ATTAINMENT OF CONSERVATION ABILITY AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL
CHILDREN IN THE LIGHT OF PIAGET’S COGNITIVE THEORY
Abstract
Education brings positive changes in an individual according to the society. Piaget's theory of
intellectual development has vital implications in the field of education. Piaget's discoveries have
had an impact upon curriculum, instruction and assessment in schooling, particularly for
mathematics. The aim of this study was to determine Piaget's notion of cognitive development
particularly his concept of attainment of conservation. The design of the study was descriptive
and cross sectional. Population of the study included all the Primary Schools in District Kohat,
North-West of Pakistan. Sample comprised four schools, two each from urban and rural areas
and a total 160 students including 80 each from rural and urban (Both genders) were selected
through simple random sampling. Moreover the sample consisted of grades 4th and 5th with equal
proportion of both genders. To achieve the objectives of the study seven tasks were developed.
Data was collected through performance of children and further tabulated, analyzed and
interpreted by using percentage and graphic method. Results revealed rural school children
showed better performance as compared to urban students, it might be due to late enrolments in
the schools and female performance is slightly better as compared to male students.
Introduction
If teachers are familiar about Intellectual stages of their students they can handle
students in a better way and can provided them learning materials, and adopt
learning methodology according to their mental level .If teachers aware about the
level of their students they will be never angry if something is not clear to their
students, it may be possible that their students still not reach to that particular level
where they can understand those things.
According to Piaget (1973), “Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in
gaining knowledge and comprehension, including thinking, knowing, remembering,
judging, and problem solving. The development of cognition is primarily distributed
into three stages: sensori-motor, concrete operational and formal operational”.
According to Piaget (1973), “Conservation is the most famous of all logical
operations associated with the stage of concrete operations level. According to
Piaget (1973) Conservation means, “Understanding that quantity, length or number
of items is unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of the object or items”.
Present study is based on the concept of conservation of concrete operation stage of Piaget’s
theory of cognation.
Objective of the Study
Following are the objectives of the study:
1. To find out the attainment of conservation ability among primary school children.
2. To compare the conservation ability of the male and female school children
3. To compare the conservation ability of rural and urban school children.
Literature review
According to Papalia, Olds & Feldman (2007) “The term development refers to the process of
change and stability that occur throughout the human life span”. Piaget believed that the
development of a child occurs through a continuous transformation of thought processes.
According to Weinert & Helmke (1998), “a developmental stage consists of a period of months
or years when certain development takes place. Although students are usually grouped by
chronological age, their development levels may differ significantly as well as the rate at which
individual children pass through each stage”.
According to Papila & Olds (1996) “This difference may depend on maturity, experience,
culture, and the ability of the child”. According to Berk (1997), “Piaget believed that children
develop steadily and gradually throughout the varying stages and that the experiences in one
stage form the foundations for movement to the next”.
Wadsworth (1984) noted the four key concepts, which Piaget found so useful in describing what
he observed.

Schema

Assimilation

Accommodation

Equilibration
There is an enormous research literature, with thousands of studies investigating cognitive
change from scores of specific perspectives. To check the Conservation of volume Elkind
(1961) used two balls of clay identical in size, shape and weight .He asked the subjects’
predication, judgment and explanation questions. The sample consisted of 175 children of 5 to
11 years. Out of them 56 children were conservers of volume.
Vinh Bang and Inhelder (1962) used two similar cylinders differing in weight and two glasses
of water. The subjects from age 8 to 12 (N=27) were asked why two cylinders were raising the
water levels equally. Percentage of conservers was 48 at 12 years, which were the highest
among all the age groups of the study.
Lovell and Oglivie (1960) tested 332 school children on plastic-ball tasks. The age range was 7
years 8 months to 10 years 8 months. Each child was asked a judgment and an explanation
questions. 85% were conservers among children whose mean age was 10 years 8 months. The
percentage of conservers grew with age.
Nyiti (1976) conducted his study on a sample of 139 of 8 to 14 years old Tanzanians. Plastic
ball test was employed. The subjects showed conservation of substance at 8 to 9 years age. The
researcher used 75% criterion for determines the attainment age. The conservation has also
been studied on adults also.
Research Methodology
The study focused at determining Piaget's notion of cognitive development particularly his
concepts of conservation and to discover what children’s of primary school thoughts about
conservation were and what misconceptions they might have and either local child perform
similarly on Piagetian cognitive tasks to others in the country and elsewhere and that En-
vironmental factors such as urbanization and gender factors are similarly related to cognitive
development.
Population
Population of the study comprised all Primary Schools in District Kohat, North-West of
Pakistan.
Sample
Sample comprised four schools, two each from urban and rural areas and a total 160 students
including 80 each from rural and urban (Both genders) were selected through simple random
sampling. Moreover the sample consisted of grades 4th and 5th with equal proportion of both
genders.
Research Instruments
The researchers prepared seven tasks to check the attainment of conservative ability among
primary school children in District Kohat.
Conservation of Length: In length conservation, a child is presented with two eight inch long
strips of plastic pieces are laid parallel to each other that is their edges are exactly same with one
another. The child asked if these sticks have the same length, when child is satisfied that they
were of the same length. Than one of them move a little and asked the students that which one is
longer. Conserver child were say that both sticks having same length.
Conservation of weight: Two balls of same amount of plastic given to the students and asked
for judging their weight, that either they are of the same weight. Than press one of them. And
asked again which one is heavier? Conserver child will respond that both balls of the same
weight.
Conservation of Area: Take four blocks of equal size of plastic and arranged them in the center
of a paper and asked the students that see the area these blocks take than arranged them in the
corners of a paper and asked the students that either they take the same area or not. Conserver
child will respond that on the change of the position of blocks there is no effect on the area
covered by blocks.
Conservation of amount of Substance: Take two rubber bands have the same length & width
and show them to the child and asked them that either they take same rubber. They will say yes
then one of them is rolled and again repeats the question, which one having more rubber?
Conserver child will say that both rubber bands are of the same length.
Conservation of Quantity of Items: Two shapes of equal blocks of plastic is arranged with 6 x
2 and 4 x 3 different size one will be high and other one will be flat. And asked the students
which shape contains more blocks. Conserver child will responded that both shape carry equal
blocks.
Conservation of Liquid volume: Two identical glasses A, and B, contain the same amount of
water. The child is asked, “Is there the same amount of water in these two glasses?” The child
responds that they are the same. Than the water in glass B is poured into a tall thin glass and the
child compares glass A and C. the same question is repeated. Conserver child will responded
again that both glasses contain same amount of water.
C o n s e r v a t i o n i n s i t u a t i o n s s u p p o r t e d b y logical reason: On a paper two figures
are printed one of them is 24+42=66 then asked the students that what would be the answer of
42+24=? If students stats to count them it means they are not conserve it and if they judge their
reversibility it means they conserve it.
Data Collection and Interpretation
Researchers personally visited and administered the conservative ability tasks (CAT) from the
student. To achieve the objectives of the study seven tasks were developed, including
conservation of number, conservation of liquid volume, conservation of length, conservation of
amount of substance, conservation of area, conservation of quantity of items, conservation of
weight, conservation in situations supported by logical reason.
Those who responded on all the seven tasks were classified as conservers. Those who partially
responded got one mark as per task conserve. Data was collected, tabulated, analyzed and
interpreted by using percentage and graphics methods.
The results described the responses of male and female students of urban and rural school of
grades 4th and 5th to the conservation task in terms of the response category they gave to each of
the tasks. 80 Male/Female rural students give 74 % satisfactory responses to the tasks and 26 %
unsatisfactory responses to the tasks as compare to the 80 Male/Female Urban students give 69
% satisfactory responses to the tasks and 31 % unsatisfactory responses to the tasks. Difference
between Urban and Rural is 5 %, which means Rural Male / Female give 5% more satisfactory
responses as compare to Urban Male /Female. Rural Female gives 14 % more responses as
compare to Rural Male. Urban Female gives 12 % more responses as compare to Urban Male.
Rural Female gives 7 % more responses as compare to Urban Female. Rural Male gives 3 %
more responses as compare to urban male.
Findings
1. Analysis of the responses to the task on conservation showed the description of cognitive
functioning of children's mind. It shows that children of relatively lower conservative
abilities who were there in class 4th as compare to those who were in class 5th. Majority
of class 5th is also still at middle to mature level of concrete operations.
2. Additionally Primary school children of district Kohat having the same conservation
ability as elsewhere. Rural school children having slightly more conservative ability as
compare to urban school children due to late enrolment in the schools. Performance of
female children was slightly better than male children.
3. These differences between boys and girls and urban and rural children in primary
school supports Piaget’s theory which emphasis that such advancement in intellectual
development as conservation abilities are mainly results of hereditary factors such as age
and maturation, rather than environmental factors.
Educational Importance of the Study
The study will bring into limelight the importance of cognitive development and its
understanding in teaching profession. Teachers will be able to teach and mold their teaching
strategies according to the cognitive levels of the students with special focus at concrete
operational stage of Piaget’s cognitive theory.
Connection to Themes
The study in hand is closely related to sub-theme-3 i.e Exploring and understanding
contemporary approaches to teaching and learning.
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