Jean Piaget's Cognitive-Development Theory

Jean Piaget's Cognitive-Development Theory

1. Basic Assumptions

   • Children are active & motivated learners
   • Children construct information
   • Children learn through complimentary processes
     • Assimilation
     • Accommodation
   • In part as a result of maturation, children think in qualitatively different ways at different stages
   • Process of equilibration promotes progression toward increasingly complex thought
   • Interaction with one's physical & social environments are essential for cognitive development

2. 3 Processes Accounting for the Progression of One Level of Reasoning to the Next

   • 1. Schemas
     • Building blocks of knowledge
     • Allow formation of mental representation of the world
   • 2. Adaptation Processes
     • Enable transition from one stage to another
       • Intellectual growth is a process of adaptation to the world
       • Assimilation - utilizing existing schema to adapt to a new object or situation
         • Accomodation - The existing schema does not work & needs to be altered to adapt to a new object or situation
           • Equilibrium - Force which moves development
   • 3. Stages of Development
     • Sensorimotor (ages birth - 2)
       • acquire knowledge through sensory experiences & manipulating objects
         • Piaget believed that developing object permancence or object constancy was an important element at this point in development
           • By learning objects are separate & distinct entities & that they have an existence of their own outside of individual perception, children are then able to begin to attach names & words to objects
             • Final part of this stage - early representational thought emerges
     • Preoperational (ages 2 - 7)
       • Egocentric - struggle to see things from the perspective of others
         • Emergence of language
           • View things in concrete terms
     • Concrete Operational (ages 7 - 11)
       • Children begin to think logically about concrete events
         • Begin understanding the concept of conservation
           • Thinking becomes more logical & organized, but still very concrete
             • Begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle
     • Formal Operation (ages 12 and up)
       • Final stage involving an increase in logic, the ability to utilize deductive reasoning, & an understanding of abstract ideas
         • Become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems & think more scientifically about the world
           • Ability to think about abstract ideas & situations is the key hallmark of this stage of cognitive development
             • Emergence of the ability to systematically plan for the future & reason about hypothetical situations

3. Principles

   • Children construct their own knowledge about the world by relating new experiences to what they already know
   • Encountering puzzling phenomena can sometimes spur children to revise their understanding

4. Major Implications for Classroom Learning

   • Discovery Learning - allows for the world to be viewed through a child's eyes
   • Student-centered - Identifies readiness, motivation & individual differences
   • Utilize active methods of learning - rediscovering or reconstructing "truths"
   • Collaborative learning - children learn from one another
   • Evaluate level of child's development - assists in defining suitable tasks