Child Development Theories and Examples

TABLE 3-3

A Hierarchy of Factors Affecting Convergence Rate.
The core ideas of the convergence rate hierarchy are simple. Cognitive development can be idealized as a process of converging, step by step, toward some higher plane of knowledge and skill. Such convergence must proceed at some rate, and that rate is affected by many factors. One basic factor is the plane of social interaction available to the young, e.g., whether the young participate in symbolic communication with elders. Table 3-3 presents a hypothetical ordering of some major steps along the road to the complexly layered type of social interaction available to today's children. Each step is called a level, but this terminology is not meant to imply any special connection with the levels of cognitive reorganization suggested by cognitive-developmental theorists.
By hypothesis, each new level in the hierarchy produces an increase in the average convergence rate of offspring toward higher levels of knowledge and skill (see Bullock, 1983, for details). Beyond level 3, each level involves an innovation in the form of social interaction. Thus, the hierarchy synthesizes social learning theorists' observations about the effects of modeling on learning rate (Bandura, 1971) and Vygotsky's observations about the hierarchically layered nature of social interaction (see also Dennett, 1975; Premack, 1973).
The entire hierarchy might be taken as a schematic for assembling a system for guided reinvention. In this regard, special note should be made of levels 5 and 6, because they mark the crystallization of two complementary roles, i.e., child as reinventor and parent as guide. The words constructive imitation, which describe the social innovation at level 5, are meant to be a reminder of the reconstructive nature of imitation noted by all major students of imitation since Baldwin (1895; Bandura, 1971, 1977; Guillaume, 1926/1971; Kaye, 1982; Piaget, 1946/1951). Many imitative achievements are not mere mimicry; instead, they involve persistent reconstructive efforts on the part of the imitator. These efforts are a major source of developmental reorganizations, especially when complemented by the purposive teaching spontaneously provided by parents. Also, because constructive imitation engages a wide range of cognitive resources, there is no isolable imitative faculty, as some have supposed.
By hypothesis, constructive imitation by children and purposive teaching by parents are complementary components of an evolved system for guided reinvention. Moreover, when these components are seen as parts of the entire hierachy, a further hypothesis is suggested. When cognitive development is proceeding most rapidly, it will involve guided reinvention embedded within goal-directed activity that is jointly undertaken by an apprentice (the child) and an expert, who are tied together by positive affect. This would be true if the higher social-interactive levels are built on the lower, older ones and continue to depend on them for their own optimal functioning. For example, the developmental value of practices at the high end of the hierarchy, such as formal schooling, may depend on the modes of interaction at lower levels. A corollary to this hypothesis is that the large departures from the modes of interaction that evolved to support guided reinvention will create difficulties for children. The remainder of this section surveys research relevant to these ideas and traces possible implications for education.