University Essay: Brain Development and Cognitive Learning Analysis

This essay explores the intricate relationship between brain development and cognitive learning, emphasizing the critical role of pedagogy. It begins by defining cognitive learning and its significance in developing problem-solving skills. The essay then delves into the cognitive development process, highlighting how children acquire knowledge through various forms of learning, from sound recognition to language acquisition. It discusses the impact of environmental factors, social interactions, and the influence of parents and teachers on a child's cognitive growth. The essay further examines the components and theories of cognition, including Piaget's stages of cognitive development and the Information Processing Model. It also addresses the influence of interrelated factors such as nutrition, environment, and parental guidance on a child's cognitive development. The importance of pedagogy in enhancing brain development and cognitive learning is emphasized, along with the impact of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. The essay underscores how interactive teaching methods can foster effective learning and mental ability in students. The essay concludes by offering a comprehensive overview of factors influencing brain development and cognitive learning, emphasizing the importance of a supportive and stimulating environment for children's cognitive growth.

Running head: BRAIN DEVELOPMENT AND COGNITIVE LEARNING
Brain development and Cognitive learning
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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BRAIN DEVELOPMENT AND COGNITIVE LEARNING
Introduction:
The core notion of cognitive learning is to develop the skill and ability to resolve issues
of an individual. While maintaining the entire process of learning every individual teacher should
use the technique of pedagogy with the help of which both the learner and the facilitator can
equally participate in the learning process. The primary objective of an efficient teacher is to
make every individual student understand about the significance of learning. As a result, they
would be able to develop their mental skill and ability always. This particular study has provided
detailed analysis on how interactive use of learning process with the help of pedagogy can be
effective in enhancing the brain of an individual learner.
Cognitive development and learning:
Since birth, a child has the ability to acquire knowledge through various forms of
learning. The process of learning can be statistical or by analogy or casually but they never fail to
gain the knowledge. Their process of learning includes sound recognition, language acquisition
and the visual learning through identifying things (Kolb, 2014). The learning process of the
young children is a process that undergoes social mediation and involvement of family, peer,
teachers and even from the career objectives. Therefore, environment plays a vital role in
developing cognitive learning among the young children. An eight-year-old child requires social
interaction along with a learning environment to help them enhance the learning skill. Research
proved that the cognitive development and interest of learning in a child grows from the multi-
sensory networks that grow in the child’s brain (Renninger, Hidi & Krapp, 2014). The brain of a
child is the same as that of an adult brain and they too have the ability to think and have reason
for it but children lack experience and through years they continue developing their learning and

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thinking power. To develop their internal skill, the school can be of great help. This is because
when a child enters the classroom they enter a room that offers them diverse experience and
slowly helps them increase their self-skills. A child has an ability to construct meaning of things
in their minds. They observe their parents and other family members to get the idea of how to
behave according to situation. This is often marked as negative activity as there are many things
that an adult does, which is not acceptable from the children. Therefore, parents must carefully
judge the process of learning of the children, especially the process of cognitive development.
The imagination of the children is very important step towards the cognitive development. The
genetic difference among the children also influences the process of cognitive development
(Kail, 2015). At home, the child should be praised for their performance and similarly in the
schools the teachers must praise them so that the child has interest in learning. The motivation
and encouragement will help the child to get more interest and in this manner, their cognitive
development will grow. A child when it is born needs the guidance of the parents, after few years
along with parents, teachers and peers also involve in their learning process. Cognitive
development of child uncovers the link between the brain development and learning of a child.
Components and theories of cognition and brain development related to childhood
learning:
The process of child development is normally divided into three parts; physical
development, cognitive development and the social-emotional development. Language is a part
of cognitive development among the children. Their cognitive development enhances as they
grow up. Jean Piaget has proposed a theory establishing the stages of cognitive development of
the children (Demetriou, Shayer & Efklides, 2016). The four stages deploy different ages of the
child. The first stage as proposed by Piaget is the sensorimotor stage. This stage starts from a

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child’s birth and ends at the age of two. This stage develops the learning skill of the child
through sensing and identifying objects. The second stage is the preoperational stage that covers
the age of two to seven, a five years span and the child in this stage develops their ability of
imagining things and understanding the meaning of symbols. The third one is the concrete
operational stage, this consists of a four-year span from age of seven to age of eleven, in this
stage the child develops their ability to identify the external events and feel for others. This stage
makes them less egocentric and develops a personality among them. The fourth and the last stage
is the formal operational stage that starts from the age of eleven. This stage enhances the logical
perspective of the students and they start planning for their future goals and life (Light &
Butterworth, 2016).
There is another model that can be discussed to learn about the cognition and brain
development of the child. The model is The Information Processing Model. This model states
that the from the age of two until the age of five, a child enhances their attention skills and
undergoes short and long time memory enhancement. This model even discusses that during the
age of five to seven, a child gains their control over attitude and enhances their problem solving
skills, making consideration of logical reasoning. Cognitive development has direct connection
with the brain and has a large role to play in the development of learning process of the children.
Cognitive skills of the children are the skills that their brain uses for thinking, learning and
solving problems. The cognitive skills help the students in determining their IQ. Cognitive
training is conducted for the children who have low cognitive skills and this training makes them
adequate to acquire the learning and cognitive skills. Training the brain of child challenges the
mental process of the children and helps them to improve their cognitive skills (Mischel, 2013).

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Impact of Inter-related factors on cognitive development of young children:
Many factors affect the cognitive development of a child. The factors are influence of
nutrition, influence of deficiency, influence of environment, influence of the role of parents
(Grandjean & Landrigan, 2014). For a child’s growth, nutrition is an important factor. As
without proper nutrition, a child will fail to have the adequate growth of brain. Many countries
face the trouble of malnutrition among the children. This affects the growth of the child. That is
why this is an important factor that enhances the growth of the child. Another step towards
Cognitive development is the influence of the environment. For the growth of a child, the role of
environment is inconsiderable; this is because a child grows with observing of the environment.
When a child observes something negative, they apply it in their life, which result in growing of
negative attitudes. Here the role of the parents is very important, every parent must have the
knowledge about how and what their child is learning so that they can control the negative force
from reaching to the child (Hair et al., 2015). A child always needs the guidance of their parents
so that they are able to develop their cognitive skills. Next to influence, the cognitive
development of a child is the role of the teachers in the schools. The children at school need the
guidance of the teachers in order to develop their cognitive skills. Looking after every kid is
tough and that is why teacher believe in setting the environment of the class with many
experience so that the students can learn and develop their IQ as well. Children have faster
capability of identifying things and getting hold of things and that is why the teachers, parents,
peers and other family members need to practise the positive attitude in front of the children and
help them develop their skills (Bjorklund & Causey, 2017).

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Importance of pedagogy in brain development and cognitive learning:
The overarching term pedagogy defines an instructional technique of teaching,
influencing and motivating an individual for enhancing social, cultural and political values
(Koehler, Mishra & Cain, 2013). It is the interactive process between the teacher and the learner
for making an effective learning development. On the other hand, the underlining concept
cognitive learning involves with the acquisition of problem solving abilities with the help of
intelligence as well as conscious thoughts and attitudes. This specific study has provided an in-
depth overview on how pedagogy is having a major impact in the brain development of an
individual young learner. Numerous eminent scholars have provided their own opinion regarding
this specific issue. As per the point of view of Anderson and Dron (2012), an individual teacher
while maintaining a learning process has to deal with the students of different geographical
backgrounds as well as psychological attitudes. Therefore, the role of a responsible teacher is to
make an effective conversation with every individual learner. If the teachers intend to use direct
approach while maintaining learning and evaluation technique students belonging to different
geographical areas may have to face innumerable difficulties in understanding the lecture of that
individual. Therefore, the entire communication process does not become effective.
However, in order to overcome this kind of situation, the teachers intend to use
interactive approach with the help of which the students take a major part in sharing their views.
As per the opinion of Lewis, Jones and Baker (2012), applying direct method in the overall
learning process is not sufficient in developing the brain and mental ability of students. In order
to develop the mental ability teachers would have to interact with every individual in order to
identify their lack of understanding. As a result, based on that particular identified areas teacher
can implement learning and development session. Like the same way cognitive learning believes

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that, students would be able to resolve their problems as well as issues by applying their mental
thought and abilities. Butler and Markman (2012) argued that the mental through and ability of
an individual would be enhanced only when this specific individual would like to apply brain
and share thoughts with the facilitators. In many cases, it has been observed that students do not
like to resolve their issues, as they are not flexible enough in sharing their thoughts (Twardosz,
2012). As a result, they do not get the scope of developing their mental ability. Therefore,
pedagogy is the systematic technique that has been used for developing the brain of learners by
applying interactive approach.
Range of interrelated factors that has impact on the cognitive development and early
childhood:
Self-awareness:
Every child after its birth starts to sense things and continues the same while growing.
After the age of two they eventually starts to have a sense of self-awareness and this is
understood when they respond to their childhood picture of see them at the mirror.
Self-management:
Self-management in a child is present since their birth because it is always known that a
child has sensing ability more than an adult and that is why they can sense things before an adult
does (Salthouse, 2016)
Social awareness:
Social awareness is very important for cognitive development of a child. Brain is a
subject that needs all time consideration in the recent years of a child. As a child grows, there is a

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constant change in the brains of child and this impact on their behaviour and thus it is very
important to have social awareness in the development of child (Salthouse, 2016).
Relationship skills:
Relationships influence largely on a child’s cognitive development because relations
reflects the values and believes of an individual’s life, when the child fails to understand it they
turn into an adult with negative vibe towards relationship (Cook et al 2017).
Responsible decision-making:
For making a child turn into a responsible adult it is very important to make then learn
about what decision making skill actually is and how it helps in life. Without having knowledge
about importance of responsibility and effective decision-making, life will be miserable to dwell
with and the child will have problem (Cook et al 2017).
Conclusion:
The entire study has provided an in-depth overview about the importance of cognitive
learning, brain development of an individual and using pedagogy technique. Numerous scholars
have provided their own opinion regarding this specific topic. This particular study has focused
to highlight on how the overall technique of pedagogy system is effective enough in developing
the conscious thoughts and mental ability of an individual. People belonging to different
geographical boundaries would be able to flexible in using their brain only when the teachers
would like to use interactive approach at the time of learning session.

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individual differences. SAGE Publications.
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Cook, A., Spinazzola, J., Ford, J., Lanktree, C., Blaustein, M., Cloitre, M., ... & Mallah, K.
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