Piaget’s Theory Piaget’s Assumptions About Children
Piaget’s Theory The first “cognitive” theory, developed byJean Piaget beginning about 1920. Piaget observed and described children atdifferent ages. His theory is very broad, from birth throughadolescence, and includes concepts oflanguage, scientific reasoning, moraldevelopment, and memory.Piaget’s Assumptions AboutChildren Children construct their own knowledge inresponse to their experiences. Children learn many things on their ownwithout the intervention of older children oradults. Children are intrinsically motivated to learnand do not need rewards from adults tomotivate learning.Continuous vs. DiscontinuousNature vs. Nurture Nature and nurture interact to producecognitive development. Nature: maturation of brain and body; abilityto perceive, learn, act; motivation Nurture: Sources of continuity:– Assimilation: People translate incoming information into aform they can understand.– Adaptation: Children respond to the demands of theenvironment in ways that meet their own goals.– Organization: Children integrate particularobservations into a body of coherent knowledge .1
Continuous vs. Discontinuous Sources of continuity:– Assimilation: People translate incoming information into aform they can understand.– Accommodation: People adapt current knowledgestructures in response to new experience.Continuous vs. Discontinuous Sources of discontinuity: There are distinctstages of cognitive development, with thefollowing properties.– Qualitative change: Children of different ages (and atdifferent stages) think in different ways.– Broad applicability: The type of thinking at each stagepervades topic and content areas.– Brief transitions: Transitions to higher stages ofthinking are not necessarily continuous.– Invariant sequence: The sequences of stages are stablefor all people through all time. Stages are not skipped.Continuous vs. Discontinuous Sources of continuity:– Assimilation: People translate incoming information into aform they can understand.– Accommodation: People adapt current knowledgestructures in response to new experience.– Equilibration: People balance assimilation andaccommodation to create stable understandingPiaget’s Stages Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)– Knowledge develops through sensory and motorabilities.2
Piaget’s Stages Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years) Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)– Knowledge is represented by language, mental imagery,and symbolic thought.Piaget’s Stages Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)Formal operational stage (12 years and up)Piaget’s Stages Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years) Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years) Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)– Children can reason logically about concrete objects and events.Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Substage 1 (birth to 1 month)– Building knowledge through reflexes (grasping,sucking).– Children can think deeply about concrete eventsand can reason abstractly and hypothetically.3
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Substage 1 (birth to 1 month) Substage 2 (1 to 4 months)– Reflexes are organized into larger, integrated behaviors(grasping a rattle and bringing it to the mouth to suck).Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Substage 1 (birth to 1 month) Substage 2 (1 to 4 months) Substage 3 (4 to 8 months)– Repetition of actions on the environment that bring outpleasing or interesting results (banging a rattle).Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Substage 1 (birth to 1 month)Substage 2 (1 to 4 months)Substage 3 (4 to 8 months)Substage 4 (8 to 12 months)– Mentally representing objects when objects can nolonger be seen, thus achieving “object permanence.”Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Substage 1 (birth to 1 month)Substage 2 (1 to 4 months)Substage 3 (4 to 8 months)Substage 4 (8 to 12 months)Substage 5 (12 to 18 months)– Actively and avidly exploring the possible uses towhich objects can be put: Banging a spoon or cup onhigh chair to make different sounds, get attention.4
Sensorimotor Stage Substage 1 (birth to 1 month)Substage 2 (1 to 4 months)Substage 3 (4 to 8 months)Substage 4 (8 to 12 months)Substage 5 (12 to 18 months)Substage 6 (18 to 24 months)– Able to form enduring mental representations, asdemonstrated by “deferred imitation,” the repetition ofothers’ behaviors minutes, hours, or days after it hasoccurred.EgocentrismPreoperational Stage Symbolic representations - the use of oneobject to stand for another. Egocentrism: Looking at the world only fromone’s own point of view. Centration: Focusing on one dimension ofobjects or events and on static states ratherthan transformations.Centrism5
Conservation ConceptsConcrete Operations Stage Conservation concept - changing theappearance or arrangement of objects does notchange their key properties. Highly abstract thinking and reasoning abouthypothetical situations still remains verydifficult.StagesFormal Operations Stage Ability to think abstractlyand reasonhypothetically. Ability to reasonsystematically about alldifferent outcomes. Ability to engage inscientific onalFormaloperationalBirth–2 years2–7 years7–12 years12 yearsonwardUnderstandsworldthroughsenses andactionsUnderstandsworldthroughlanguage ing inking andscientificreasoning6
Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory Children’s thinking is not as consistent as thestages suggest. Infants and young children are more competentthan Piaget recognized. Piaget understates the social components ofcognitive development. Piaget was better at describing processes thanexplaining how they operate.7
Nature vs. Nurture Nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development. Nature: maturation of brain and body; ability to perceive, learn, act; motivation Nurture: –Adaptation: Children respond to the
Jean Piaget Historical Background Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was the first-born son of Arthur Piaget and Rebecca Jackson. His father was a professor of medieval literature at the University of Neuchâtel [1]. As a child, Piaget developed an interest in animals and nature. When he was around the age of 10, he
What is constructionism, and what does it have to do with Piaget? Constructionism is a theory of education developed by Seymour Papert of M.I.T.1). It is based upon a theory of knowledge created by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980). Papert worked with Piaget in Geneva in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Critique of Sensorimotor thought Critique: ! The child may know more than Piaget had originally thought, or at least know it earlier. Some variation in age can be explained by Piaget’s theory, but not all. – Different ways of testing infants find more advanced abilities. ! Som
the child to the cognitive development. According to Piaget (1952, as cited in Aloqaili, A.S., 2011) equilibrium is a balance between two other processes namely; assimilation and accommodation. According to Woolfolk, Winne and Perry (2003), Piaget also introduces other important construct, named schema to the realm of psychology and education.
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Analogical theory Fundamental theory Domain . theories are, the role of theories in science, how theories are developed, what constitutes a good . Piaget), Clark Hull’s theory of learning, Maslow’s hierarchical theory of personality, and Gibbon’s scalar expectancy theory of .
Vygotsky is known for Social Constructivism. Piaget Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Piaget's developmental theory [On-line: UK] retrieved 15 September 2012 from
learning in school settings. He didn’t say, however, that discovery learning doesn’t work; but rather that it was not efficient. In other words, Ausubel believed that understanding concepts, principles, and ideas are achieved through deductive reasoning Ausubel was influenced by the teachings of Jean Piaget. Similar to Piaget’s ideas of
longer be seen, thus achieving “object permanence.” Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Substage 1 (birth to 1 month) Substage 2 (1 to 4 months) Substage 3 (4 to 8 months) Substage 4 (8 to 12 months) Substage 5 (12 to 18 months) –Actively and avidly exploring the possible uses to which objects can be put: Banging a spoon or cup on
