Jean Piaget
By Patricia Dawson
Biography

Biologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget was born on August 9,1896 in Neuchatel
Latin, Switzerland, and died in 1980 in Geneva, Switzerland.

At the age of 11 he attended high school at Neuchatel Latin in Switzerland.
Science was something he was interested at a early age, he also published a
scholarly paper that same year.

Some of the accomplishments he made throughout his extended career was that
he wrote over sixty books and hundreds of articles.

Even though Piaget has been referred to as a psychologist he was really a
epistemologist. When doing this work it is what made him a major contributor on
the base of educational psychology.

After graduating from High School Piaget went on to the University of Neuchatel
and studded zoology and got his Ph.D. in the natural sciences in 1918. He also got
his doctorate in biology even though he never worked in the field. The field he
went to work in was psychology in 1919.
Theory of Cognitive Development
His theory of cognitive
development consists of
four stages of
intellectual
development.
Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
Age
Stage
Behaviors
Birth-18 Months
Sensorimotor
Learn through sense
Learn though reflexes
Manipulate materials
18 Months-6 Years
Preoperational
Form ideas based on their
perceptions
Can only focus on one
variable at a time
Overgeneralized based on
limited experience
6 Years-12 Years
Concrete Operational
Form ideas based on
reasoning
Limit thinking to objects
and familiar events
12 Years and Older
Formal Operational
Think conceptually
Think hypothetically
Stage 1: Sensorimotor
(Birth-18 Months)
During this Stage, the child begins to develop:

Reflexes

Habits

Hand-eye coordination

Object Permanence (knowing something exists, even though it can’t be seen)

Experimentation and creativity. Piaget referred to the children in this stage as
“little scientists”.

Trial and error experiments

Also children at this age can begin showing signs in separation anxiety
Activity for Sensorimotor
Activities:

Reflexes will be learned
when having tummy time
by doing this children build
their upper and core body
strength which they will
need to start moving. This
should happen many times
a day during the first 2
months. The stepping
reflex happens when you
first pick up a baby, they
move one foot forward.
Stage 2: Preoperational
(18 Months-6 Years)

Language: Development and expansion of vocabulary and grammar.

Pretend play: Performance of real-life or fanciful scenarios with specific roles
and storylines.

Thinking: Differs most from adult thought patterns.

Children at this stage are also egocentric meaning they can only think of how
things relate to them.

A related limitation is centrism, the
tendency to focus on a single,
perceptually striking feature of an
object or event.
Activity for Preoperational
Activities: Planting a seed and helping
it grow is a fun way to incorporate
preoperational stage activities into
learning about nature.

Children will need small pots, soil,
seeds, and water

They will fill their pot with soil

Put a 1 inch hole in the soil and
place a seed in it

Then cover it with soil and then add
water

The children will journal each day
the growth of their plant
Stage 3: Concrete Operational
(6 Years- 12 Years)

Thinking systematically remains
difficult

Children being to reason logically
about the world

They can solve conservation
problems, but their successful
reasoning is largely limited to
concrete situations

Distinctions between one’s own and
other’s perspectives: understanding
that one’s personal thoughts and
feelings can differ from someone
else’s
Activity for Concrete Operational
One activity that a child at this age would
enjoy is a cooking activity. If you get
creative you can incorporate several
components of Piaget’s theories in this
activity.

Baking involves measuring different
ingredients such as liquids and solids

Children can learn categories by sorting
dry and we ingredients

Numbers and seriating come into play
with the distinct steps in the directions

Children at this age can enjoy working
together and making something

This turns into a great learning
opportunity
Stage 4: Formal Operational
(12 Years and Older)

Idealism: the capacity to imagine
alternatives to current social and
political practices

Reasoning: ability to draw logical
conclusions about abstract and
hypothetical ideas and situations

Proportional Reasoning:
conceptual understanding of
fractions, percentages, and ratios

Children begin thinking in a
formal systematic way

Ability to hypothesize, test and
reevaluate hypotheses
Activity for Formal Operational
Children at this stage should be
encouraged to work in groups to
explore and discuss hypothetical
topics.

Students should be encouraged
to discuss how they solve
problems

Students could work in pairs,
with one being the listener while
the other is the problem solver

The problem solver works the
problem aloud, while the
listener checks to see that all
steps are followed and seem
logical
The teachers role of implementing
Piaget’s theory

The teachers main role is the
facilitation of learning by providing
various experiences for the student.

Discovery learning allows opportunities
for students to explore and implement,
while encouraging new understandings.

They need opportunities that allow
learners of different cognitive levels to
work together to help encourage less
mature students to advance to a higher
understanding of materials.

One feature implication for the
instruction of students is the use of
hands on experience to help the
students learn.
Implementing Piaget’s Theory in the
Classroom

Students must be given opportunities to experience
knowledge through their own experiences.

Use concrete props and visual ads whenever possible

Make instructions relatively short using actions as well
as words

Do not expect the student to constantly see the world
someone else’s point of view

Be sensitive to the possibility that students may have
different meaning for the same word or different
words for the same meaning. Students can also except
everyone to understand words they have invented

Give children a great deal of hands on practice with
the skills that serve as building blocks for more
complex skills like reading comprehension

Provide a wide range of experiences in order to build a
foundation for concept learning and language
Reference

Mooney, Carol G. Theories of Childhood. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf, 2000. Print.

"Jean Piaget Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 03 Aug.
2013.

"Which of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Is Deshandra in - Ask
Community." Which of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Is Deshandra
in - Ask Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Aug. 2013.