Jean Piaget's Theory
of Cognitive Development
Saul McLeod, June 6,2018

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1. It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.2. It focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does notaddress learning of information or specific behaviors.3. It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitativedifferences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexityof behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc.The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by whichthe infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason andthink using hypotheses.To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mentalprocesses as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience.Children construct an understanding of the world around them, thenexperience discrepancies between what they already know and what theydiscover in their environment.

Schemas

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"a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing componentactions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a coremeaning." ( Piaget, 1952, p.7)defined as " a set of linked mental representation of the world"which we used to understandrespond to situations

basic building blocks

way of organizing knwoledge

"units of knowledge

enable to form mental representation

Schemata
many schema

index cards

each scheme with
specific instructions about
incoming information

increases in number is mental
processes

equilibrium

when a child is capable of explaining
what it can perceive around it

scripts

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For example, a person might have a schema about buying a meal in arestaurant. The schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior whichincludes looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying the bill. This isan example of a type of schema called a 'script.' Whenever they are in a restaurant, they retrieve this schema from memory and apply it to thesituation.

Stages of Cognitive Development

sensorimotor

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The main achievement during this stage is object permanence - knowingthat an object still exists, even if it is hidden.It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e., a schema) of theobject.

preoperational stage

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During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. Thisis the ability to make one thing - a word or an object - stand for somethingother than itself.Thinking is still egocentric, and the infant has difficulty taking the viewpointof others.

concrete opertational stage

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Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child'scognitive development because it marks the beginning of logicalor operational thought.This means the child can work things out internally in their head (ratherthan physically try things out in the real world).Children can conserve number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9).Conservation is the understanding that something stays the same inquantity even though its appearance changes

Formal operational stage

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The formal operational stage begins at approximately age eleven and lastsinto adulthood.During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstractconcepts, and logically test hypotheses.

Adaptation Process

Assimilation

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using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation

Accomodation

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existing schema ( knowledge)doesn't work and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation

Equilibrium

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This is the force that moves development along.Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like tobe frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge(accommodation). Once the new information is acquired the process ofassimilation with the new schema will continue until the next time we need tomake an adjustment to it.

Educational Implication

Plowden Report 1967

Discovery Learning

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the idea that children learn best through doing andactively exploring - was seen as central to the transformation of the primaryschool curriculum.'The report's recurring themes are individual learning, flexibility in thecurriculum, the centrality of play in children's learning, the use of theenvironment, learning by discovery and the importance of the evaluation ofchildren's progress - teachers should 'not assume that only what is measurableis valuable.'Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and stages, thenotion of 'readiness' is important. Readiness concerns when certaininformation or concepts should be taught. According to Piaget's theorychildren should not be taught certain concepts until they have reached theappropriate stage of cognitive development.According to Piaget (1958), assimilation and accommodation require an activelearner, not a passive one, because problem-solving skills cannot be taught,they must be discovered.

fOCUS on the process

use active methodsfor the kids to
rediscover or reconstruct

both individual and collaborative

devise situation to cause
disequilibrium

Evaluate the level of
Development

While it is important to be aware of the different stages of development and the significance of providing information that is appropriate for each level, we must also be aware that there are students who are beyond that stage.

Activating students prior Knowledge