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Towards academic reading

Read this paragraph and answer the question below.

How We Learn

According to Piaget, three key concepts can explain how we develop knowledge. The first concept, schemas, refers to knowledge that helps us to interpret and understand the world. The second concept, accommodation, means that when we learn more and get new information, we change our previous ideas or schemas. Adapting or accommodating our previous ideas enables us to take in new information. The third concept, assimilation, means using our modified schemas to take in new information. Together, these three concepts - schemas, accommodation and assimilation - help explain how we develop our knowledge about the world.

Suppose that a little girl has a schema about cats. Her concept of cats is based on her previous experience with small cats - so she believes that all cats are small and drink milk. 

One day her mother takes her to the zoo, shows her tigers, lions and leopards and tells her they belong to the cat family. 

What do you think the girl will do with this new information? 

 Click on the two correct answers.

Accommodation: The girl will use this new information about big cats to change her previous ideas about cats.

Arguments and inability to learn: The girl will tell her mom that she is wrong - tigers, lions and leopards can't be cats.

Assimilation: After the girl changes her previous ideas about what cats are, she will understand this new information about big cats.