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Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980). Background. Jean Piaget (August 9, 1896 - September 16, 1980), a professor of psychology at the University of Geneva from 1929 to 1954 was a French Swiss developmental psychologist who is most well known for organizing cognitive development into a series of stages
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Background • Jean Piaget (August 9, 1896 - September 16, 1980), a professor of psychology at the University of Geneva from 1929 to 1954 • was a French Swiss developmental psychologist who is most well known for organizing cognitive development into a series of stages • is famous for constructing a highly influential model of child development and learning
Background Cont’d… • Piaget explored the implications of his theory to all aspects of cognition, intelligence and moral development • Many of Piaget's experiments were focused on the development of mathematical and logical concepts • His theory has been applied extensively to teaching practice and curriculum design in elementary education
Theories • Piaget's theory is based on the idea that the developing child builds cognitive structures • Used mental "maps" or schemas for understanding and responding to physical their environment • Showed that a child's cognitive structure increases in sophistication with development, moving from a few natural reflexes such as crying and sucking to highly complex mental activities • Piaget's theory supposes that people develop schemas (conceptual models) by either assimilating or accommodating new information
Piaget’s Stages Piaget's theory identifies four developmental stages and the processes by which children progress through them. The four stages are: • Sensorimotor stage (birth - 2 years) The child builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works through physical interaction with their environment. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight • Preoperational stage (ages 2-7) The child is not yet able to think abstractly and needs concrete physical situations.
Stages Cont’d… • Concrete operations (ages 7-11) As physical experience accumulate, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain their physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage. For example, arithmetic equations can be solved with numbers, not just with objects. • Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15) By this point, the child's cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning.
How does Knowledge Grow? • An essential element of Piaget's developmental theory of learning and thinking is that both involve the participation of the learner • Knowledge is not merely transmitted verbally but must be constructed and reconstructed by the learner • Piaget asserted that for a child to know and construct knowledge of the world, the child must act on objects and it is this action which provides knowledge of those object • The learner must be active; he is not a vessel to be filled with facts
Piaget’s Readiness Theory • Piaget's approach to learning is a readiness approach • Readiness approaches in developmental psychology emphasize that children cannot learn something until maturation gives them certain prerequisites • The ability to learn any cognitive content is always related to their stage of intellectual development • Children who are at a certain stage cannot be taught the concepts of a higher stage
Intellectual Growth • Intellectual growth involves three fundamental processes: assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration • Assimilation: involves the incorporation of new events into pre-existing cognitive structures • Accommodation: existing structures change to accommodate to the new information. This dual process, assimilation-accommodation, enables the child to form schema. • Equilibration: involves the person striking a balance between them self and the environment, between assimilation and accommodation.
Intellectual Growth Cont’d… • When a child experiences a new event, dis-equilibrium sets in until they are able to assimilate and accommodate the new information and thus attain equilibrium • There are many types of equilibrium between assimilation and accommodation that vary with the levels of development and the problems to be solved • For Piaget, equilibration is the major factor in explaining why some children advance more quickly in the development of logical intelligence than do others
Principles • Piaget outlined several principles for building cognitive structures • During all development stages, the child experiences their environment using whatever mental maps he or she has constructed so far • If the experience is a repeated one, it fits easily into the child's cognitive structure so that he or she maintains mental balance • If the experience is different or new, the child loses balance, and alters his or her cognitive structure to accommodate the new conditions • This way, the child establishes more and more sufficient cognitive structures
Principles Cont’d… • 1. Children will offer different explanations of reality at different stages of cognitive development • 2. Cognitive development is made possible by providing activities or situations that connect learners and require adaptation (i.e. assimilation and accommodation). • 3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental operations for a child of given age; avoid asking students to perform tasks that are beyond their current cognitive capabilities. • 4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges.
How Piaget's Theory Impacts Learning • Curriculum Educators must plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum that enhances their students' logical and conceptual growth. • Instruction Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences, or interactions with the environment play in student learning. For example, instructors have to take into account the role that fundamental concepts, such as the permanence of objects, play in establishing cognitive structures.
Conclusion • Piaget's work is known all over the world and is still an inspiration in fields like psychology, sociology, education, epistemology, economics and law as witnessed in the annual catalogues of the Jean Piaget Archives • He was awarded numerous prizes and honorary degrees all over the world
Works Cited • http://tip.psychology.org/piaget.html • http://www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html • http://www.crystalinks.com/piaget.html • http://www.sk.com.br/sk-piage.html • http://www.funderstanding.com/piaget.cfm
