Review of Piaget’s Cognitive Psychological Theories
Developed in the 1920’s – around
the same time that Freud was expanding on his theories and Erickson came up with
his ideas on stages of Psychosocial Development.
In Piaget's view,
cognitive development is an individual pursuit done by the child himself.
Basic Assumptions
1.
Children are active and motivated learners
2.
Learners construct their own knowledge and beliefs from their experiences
= Constructivism
3.
Children learn through two complimentary processes
a.
Assimilation – dealing with a new event in a way that is consistent
with an existing theme
Example – The infant that puts the teddy bear into the mouth
b.
Accommodation – dealing with the new event by either modifying an
existing scheme or forming a new one
Example – The infant may have to find a smaller part of Teddy to chew
on or open wider for a paw
Accommodation
rarely if ever works without assimilation and explains why allowing children to
explore and gain a wide variety of experiences is so important.
4.
Interaction with the physical and social environment is essential to
cognitive development. (Bruce
Perry’s research)
a.
Discovery learning should be an important aspect of classroom learning
b.
Interacting with others enables children to discover other points of view
other than their own
5.
The process of equilibration promotes progression toward complex thought
(See page 26)
a.
Equilibrium – The state of being able to explain new events with
existing schemes
b.
Disequilibrium Inability to explain new events with existing schemes
i.
Discomfort causes them to re-examine and reorganize what they know and
seek new understanding to explain an event they do not understand.
c.
Equilibration – Movement from equilibrium to disequilibrium, and back
to equilibrium, a process that promotes the development of more complex thought
and understanding.
It
is thought that the children’s intrinsic desire to return to equilibrium and
shed the disequilibrium, causes them to enter more complex thinking than they
would have otherwise chosen.
6.
Cognitive development is more stagelike in nature
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
·
Sensorimotor Stage (birth-2
years)– Schemes are based ion behaviors and perceptions
o
Child focused on here and now on
what they are doing and seeing
o
Out of sight – out of mind
o
Object permanence – developed
by 1st birthday
o
Might also learn that certain
actions lead to certain consequences – baby cries, mom appears
o
Symbolic thought appears by end
of second year – ability to think about external objects and events in one’s
mind. (Words bring pictures to mind)
·
Preoperational Stage (2 years- 6
or 7) – Children can think about objects beyond their immediate view but do
not yet reason in logical, adult like ways
o
Word skills begin to expand
exponentially
o
Language expands social
interaction
o
Children begin to express
thoughts and receive information.
o
Preoperational egocentrism –
unable to situations from others perspective.
o
Egocentric speech – saying
whatever comes to mind without taking into account the perspective of the
listener.
o
Lack conservation skills
o
Cannot explain why their
conclusions are correct
·
Concrete Operations Stage ( 6 or
7 until 11 or 12 years) – Adult like logic begins to appear but it limited to
concrete reality.
o
Have developed conservation
skills
o
Begin to understand that their
thoughts reflect their opinion rather than reality
o
Demonstrate deductive
reasoning – drawing a logical inference about
something that must be true, given other information that has been presented as
true.
·
Formal Operations Stage (11 or 12
years through adulthood) Logical reasoning processes are applied to abstract
ideas as well as to concrete objects
o
See poem page 30
o
Mathematical and logical skills
emerge
o
Scientific reasoning also
improves
Research does support
Piaget’s proposed sequences in which different abilities emerge at different
ages and stages
How are Piaget’s ideas
on egocentrism, disequilibrium and progression from concrete to abstract useful
in the Educational Setting?
See Applying Piaget’s theory P 34
Assume that children do
most of the mental work when learning for themselves.
Ormrod, J. E. (2005). Educational psychology; developing learners. Pearson
Education. New Jersey.