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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

(Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive Process)

“Piaget called his general theoretical framework “genetic epistemology” because he was interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms. Piaget was initially into biology

and he also had a background in philosophy. Knowledge from both these disciplines influenced his theories and research of child development. Out of his researches, Piaget

came up with the stages of cognitive development.”

Prepared by:Ivy Jean C. SiagoJenny Tuazon(BSE-MATH2A)

Instructor: Mr. Paul Jorel Santos

Jean Piaget’s prominent work is his theory on the four stages of cognitive development. He was one of the most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology in the 20th century whose primary interest was in biological influences on how we come to know, and the developmental stages we move through as we acquire this ability (Singer & Revenson, 1997, p. 13).

Piaget (1973) believed that the child plays an active role in the growth of intelligence and learns by doing. He regarded the child as a philosopher who perceives the world only as he has

experienced it. Therefore, most of Piaget’s inspiration in cognitive and intellectual development came from observations of children. In fact, Piaget observed and studied his own three children through each stage of their cognitive development.

The theory of cognitive development focuses on mental processes such as perceiving, remembering, believing, and reasoning. Reasoning is the essence of intelligence, and reasoning is what Piaget studied in order to discover “how we come to know” (Singer & Revenson, 1997, p. 13). Piaget believed that cognitive development is cumulative; that is, understanding a new experience grows out of a previous learning experience.

Basic Cognitive Concepts

Schema- refers to the cognitive structures by which individuals intellectually adapt to and organize their environment. It is an individual’s way to understand or create meaning about a thing or experience.

Assimilation- the process of fitting a new experience into an existing or previously created cognitive structure or schema

Accommodation –the process of creating new schema. Equilibration –achieving proper balance between assimilation and accommodation.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage 1. Sensory-Motor Stage (Birth to Infancy)

Object Permanence

The stage when the child is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking and reaching becomes more organized in his movement and activity.

The ability of the child to know that an object still exists even when out of sight.

Stage 2. Pre –Operational Stage (2-7 years old)

Symbolic Function

Egocentrism

Centration

Irreversibility

Animism

Transductive Reasoning

The child can now make mental representations and is able to pretend, the child is now ever closer to the use of symbols.

The ability to represent objects and events.A symbol is a thing that represents something else.(i.e., drawing, written word, shapes).

The tendency of the child to only see his point of view and to assume that everyone also has his same point of view.

This refers to the tendency of the child to only focus on one aspect of a thing or event and exclude other aspects.

The child still has the ability to reverse their thinking.

The tendency of the child to attribute human like traits or characteristics to inanimate objects.

Pre-operational child’s type of reasoning that is neither inductive nor deductive.

Stage 3. Concrete Operational Stage (8-11 years)

Decentering

Reversibility

Conservation

Seriation

This stage is characterized by the ability of the child to think logically but only in terms of concrete objects.

The ability of the child to perceive the different features of objects and situations

The child can now follow that certain operations can be done in reverse.

The ability to know that certain properties of objects like number, mass, volume or area do not change even if there is a change in appearance.

Refers to the ability to order or arrange things in a series based on one dimension such as weight, volume, or size.

Stage 4. Formal Operational Stage (12-15 years old)

Hypothetical Reasoning

Analogical Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning

They can now solve abstract problems and can hypothesize.

The ability to come up with different hypothesis about a problem and to gather and weight data in order to make final decision or judgment.

The ability to perceive the relationship in one instance and then use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in another similar situation or problem.

The ability to think logically by applying a general rule to a particular instance or situation.

Conclusion

 Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development is a description of cognitive development as four distinct stages in children: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and formal.

Originator: Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Key Terms: Sensory-motor, preoperational, concrete, formal, accommodation, assimilation.

Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development

Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) observed his children (and their process of making sense of the world around them) and eventually developed a four-stage model of how the mind processes new information encountered. He posited that children progress through 4 stages and that they all do so in the same order. These four stages are:

Sensory-motor stage (Birth to 2 years old). The infant builds an understanding of himself or herself and reality (and how things work) through interactions with the environment. It is able to differentiate between itself and other objects. Learning takes place via assimilation (the organization of information and absorbing it into existing schema) and accommodation (when an object cannot be assimilated and the schemata have to be modified to include the object.

Preoperational stage (ages 2 to 4). The child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. Objects are classified in simple ways, especially by important features.

Concrete operations (ages 7 to 11). As physical experience accumulates, accomodation is increased. The child begins to think abstractly and conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences.

Formal operations (beginning at ages 11 to 15). Cognition reaches its final form. By this stage, the person no longer requires concrete objects to make rational judgements. He or she is capable of deductive and hypothetical reasoning. His or her ability for abstract thinking is very similar to an adult

Reference: Lucas, M. D. (2002) Child and Adolescent Development. Quezon City, Manila:Lorimar Publishing Incorporated.