Case Study #2 Moral Development

Ch. 2 Analysis Questions:

1. From the perspective of Piaget's theory, in which stage of cognitive development is Laura? Justify your response.

Laura is in the Preoperational stage. When debating with her teacher on air pollution Laura displays egocentrism. During her debate with the teacher she was unable to consider his point of view. Her idea to have the government not sell gasoline to anyone seemed logical to stop air pollution, but she was unable to see anyone else's point of view. She could not see the teachers point while she was discussing air pollution in class and when she was talking to her friends later on. She felt she was just being picked on.

2. How is Laura's reasoning affected by her knowledge base--that is, by what she does and doesn't know about pollution? Use terminology from Ch. 3 in your response.

What Laura knows about pollution is coming from her actual zone of proximal development. Vygotsky suggests that she needs to be helped by a more capable learner to successfully gain more knowledge about air pollution.

3. By posing a series of questions, Mr. Marculescu continually challenges Laura to reconsider her thinking about the pollution problem. What are potential benefits of this strategy? Use terminology from Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories in your response.

Benefits to proposing a continuation of questions is to push Laura harder in her Zone of Proximal Development. The teacher is scaffolding her to try to help her see her idea and reasoning is not logical. The idea is that Laura will be able to see the teacher’s perspective with their guidance and not be so egocentric. The idea is to push Laura from her comfort zone and push her to think outside of the box.

4. How does this scenario represent Piaget's and Vygotsky's conceptions of play?

This scenario represents Piaget's and Vygotsky's conceptions of play by that Laura is in the Preoperational stage and that using mediation, scaffolding, and zone of proximal development would help push her to the Concrete Operational Stage. Laura learning from others would also entail that she was not as egocentric as she is currently. I am not sure what you were asking on this question, but I hope I interpreted it correctly :)