Piaget Theory Essay

Piaget’s Stage Theory in my eyes was four key stages of development marked by shifts in how they understand the world. To me Piaget’s theories had a major impact on the theory and practice of education.
Her first theory was “A focus on the process of children’s thinking, not just its products. In addition to checking the correctness of children’s answers, teachers must understand the processes children use to get to the answer. Appropriate learning experiences build on children’s current level of cognitive functioning, and only when teachers appreciate children’s methods of arriving at particular conclusions are they in a position to provide such experiences.” In her first theory she basically talks about how a kids learning experience should be and how the thinking process should happen.
“{No theory of cognitive development has had more impact than the cognitive stages presented by Jean Piaget. Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, suggested that children go through four separate stages in a fixed order that is universal in all children. Piaget declared that these stages differ not only in the quantity of information acquired at each, but also in the quality of knowledge and understanding at that stage. Piaget suggested that movement from one stage to the next occurred when the child reached an appropriate level of maturation and was exposed to relevant types of experiences. Without experience, children were assumed incapable of reaching their highest cognitive ability. Piaget's four stages are known as the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.
The second theory was “Recognition of the crucial role of children’s self-initiated, active involvement in learning activities. In a Piagetian clas...

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...ed that children's thinking does not develop entirely smoothly: instead, there are certain points at which it "takes off" and moves into completely new areas and capabilities. He saw these transitions as taking place at about 18 months, 7 years and 11 or 12 years. This has been taken to mean that before these ages children are not capable (no matter how bright) of understanding things in certain ways, and has been used as the basis for scheduling the school curriculum. Whether or not should be the case is a different matter”.

In conclusion, children learn and gain knowledge from their experiences. Their knowledge is developed through sensory and motor abilities. Children shouldn’t be rewarded for their work to be motivated. “Piaget understands the social component of cognitive development and he was better at describing processes than explain how they operate.