Piaget cognitive development theory

Jean Piaget(1896- 1980)

Theory of Cognitive Development

“If the aim of intellectual training is to form the

intelligence rather than to stock the memory, and to

produce intellectual explorers rather than mere

erudition, then traditionally education is manifestly

guilty of a grave deficiency”

(J. Piaget)

Razieh Rahmani

Scholar Student in Education

University of Mysore, India

Cognitive development

• Development of mental abilities and capabilities which helps an individual to

adjust his behavior to the changing environmental conditions

• Is the usual of continuous interaction between the organism and the

environment

Who is Piaget?

• Swiss Psychologist, worked for several decades on understanding children’s

cognitive development

• Most widely known theory of cognitive development.

• Was intrigued by kids’ thoughts & behavior, & worked to understand their

cognitive development

Piaget: Background

Young Piaget was incredibly precocious

– Published first paper at 10

– Wrote on mollusks, based on these writings was asked to be curator of mollusks at a

museum in Geneva

– Earned his doctorate in natural sciences at 21 from the University of Neuchatel then

undertook post-doctoral training in Zurich, and Paris

– Began to study psychology, applying intelligence tests to school children

– The theorist we recognize today only emerged when he moved to Geneva, as

director of research at the Rousseau Institute, in 1922.

Theory of development

Piaget defined himself as a “genetic epistemologist”, interested in the

process of the qualitative development of knowledge. He considered

cognitive structures development as a differentiation of biological

regulations.

There are a total of four phases in Piaget's research that he had done on his

own three children and carefully observing and interpreting his children's

cognitive development.

• Piaget believed learning occurs by an active construction of meaning,

rather than by receiving it passively.

• He states," when we, as learners, encounter an experience or situation

that conflicts with our current way of thinking, a state of imbalance is

created”

• We must alter our thinking to restore equilibrium or balance

Four key concepts of Piaget's that are applicable to learning at any

age:

- Assimilation

- Accommodation

- Equilibration, and

- Schemas

Cognitive development is a complex process comprising three main concepts

affecting the development process: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.

All three are associated with the formation of schemata and their modification in

order to attain a balanced sense of understanding of the external world

Cognitive structure = schema (pl. schemata/schemes).

schema = your understanding/knowledge of X

Schemata - through interacting with the world - become differentiated due to

experience; cognitive structure changes.

For example, many 3-year-olds insist that the sun is alive because it comes up in the

morning and goes down at night. These children are operating based on a simple

cognitive schema that things that move are alive.

Schema or mental map

A Schema(schemata) is:

A structured cluster of concepts; it can be used to represent objects, scenarios

or sequences of events or relations.

A structure that would enable an organism to be aware of and act upon one’s

environment

A mental framework about something that is created as children interact with

their physical and social environments.

Schemas provide contexts for interpreting new knowledge

Helps children fill in conceptual gaps and anticipate how new knowledge can

be applied

Example

Infants have…

……schema for grasping

……schema for sucking

Structure self-organizes separate schemata into a higher

order schema of action (grasp rattle then suck).

+ =

Schemata is:

- Critically important building block of conceptual development

- Constantly in the process of being modified or changed

- Modified by on-going experiences

- A generalized idea, usually based on experience or prior knowledge.

These schemata are constantly being revised and elaborated upon each time the child

encounters new experiences. In doing these children create their own unique understanding

of the world, interpret their own experiences and knowledge, and subsequently use this

knowledge to solve more complex problems. In a neurological sense, the brain/mind is

constantly working to build and rebuild itself as it takes in, adapts/modifies new information,

and enhances understanding.

Twin processes modify schemes

Assimilation

= where new experience fits with schema

Through assimilation, we take in new information or experiences

and incorporate them into our existing ideas. The process is

somewhat subjective, because we tend to modify experience or

information somewhat to fit in with our pre-existing beliefs.

Assimilation

An adaptive process through which we interpret new experiences in

terms of existing schemes or cognitive structures

Twin processes modify schemes

Accommodation

New experience doesn’t fit with schema

The process of accommodation involves altering one's existing

schema, or ideas, as a result of new information or new

experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this

process.

Accommodation:

An adaptive process of modifying or changing existing schemes in order to better

fit new experiences. Obviously, accommodation influences assimilation, and vice

versa. As reality is assimilated, structures are accommodated.

For example, a young child may have an existing schema for dogs. Dogs have four

legs, so the child may automatically believe that all animals with four legs are dogs.

When the child learns that cats also have four legs, she will undergo a process of

accommodation in which her existing schema for dogs will change and she will also

develop a new schema for cats

Adaptation = assimilation + accommodation

Equilibration

Process of achieving mental stability when cognitive conflict occurs.

The process of restoration of harmony between the world and the individual’s

view of the world.

Then:

Organization + Adaptation = Equilibrium

Development = triggered by disequilibrium

i.e., the human infant is a self-correcting organism. It doesn’t like being in

disequilibrium.

Development is therefore...

Equilibrium disequilibrium Equilibrium disequilibrium

Piaget’s

cognitive development stages

Sensorimotor: birth -2 years

Preoperational stage:2-7 years

Concrete operational: 7-11

years

Formal operational: onward 11

1) Sensorimotor stage: (0-2 years)

The world is understood through the senses and actions

The child’s thinking involves seeing, hearing, moving, touching

Knowledge is limited, because it is based on physical interactions and

experiences.

Experimenting and learning through trial and error. Such exploration might

include shaking a rattle or putting objects in the mouth.

As they become more mobile, infants' ability to develop cognitively increases.

Early language development begins during this stage.

understanding object permanence: That is objects continue to exist even when

they can't see them.

Object permanence occurs at 7-9 months. Infants realize that an object exists

after it can no longer be seen.

Object permanence develops during the sensorimotor period:

• From 4-8 months, “out of sight, out of mind”

• By 8-12 months, make the A-not-B error

– Infants will search for an object in the place they last found it (A), rather than

in a new place (B)

• By 1 year, A-not-B error is overcome, but continued trouble with invisible

displacement

• By 18 months, object permanence is mastered

– The infant can mentally represent an invisible action (a toy is being hidden)

and conceive of the object in its final location

– By 24 months, infants can play complex hide-and-seek games

The Emergence of Symbols

• Symbolic capacity is the crowning achievement of the sensorimotor stage

– Ability to use images, words, gestures to represent or stand for objects and

experiences

– Can use internal behavioral schemes to construct mental symbols that can

guide future behavior

• By 24 months, children are deliberate thinkers with a symbolic capacity that lets

them solve problems in their heads

2) Preoperational stage- 2-7 years: ( logical thinking stage)

Egocentrism begins strongly and then weakens.

Children cannot conserve or use logical thinking.

They begin to use language; memory and imagination

children engage in make believe and can understand and express relationships

between the past and the future.

Focus on perceptual salience – the most obvious features of an object or a

situation – means that preschoolers can be fooled by appearance

More complex concepts, such as cause and effect relationships, have not been

learned.

The child is able to think operations trough logically in one direction

Has difficulty seeing another person’s point of view.

Animism: belief that inanimate things are alive

Transitive reasoning: absence of one will be absence of other.

• Reliance on perceptions and lack of logical thought means that children have

difficulty with conservation

– The idea that certain properties of an object or substance do not change

when its appearance is altered in a superficial way

– Piaget’s conservation-of-liquid-quantity task

• Children younger than 6 or 7 typically do not understand that the volume of

liquid is conserved despite the change in the shape it takes in different containers

=

What is CONSERVATION?

“the awareness that a quantity remains the same

despite a change in its appearance”

Difficulty with Classification

Using criteria to sort objects on the basis of characteristics such as shape, color,

function

Lack class inclusion, the ability to relate the whole class (furry animals) to its

subclasses (dogs, cats)

They do not understand that the subclasses are included within the whole class

A typical class inclusion problem in which children are asked whether there are more dogs or more animals in the picture

Preoperational stage is subdivided into two stages:

- Preconceptual stage(2-4)

Development of the ability to use symbols to represent objects.

- Intuitive stage( 4-7)

Using of concept formed from past and present experiences to form simple relations

intuitively. Most important cognitive development is concept.

A concept is a way of organizing information into meaningful generalisation.

3)Concrete operational stage- 7-11 years:

The term concrete operational means the child can reason only about tangible objects

are presented

Children can now conserve and think logically but only with practical aids.

Intellectual development in this stage is demonstrated through the use of logical and

systematic manipulation of symbols, which are related to concrete objects.

Thinking becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events, and

involves concrete references. But abstract thinking is not developed yet.

Recognition of the logical stability of the physical world.

Mentally manipulate complex association

Classification abilities improve and subclasses are understood to be

included in a whole class

Ability of reversibility which promotes logical thinking.

Seriation enables the concrete-operational child to arrange items mentally

along a quantifiable dimension such as weight or height

Transitivity is the understanding of relationships among elements in a series. If A is

taller than B, and B is taller than C, who is taller—A or C?

4) Formal operational stage- 12-…:

From age twelve to sixteen and onwards is the formal operational stage.

Adolescents use symbols related to abstract concepts.

They can think about multiple variables in systematic ways, can formulate hypotheses, and

think about abstract relationships and concepts.

Thought process become quit systematic and reasonably and well integrated

Reasoning and logical abilities

Hypothetical thinking

Reflective thinking

Mental manipulated of variables

Imagination develops

Ability to judge logically

Information processing

Metacognition( knowledge about knowledge)

Deductive thinking

Inductive thinking

Piaget believed that intellectual development was a lifelong

process, but that when formal operational thought was attained,

no new structures were needed. Intellectual development in

adults involves developing more complex schema through the

addition of knowledge.

Piaget’s Constructivist Approach:

Activation of children’s schemas is a beginning stage of Constructivist teaching

children of the same age often make similar kinds of mental mistakes

Knowledge is created by building schemes from experiences

Individuals construct their understanding, that learning is a constructive process

Active learning as opposed to simply absorbing info from a teacher, book, etc.

The child is a ‘little scientist’ constructing understandings of the world largely

alone

All learning is constructed, whether it is something we are taught or something

we learn on our own.

Whether or not we are taught in a “constructivist” manner, Piaget believed we

are constructing knowledge in all our learning.

Applied Piaget

Piaget’s theory can be used as a tool in the early childhood classroom.

You have to make inventors, innovators-not conformists"

Piaget did not think it was possible to hurry along or skip stages through education

Try to teach to the stages in an attempt to accelerate development

Emphasis on the learner as an individual who actively explores the environment to

construct their own meaning.

The intellectual development of children moves from the concrete to the abstract.

Understanding is built up step by step through active involvement.

knowledge must be assimilated in an active process by a learner with matured mental

capacity

Learning occurs as a result of experience, both physical and logical then prepare

these experiences

Educational implication of Piaget theory of cognitive development

Pre- operational stage

o Use concrete props and visual things whereas possible.

o Don’t except the students to be consistent in their ability to see the world from

someone’s else point of view

o be sensitive to the possibilities that students may have diff meaning for the same

word.

o Give children hands own experience.

o Provide wide range of experiences in order to build foundation for concept

learning.


Concrete operational child:

o Use concrete props and visuals things especially where dealing with sophisticated

materials.

o Continue to give students a chance to manipulate and test objects.

o Make sure readings are brief and well organized

o Use familiar examples to explain more complex ideas

o Give opportunities to classify and group objects and ideas on increasingly complex

levels.

o Present problems that require concrete thinking.

o Good teacher pupil interaction.


Formal operational stage

o Continue to use concrete operational teaching, strategies and materials.

o Give students opportunity to explore many hypothetical questions

o Ask them write paper, then exchange these papers with the opposing side and

debate topical social issues

o Ask student to write their personal vision.

o Give students opportunity to solve problems and reason scientifically.

o Set up grout discussion in which students design experiments to answer

questions.


• Whenever possible teach broad concepts, not just facts, using materials and ideas

relevant to the students lives.

• Use lyric from popular songs

Applied Piaget

What can children learn?

Children can learn only what they are ‘ready’ to learn.

New information must be able to be assimilated or accommodated

Information should be match with cognitive structure

Development cannot be ‘speeded up’

Applied Piaget

How do they learn?

• Through the resolution of disequilibrium

• Via self-discovery (via adaptation)

• Via ‘active’ participation

Applied Piaget

How should we teach children?

‘Bend’ to children’s needs

Provide appropriate learning environment.

Promote self-discovery

Guide/encourage exploratory learning, But ‘tune’ guidance to appropriate

developmental stage

Encourage self-motivated learning

Set ‘challenges’ to existing schemes

Little emphasis on surface learning

Strengths of Piaget’s theory

•Active rather than passive view of the child.

•Revealed important invariants in cognitive development.

•Piaget’s theory is wide-ranging and influential.

•Revealed important invariants in cognitive development.

•Piaget showed us that infants are active in their own development

•Piaget showed us that infants and children think differently at each stage of

development

•Piaget’s sequence of the direction of cognitive development was basically correct,

even though cultural factors may influence the rate of cognitive growth

Criticism to Piaget

• The children may wanted to please the experimenter therefore changing their behaviour.

• Piaget ignored the effect of the social setting upon the child. The way adults use language

and gestures.

• He believes development is a universal process but his initial sample sizes were

inadequate, particularly his theory of infant development is based on his three children.

• Piaget also probably introduced confounding variables and social desirability into his

observations. May be his children conditioned to respond in a desirable manner.

• The sample was also very homogenous, all had a similar genetic heritage and

environment.

During Piaget's 'sensorimotor stage' children begin to develop:

a) Attention and sensation.

b) Reflexes

c) object permanence

d) b and c

This situation illustrate Piaget concept of………………………..

a. Accommodation

b. Egocentrism

c. False belief

d. Dis- conservation

According to Piaget, children in the concrete operational stage have difficulty

with:

a) Using language

b) logical thinking

c) Abstract thinking

d) Conservation

Piaget explains the learning process by ___ (as building block of learning), ___

(when the new information fit into old one ), and ___ (transforming existing

information or creating new ones).

a) Schemas, assimilation, adaptation

b) Schemas, assimilation, accommodation

c) Assimilation, , accommodation, schema

d) Stages, assimilation, stages

Schema

Assimilation

Accommodation

Equilibrium

Adaptation

Small scientist

Inventor

Active

Constructing the meaning

Assimilate or accommodate

Resolution of disequilibrium

Promote self-discovery

Hurry or skip stages is impossible

Teaching can accelerate development

contexts for interpreting new knowledge

building block of conceptual development

Constantly modified or changed

new experience fits with schema

Altering one's existing schema

New experience doesn’t fit with schema

assimilation + accommodation

learner

learning

mental stability

concepts

Applied

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