Name: Nichole Stubblefield
Learning Module Assignment 1: Assimilation and Accommodation
Piaget, a psychologist, discovered that kids learn and process information based on scheme.
Scheme is how someone catalogues and processes new information. Piaget said that there are
two ways to categorize new information through assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation
is when you change new information to fit what we already know about certain subjects,
Accommodation is making changes to what we know so the new information makes more sense.
For example a child has two plants, when you think of the scheme that you have on plants you
first unlock the assimilation. They know that plants are similar to grass and that they water and
sunlight in order to grow. They plant both plants in the same area and wait for them to
grow.Weeks pass and the child notices that Plant A is growing, but Plant B looks worse than
when a child bought it. The child has given them the sunlight and water that they need but
something is missing. After some research a child discovered that Plant B requires a different
soil than Plant A. This requires a child to activate accommodation. The child knows that yes all
plants require soil, sunlight, and water, now the child knows that some plants require a specific
type of soil in order for them to grow.
In the case of a school setting when learning letters and words. First they learn the letters and
letter sounds. This is added to their scheme and placed under assimilation. When learning words
that learn that the combination of those letters makes words. They then learn that special rules
such as th- is not the same sound as the single letters t and h. That then activates the
accommodation to the letter sounds rules.
Even as adults we use assimilation and accommodation to adapt and evolve to the fast changing
world around us.