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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,
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. According to Piaget, children are born with a basic mental structure on which all learning and knowledge is based. They challenge the behaviourist theory as most of their research was done on animals and is missing knowledge. The implications of this theory are that not only should we be interest in the answer the learner gives but also the method of how they got there. I find that due to the gaps in the learner’s education, they may be missing important parts that they have had to find out for themselves these methods are not always the easiest ways of calculating. I try and make it as stress free as possible so will demonstrate other methods that may be easier for them. Piagets theory accepts that children go through the same development stages but that they may go through at different times, I ensure I make effort to cater for these different paces and ensure tasks are differentiated to accommodate this. I am aware however that this theory relates to children’s development, and I work with adults, I can still apply parts of this
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
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
The main aim of his research was to show the differences between the children’s and adults’ way of thinking. It means that different factors influence the way of thinking of people at different stages of development. Piaget focused attention on the fact that children actually have a rather basic mental structure that is based on knowledge and experience that is formed in a particular way. He argued that cognitive development is a process that takes long period of time and can be influenced by huge amount of different internal and external factors.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Piaget did miscalculate what children understand about the physical world. Many people have made efforts to enhance our knowledge of cognitive development based on Piaget's theory.
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...
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.
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
Piaget theorised that children’s thinking goes through changes at each of four stages (sensory, motor, concrete operations and formal operations) of development until they can think and reason as an adult. The stages represent qualitatively different ways of thinking, are universal, and children go through each stage in the same order. According to Piaget each stage must be completed before they can move into the next one and involving increasing levels of organisation and increasingly logical underlying structures. Piaget stated that the ‘lower stages never disappear; they become inte... ...
“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.
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 key concepts for his developmental theory are: schemas, assimilation, and accommodation. Piaget believed that schemas are the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. As experiences happen, new information is modified, added to, or changes existing information. Assimilation is the process of taking in new information into our previous existing schemas and then altering our ideas. Accommodation is another
We first need to know who created the Cognitive Development Theory. Jean Piaget was born in
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...