Educational Psychology / Unit 3 EDP 0229 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Formal Operations
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The idea
In the formal operational stage adolescents reason abstractly and hypothetically, testing possibilities systematically through hypothetical-deductive reasoning.
In practice
Asked what makes a pendulum swing faster, a teenager varies one factor at a time.
Where people slip
Formal thought also brings sarcasm, metaphor and relativistic thinking, seeing that answers can depend on context.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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