Concrete Operational Classification

Jean Piaget put forth a developmental theory of intelligence that separates cognition into the following categories: Sensory Motor, Pre-Operational, Concrete Operational and Formal Operational. The Concrete Operational stage, when a child is 7 to 11 years old, is when children develop their logical reasoning skills by developing the ability to classify and organize items. Concrete Operational Classification is an essential part of Piaget̵7;s theory as it is where children first begin to use inductive reasoning.

  1. Simple Classification

    • Children initially develop the ability to sort like from unlike.

      In the Concrete Operational stage, children are first able to perform simple classification tasks where they differentiate like from unlike objects based on characteristics such as color, shape and type. A child who is in this stage performing simple classification would be able to point out and separate blue balls from red balls. As they progress through this stage, children will be able to do more advanced simple classification based on attributes such as amount and weight.

    Multiple Classification

    • As children develop the ability to observe multiple characteristics in a single object, they can classify objects based upon a combination of different attributes. The ability to recognize that a single item can belong in multiple sets demonstrates a higher cognitive ability than in previous stages of development. An example of multiple classification would be if a child can pull out the blue candies from a trail mix containing an assortment of nuts, crackers and different colored candies.

    Class Inclusion

    • By sorting these balls into subcategories, children process more complex relationships between items.

      The ability to recognize and classify subsets, also known as class inclusion, is an important part of the Concrete Operational stage of development. By further separating larger groups of like items into subgroups, children begin to fine tune their cognitive abilities for logic and reasoning. Children in this stage are able to determine whether there are more balls or more blue balls.

    Classification and Seriation

    • Seriation is the further classification of like items based upon degree.

      Seriation is another process developed in the Concrete Operational stage that is related to classification. Once children are able to observe traits and organize items based upon them, they can develop more complex methods of presenting that organization. Seriation is the organization of items based upon the degree to which they are different or alike. For example, after a child has separated the blue balls from a larger set of balls, he can arrange them from dark to light blue.

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