1. Your total response should be at least 250 words, include at least one in-text citation, and should answer each one of the following questions.

Do you think that there is any connection between the cognitive shifts that children make between about five and seven years of age and the fact that most cultures with formal education systems begin children's schooling at this age period? Are these shifts continuous or discontinuous?

To answer this question, address the following points, some of which are covered in detail in one of Watson's lectures:

Detail the many shifts that occur between five and seven years of age.
Talk about the cognitive characteristics of the end product, the child in the concrete operational stage.
Discuss the differences between the preschooler (age 3-5) and the school age (age 7-11) child in terms of how they think differently.
Speculate as to why this shift might or might not make children ready for school.
Are these shifts continuous, as Bandura would assert, or they discontinuous, as Piaget believed? Defend your answer.

2. Your total response should be at least 250 words, include at least one in-text citation, and should answer each one of the following questions.

Who do you think is more complete in describing what it takes for the grade school child to develop mastery and competence, Erik Erikson (Industry versus Inferiority) or Albert Bandura (Social Learning Theory and Self-Efficacy)? Defend your answer.

Describe Erikson's stage briefly.
Describe Bandura's concepts briefly.
Compare and contrast them.
Decide which is more complete and tell why.