Ethnography

Formal Operational: This image has a nice contrast between children in the foreground who are clearly preoperational with the kids playing basketball in the background who have entered the formal operational stage. The basketball court had a variety of ages but mainly there were kids who have just hit puberty, understand that they can talk back to elders and oppose authority, and manipulate others. I could see all of this as they argued rules, argued with the sitters about when to leave, and the physical awkwardness was a dead giveaway to good old puberty kicking in.

Ethnography

Concrete Operational: This kid is definitely concrete operational and he's got the motor skillz to prove it. I watched him skate around the park for a bit. He had no interest in the younger children, wasn't quite old enough to play basketball with the bigger kids, and so he keep to himself skating around. He never feel and in fact seemed fairly seasoned at riding a skate board, sans the tricks and jumps.

Ethnography

Preoperational: here's a group of children playing in the bocce court (aka: sandbox). These kids in the first image are late preoperational for the most part with maybe one or two beginning to enter the concrete operational stage. In the second image, this group is younger and are what I'd describe as early preoperational. The early preoperational children were much less coordinated in their movements. Several times I noticed one falling over or colliding with another child. As for the older kids on the far end of the bocce court, the older ones would do something -- like pretend to be a pirate -- and then the younger ones would follow along. At one point I noticed the oldest boy taking some toys from the younger ones and showing them how they should be placed along the ledge of the court -- from largest toy to smallest. This is a sign of concrete operational skills.

Ethnography

Sensorimotor Stage: Here's a group of nannies with two children of different ages and of different stages of development. The child being lifted is very young and a great example of someone still in Piaget's sensorimotor stage. This child's whole world is not much more than the space in between him (maybe a her?) and the nanny. At one point he reached out to feel the nanny's nose. That apparently was fascinating to him. The other child creates a nice contrast in this photo of the next stage Piaget describes: the Preoperational stage. Like the child with the cell phone previously described, this little girl (or boy... I need help on being able to tell the gender of children more readily) can place her attention on something happening 30 feet away. If she wasn't in a stroller, she could probably stumble towards the other children playing on her own. Who knows how she would react after she joined them... she might try to emulate their actions but would probably be distracted before too long by the next exciting thing.

Ethnography

Preoperational Stage: This child is mature enough to concentrate on his nanny and the cell phone, while also owning the motor skills to reach out and grab it. Why would he want to grab it? Because like everything in the world (at this point in his development), everything belongs to him. "It's mine!" His mother happened to also be in the park so before I took the photos of the little guy I explained who I was, what I was doing, and then I asked for permission. The mother quickly morphed from apprehensive to excited to hear about such a project and the description of the class.