Jean Piaget ( 1896 – 1890)
-
Swiss psychologist/educator
interested in intellectual growth
noticed how children first learned by using 5 senses
described in detail the intellectual stages that children go through as their minds
develop.
Personality theories
Piaget’s definition of ASSIMILATION is using an old exploratory skill [like and infant
grabbing a rattle and thrust it into its mouth] on a new object [grabs a watch]
Schema is an exploratory skill/ or action.
Eventually the infant will “grab and thrust” a new object, like a ball – but it will not work.
So the infant will use Piaget’s ACCOMODATION theory, when the infant changes his
schema [by squeeze and drool]
The ideal stage is called the equilibrium, which is the balance between Assimilation and
Accommodation which according to Piaget, are directed at a balance between the structure
of the mind and the environment.
Piaget developed four stages
The SENSORIMOTOR STAGE (birth to 2 years) – uses senses and motors [large:
small:
] to understand
1-4 months Primary Circular Reaction
- first movement/action toward body [sucks thumb – feels good] it is appealing
so the child repeats
4 – 12 months Secondary Circular Reaction
- movement toward object that is appealing [ squeeze a duck -> quacks]
12 -24 months Tertiary Circular Reaction
- variation of action/schema on other objects [ child will squeeze other objects to
see if there is a noise]
1.5 MENTAL REPRESENTATION which is the ability to hold an image in the
mind for a period beyond immediate experience.
 Deferred imitation – throwing tantrum after seeing one 1hour
ago
 Mental combinations – put a toy down to open door/or/ instead
of sucking or sitting on a doll, she puts it to ‘bed’ and feeds it.
The PREOPERATIONAL STAGE (2-7 years)
- Children begin to use symbols [which represents something, writing, drawing]
- Along with creative play [using a box for a table].
- Develop an understanding of past and present [“Remember when you…”]
- Egocentric character, very self centered [holds up a picture for mom to see
but picture is facing him]
Children center themselves around one aspect
of any problem/communication. [I don’t live in
Canada, I live in Markham] eventually the will
develop their DECENTER, the ability to
realize quantity does change through
appearance. At this point the child is ready to
move to the next stage.
The CONCRETE OPERATIONS STAGE (7-12 years) Operations refer to logical
operations or principles we sue when solving problems, children begin conservation when
they realize a quantity does not change despite physical changes.
Before Con.
sees less
dots here.
After Con.
sees the same
amount of dots here
REVERSABILITY is when you can change appearance of object/objects/quantity.
CLASSIFICATION when the child understands this.
SERATION putting the dots like above (in order)
The FORMAL OPERATIONS STAGE
Around 12 logical operations and abstract thinking comes into play. Before a child if asked
“How would you feel if someone made fun of your nose?” would reply “but, I don’t have a
big nose!”
It is the formal operations stage that lets us figure out a problem in systematic
way. Ask a teen for the rules for making pendulums swing quickly or slowly.
His experiment would tell him that a short string leads to a fast swing, and a long string to
a slow swing, and that the weight of the pendulum means nothing at all!
The teen has learned to group possibilities in four different ways:
Conjunction: “Both A and B make a difference” (e.g. both the string’s length and the
pendulum’s weight).
Disjunction: “It’s either this or that” (e.g. it’s either the length or the weight).
Implication: “If it’s this, then that will happen” (the formation of a hypothesis).
Incompatibility: “When this happens, that doesn’t” (the elimination of a hypothesis).
He can operate on the operations -- a higher level of grouping. If you have a proposition,
such as “it could be the string or the weight,” you can do four things with it:
Identity: Leave it alone. “It could be the string or the weight.”
Negation: Negate the components and replace or’s with and’s (and vice versa). [“It
might not be the string and not the weight, either.”]
Reciprocity: Negate the components but keep the ‘and’s’ and ‘or’s’ as they are.
[“Either it is not the weight or it is not the string.”]
Correlativity: Keep the components as they are, but replace ‘or’s’ with ‘and’s’, etc.
[“It’s the weight and the string.”]
Questions
3. I feel that Piaget poses some interesting and seemingly correct theories about the
development of children in their early years. I have two younger brothers and one younger
sister. I watched my brother grow up and assisted my mother in many things. The only
thing I would question is how he would explain the way infants tend to grab other people
hair, fingers ect. when they are quite young (this occurs mostly when the thing to grad hair
or finger is very close).
4. If I were a manager of a toy store I would design:
1-4 months – a toy that would maybe go around an infants wrist, so they could explore the
toy like they would their body.
4- 12 months – toys that have reactions, light up, make a sounds, blow air ect.
12- 24 months – toys that stimulate thinking and learning skills, numbers, shapes, the idea
of largest and smallest, possibly a toy that would fit into each other… teaching how sizes
differ.