Examination on the Abstract Operation Thinking Stage of the Adolescent at the Age between Eleven-Sixteen

Author(s):

Besime Bilmez(presenting / submitting)Ayşe Dilek Ozcelik-Ogretir

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES F 04, Parallel Session F 04

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-13

09:00-10:30

Room:

JK 26/101,G, 36

Chair:

Wolfgang Lauterbach

Contribution

Introduction

The aim of this researchis to examine the abstract operation thinking stage of the adolescents at the age of between eleven and sixteen. In addition, the effects of gender and age on abstract operation stage were investigated. According to Piaget, the learners are not passive receiver in learning process; rather, they are active participants and sense maker in learning process. There are many different factors that affect cognitive development stage proposed by Piaget. These are maturation (Ault, 1977; Senemoğlu, 2007; Wadsworth, 2004), adaptation ((Bee, 1992; Selçuk, 2004), organization (Wadsworth, 2004), equilibrium (Bee ve Boyd, 2004).

Many studies have been conducted to find out the effects of some variables on cognitive development. Gül (2006) tried to find out the effects of age on abstract-concrete thinking abilities. It was found that the older ( 12-13 age) participants did better than the younger ( 8-9) participants. Eldeleklioğlu (2008) investigates the effects of gender and age on time management abilities. it was found that female participants had the skills significantly higher than the male participants. Yalçın and Karakaş (2008) also stated that the age is an important factor that affect cognitive development.

Generally, the effects of gender, age and socio economic status on cognitive developments in regard to different skills has been investigated among researcher. The current study also aims to investigate the effects of gender and age on abstract thinking skills or formal operational stage. Research questions were as follows:

1. What is the effect of gender on participants’ abstract thinking skills?

2. What is the effect of age on participants’ abstract thinking skills?

Method

For the research sample 890 adolescents receiving education at 6-7-8 grades in the primary school as well as in secondary education (425 females, 465 males) in Bingöl province were selected with full-sample method and included in the research. In the research in order to be able to collect the necessary information on the adolescents, “Personal Information Form” was used by the researcher and in order to be able to evaluate the abstract thinking of the adolescents “Arlin Test of Formal Reasoning,” whose validity and reliability were determined by Öngen (1995), was used.

Expected Outcomes

At the end of the research it was seen that in terms of abstract thinking there were no significant differences depending on the factor of the gender (11.48 in females and 11.80 in males). When cognitive development stages are observed according to gender, in addition to observing that very few students have reached the abstract stage, most of the females are in the upper concrete (X=10.61) and this is followed by concrete (X=5.68), and for males upper concrete (X=10.48), followed by concrete (X=5.81), When the cognitive development stage results among ages are observed, the age of 11 is upper concrete (X=10.31), followed by concrete (X=5.42), transition (X=16.0), and the age of 16 is upper concrete (X= 59.1), concrete (X=27.3). It can be observed that there is a significant difference between the abstract thinking stages between the ages of adolescents (age 11 X= 9.80, age 12 X= 9.80, age 13 X= 11.35, age 14 X= 14.15, age 15 adolescents X= 12.61 and age 16 X= 10.32). As a result, whilst gender does not appear to be a significant factor in abstract thinking, age appears to be an important factor. Thus, age related experiences constitute an important factor in the development of abstract thinking.

References

1. Ault , R. L. (1977). Children’s Cognitive Development Piaget’s Theory and The Process Approach. New York, Oxford Universiy Press, 2. Bee, H. (1992). Cognitive development I: structure and process. The Developing Child. HarperColins College Publishers, 246–285. 3. Bee, H. and Boyd, D. (2003). Life Span development. (Third Edititon). Allyn and Bacon. 4. Öngen, D. (1995). Farklı sosyoekonomik düzeylerden gelen 12-15 yaşlarındaki ergenlerde formel İşlem düşüncesinin gelişim düzeyi” Yayımlanmamış Doktora Tezi. A.Ü.Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Ankara. 5. Selçuk, Z. (2000). Gelişim ve öğrenme. Ankara: Nobel Yayınları. 6. Senemoğlu, N. (2007). Gelişim öğrenme ve öğretim: Kuramdan uygulamaya. Ankara: Gazi Kitabevi. 7. Wadsworth, B.J. (2004). Piaget’s Theory of Cognıtıve and Affective Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 8. Yalçın, K. ve Karakaş, S. (2007). Çocuklarda bilgi işlemedeki üst işlemlerin yaşa bağlı değişimi. Türk Psikiyatri Dergisi, 19(3), 257–265.

Author Information

Besime Bilmez (presenting / submitting)

Gazi University

Department of Child Development and Training

Ankara

Ayşe Dilek Ozcelik-Ogretir

Gazi University, Turkey

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