Piaget’s Developmental TheoryREPORT 1

Jean Piaget 1896- 1980

◦ Neuchâtel

Swiss developmental psychologist and a philosopher

Originally interested in biology and nature

Jean Piaget 1920s – Binet institute where his job is to develop intelligence tests

International Center for Genetic Epistemology

Genetic epistemology – the origins of thinking

Jean Piaget Made a systematic study of cognitive development

◦ Theory of Cognitive Child development◦ Observational studies of Cognition in Children◦ Ingenious test for cognitive abilities

“Children are born with a very basic mental structure on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.”

Believed that in order to fully understand human knowledge, one must know his/her evolution

Jean Piaget 1921 – he published series of articles

◦ As a child grows older, his/her speech being egocentric gradually decreases.

◦ Development on certain types of reasoning

Basic Ideas◦ Intelligence

◦ Succession of intellectual stages◦ “…No act of intelligence is

complete without emotions.”

◦ Content◦ Contemplation of a person at the

moment

Specific Heredity◦ Role of biological factors in

the development of intelligence

General heredity◦ Organization and adaptation

Psychological Structures

The description of Structures

Function, Structures, and Equilibrium

Three Basic Components to Piaget’s Cognitive Theory

Schema Adaptation

◦ Assimilation◦ Accommodation

Stages of Development◦ Sensorimotor ◦ Preoperational◦ Concrete operational◦ Formal operational

Schemas “a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning”

Basic building block of intelligent behavior

Schema is assumed to be stored in our mental representation and applied later on when needed

Adaptation a process of adapting or adjusting to the world through assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium.

◦ Assimilation◦ A process where a person perceives a matter from the environment to his or her mind or

applying the schemas stored.

◦ Accommodation◦ Is the process where there is a difference existing between the person’s concept and the real

matter

Stages of Development Jean Piaget studied children from infancy to adolescence and made natural observation with the help of his own child and his friends’.

He believed that adults and children think differently.

He therefore said that children undergo four universal stages of cognitive development.

1st stage: SensorimotorBirth- 2 years old

Rapid development of reflexes and motor abilities

Focus on immediate environment

Learning about the world through trial and error

Memory development

Increased physical mobility leads to increased cognitive development

Early language development

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Object Permanence ExperimentBlanket and Ball Study

Aim: Piaget (1963) wanted to investigate at what age children acquire object permanence.

Method: Piaget hid a toy under a blanket, while the child was watching, and observed whether or not the child searched for the hidden toy. Searching for the hidden toy was evidence of object permanence. Piaget assumed that the child could only search for a hidden toy if s/he had a mental representation of it.

Results: Piaget found that infants searched for the hidden toy when they were around 8-months-old.

Conclusion: Children around 8 months have object permanence because they are able to form a mental representation of the object in their minds.

2nd stage: Preoperational

2-7 years old

Development of some symbolic abilities

Maturity of language use

Development of memory and imagination

Not yet able to think logically; pre-logical or semi-logical

Greater interest in objects and people around him/her

“Age of curiosity”

Piaget also states in this stage, that there were limitations on the child’s thinking (Wadsworth, 1984):

1) Egocentrism

2) Transformation Reasoning & Reversibility

3) Centration

4) Conservation

Egocentrism “That is, the child cannot take the role of, or see the viewpoint of, another. He (or she) believes that everyone thinks the same things he does. As a result the child never questions his own thoughts because they are, as far as he is concerned, the only thoughts possible and consequently must be correct.”

If a child believes they are right, they are right; even if the evidence given contradicts their knowledge of the situation.

Transformation Reasoning & Reversibility

Transformation reasoning refers to the ability to file a sequence of successive events, and reversibility would be the ability to reverse or trace back the situation to its original state.

In transformative reasoning, the child focuses more on the individual elements of the transformation, rather than on the process of the transformation.

Piaget states that reversibility is a definite characteristic of intelligence. In reversibility, the child notices the change of the environment, but cannot currently reverse this knowledge.

Centration Perceptive evaluation is the key to the child’s thinking process, rather than cognitive evaluation.

ConservationThe child lacks an awareness of conservation.

The Three Mountains Task

Aim: Piaget and Inhelder (1956) wanted to find out at what age children decenter - i.e. become no longer egocentric.

Method: The child sits at a table, presented in front are three mountains. The mountains were different, with snow on top of one, a hut on another and a red cross on top of the other. The child was allowed to walk round the model, to look at it, then sit down at one side. A doll is then placed at various positions of the table.

The child is then shown 10 photographs of the mountains taken from different positions, and asked to indicate which showed the dolls view. Piaget assumed that if the child correctly picked out the card showing the doll's view, s/he was not egocentric. Egocentrism would be shown by the child who picked out the card showing the view s/he saw.

Findings:

Four year-olds almost always chose a picture that represented what they could see and showed no awareness that the doll’s view would be different from this. Six year-olds frequently chose a picture different from their own view but rarely chose the correct picture for the doll’s point of view. Only seven- and eight-year-olds consistently chose the correct picture.

Conclusion:

The child is drawn by changes in the appearance of the materials to conclude that a change has occurred.

The child’s thinking is 'centered' on one aspect of the situation, focused on states rather than on transformations and is irreversible (where the child cannot appreciate that a reverse transformation to the original state is possible).

At age 7, thinking is no longer egocentric as the child can see more than their own point of view.

3rd stage: Concrete Operational

7-11 years old

Key feature: conservation

How it is conducted: conservation of liquid

Marks the beginning of logical or operational thought, but can only apply logic to physical object

Children in this age thinks more organized and rational.

CONSERVATION the ability to understand that redistributing material does not affect its mass, volume or length.

Findings

By around seven years the majority of children can conserve liquid. Because they understand that when water is poured into a different shaped glass, the quantity of liquid remains the same, even though its appearance has changed.

Piaget concluded that this showed that by seven years of age children were able to conserve liquid.

•CLASSIFICATION

- ability to group objects according to same dimension that they share.

- ability to is order subgroups hierarchically,

SERIATION- cognitive operation that involves the ability to mentally arrange items along a quantifiable dimension, such as height or weight.

* Limitations in the preoperational stage (egocentrism, transformation & reversibility, conservation and centration) are no longer limitations in the concrete operational stage.

4th stage: Formal Operational

11 years and above

they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner, the capacity for higher-order reasoning.

He/she can do mathematical calculations, think creatively, use abstract reasoning, and imagine the outcome of particular actions

Abstract Reasoning

Third eye problemQuestion: where would you put your third eye?

Response: 9 year olds suggested that 3rd eye should be placed in the forehead, while 11 year olds were more inventive, they suggested that the 3rd eye be placed on the hand to be able to see around the corners (Schaffer, 1988)

Pendulum Task Involves: length of string and a set of weights

Things to consider: (variables) the length of the string, the heaviness of the weight and the strength of push.

Aim: to work out which factor was most important in determining the speed of swing of the pendulum.

Method: experimental method -that is to vary one variable at a time (e.g. trying different lengths with the same weight).

Conclusion: the systematic approach indicated the children were thinking logically, in the abstract, and could see the relationships between things.

Implications

“The principle of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.”

~ Jean Piaget

Implications of the Development Theory A focus on the process of children’s thinking, not just its products.

Recognition of the crucial role of children’s self-initiated, active involvement in learning activities.

A deemphasis on practices aimed at making children adult-like in their thinking.

Acceptance of individual differences in developmental progress.

Sources Ginsburg, H.P. and Opper, S. (1988). Piaget’s Theory of Intellectual Development 3rd ed. New

Jersey: Prentice Hall

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm

http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget

http://www.icels-educators-for-learning.ca

http://www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-of-development

http://www.simplypsychology.org/sensorimotor.html

http://www.simplypsychology.org/preoperational.html

McLeod, S. A. (2010). Formal Operational Stage. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/formal-operational.html

Wadsworth, B.J. (1984). Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive and Affective Development. 3rd ed. New York & London: Longman Inc.

http://www.weebly.com/educational-implications.html