PIAGETS STAGES OF
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) : History
• Born: August 9, 1896, Switzerland
• Died: September 16,1980 (Age 84)
• Parents: Eldest son of Arthur Piaget and
Rebecca Jackson.
• Education: Received Ph.D. from
University of Neuchatel in 1918.
• Wife: Married to Valentine Chatenay in
1923
• Children: 3 children namely Jacqueline,
Lucienne and Laurent whose intellectual
development from infancy to language was
studied by Piaget.
Introduction
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of
the 20th century's most influential
researchers in the area of
developmental psychology.
• He was originally trained in the areas
of biology and philosophy and
considered himself a "Genetic
Epistemologist".
• Piaget wanted to know how children
learned through their development in
the study of knowledge.
.
• Piaget's
theory is based on the
idea that the developing child
builds cognitive structures.
• He believes that the child's
cognitive structure increases
with the development.
• Piaget's Theory of infant
development were based on his
observations of his own three
children.
What is
Cognition?
• The term cognition is derived from
the latin word "cognoscere" which
means "to know" or "to recognize"
or "to conceptualize".
• Cognition is "the mental action or
process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought,
experience, and the senses."
What is Cognitive
Development?
• Cognitive Development is the emergence of the ability
to think and understand.
• The acquisition of the ability to think, reason and
problem solve.
• It is the process by which people's thinking changes
across the life span.
• Piaget studied Cognitive Development by observing
children in particular, to examine how their thought
processes changed with age.
• It is the growing apprehension and adaptation to the
physical and social environment.
How Cognitive
Development occurs?
• Cognitive Development is gradual and orderly
changes by which mental process becomes more
complex and sophisticated.
• The essential development of cognition is the
establishment of new schemes.
• Assimilation and Accommodation are both the
processes of the ways of Cognitive Development.
• The equilibration is the symbol of a new stage
of the Cognitive Development.
Basic Cognitive
Concepts
Schema
Piaget used the term "schema" to
refer to the cognitive structures by
which individuals intellectually
adapt to and organize their
environment.
Assimilation
This is the process of fitting a new
experience into an existing or
previously created cognitive structure
or schema.
Accommodation
This is the
process of
creating new
schema.
Equilibration
Piaget believed that the
people have the natural need
to understand how the world
works and to find order.
Structure and predictability in
their life.
Cognitive development
involves a continuous effort
to adapt to the environment
in terms of assimilation and
accommodation.
Piaget's Stages
of
Cognitive Development
Stage 1
Sensori-motor Stage
The first stage corresponds from birth to
infancy. This is the stage when a child who
is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking and
reaching becomes more organized in his
movement and activity .
Object
Permanence
This is the ability of
the child to know that
an object still exists
even when out of
sight.
Stage 2
Pre-operational Stage
The pre-operational stage covers from about two
or 7 years old, roughly corresponding to the
preschool years. Intelligence at this stage is
intuitive in nature. At this stage, the child can now
make mental representations and is able to
pretend, the child is now ever closer to the use of
symbols.
The stage is highlighted by the
following:
Symbolic Function
This is the ability to
represent objects and
events. A symbol is a
thing that represents
something else.
Egocentrism
This is the tendency of the child
to only see his point of view and
to assume that everyone also has
his same point of view.
Centration
This refers to the
tendency of the child
to only focus on one
aspect of a thing or
event and exclude
other aspects.
Irreversibility
Pre-operational children still
have the inability to reverse
their thinking.They can
understand that 2+3 is 5, but
cannot understand that 5-3 is 2
Animism
This is the tendency
of children to
attribute human
like traits or
characteristics to
inanimate objects.
Transductive Reasoning
This refers to the pre-operational
child's type of reasoning that is
neither inductive nor deductive.
Stage 3
Concrete-operational Stage
This stage is
characterized by the
ability of the child to
think logically but only in
terms of concrete
objects.
Decentering
This refers to the ability of
the child to perceive the
difference features of
objects and situation.
Reversibility
During the stage of
concrete operations, the
child can follow that certain
operation can be done in
reverse.
Conservation
This is 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.
Seriation
This refers to the ability to
order or arrange things in a
series based on one dimensiin
such as weight, volume or
size.
STAGE 4
Formal operational Stage
In the final stage of formal operations
covering ages between 12 and 15
years,thinking becomes more logical.
They can now solve abstract problems
and can hypothesize.
This stage is characterized by
the following:
Hypothetical Reasoning
This is the ability to come
up with different
hypothesis about a problem
and to gather and weigh
data in order to make a
final decision or judgment.
Analogical Reasoning
This is 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.
Deductive Reasoning
This is the ability to think
logically by applying a general
rule to a particular instance or
situation.
Educational Implications
• Emphasis on discovery approach in
learning.
• Curriculum should provide specific
educational experience based on
children's developmental level.
• Arrange classroom activities so that
they assist and encourage self learning.
• Social interactions have a great
educational value for Piaget. Positive
social actions, therefore should be
encouraged.
• Instruction should be geared to the
level of the child. As the level of the child
changes at each stage, the level of
instruction or exploratory activities
should also change.
• Simple to Complex and Project method
of teaching.
• Co-curricular activities have equal
importance as that of curricular
experiences in the cognitive
development of children.
• Major Goals of education according to
Piaget are critical and creative thinking.
Contribution to Education
• Piaget's theory helped educators, parents and
investigators to comprehend the capacity of children
in their different stages.
• He made us conscious with the way children and
adults think.
• A lot of school programs have been redesigned
taking as base Piaget's discoveries.
• Piaget made a revolution with the developmental
psychology concentrating all his attention to the
mental process and his role with behavior.
Reporters