Jean Piaget

Cody B.Danny M.Andrew S.

Background Born August 9, 1896 Neuchatel, Switzerland Swiss Philosopher Interested in Biology & the natural world as a kid Published few papers before High School Wrote more than 60 books Moved to France, worked at Grange-Aux-Belles

Theory of Cognitive Development

Cognitive development >>> Social DevelopmentLearning limited by stage

-Deterministic-Discontinuous

Sensorimotor StageAge 02 InfancyDifferentiate self from objectsObject permanence learned

Preoperational Stage

• Age 27 (Pre School)• Motor skills developing• Thinking remains

egocentric and centered (Centration)

• Responds to perceived appearances

Concrete Operational Stage Age 711 Childhood Begin to form concepts, see

relationships, and solve problems, but only as long as they involve objects that are familiar

Learn Seriation Then, Master transitivity Able to respond to inferred

reality

Formal Operational Stage

Age 11Adult hood Can think logically

about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically

Ability to reason about situations that haven’t been recently experienced

Stage v. Continuous

02468

101214

Sensorimotor

Pre-Op

Concrete Op

Formal OpStage

Continuous

Cognitive Development

0 50 100

11 yr

7 yr

4 yr

2 yr

1 yrFormalOperationalConcreteOperationalPre-Operational

Sensorimotor

Piaget’s Stages of Moral Development

• Piaget believed that there were two stages of moral development: Heteronomous morality and autonomous morality.

• Heteronomous morality is the stage at which children think that rules are unchangeable.

• Autonomous morality is the stage at which a person understands that people make rules and that punishments are not automatic

Piaget’s Stages of Moral Development

• Heteronomous morality– Rules are imposed upon children by adults– Rules are seen as inflexible, external and not open

to negotiation– Violation of rules bring automatic punishment;

bad people will eventually be punished.– Punishment is the automatic consequence of the

offense

Piaget’s Stages of Moral Development

• Autonomous morality– This is the morality of cooperation– Equality is based upon cooperation among

autonomous individuals– Rules are the product of mutual agreement, open

to renegotiation and made legitimate by common consent

– Right or wrong is relative to an actor’s intention– Fairness takes into account individual needs

Lasting Influence

Lawrence Kohlberg • Psychologist• Constructivist Stage Theory (of

moral development)– 6 Stages:

PreConventional, Conventional and Post-Conventional

• Children Resolving Moral Dilemmas

Lasting Influence Cont’d

Lev Vygotsky

Social Interaction Cognitive Development?

Culture of Psychological Tools

Zone of Proximal Development

Criticisms of Piaget

Young children can solve conservation problem with different methods

Infants gain aspect of object permanence earlier than Piaget had predicted

Depending on schooling and methods of teaching, children can move through the stages faster than he predicted

Work CitedSlavin, Robert E. Educational Psychology. 8th. Boston: Pearson

Education, Inc., 2006.Atherton J S (2005) Learning and Teaching: Piaget's

developmental theory [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm Accessed: 14 March 2008