• First psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. !
• Before his work it was thought that children were less competent thinkers compared to adults. !
Components of Piaget’s
Cognitive Theory: !
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Schemas:!
• The basic building blocks of children's knowledge.! • Piaget’s research shows that children think in a way that is dramatically different compared to adults.!
• Schemas are sorted into “Units” related to aspects of the world around a child.!
• Piaget’s theory argues that children are born with a basic mental structure which is inherited and evolves over time.! • They link various mental depictions of the world which people use to understand and explain the world around themselves.!
• Piaget’s research was a fresh start for how we see children intellectual growth and thought processes.!
• Piaget believed Schema’s were stored for future reference. !
• Piaget was worried education was only teaching children information they already knew and not leading them to discovery new theories. !
• Some Schemas are inherited but as a child grows new ones are formed. !
• Piaget believed that innovation could be sparked in children as early as when children start preschool. He thought all children were capable of innovation if given the right environment. !
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The process that allows transfer of information between developmental stages: !
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Assimilation:
A mind can use an existing sequence of schemas to deal with a new situation (ex. a young child sees a balding man with long frizzy hair at the sides, and refers to him as a clown) !
Accommodation:
When the mind encounters a situation which cannot be processed though previous schemas, a new schema is developed (ex. the child is corrected - the man is not a clown because he’s not wearing a colourful outfit and is not doing tricks; the child’s schema of
“clown” alters to fit in the new parameters)! Equilibrium: !
When a child’s mind is at the level of development where most new situations can be dealt with using assimilation; disequilibrium occurs when assimilation
does not work but the schema is just adapted to enhance balance. !
Equilibrium is the state which propels cognitive development forwards.! Stages of Development: !
Piaget believed everyone must go though universal stages of development though childhood, and in the same sequence the ages of the states are suggested but definite.! Sensorimotor: !
• Ages 0-2 years!
head; often sets though/objects in opposing groups (ex. big/small, tall/ short)! Concrete Operational:!
• Ages 7-11 years!
• “Conservation”!
• The child can appropriately apply their symbolic knowledge to concrete situations and objects not quite at hypothetical thinking, but able to solve problems more logically (ex. no set plan, but trial and error ) !
• It is at this state where when a child first starts to develop inductive reasoning skills.!
• “Object Permanence”!
Formal Operational: !
• Coordination between sensory input and motor responses; able to interact with their environment.!
• Ages 11+ years!
Preoperational: !
• Ages 2-7 years!
• “Egocentrism”!
• Difficulty applying one situation to another, as well as from other people’s perspectives (only understand it as they see it) symbolic understanding, can visualize objects as symbols in their
• “abstract reasoning”!
• Now adolescents, they can take their knowledge of the present and apply it to the future logical, systematic thinking.! • Piaget was a self-proclaimed constructivist.! • He believed that knowledge is not preformed, it grows and constantly develops, and theta we run a constant cataloguing and reorganization of our
already stored knowledge and incoming knowledge! • Knowledge is an interpretation ex. a child’s drawings he/she does not show the object completely as it is, but
