1. Jean Piaget(1896- 1980)
Theory of Cognitive Development
“If the aim of intellectual training is to form the
intelligence rather than to stock the memory, and to
produce intellectual explorers rather than mere
erudition, then traditionally education is manifestly
guilty of a grave deficiency”
(J. Piaget)
Razieh Rahmani
Scholar Student in Education
University of Mysore, India
2. Cognitive development
• Development of mental abilities and capabilities which helps an individual to
adjust his behavior to the changing environmental conditions
• Is the usual of continuous interaction between the organism and the
environment
3. Who is Piaget?
• Swiss Psychologist, worked for several decades on understanding children’s
cognitive development
• Most widely known theory of cognitive development.
• Was intrigued by kids’ thoughts & behavior, & worked to understand their
cognitive development
4. Piaget: Background
Young Piaget was incredibly precocious
– Published first paper at 10
– Wrote on mollusks, based on these writings was asked to be curator of mollusks at a
museum in Geneva
– Earned his doctorate in natural sciences at 21 from the University of Neuchatel then
undertook post-doctoral training in Zurich, and Paris
– Began to study psychology, applying intelligence tests to school children
– The theorist we recognize today only emerged when he moved to Geneva, as
director of research at the Rousseau Institute, in 1922.
5. Theory of development
Piaget defined himself as a “genetic epistemologist”, interested in the
process of the qualitative development of knowledge. He considered
cognitive structures development as a differentiation of biological
regulations.
There are a total of four phases in Piaget's research that he had done on his
own three children and carefully observing and interpreting his children's
cognitive development.
6. • Piaget believed learning occurs by an active construction of meaning,
rather than by receiving it passively.
• He states," when we, as learners, encounter an experience or situation
that conflicts with our current way of thinking, a state of imbalance is
created”
• We must alter our thinking to restore equilibrium or balance
7. Four key concepts of Piaget's that are applicable to learning at any
age:
- Assimilation
- Accommodation
- Equilibration, and
- Schemas
Cognitive development is a complex process comprising three main concepts
affecting the development process: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.
All three are associated with the formation of schemata and their modification in
order to attain a balanced sense of understanding of the external world
8. Cognitive structure = schema (pl. schemata/schemes).
schema = your understanding/knowledge of X
Schemata - through interacting with the world - become differentiated due to
experience; cognitive structure changes.
For example, many 3-year-olds insist that the sun is alive because it comes up in the
morning and goes down at night. These children are operating based on a simple
cognitive schema that things that move are alive.
9. Schema or mental map
A Schema(schemata) is:
A structured cluster of concepts; it can be used to represent objects, scenarios
or sequences of events or relations.
A structure that would enable an organism to be aware of and act upon one’s
environment
A mental framework about something that is created as children interact with
their physical and social environments.
Schemas provide contexts for interpreting new knowledge
Helps children fill in conceptual gaps and anticipate how new knowledge can
be applied
10. Example
Infants have…
……schema for grasping
……schema for sucking
Structure self-organizes separate schemata into a higher
order schema of action (grasp rattle then suck).
+ =
11. Schemata is:
- Critically important building block of conceptual development
- Constantly in the process of being modified or changed
- Modified by on-going experiences
- A generalized idea, usually based on experience or prior knowledge.
These schemata are constantly being revised and elaborated upon each time the child
encounters new experiences. In doing these children create their own unique understanding
of the world, interpret their own experiences and knowledge, and subsequently use this
knowledge to solve more complex problems. In a neurological sense, the brain/mind is
constantly working to build and rebuild itself as it takes in, adapts/modifies new information,
and enhances understanding.
12. Twin processes modify schemes
Assimilation
= where new experience fits with schema
Through assimilation, we take in new information or experiences
and incorporate them into our existing ideas. The process is
somewhat subjective, because we tend to modify experience or
information somewhat to fit in with our pre-existing beliefs.
13. Assimilation
An adaptive process through which we interpret new experiences in
terms of existing schemes or cognitive structures
14. Twin processes modify schemes
Accommodation
New experience doesn’t fit with schema
The process of accommodation involves altering one's existing
schema, or ideas, as a result of new information or new
experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this
process.
15. Accommodation:
An adaptive process of modifying or changing existing schemes in order to better
fit new experiences. Obviously, accommodation influences assimilation, and vice
versa. As reality is assimilated, structures are accommodated.
For example, a young child may have an existing schema for dogs. Dogs have four
legs, so the child may automatically believe that all animals with four legs are dogs.
When the child learns that cats also have four legs, she will undergo a process of
accommodation in which her existing schema for dogs will change and she will also
develop a new schema for cats
Adaptation = assimilation + accommodation
16. Equilibration
Process of achieving mental stability when cognitive conflict occurs.
The process of restoration of harmony between the world and the individual’s
view of the world.
Then:
Organization + Adaptation = Equilibrium
Development = triggered by disequilibrium
i.e., the human infant is a self-correcting organism. It doesn’t like being in
disequilibrium.
Development is therefore...
Equilibrium disequilibrium Equilibrium disequilibrium
18. 1) Sensorimotor stage: (0-2 years)
The world is understood through the senses and actions
The child’s thinking involves seeing, hearing, moving, touching
Knowledge is limited, because it is based on physical interactions and
experiences.
Experimenting and learning through trial and error. Such exploration might
include shaking a rattle or putting objects in the mouth.
As they become more mobile, infants' ability to develop cognitively increases.
Early language development begins during this stage.
19. understanding object permanence: That is objects continue to exist even when
they can't see them.
Object permanence occurs at 7-9 months. Infants realize that an object exists
after it can no longer be seen.
20. Object permanence develops during the sensorimotor period:
• From 4-8 months, “out of sight, out of mind”
• By 8-12 months, make the A-not-B error
– Infants will search for an object in the place they last found it (A), rather than
in a new place (B)
• By 1 year, A-not-B error is overcome, but continued trouble with invisible
displacement
• By 18 months, object permanence is mastered
– The infant can mentally represent an invisible action (a toy is being hidden)
and conceive of the object in its final location
– By 24 months, infants can play complex hide-and-seek games
21. The Emergence of Symbols
• Symbolic capacity is the crowning achievement of the sensorimotor stage
– Ability to use images, words, gestures to represent or stand for objects and
experiences
– Can use internal behavioral schemes to construct mental symbols that can
guide future behavior
• By 24 months, children are deliberate thinkers with a symbolic capacity that lets
them solve problems in their heads
22. 2) Preoperational stage- 2-7 years: ( logical thinking stage)
Egocentrism begins strongly and then weakens.
Children cannot conserve or use logical thinking.
They begin to use language; memory and imagination
children engage in make believe and can understand and express relationships
between the past and the future.
Focus on perceptual salience – the most obvious features of an object or a
situation – means that preschoolers can be fooled by appearance
More complex concepts, such as cause and effect relationships, have not been
learned.
23. The child is able to think operations trough logically in one direction
Has difficulty seeing another person’s point of view.
Animism: belief that inanimate things are alive
Transitive reasoning: absence of one will be absence of other.
24. • Reliance on perceptions and lack of logical thought means that children have
difficulty with conservation
– The idea that certain properties of an object or substance do not change
when its appearance is altered in a superficial way
– Piaget’s conservation-of-liquid-quantity task
• Children younger than 6 or 7 typically do not understand that the volume of
liquid is conserved despite the change in the shape it takes in different containers
26. Difficulty with Classification
Using criteria to sort objects on the basis of characteristics such as shape, color,
function
Lack class inclusion, the ability to relate the whole class (furry animals) to its
subclasses (dogs, cats)
They do not understand that the subclasses are included within the whole class
27. A typical class inclusion problem in which children are asked whether
there are more dogs or more animals in the picture
28. Preoperational stage is subdivided into two stages:
- Preconceptual stage(2-4)
Development of the ability to use symbols to represent objects.
- Intuitive stage( 4-7)
Using of concept formed from past and present experiences to form simple relations
intuitively. Most important cognitive development is concept.
A concept is a way of organizing information into meaningful generalisation.
29. 3)Concrete operational stage- 7-11 years:
The term concrete operational means the child can reason only about tangible objects
are presented
Children can now conserve and think logically but only with practical aids.
Intellectual development in this stage is demonstrated through the use of logical and
systematic manipulation of symbols, which are related to concrete objects.
Thinking becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events, and
involves concrete references. But abstract thinking is not developed yet.
Recognition of the logical stability of the physical world.
Mentally manipulate complex association
30. Classification abilities improve and subclasses are understood to be
included in a whole class
Ability of reversibility which promotes logical thinking.
31. Seriation enables the concrete-operational child to arrange items mentally
along a quantifiable dimension such as weight or height
32. Transitivity is the understanding of relationships among elements in a series. If A is
taller than B, and B is taller than C, who is taller—A or C?
33. 4) Formal operational stage- 12-…:
From age twelve to sixteen and onwards is the formal operational stage.
Adolescents use symbols related to abstract concepts.
They can think about multiple variables in systematic ways, can formulate hypotheses, and
think about abstract relationships and concepts.
34. Thought process become quit systematic and reasonably and well integrated
Reasoning and logical abilities
Hypothetical thinking
Reflective thinking
Mental manipulated of variables
Imagination develops
Ability to judge logically
39. Piaget believed that intellectual development was a lifelong
process, but that when formal operational thought was attained,
no new structures were needed. Intellectual development in
adults involves developing more complex schema through the
addition of knowledge.
41. Piaget’s Constructivist Approach:
Activation of children’s schemas is a beginning stage of Constructivist teaching
children of the same age often make similar kinds of mental mistakes
Knowledge is created by building schemes from experiences
Individuals construct their understanding, that learning is a constructive process
Active learning as opposed to simply absorbing info from a teacher, book, etc.
The child is a ‘little scientist’ constructing understandings of the world largely
alone
All learning is constructed, whether it is something we are taught or something
we learn on our own.
Whether or not we are taught in a “constructivist” manner, Piaget believed we
are constructing knowledge in all our learning.
42. Applied Piaget
Piaget’s theory can be used as a tool in the early childhood classroom.
You have to make inventors, innovators-not conformists"
Piaget did not think it was possible to hurry along or skip stages through education
Try to teach to the stages in an attempt to accelerate development
Emphasis on the learner as an individual who actively explores the environment to
construct their own meaning.
The intellectual development of children moves from the concrete to the abstract.
Understanding is built up step by step through active involvement.
knowledge must be assimilated in an active process by a learner with matured mental
capacity
Learning occurs as a result of experience, both physical and logical then prepare
these experiences
43. Educational implication of Piaget theory of cognitive development
Pre- operational stage
o Use concrete props and visual things whereas possible.
o Don’t except the students to be consistent in their ability to see the world from
someone’s else point of view
o be sensitive to the possibilities that students may have diff meaning for the same
word.
o Give children hands own experience.
o Provide wide range of experiences in order to build foundation for concept
learning.
44. Educational implication of Piaget theory of cognitive development
Concrete operational child:
o Use concrete props and visuals things especially where dealing with sophisticated
materials.
o Continue to give students a chance to manipulate and test objects.
o Make sure readings are brief and well organized
o Use familiar examples to explain more complex ideas
o Give opportunities to classify and group objects and ideas on increasingly complex
levels.
o Present problems that require concrete thinking.
o Good teacher pupil interaction.
45. Educational implication of Piaget theory of cognitive development
Formal operational stage
o Continue to use concrete operational teaching, strategies and materials.
o Give students opportunity to explore many hypothetical questions
o Ask them write paper, then exchange these papers with the opposing side and
debate topical social issues
o Ask student to write their personal vision.
o Give students opportunity to solve problems and reason scientifically.
o Set up grout discussion in which students design experiments to answer
questions.
46. Educational implication of Piaget theory of cognitive development
• Whenever possible teach broad concepts, not just facts, using materials and ideas
relevant to the students lives.
• Use lyric from popular songs
47. Applied Piaget
What can children learn?
Children can learn only what they are ‘ready’ to learn.
New information must be able to be assimilated or accommodated
Information should be match with cognitive structure
Development cannot be ‘speeded up’
48. Applied Piaget
How do they learn?
• Through the resolution of disequilibrium
• Via self-discovery (via adaptation)
• Via ‘active’ participation
49. Applied Piaget
How should we teach children?
‘Bend’ to children’s needs
Provide appropriate learning environment.
Promote self-discovery
Guide/encourage exploratory learning, But ‘tune’ guidance to appropriate
developmental stage
Encourage self-motivated learning
Set ‘challenges’ to existing schemes
Little emphasis on surface learning
50. Strengths of Piaget’s theory
•Active rather than passive view of the child.
•Revealed important invariants in cognitive development.
•Piaget’s theory is wide-ranging and influential.
•Revealed important invariants in cognitive development.
•Piaget showed us that infants are active in their own development
•Piaget showed us that infants and children think differently at each stage of
development
•Piaget’s sequence of the direction of cognitive development was basically correct,
even though cultural factors may influence the rate of cognitive growth
51. Criticism to Piaget
• The children may wanted to please the experimenter therefore changing their behaviour.
• Piaget ignored the effect of the social setting upon the child. The way adults use language
and gestures.
• He believes development is a universal process but his initial sample sizes were
inadequate, particularly his theory of infant development is based on his three children.
• Piaget also probably introduced confounding variables and social desirability into his
observations. May be his children conditioned to respond in a desirable manner.
• The sample was also very homogenous, all had a similar genetic heritage and
environment.
52. During Piaget's 'sensorimotor stage' children begin to develop:
a) Attention and sensation.
b) Reflexes
c) object permanence
d) b and c
53. This situation illustrate Piaget concept of………………………..
a. Accommodation
b. Egocentrism
c. False belief
d. Dis- conservation
54. According to Piaget, children in the concrete operational stage have difficulty
with:
a) Using language
b) logical thinking
c) Abstract thinking
d) Conservation
55. Piaget explains the learning process by ___ (as building block of learning), ___
(when the new information fit into old one ), and ___ (transforming existing
information or creating new ones).
a) Schemas, assimilation, adaptation
b) Schemas, assimilation, accommodation
c) Assimilation, , accommodation, schema
d) Stages, assimilation, stages
56. Schema
Assimilation
Accommodation
Equilibrium
Adaptation
Small scientist
Inventor
Active
Constructing the meaning
Assimilate or accommodate
Resolution of disequilibrium
Promote self-discovery
Hurry or skip stages is impossible
Teaching can accelerate development
contexts for interpreting new knowledge
building block of conceptual development
Constantly modified or changed
new experience fits with schema
Altering one's existing schema
New experience doesn’t fit with schema
assimilation + accommodation
learner
learning
mental stability
concepts
Applied