Piaget Cognitive Development Theory

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Cognitive-Developmental/Jean Piaget:
According to Piaget, “children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world (Berk, 2007, p.19)”. Piaget proposed just as structures of the body are adapted to fit with the environment, the interaction with physical and social environments is vital for cognitive development in children. Piaget also theorize that children learn through assimilation and accommodation, and complex cognitive development occurs through equilibration (Schunk, 1996). Jean Piaget proposed development occurs in stages in 4 board stages: The sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage.
Strengths of Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory include the impact it has on instruction and learing: development of instructional strategies, social skills, and educational programs that are tailored and taught to a child at the level in which he or she is developmentally prepared (Schunk, 1996). As a general framework, Piaget’s theory improved the understanding of cognitive development: The ability to communicate with children has increased and the methods for studying children have increased. …show more content…

Piaget underestimated children's abilities as most children possess abilities at an earlier age, cognitive development across domains typically is uneven; rarely does a child think in stage-typical ways across all topics (e.g., mathematics, science, history) (Schunk, 1996, p.238). Piaget's theory provides only a detailed overview of development, but it doesn't explain it and his stages may be considered a continuous process because there is so much overlap in development. Lastly, Piaget’s pays “insufficient attention to social and cultural influences on development (Berk, 2007,

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