Article’s Most Surprising Elements
David F. Bjorklund and Brandi L. Green wrote an excellent article exploring the effects and implications of children’s cognitive immaturity. Titled The adaptive nature of cognitive immaturity and published in American Psychologist Journal in 1992. The article presents many fascinating facts about the important roles so-called fallacies play in human development, specifically adaptation and education (Bjorklund & Green, 1992). I consider the overall expectation of positive outcomes and overextension of word meaning in language learning to be the most surprising.
Firstly, the age-related improvement in cognitive and metacognitive abilities is explained in the article. According to Bjorklund and Green (1992), young children are prone to overestimate and form unrealistic, positive expectations related to their own capabilities. Such low levels of metacognition are often considered a drawback, yet the authors argue that in children, this underdevelopment promotes extensive learning (Bjorklund & Green, 1992). I find it most fascinating that nature designed humans in a way as to let children experiment and attempt various activities as they grow. Not being limited by their capabilities allows them to fully enjoy the learning process and exploration of the world around them.
Secondly, the article explores the reasons behind easier language acquisition in young children. According to Bjorklund and Green (1992), one of the elements that allow toddlers to do that is related to their decreased cognitive abilities. For instance, having extended meanings for new words, children, expressing their assumptions, receive corrections with new information (Bjorklund & Green, 1992). Whereas adults typically set semantical barriers and do not explore further (Bjorklund & Green, 1992). This theory provides more depth for understanding language learning processes and suggests new approaches for language studying. Having read the article, I am most surprised that the advanced mental abilities of an adult might result in such significant drawbacks in education.
A New Direction
In the conduction of their research, Bjorklund and Green mainly were focused on identifying and exploring the importance and benefits of children’s immaturity in their development. Despite that, the article attracted my attention to a different detail. Having examined age-related cognitive capabilities and their effect on children’s learning process, the research offers useful implications for the findings. To me, the most intriguing aspects of it revolve around approaches to the education of people starting from a young age.
The authors mention the influence of academic education on young children. According to Bjorklund and Green (1992), formal learning and instruction of pre-schoolers might have insignificant benefits and several drawbacks. The experiment mentioned in the study draws more attention to the way children can be efficiently taught in accordance with their cognitive abilities. For example, since communication skills are developed during socializing but are not necessarily team play (Bjorklund & Green, 1992), teaching children in a classroom can still be considered advantageous. However, such a form of education should lack any formality since students learn from play nonetheless. Instead, due to their ease in language acquisition (Bjorklund & Green, 1992), preschool education should focus on interactive language learning rather than academic knowledge. This way, the level of second language proficiency can be significantly affected by the difference in cognitive capabilities at the time of learning, resulting in better outcomes (Bjorklund & Green, 1992). With such a useful insight into children’s psychology and cognition, teaching should be moved towards a new, more appropriate, and effective direction.
Reference
Bjorklund, D. F., & Green, B. L. (1992). The adaptive nature of cognitive immaturity. American Psychologist, 47(1), 46.