By Socheatra, Michael, Henry and Waleed

1. PIAGET’S THEORY By Socheatra, Michael, Henry and Waleed

2. Piaget’s theory 200-203 Piaget proposed that cognitive development occurs as we adapt to the world around us. Adaption is the continuous process of learning along with the changing surrounding environment. The steps of adaptation are Receiving – Processing – Organising – Adapting Piaget’s theory of adaption occurs through two different processes Assimilation and Accommodation.

3. Assimilation Assimilation is the process of taking in new information and piecing it together with the existing metal information. This allows us to make sense of the new information whilst keeping of existing information. E.g.. If a child see a truck and calls it a car. This is because it only has the mental image of a car.

4. Accommodation Is the other process of adaption. When new information is received but cannot be pieced together with the existing information. In this case we must alter our existing mental idea in order to fit in the new information. E.g. When a child sees the moon and calls it a ball. As they grow up they’ll recognise the moon as being different from a ball. This is a more advance process compared to assimilation as it involves reconstructing our existing mental idea.

5. Piaget’s theory According to Piaget all behaviours involve assimilation and accommodation. The interaction of these related processes allow a child to progressively adapt to the world. Importantly these experiences build up to what is called a schema (schemata of plural). Schema’s are a mental idea of what something is and how to deal with it.

6. Four stage theory Piaget’s theory also proposes that our cognitive development moves through four sequential stages from birth to adulthood. Each stage is linked to an approximate chronological age range. Sensorimotor(birth-2) - Pre-operational (2-7) Concrete operational (7-12) – Formal operational (12+) Some people may be able to think at an advanced stage but use mental abilities from an earlier stage. It is also suggested that one cannot develop mental capabilities without mastering those of the earlier stage. Piaget theorised that its not important about what people know but the way in which people think and how they acquire their mental abilities.

7. Sensorimotor In the sensorimotor stage infants construct their understanding of the world around us by co-ordinating sensory experiences (touch) with motor (movement) abilities. The key accomplishment of the sensorimotor stage is to master object permanence. Object permanenceis the ability to concentrate ones eyes onto a moving object until it disappears. Near the end of the sensorimotor stage the infant begins to develop goal-directed behaviour. Goal-directedbehaviouris the ability act do a certain behaviour with a particular purpose in mind.

8. Piaget’s Theory 204-210 In Piaget’s theory around two years of each infants make the transition from the sensorimotor stage to the pre-operational stage of cognitive development. The stage is lasting from 2 to 7 years of age. During this stage children become readily able to internally represent events and think about thinks in their own mind to give them a sense of imagination which further develops their ability to think with complexity.

9. Symbolic Thinking • The increment in ability to represent objects using visual objects or events; the ability of symbolic use can develop a sense of creativity where sand becomes a turtle or a castle etc.

10. Egocentrism • During this Stage children are unable to contrast other peoples perspectives so there is no empathy within their complexity of thought. This is not mentioned as selfish behaviour by Piaget but rather children in the pre-operational stage only see from their own point of view, not others. A Child may always want to be indulging in asking for new things but cannot interpret the situation from another person’s eyes i.e. inability to understand what their mother would ask if given the situation. A child at the end of the pre-operational stage, children move from egocentrism to a decentred stage. In the next stage of cognitive development a child is able to consider situations from another person perspective. • Piaget proposed that children undergoing the pre-operational stage are egocentric in a sense that the only perspective they can see is their own and they cannot view a situation or life in general from another persons perspective.An experiment was conducted by Piaget where he gave a diorama to a little girl to observe, a doll was then placed directly opposite of the child and it was also facing the mountain; the child was asked to walk around the diorama to familiarize her with the diorama from different perspectives (to later contrast her perspective with the dolls) when asked to identify the perspective the doll could see from; she was asked which way the doll was facing and what it could see but when shown pictures and asked to select the correct one corresponding with the doll’s perspective, the children picked what they could see (outcome of children up to 7 years of age according to Piaget).

11. Animism • A child in the Pre-operational stage believes that every object has it’s own awareness and is alive and aging. A child may interpret a rusty object as sick, a grey tree as old and other things like that. And in an event where a child may hit a table with their knee they would interpret the situation as a naughty table being punished. Piaget proposed that animism is linked with egocentrism in a sense that as children In the pre-operational stage are unable to see from another persons perspective they think that everyone and everything are like them. As they are sentient and can experience pain they think everything else can too.

12. Transformation • In the latter Pre-Operational stage a child begins to understand that an object can change from one state to another i.e. Ice melting into water. In contrast in the earlier stages a child could not readily identify that the water had resulted from the ice melting nor that they were the same object at one stage. Pre-operational children can identify the starting phase and the outcome but cannot explain the events in-between.

13. Centration • In contrast to 1 to 2 year olds, the pre-operational stage children are significantly more sophisticated with thought, having said that, the pre-operational children can not focus on more than one quality or feature on an object at a given time, this is called centration.

14. Experiment/s • A five year old boy is given 12 tokens to play with; when given the tokens aligned in groups of 6, he can identify that the lines are the ‘same’, but when one of the lines is messed up (still adding up to 6) he says that they are different, and that there is less in the bunched up group in comparison to the line. This successfully proves that a pre-operational child can focus on one feature whether it is quality or quantity at a time. He was judging based on the length of the groups without consideration of quantity and space. A four year old brother is asked if he has a brother, he replied by saying “yes”. The boy proceeded to say that his brother’s name was Jim. When the boy was asked if Jim had a brother, he said no. This concept is known as Reversibility. Reversibility is the ability to follow a line of reasoning back to its starting point, in the experiment the boy was unable to realize he was Jim’s brother from a reversed situational question.

15. The Concrete Operational Stage (Seven to Twelve years of Age) • The concrete operational stage is the stage in which children think in accordance to what they know and what they can experience through their senses; that is what is considered concrete. • Conservation – The key cognitive accomplishment in the Concrete Operational Stage is understanding conservation, that is, the idea that an object does not change its weight, mass, volume or area when the object changes its shape or appearance. E.g. A young girl is in the stages of attaining this concept, she observes that a waters volume does not change if it is poured from a long glass to a short glass its volume does not change, and can identify that it is the same amount of water. Her younger five-year-old brother observes the same process but he says the short wide glass has less water than the thin long glass. Conservation of mass – In understanding this concept children learn that something like a plasticine ball when rolled into a elongated shape is still the same mass as it was before even though it has changed shape. Conservation of number – The ability to identify two sets of objects as the same quantity even if one set is altered in orientation but no new pieces are added.Conservation of length – (Example form) A person is asked whether two identical pencils are the same length, one pencil is then moved forward and the person is then asked if it still the same length.

16. Classification • One of the key accomplishments in the Concrete Op. Stage is being able to organise information (things or events) into categories using common features that are not present in other groups. This is what is known as classification. Piaget wanted to test a child's ability to classify, so they were given a task. A child was presented with 20 wooden beads, 18 of which were brown and 2 which were white. (Note: this is conducted on a pre-operational stage child) The child was asked if there were more brown beads than wooden beads, the child will state that there are more brown beads. The Concrete operational stage child will state that there is more wooden beads because the white beads are also wooden. During this stage children’s perspectives of the world are more accurate and precise (in a sense of descriptiveness and explanations). They begin thinking logically and about concrete objects and understanding the changes in them. Children then begin to be able to create ‘mental’ pictures and they develop an abstract perspective of thinking – the major achievement made by children in the formal operational stage.

17. FORMALOPERATION STAGE • The formal operation stage is a time within an individuals life when they use their cognitive ability to think complexly and more sophisticatedly. This is onset from the age twelve and beyond, basically when an adolescent enters secondary school . The individual at this time utulises two vivid ways of thinking the first being abstract and the second logical. Formal operational stage is also the final cognitive stage where the thought process is finally fully developed.

18. ABSTRACT THINKING • Abstract thinking is process that involves an individual to think without a visual aid, in order to understand deep and vital concepts. Abstract thinking allows an individual to think of some deep and very meaningful questions such as what’s the meaning of life. An example of abstract thinking is trying to teach a child the concept of god, a concept that cannot be visualised.

19. LOGICAL THINKING • Logical thinking is a process of thought that allows an individual to develop strategies, ideas, hypotheses, and test solutions which is ultimately utilised to solve problems. Thanks to logical thinking a person can understand distance, time, and various mathematical problems.

20. PIAGET’S THEORY UTULISED Piaget’s theory has been implemented and utulised by school teachers through the students entire schooling. This can be verified through how a student was taught in primary and secondary school. During a student’s time in primary school teachers will manifest concepts and ideas through a visual aid, such as learning addition through blocks. During secondary school the student learns abstractly and logically. This can be seen through English when you have to understand concepts, themes, and ideas for a novel abstractly. On the other hand for mathematics you have to apply logical thinking to solve quadratic equations and trigonometry questions.

21. Criticisms of Piaget’s Theorypg. 213 - 214 Piaget’s Theory had a Colossal impact on psychology and his place in the history in psychology is very significant. Many of these research studies have confirmed various aspects of Piaget’s theory or extended Piaget’s Theories into other areas of development. Such as the idea of developmental readiness of young children. Many child development experts warn that children not be pushed too early, before they have sufficiently cognitively matured. This supports Piaget’s Theory. However, since the 1970s, other researchers have discovered that infants know a lot more, and know it sooner than Piaget expected. Researchers found gaps in Piaget’s research methods and findings (Bernstein & Nash,2002). Researchers believe that the age ranges for each stage in Piaget’s proposed four stage development vary widely then Piaget described. Another Criticism or Piaget’s Theory is that Piaget may have over estimated young children’s language ability, leading him to assume that wrong answers came from faulty thinking. An alternative explanation for a child’s answers may be that the child misunderstood the task or did not explain their answer clearly (Donaldson, 1979). His Theory has also been criticised for the small amount of participants in many of the Experiments he used to test his ideas. He used his own children in many of his experiments. Although qualitative data from these observations provided useful descriptions not easily obtainable using other research methods, some psychologists have expressed their concerns about the generalisations Piaget made from such limited data. The small sample sizes could not be an accurate description of the general population therefore creating a variable within Piaget’s Research. Altering his findings. Although these criticisms point out the many flaws of Piaget’s theory, His Theory is still regarded as one of the most significant findings today.