Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget

1. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

   • The stage of sensory-motor intelligence (0-2)
     • The infant knows the world through their movements and sensations
       • Children learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening
         • Infants learn that things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen (object permanence)
           • They are separate beings from the people and objects around them
             • They realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them
   • The stage of preoperational thought (2-7)
     • Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects.
       • Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others.
         • While they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think about things in very concrete terms.
   • The stage of concrete interactions (7-11)
     • Children begin to thinking logically about concrete events
       • They begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example
         • Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle
           • During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about how other people might think and feel
   • The stage of formal operations (11-15)
     • the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems
       • Teens begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning
         • Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information
           • People become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world around them.

2. Schemas: (building blocks of knowledge)

   • A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world.
     • In Piaget's theory, a schema is both the category of knowledge as well as the process of acquiring that knowledge. He believed that people are constantly adapting to the environment as they take in new information and learn new things.As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas

3. Adaptation processes that enable the transition from one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation)

   • assimilation
     • The process of taking in new information into our already existing schemas is known as assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify experiences and information slightly to fit in with our preexisting beliefs.
   • accomodation
     • Another part of adaptation involves changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information, a process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves modifying existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences.5  New schemas may also be developed during this process.
   • equilibrium
     • Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between assimilation and accommodation, which is achieved through a mechanism Piaget called equilibration. As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation). Equilibration helps explain how children can move from one stage of thought to the next.

4. How did Piaget see children?

   • We can take from Piaget the very important idea of the child as an active learner and thinker, constructing his or her own knowledge from working with objects or ideas. Children also seek out intentions and purposes in what they see other people doing, bringing their knowledge and experience to their attempts to' make sense of other people’s actions and language. Realizing that children are active sense-makers but that their sense-making is limited by their experience, is a key to understanding how they respond to tasks and activities in the language classroom

5. Object permanence

   • Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way.
     • In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, infants develop this understanding by the end of the "sensorimotor stage", which lasts from birth to about two years of age.
     • According to this view, it is through touching and handling objects that infants develop object permanence.

6. Egocentricism

   • Childrens' thoughts and communications are typically egocentric (i.e. about themselves). Egocentrism refers to the child's inability to see a situation from another person's point of view. According to Piaget, the egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as the child does