Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Introduction
Jean Piaget is the founder of Cognitive development. He is Swiss and although he had no background in psychology, he made a tremendous impact on the field, particularly in the area of cognitive, developmental and educational psychology. There are other theorists who have built upon his work with theories like information processing, social cognition and socio cultural perspective. According to Arringtion (2008) the term cognitive development describes the way in which the individuals learn about and perceive themselves and their environment and educators apply it to the classroom because educators work with both adult and young learners to develop higher order thinking. Arrington (2008) states that among many of his contributions, Piaget posited theories on cognitive development that was stage-independent and stage-dependent. The main idea of this theory is that knowledge could be inborn, learned or developed through self regulated process (Ibid, 2008).
Stage-independent theory
Arrington (2008) states that according to Piaget, cognitive development presents schema, structures, equilibrium and operations as the main focus in the stage-independent theory. Schema is a generalized patterns of behavior and thoughts that are meaningful to people. More than one schema or schemata are adapted repeatedly throughout the life through experiences and maturation. Structure arises when schemata becomes more complex and needs to organize information according to the relationship to one another. Cognitive development proceeds throughout life because gathering information from the environment never stops. According to Piaget’s stage-independent theory, equilibrium occurs when the ind...
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Throughout Piaget’s studies he focuses on how children develop intellectually as well as perceive the world around them. His ultimate goal was to shed light on young children’s development in which he grouped into stages to help encourage developmentally appropriate activities. Piaget’s wanted to make sure that as educators each child was being taught within their realm of knowledge and environmental appropriate settings. Through his teaching young children are being taught by hands on experiences that includes regulated time of structured teaching, self-selected activities, physical activities and proper rest time.
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 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.
A well-known psychologist, Jean Piaget is most famous for his work in child development. In his theory of cognitive development, Piaget presents four stages of mental development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Piaget explains the adaptation processes that allow transition from one stage to the next. He also emphasizes the role of schemas as a basic unit of knowledge.
The great theorist Jean Piaget was born on August 9th, 1896 in Switzerland. He distinguished four stages of cognitive development and called them the schemas. He also constructed new fields of scientific study, including cognitive theory and developmental psychology. He summed up his passion for the ongoing pursuit of scientific knowledge with these words: "The current state of knowledge is a moment in history, changing just as rapidly as the state of knowledge in the past has ever changed and, in many instances, more rapidly." He received the Erasmus Prize as well as the Balzan prize. Piaget died of unknown causes in 1980 in Switzerland
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The third stage is the Concrete Operational stage (7-11 years); this is when children are starting to solve problems mentally and develop concepts and are beginning to get better at understanding and following rules. Piaget’s fourth and final stage is the Formal Operational Stage (11 years and over); this stage is where the child is able to think not only as in the terms of the concrete, but also think in the abstract and is now able to think hypothetically. Piaget’s theory is one where children learn in a different manner to that of adults as they do not have the life experiences and interactions that adults have and use to interpret information. Children learn about their world by watching, listening and doing. Piaget’s constructivist theory has had a major impact on current theories and practices of education. Piaget has helped to create a view where the focus is on the idea of developmentally appropriate education. This denotes to an education with environments, materials and curriculum that are coherent with a student’s cognitive and physical abilities along with their social and emotional
Piaget also believed that children would only learn when they are ready. Children's use of language represents their stage in cognitive development, but he didn’t see language as a ‘central’ to children's development, as cognitive development begins at birth and is required for language development. He also states that children are egocentric – they can’t understand another person’s point of view. Criticisms of Piaget’s work = =
Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory is focused on the belief that development precedes learning, specifically upon individual development of one’s knowledge through independent learning and experiences (Lourenco, 2012). Piaget’s theory discusses how an individual’s surroundings affect their development resulting in a series of changes in the understandings of their environment.
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.
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
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development focuses on the concept of schemas and cognitive thought that helps an individual organize knowledge and understand the world in comparison to Erikson’s theory which focuses on conflicts that arise between and within the ego. Accommodation and assimilation occur throughout Piaget’s theory as a result of children
One hundred years ago, Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a young man developing new insights about learning. He was one of a handful of constructivist-minded writers and educational theorists of the time. Learning theories open educators up to new ideas. They are necessary to expand our knowledge of how learning works. Piaget’s work is a well-tested and educators around the world should be aware of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive development in particular because it will improve the quality of their teaching. Once a teacher knows this theory, they can plan lessons appropriate to their students’ cognitive ability and build upon students’ earlier knowledge in a constructivist way.