THEORIST:
JEAN PIAGET
Katie Ross
Background
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Born August 9, 1896
Died September 16, 1980
At a young age he became
interested in research
Earned his Ph. D in
Zoology from the
University of Neuchatel
Developed his theories by
studying the intellectual
development of his own
three children
“Provided support for the
idea that children think
differently than adults.”
References:
http://psychology.about.com/od/profileso
fmajorthinkers/p/piaget.htm
THE FOUR STAGES OF
COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Background
Information About
Piaget’s Theory
Four Factors that Influence Changes in Thinking
• Biological Maturation:
The unfolding of the biological
changes that are genetically programmed.
• Activity: Acting on the environment and learning from it.
• Social Experiences: Learning from others.
• Equilibration: Search for mental balance between cognitive
schemes and information from the environment.
References: Woolfolk, 2010, p. 32
Two Basic Tendencies in Thinking
Organization
Adaptation
• The combining, arranging,
recombining, and rearranging of
behaviors and thoughts into
coherent systems.(Woolfolk, 2010, p.
32)
• Piaget says humans are born with a
tendency to organize thinking
processes into psychological
structures (these structures are for
understanding and interacting with
the world). (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 32)
• These structures are schemes.
• Piaget defines schemes as,
organized patterns of thought and
behavior used in particular situations
(Papalia, 2009, p. 147)
• Adjustment to the environment.
(Woolfolk, 2010, p. 33)
• Humans adapt by assimilation and
accommodation in order to achieve
equilibration.
• Assimilation: Fitting new
information into existing schemes
• Accommodation: Altering existing
schemes or creating new ones in
response to new information.
• Equilibration: Search for mental
balance between cognitive schemes
and information from the
environment.(Woolfolk, 2010, p. 33)
Importance of Equilibration
• Piaget’s theory is based around this
principle
• “…the actual changes in thinking take
place through the process of
equilibration.” (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 33)
• Process:
• We relate a certain scheme to an event and it
works, than it is in equilibration. If not, then
disequilibrium occurs and this causes humans
to search “for a solution assimilation and
accommodation” therefore thinking changes.
(Woolfolk, 2010, p. 33)
The Four Stages
of Cognitive
Development
Sensorimotor Stage
• Infancy (age 0-2)
• Infants learn, “about themselves and their world through their
developing sensory and motor activity” (Papalia, 2009, p. 146)
• Schemes remain tied to physical actions
• Thinking at this stage involves: seeing, hearing, moving, touching,
and asking
• Accomplishments:
• Ability to mentally represent objects and actions in memory
• Start to recognize that objects still exist even if they are removed from
sight
• They move from reflex actions to goal-directed activity
Preoperational Stage
• Ages 2-7
• Tend to be egocentric
• Egocentric: Assuming that others experience the world the same way they do (Woolfolk,
2010, p. 35)
• Expansion of symbolic thought
• Symbolic Thought: Ability to use mental representations (words, numbers, or images) to
which a child has attached meaning (Papalia, 2009, p. 229)
• Good at one way logic but have difficulty thinking backwards
• Can do simple categorization
• Difficulty with conservation and decentering
• Conservation: Some characteristics of an object remain the same despite changes in
appearance (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 35)
• Decentering: Focusing on more than one aspect at a time (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 35)
Concrete-Operational Stage
• Ages 7-11
• Use reasoning to solve actual problems
• Understanding of conservation, knowledge that things can change
or be transformed and still conserve its original characteristics
• Thinking is limited to real situations (the here and now), they
cannot reason hypothetically or solve abstract problems
• Education/Learning Affects:
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Master classification
Categorizes well
Number and mathematics sense grow
Understanding of maps, models, distance, and time grow
Use only inductive reasoning
Formal Operations
• Ages 11 to Adulthood
• Biggest part of this stage: Ability to think ABSTRACTLY!
• Thinking shifts from what is, to what might be
• Emotional Affects:
• Adolescent Egocentrism- they know that others have different opinions
and beliefs but are focused on their own ideas (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 39)
• The possible and ideal start captivating the mind and feelings (Papalia,
2009, p. 372)
• Education/Learning Affects:
• Use symbols to represent other symbols (x stands for an unknown
number), which is used in Algebra and Calculus
• Better understand metaphor and allegory in Language Arts
• Capable of hypothetical-deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning
Cognitive Development in the Classroom
• “There are at least two aspects of Piaget’s work that we believe are
important parts of any course dealing with children’s learning and
development: the logical problem developed by Piaget to
demonstrate children’s thinking processes and the clinical method
used to administer these problems.” (Ormrod, 1985, p. 216)
• Educator’s can perform the clinical methods on students through
already set-up logical problems to figure out what stage of
development the child is at.
• Different Experiments used: reverse seriation, conservation of
substance, conservation of area, conservation of displaced volume,
combinatorial logic, separation and control of variables, and
proportional reasoning. (Ormrod, 1985, p. 216)
Teaching Children at Different Levels
Preoperational
• Use props and visual aids
• Make instructions as short as
possible
• Help students gain the ability to
see things from another's point of
view
• Understand that students might
have different meanings for the
same word
• Hands-on practice is a must
• Provide a wide range of
experiences to help build
children’s schemas
References: Woolfolk, 2010, p.36-38
Concrete-Operational
• Use props and visual aids
• Allow children to manipulate and
test material
• Instruction time needs to still
remain brief and organized
• When explaining complex ideas
use familiar examples
• Allow time for classification and
grouping
• Give children logical problems to
think about and solve
Formal Operations
• “…only 30% to 40% of high school
students can do Piaget’s formaloperational tasks” (as cited in
Woolfolk, 2010, p.39)
• It is questioned whether all adults
ever get to this stage and at what
age this occurs
Fostering Formal-operational Thinking
• Allow students to experiment
• Allow them to think hypothetically
• Teach broad concepts, not just
specific facts and relate the
material to their own life’s
References: Woolfolk, 2010, p. 40
Bottom Line with Cognitive Development and
Teaching
• Piaget’s theory gives educators one way of figuring out how
students think differently
• A teacher needs to understand that they could and probably will
have all types of learners, who are in different stages, trying to
learn in their classroom
• Materials need to be set up to benefit concrete thinkers but also
formal thinkers
• Instruction, tasks, and presentations need to be set up to satisfy all
the levels of learners and thinkers
• The Cognitive Development logical problems and clinical methods
can be used by teachers as they plan
• The specific teaching advice discussed previously can help teachers
set up their instruction based on what age group they are teaching
in order to provide the best education
Teacher’s need to remember that there is no
one size fits all education for all age groups!
Younger children learn and think differently
then older children!
References
Cherry, K. (n.d.). About.com: Psychology. Jean
Piaget biography. Retrieved March 14,
2012, from http://psychology.about.com/
od/profilesofmajorthinkers /p/piaget.htm
Ormrod, J.E., & Carter, K.R. (1985). Systematizing
the piagetian clinical interview for
classroom use [Electronic Version].
Teaching of Psychology, Vol. 12, No. 4,
216-219.
Papalia, D.E., Olds, S.W., & Feldman, R.D. (2009).
Human development (11 th ed.) New York:
McGraw-Hill Companies.
Woolfolk, A. (2010). Educational psychology (11 th
ed.) New Jersey: Merrill, Pearson.