Developmental Theory - Piaget

Outline
– Piaget’s Theory
Features of the theory
 Sensorimotor stage
 Preoperational stage
 Concrete operations stage
 Formal operations stage

1
A Constructivist Approach

Jean Piaget’s theory remains
the standard against which all
other theories are judged
– Often labeled constructivist
because it depicts children as
constructing knowledge for
themselves

Students are seen as
– Active
– Learning many important lessons
on their own
– Intrinsically motivated to learn
2
Nature and Nurture

Piaget believed that nature and
nurture interact to yield cognitive
development
– Adaptation: The tendency to respond
to the demands of the environment to
meet one’s goals
– Organization: The tendency to
integrate particular observations into
coherent knowledge
3
Sources of Continuity

Three processes work together from birth
to propel development forward
– Assimilation: The process by
which people translate incoming
information into a form they can
understand
– Accommodation: The process by
which people adapt current
knowledge structures in response
to new experiences
– Equilibration: The process by
which people balance assimilation
and accommodation to create
stable understanding
4
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Birth to
2 years
Infants know the world through their
senses and through their actions. For
example, they learn what dogs look
like and what petting them feels like.
Preoperational
2-7
years
Toddlers and young children acquire
the ability to internally represent the
world through language and mental
imagery. They also begin to be able to
see the world from other people’s
perspectives, not just from their own.
5
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Concrete
Operational
7 - 11
years
Children become able to think
logically, not just intuitively. They now
can classify objects into coherent
categories and understand that
events are often influenced by
multiple factors, not just one.
Formal
Operational
11+ years
Adolescents can think systematically
and reason about what might be as
well as what is. This allows them to
understand politics, ethics, and
science fiction, as well as to engage
in scientific reasoning.
6
Sensorimotor Substages
Sub Age
Description
3
4–8
months
Infants becoming increasingly
interested in the world around them.
By the end of this substage, object
permanence, the knowledge that
objects continue to exist even when
they are out of view, typically emerges.
4
8 – 12
months
During this substage, children make
the
A-Not-B error, the tendency to reach
to where objects have been found
before, rather than to where they were
last hidden.
7
Piaget’s A-Not-B Task
8
The Balance Scale: An Example of Centration
9
Procedures Used to Test Conservation
10
Concrete Operational Stage



Children begin to
reason logically
about the world
They can solve
conservation
problems, but their
successful reasoning
is largely limited to
concrete situations
Thinking
systematically
remains difficult
11
Formal Operational Stage

Cognitive development culminates when
students think abstractly and reason
hypothetically

Individuals can imagine alternative worlds
and reason systematically about all
possible outcomes of a situation

the attainment of the formal
operations stage
is not universal
12
Formal operations - adolescence

Begins about 11 yrs.

Completed about 14 – 20 yrs. for some
people

Ability to do complex tasks and problems
involving multiple variables
e.g. the pendulum problem
13
Inhelder and Piaget’s Pendulum Problem


The task is to compare the
motions of longer and
shorter strings, with lighter
and heavier weights
attached, in order to
determine the influence of
weight, string length, and
dropping point on the time it
takes for the pendulum to
swing back and forth
Children below age 12
usually perform
unsystematic experiments
and draw incorrect
conclusions
14
Solution process – formal operations

Change ONE variable while
holding the others constant

Test the possibilities
systematically

Can explain not only
what the correct answer is
but WHY it is correct
15
Critique of Piaget’s Theory
– Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of
the social world to cognitive development
Piaget’s tasks are culturally biased
 Schooling and literacy affect rates of development

– e.g. Greenfield’s study of the Wolof

Formal operational thinking is not universal
– e.g. Gladwin’s study of the Polynesian islanders
– Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive
processes that give rise to children’s thinking
and about the mechanisms that produce
cognitive growth
16
Implications for teachers in secondary
schools…
17