Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Theory Development

Originator: Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Swiss

Biologist

psychologist

Philosopher

Director of International Bureau of Education

Instigation

Piaget was marking IQ tests and noticed younger children's answers'

had similar mistakes

that adults did not make

qualitatively different from older children

Observed his own children's development

developed theory of 4 stages of cognitive development

theorised that

younger children are not dumber

(Quantitative difference in IQ)

younger children think differently

(Qualitative difference)

Studies Methodology

Maturalistic Observation

Psychometrics

analyse thinking process

draw conclusions about logic processes they had

Clinical Interviews and OBservations

questioned child and carefully examining responses

observe how child reasoned according to the questions asked

examine child's perception of the world through responses

Specific Studies

Blanket & Ball Study

Three Mountains Task

Conservation of Liquid and Number

Pendulum Tasks

Semiclinical Interview

Combination of psychological and clinical methods

Ask children standardized questions, followed with a series of nonstandard questions based on how they answer the first question

Characteristics of theory

Continuous Vs Discontinuous

Sources of continuity: - Assimilation
- Accommodation
- Equilibration: People balance assimilation and
accommodation to create stable understanding

Sources of discontinuity: There are distinct
stages of cognitive development, with the
following properties:
– Children at different stages think in different ways.
– The type of thinking at each stage pervades topic and content areas.
– Transitions to higher stages of thinking are not necessarily continuous.
– The sequences of stages are stable for all people through all time. Stages are not skipped.

Nature Vs Nurture

Nature: Maturation of brain; ability to perceive, learn, act

Nurture:
– Adaptation: Children respond to the demands of the
environment.
– Organization: Organise new information.

Universal Vs Culture specfic development

Universal: The same sequence of development occurs in children all over the world.

Quantitative versus Qualitative

Qualitative: When a qualitative change occurs, the infant/child enters a new stage of development

Key Concepts

Schemas

The basic building blocks of knowledge

Categories of knowledge that helps in understanding the world

Is the mental representation of the world that is used to understand and to respond to situations

Develops new information through experiences that modify and changes previous schema

As a child grows, his/her schemas become more numerous and elaborate

Assimilation, Equilibriation, Accommodation

Intellectual growth is a process of adaptation

Assimilation
Dealing with new stuations using existing schemas

Accommodation
Happens when existing schema (knowledge) does not work and need to be changed to deal with the new situation

Equilibration
A force which moves development along; striking a balance between assimilation and accommodation
Helps a child to move from one stage of development to another

Subtopic

Stages of Development

A child moves through four different stages of mental development

Senserimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years old)
Knowing the world through sensations and movements.
Realizes that their action can cause things to happen in the world around them.

Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years old)
Begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects.
Tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others.

Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years old)
Begin to thinking logically about concrete events.
Begin using inductive logic or reasoning from specific information to a general principle.

Formal Operational Stage (12 years and up)
Begin to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems.
Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information.

Development is biologically based and changes as child matures

Promoting the learning process

Making use of the environment and presenting problems to create a new situation, encouraing disequilibrium so as to encourage the student to accommodate

Focusing on the process of learning and not the end result

Using active methods to rediscover or reconstruct "truths"

Getting students to work together to learn from one another [allowing students of mixed ability to work together]

Acceptance of individual differences in developmental progress [i.e. streaming] + Adaptation of instruction to the leaner's developmental level

A deemphasis on practices aimed at making children adult-like in their thinking [accelerating through the stages could be worse than no teaching at all]

Teacher does not direct tuition; teacher facilitates learning

Giving the student real-world challenges to disrupt pre-conceived notions; create disequilibrium in the student

Discovery learning where the student learns through self-initiated, active (spontaneous) participation and exploration