others have demonstrated, to actively constructing knowledge using acquired competencies. The presenters have been actively engaged in research on children's reflection on academic activity. Our objective is to identify conditions that foster reflection and are associated with student progress. We will seek to integrate our findings in terms of how children understand their learning and the impact of task difficulty and student ability on the content and nature of their reflections and self-regulated problem solving. We hope to explore conditions in which reflections can lead to improved learning and performance, especially for lower achieving students. From an applied perspective, we are especially interested in constructing teaching settings which may foster productive reflection.

Symposium 4:
(Sonata 3, Thursday 1:30 - 3:00)

Rasch analysis in context

Organizer: Theo Dawson, University of California at Berkeley

Rasch analysis is a useful analytical tool for development research. It constructs a model of data that gives important information about both measures and individual performance on those measures. It allows researchers to test the unidimensionality of theoretical constructs, provides a way to differentiate between domains of thought, and shows how the different levels of variables compare to one another in terms of task difficulty. It also provides a standardized set of estimates for both persons and items that can be used to further explore relationships in a data set with conventional statistical procedures.

In this symposium, four researchers examine developmental data with Rasch scaling methods. The first paper presents the results of a Rasch analysis of Armon's thirteen-year longitudinal/cross sectional lifespan study of moral reasoning and evaluative reasoning about the good. The second presentation is an exploration of the sequentiality and unidimensionality of a selection of operational tasks, including examination of the Piagetian claim that number is intelligible only when a synthesis of class and seriation is achieved. Finally, Rasch scaling is used to demonstrate the discontinuity of cognitive development and to shed light on the contents of successive thought structures.

Symposium 5:
(Ormandy West, Friday 9:00 - 10:30)

Knowledge development in social interaction

Organizer: Bruce Dorval, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

There is a growing body of research in the Vygotskian tradition that investigates children's acquisition of knowledge from socialization agents such as parents, teachers and older peers. There is also research on the social basis of knowledge acquisition that is based on Piaget. This research examines the development that results from various kinds of peer relations, such as friendship, peer learning, and peer therapy.

This symposium explores relations between these two research traditions by means of studies that integrate aspects of both traditions in accounts of the social situatedness of knowledge development. They do so by focusing on how specific social-interaction processes shape the knowledge that the participants co-create. They are significant because of the novelty of the description provided, description that increases our understanding of the complexity of sociogenesis.

Symposium 6:
(Ormandy East, Friday 9:00 - 10:30)

Children's explanation as a window on transitions in development

Organizers: Douglas Thompson and Martha Wagner Alibali, Carnegie Mellon University

The purpose of this symposium is two-fold: (1) to present empirical data about developmental transitions gained from children's explanations in a variety of domains (economic reasoning, problem solving, logical reasoning, and rhetorical skill); and (2) to highlight methodological issues that arise in using children's explanations as a means of assessing cognitive change. The papers illustrate how transitions in understanding are manifested in changes in children's explanations across a variety of domains, and they address some of the methodological and interpretive difficulties involved in using explanations as data.

Symposium 7:
(Ormandy West, Friday 10:45 - 12:15)

Collaborating in context: Co-construction of skills in cognitive and language development

Organizer: Kurt W. Fischer, Harvard University

Research and theory in development are returning to the classic theme of functionalist psychology, including the effect of context and experience on skill acquisition, but combined with a recognition of the social nature of skill construction. Developmentalists are analyzing processes of generalization, transfer, and abstraction in the co-construction of skills. Each of the presenters combine Piagetian constructivist concepts with functional skill concepts to explain co-construction in cognitive and language development. Granott and Parziale describe how dyads of children or adults build skill "bridges" from old to new concepts to solve problems together. Moerck explains how assimilation and coordination explain early development of speech by child and caregiver. Novak and Hanson analyze the ways mothers help their children to generalize across stimulus-equivalence classes. The presenters and the organizer will discuss promises and limitations of these new co- constructive integrations of functional and structural concepts.

Symposium 8:
(Ormandy East, Friday 10:45 - 12:15)

Moral development in culture: Particular and universal ways of orienting to morality

Organizers: Herbert D. Saltzstein, Graduate School, City University of New York

The three presentations illustrate some universal and particular ways in which morality manifests itself across different cultures. Wainryb discusses how the dual demands of personal autonomy and moral/social obligation are understood and resolved by males and females in various hierarchically structured societies. Kahn describes two modes of moral reasoning about the physical environment among groups of children in the US and Brazil. Millery et al. report on the ways in which American and Brazilian children's moral choices are made and modified during the course of the interview with an adult. Discussants Miller and Nucci critique these contributions from two different perspectives.

Symposium 9:
(Ormandy East, Friday 1:30 - 3:00)

Relational processes of developmental change: Adaptation, semiotics, and dialogue

Organizers: Maria Lyra, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil; Cynthia Lightfoot, State University of New York, Plattsburgh

This symposium focuses on the relational and self-organizing processes of developmental change. The authors draw upon conceptions of behavioral evolution, sociogenesis, and dynamic systems in order to illuminate development as a creative process. Different methodological perspectives are presented in the course of examining the interrelations of biological and social processes in animals, the role of reflexivity in cultural development, and the beginning of dyadic communication in early human life. Altoge-ther these presentations put forward issues concerning stability and change in development, and suggest that the emergence of novelty is both inherent and vital to developmental change.

Symposium 10:
(Ormandy East, Saturday 8:30 - 10:15)

The Function of multiple representations in children's problem solving

Organizers: Philip Garber, University of Chicago; R. Breckinridge Church, Northeastern Illinois University

The purpose of this symposium is to offer alternative interpretations on the functions of multiple ideas expressed by children during problem solving. Piaget's formulation that multiple ideas reflect developmental transitions in the acquisition of concepts is extended. The investigators conclude that the expression of multiple ideas can help us understand not only how children organize and express their own beliefs, but also how others' organize and shape their beliefs about children's understanding. Empirical data obtained from children aged 3 through 10 and adults are presented, as well as data from on-line problem solving and verbal and non-verbal explanations.

Program Table of Contents | Program Overview

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INVITED SYMPOSIA

First Invited Symposium: (Ormandy West, Thursday 1:30 - 3:00)

Personal and cultural processes in the development of representation and meaning

Organizers: Catherine Raeff, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Michael F. Mascolo, Merrimack College; Ina C. Uzgiris, Clark University

Despite debate about the meaning and development of representation, the concept of representation is central to psychology. Perspectives viewing representation largely as products of individuals tend to neglect the role of culture, and perspectives treating representation as socially and culturally constituted tend to discount the role of individuals in representation. These controversies raise questions about the role of personal, social, and cultural processes in the nature and development of representation. With research on narratives, coordinating action systems, parent-child question-answer sequences, and joint attention, this symposium examines the interplay among personal, social and cultural processes in representation development.

Second Invited Symposium sponsored by ACT and JPS
(Ormandy West, Friday 1:30 - 3:00)

Piagetian Theory, learning and teaching in school related knowledge domains

This symposium addresses the relevance of Piagetian theory to classroom learning and teachers education by examining the construction of knowledge in school-related domains. Issues discussed include (1) how does one generalize from a theory of epistemic subject to real students and teachers; (2) how do domain-general conceptions of the knowledge construction process apply across specific curriculum areas; and (3) how do teachers attain a working understanding of knowledge development within and across domains? The presenters draw upon their work in applied developmental research and teacher education.

Third Invited Symposium
(Ormandy West, Saturday 8:30 - 10:15)

Piaget's legacy to some applied developmental areas

Organizer: Irving E. Sigel, Educational Testing Service

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Piaget's birth, we take this opportunity to reflect on his legacy in the world of psychological practice. From the very beginning of Piaget's entrance into the American scene of child psychology, there has been considerable interest in the relevance of his work for education, for assessment of intellectual development, and for understanding the psychosocial competence of children. Participants in this symposium will reflect on the current status of Piaget's work in four areas of applied developmental psychology, developmental psychopathology, psychotherapy, education and intellectual assessment.

Chair: Peter B. Pufall, Smith College

Fourth Invited Symposium
(Ormandy West, Saturday 2:00 - 4:30)

Piaget and epistemology

Chair: Terrance Brown

This symposium addresses two issues relevant to Piaget's theory: Creativity, itself a subject of his epistemology, and the epistemology, itself. It begins with an examination of creativity in general and Piaget's particular instantiation of it. It continues with an elucidation of what epistemology was for Piaget. It then dissects issues relevant to how the epistemic subject and the epistemic object are differentiated out of the phenomenal amalgam created by the interaction of the knowing subject with "reality." And finally it takes up the issue of optimizing processes, the great explanatory principle identified with Piaget.

Program Table of Contents | Program Overview

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INVITED ADDRESSES

Keynote Address
(Ormandy West, Thursday 9:15-10:15)

How the idea of genesis made epistemology a science: A genetic approach to epistemology and theories of psychological development

Bärbel Inhelder, Université de Gèneve

Unfortunately, for health reasons Professor Inhelder will not be able to attend the Symposium. Fortunately, Jacques Vonèche has been kind enough to agree to give the Keynote address Professor Inhelder had prepared.

Invited address sponsored by ACT and JPS
(Ormandy East, Friday 3:15 - 4:15)

Constructivist, emergent, and sociocultural perspectives in the context of developmental research

Paul A. Cobb, Vanderbilt University

My overall intent in this presentation is to clarify the relationship between psychological constructivist, emergent and sociocultural perspectives. I will provide a grounding for the comparison in the first part of my talk by outlining an interpretive framework that I and my colleagues have developed in the course of a classroom-based research project. At this level, the framework involves an emergent approach in which psychological constructivist analyses are coordinated with interactional analyses of classroom processes in school and societal contexts. The perspective taken is broadly sociocultural and focuses on the influence of teachers' and students' participation in culturally-organized practices. In the final part of the talk, the framework is taken as a backdrop against which to compare and contrast the three perspectives more directly.

Program Table of Contents | Program Overview

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© 1996 The Jean Piaget Society

Send comments to: Chris Lalonde (webmaster@piaget.org)

Last update: 8 June 1997