Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Biography
*Born in 1896 in Switzerland
*Piaget wrote his first article on an albino sparrow at the age of 11
*In 1918, Piaget received Doctor of Natural Science with a thesis on molluscs at University of
Neuchatel.(age of 22)
*Piaget studied in psychology in Zurich under Lipps and Wrescher for experimental methodology
and measurement and under Bleuler for psychiatric clinic.
*In 1921, First article on cognitive child psychology
*1925---Piaget took the chair of psychology at University of Neuchatel
*1929--- Appointed professor of history of scientific thought at the University of Geneva
*1950--- Member of the Executive Council of UNESCO
*1955--- Became director of International Center for Epistemology in Geneva
*1972--- Defined the four stages of intellectual development
*1980--- Died on September 17th (aged 84)
Personal background that influenced Piaget’s life
Piaget’s father was devoted to his writings of medieval literature and the history of Neuchatel.
Piaget learned from his father the value of systematic work, even in small matters. His mother
was very intelligent, energetic, and kind, but had a rather neurotic temperament that made family
life troublesome. Her mental health influenced his studies of psychology and he became
interested in psychoanalysis and pathological psychology. Piaget's godfather was the Swiss
scholar Samuel Cornut who nurtured in him an interest in philosophy and epistemology during
his adolescence.
Historical and Philosophy Context
He considered himself a "genetic epistimologist" with his main interest being how one comes to
know things, in other words, interest in the process of the qualitative development of knowledge.
He was influenced by *Immanuel Kant, Henri Bergson, Pierre Janet (one of the founding fathers
of psychology), James Mark Baldwin( American philosopher and psychologist)
Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less
competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different
ways compared to adults. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental
structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is
based. Piaget was interested in the thought processes that underlie reasoning and felt that
[Type text]
younger children answered differently than their older peers due to the fact that the reasoned
differently.
Piaget's Theory Differs From Others In Several Ways:
*It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.
*It focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does not address learning of
information or specific behaviors.
*It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather than a
gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc.
Educational Philosophy & Implications for Teaching
Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. Piaget’s account of education is
dependent on his epistemology. The link between them is knowledge and development as
normative facts. Piaget argued that epistemological questions have empirical counter-parts.
Education was defined by Piaget as a two-termed relation linking: ‘on the one hand the growing
individual and on the other hand the social, intellectual and moral values into which the educator
is charged with initiating that individual (Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child,
137) In other words, education is a normative relation between an individual and values.
Implications of Piaget’s Theory for Education
1. Invariance of Concept Acquisition: When to Teach
Piaget’s work states that cognitive structures are developed in an invariant sequence. That
is, the course of cognitive development is the same for all children.
2. Individual Difference
Different individuals can be expected to differ with respect to each of interaction of
maturation, experience, social interactions, and equilibration variables.
3. Teaching Methods and Materials: How to Teach
Piaget’s theory suggests that teaching methods and material should be consistent with
children’s level of conceptual development. “The subject must be active, must transform
things, and find the structure of his own actions on the objects.”
[Type text]
Bibliography
Palmer, Joy. Fifty Modern Thinkers on Education: From Piaget to the Present Day. New York:
Routledge, 2001
Wadsworth, Barry J. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. New York: David McKay Co.
Inc, 1971
Piaget, Jean. To Understand is to Invent: The Future of Education. New York, NY: The Viking
Press, Inc, 1973
Piaget, Jean. The Language and Thought of the Child. 3rd Ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 1959
Gruber, Howard E. & Voneche, J. Jacques. The Essential Piaget: An Interpretive Reference and
Guide. Northvale, NJ, 1995
Online Resources
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/piaget.htm (accessed Jan 23, 2016)
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/piaget.htm#Time Line (accessed Jan 22,
2016)
[Type text]