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Reflecting on child development theories
Strengths and weaknesses of Piaget's theory
Jean Piaget's (1936) Theory of Cognitive Development
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Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was an influential experimenter and theorist in the field of development psychology and cognitive theory. Jean Piaget developed highly influential theories on the mental stages of children. He is best known for his pioneering work in child development. Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland on August 9, 1896. Piaget was the oldest child of Arthur Piaget, who was a professor of medieval literature at the University of Neuchatel, and of Rebecca Jackson. Much of Piaget’s childhood was influenced by his father. At age 11, Piaget’s notes on the albino sparrow were published to various magazines and newspapers. Since Piaget was young, he was forced to keep his age a secret. At the time, many editors felt that young …show more content…
Piaget and Simon created tests that were meant to measure child intelligence. These test were meant to draw connections between a child’s age and the nature of his or her errors. Piaget and Simon’s test were ultimately too rigid for the children. The test was designed to spell or count as a way of judging I.Q. Piaget revised the test so that the children would explain the logic of the “incorrect” answers. The children incorrect answers revealed their qualitative thinking at the various stages of their development. Piaget would then wonder one question that led to his major contribution in the field of psychology: How do children …show more content…
There are three basic components to Piaget’s Cognitive Theory: Schemas; Equilibration, Assimilation, Accommodation; and the Stages of Development. Schemas are defined as the basic building block of intelligent behavior. An example of a schema includes a child understanding what a dog is by reading a picture book. Assimilation is the act of using an existing schema to develop a new object or situation. Accommodation is what happens when a schema doesn’t work. Equilibration is the force which moves development along. The order in which the phases are introduce in the following order: Assimilation, Equilibration, a New Situation, Disequilibrium, Accommodation,
Born August 9, 1896, Jean Piaget was the eldest of Rebecca, and Arthur. He was a native of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. At an early age, Piaget displayed “neurotic tendencies (Biography.com Editors, 2016).” He took on his father’s tendencies of being dedicated to his studies. When Piaget was just ten years old, he illustrated a fascination with mollusks which drew him to the local museum of natural history; there he spent several hours staring at the specimens (Biography.com Editors, 2016). While attending the Neuchâtel Latin High School, Piaget wrote a short scientific paper on the albino sparrow which was just the beginning of his writing career. Piaget was only eleven years old
Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, was brought into this world on August 9, 1896, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was the eldest child of Arthur Piaget and Rebecca Jackson. His father was a medieval literature professor and Piaget began to grasp some of his traits at an early age. At only 11 years old, Piaget wrote a short paper on an albino sparrow and that along with other publications gave him a reputation. (Encyclopedia Britannica 2013) After high school, Piaget went to the University of Neuchâtel to study zoology and philosophy where he also received a Ph.D. in 1918. Sometime later Piaget became acquainted with psychology and began to study under Carl Jung and Eugen Bleuler. Later he started his study at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1919. Four
Piaget worked at Binet Institute in 1920. As a worker there his job was to develope french versions of questions on english tests. He quickly became amazed with the trying to figure out answers for the reasons why children gave the wrong answers to very logical thinking questions. This discoveries got Piaget thinking, because he thought children were born with a basic mental brain structure based on evolved learning and knowledge. He believed that these answers children were giving revealed that there are very important differences in the way of thinking in adults and children. Piaget soon became the first psychologist to come up with a systematic study of cognitive development in 1936. Piaget had a very spe...
Jean Piaget was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896. Many psychologists consider him to be the most influential developmental psychologist of the twentieth century. He made detailed observations of children's activities, talked to children, listened to them talking to each other, and devised and presented many tests of children's thinking.
On August 9th Jean Piaget was born. His father Arthur Piaget was a professor of medieval literature. Piaget’s mother was the reason he took an interest in psychology this was because his mother was energetic and intelligent but Piaget found his mother to be in a negative emotional state for a long amount of time. By the age of ten, Piaget published his first paper and he continued publishing in high school about mollusks. After high school Piaget went to the University of Neuchâtel and in 1918 Piaget received his Doctorate in Science and for a year he worked in a psychology lab in Zurich. In 1919, Piaget taught philosophy and psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris, This was when he met Simon (of Simon-Binet fame) and did research on intelligence
Jean Piaget first established the foundational concepts of his cognitive theory in 1936 (McLeod, 2009), it focused on cognitive development, which is the obtaining of the capacity to understand, communicate and remember information over time (Lilienfeld et al. 2015, p. 408). Piaget structured his theory by conceptualising four key stages of cognitive development that a person progresses through via the processes known as assimilation, accommodation and adaption.
Jean Piaget was one of the most prominent researchers of the 20th century in the field of psychology and human development. He concentrated his attention on the biological influences on the psychological portrait of the person and developmental stages. Piaget pointed out that the development of a person passes through certain stages; each stage can be characterized by specific features. He argued that learning about the world was possible through personal experience. However, his inspiration of developing the idea of cognitive growth and changes of people came while researching child behavior. Moreover, it is important to note that his research was based on the observation of behavior of his own three children (Berlin, Zeanah & Lieberman, 2008).
Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development demonstrates a child’s cognitive ability through a series of observational studies of simple tests. According to Piaget, a child’s mental structure, which is genetically inherited and evolved, is the basis for all other learning and knowledge. Piaget’s
Jean Piaget is a Switzerland psychologist and biologist who understand children’s intellectual development. Piaget is the first to study cognitive development. He developed the four stages of cognitive development: the sensori-motor stage, preoperational stage, the concrete operational and the formal operational stage. Piaget curiosity was how children cogitate and developed. As they get mature and have the experience, children’s will get knowledgeable. He suggested that children develop schemas so they can present the world. Children’s extend their schemas through the operation of accommodation and assimilation.
“The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed how people viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying children. He was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have generated a huge amount of research which has increased our understanding of cognitive development.” (McLeod 2009). Piaget purposed that we move through stages of cognitive development. He noticed that children showed different characteristics throughout their childhood development. The four stages of development are The Sensorimotor stage, The Preoperational Stage, The Concrete operational stage and The Formal operational stage.
Jean Piaget was an individual constructivist. According to Piaget, a child’s cognitive structure helps the child understand the world around him. This structure develops into complex mental activities. He believed that childhood plays an important role in the growth of intelligence and a child learns through doing and exploring. Piaget believed that hands
The theory of cognitive development also happens in stages. Piaget believes that children create schemata to categorize and interpret information. As new information is learned, schemata are adjusted through assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is when information is compared to what is already known and understand it in that context. Accommodation is when schemata is changed based on new information. This process is carried out when children interact with their environment. Piaget’s four stages include sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.Sensorimotor happens between the ages of 0-2, the preoperational stage happens between the ages of 2-6. The concrete operational stage happens between the ages of 7-11, the formal operational stage happens between ages 12 and up. During the first stage, children develop object permanence and stranger anxiety, the second stage includes pretend play and egocentrism language development. The third stage includes conservation and mathematical transformations, the last stage includes abstract logic and moral
Piaget’s Cognitive theory represents concepts that children learn from interactions within the world around them. He believed that children think and reason at different stages in their development. His stages of cognitive development outline the importance of the process rather the final product. The main concept of this theory reflects the view th...
Piaget argued that cognitive development is based on the development of schemas. This refers to a psychological structure representing all of a person’s knowledge of actions or objects. To perform a new skill which the person has no schema, they have to work from previous skills that they have. This is called assimilation, where they have pulled previous schemas together then adapted and changed them to fit their task through accommodation.
We first need to know who created the Cognitive Development Theory. Jean Piaget was born in