Formal operational stage (adolescent- adulthood)
In the formal operation stage, children are beginning to think hypothetic-deductive reasoning and propositional. When thinking, they start with possibility then proceed to reality. Meaning they when facing a problem, they think of all possible factors that might affect the outcome and chose which one makes more sense from specific hypotheses that might happen. They then treat the hypotheses to see which ones do occur in the real world. Propositional thinking is the knowledge of facts. When teaching children of this age:
- Let them think about what they should do first
- Give them questions to think about
- Use the show and tell method
- Repetition
- Bold face words