Jean Piaget

• French Speaking developmental psychologist and philosopher known for epistemological studies with children.

• Created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva 1955

• His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology".

• According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget is "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing.

Accomplishment• In 1921 he was a research director at the Institute Jean Jacques Rousseau in Geneva.

• Director of the International Bureau of Education.

• Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences(1929)

• Director of the International Center for Genetic Epistemology(1955)

• Professor and Emeritus of Sociology, Experimental Psychology,

• Co-editor of eight journals and has honorary doctorates from Harvard, Manchester, Cambridge and about 28 other universities.

• Received the Erasmus Prize in 1972 .

• 1979 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Social and Political Sciences.

• In the 1920s. He investigated the hidden side of children’s minds. Piaget proposed that children moved from a position of egocentrism to sociocentrism

•  Piaget noticed that young children consistently gave wrong answers to certain questions. Piaget did not focus so much on the fact of the children's answers being wrong, but that young children consistently made types of mistakes that older children and adults did not.

• This led him to the theory that young children's cognitive processes are inherently different from those of adults

Books by Jean Piaget• The Psychology Of The Child

• The Psychology of Intelligence

• The Language and Thought of the Child

• The Origins Of Intelligence In Child

• The Moral Judgment of the Child

Piaget Classroom Environment

• Teachers  should encourage children to explore  and experiment

• Individualized  instructions • Classroom have concrete materials to touch.

Piaget Theory Schemas

Assimilation and Accommodation 

Organization

Equilibration

Process of Cognitive 

Development

  Actions or mental representations that organize knowledge

  A basic building block of intelligent behavior. It is a way of organizing knowledge relating to one aspect of the world including objects, actions, colours and abstract.

Schemes

Incorporating new knowledge into existing schemesExample computer programmer learning a new programming language. 

    The individual is adding information to their existing schema. Remember, if new experiences cause the person to alter or completely change their existing beliefs

Assimilation

   Happens when the existing schema (knowledge) needs to be changed to take in new information.

• 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.

Accommodation

• Grouping isolated behaviors into a higher-order system

Example: A boy with only a vague idea about how to use hammer also may have vague ideas to use other tools. After learning use of all tools he relates these uses, organizing his knowledge.

Organization

• A shift, a resolution of conflict to reach a balance

 A mechanism to explain how children shift from one stage of though to the next.

Equilibration

4 Stage of Cognitive Development

Preoperational Thinkers

(2 to 7 years )

Concrete Operations(7 to 11 years )

FormalOperations

(11 years old age through adulthood)

•Manipulate groups of objects•Children continue to organize their perception  by classifying object  into groups and name it•Draw conclusions and explain why

•Encourage children to discover concepts    and  principles.•Assign operational tasks.

•Propose problems and encourage hypothesis  formation.•Suggest alternative approaches to problems.•Develop projects and investigations.  

Sensorimotor Stage(Birth for 2 years )

•Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating their sensory  experiences.

• Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating their sensory  experiences.

• Explore by using the mouth ,eyes, hands and coordinate their senses to construct the world

Sensorimotor Stage

(Birth for 2 years )

6 stages of SensoriMotor• Simple Reflexes    Happens within first month of newborn life .  The  physical and cognitive life of the baby is its inborn reflexes. These reflexes helps interact with world .The sucking reflex allows the body to sucks reflex allows the baby to sucks at anything placed in their lips.

• First habits and Primary Circular Reactions    Between ages 1-4 month. Baby will coordinate separate actions into single activities

• Secondary Circular Reactions– During this stage baby start to act and react to outside world. This demonstrate when baby pick up their rattle and shake it to listen to different noises. 

Coordination of Secondary Circulation ReactionsBaby begins to develop goal directed behavior where several activities are combined to solve problems. For example when baby playing with their toys ,if somebody took away, they would begin looking for it.

• Tertiary Circular ReactionsDuring this time child carries miniature experiments to observe  certain 

consequences.

• Beginning of thoughtChilds form mental and symbolic 

thought.  This means child start to remember past  events and objects.

• Manipulate groups of objects• Children continue to organize their perception  by classifying object  into groups and name it.

Begin at seven ,Childs can think about certain things as events that are not happening in presents. Children start to  think outside world and play pretend.

Preoperational Thinkers

(2 to 7 years )

• Use their knowledge in a more complex mental operations.

•    Children begin to think abstract and make rational judgment. The child will begin to ask questions which allow them to manipulate information.

Concrete Operations

(7 to 11 years )

• Able to formulate abstract conclusions understand cause and effect relationships.

• During this stage human no longer need to concrete object to make rational  decisions. A person also able to consider many possibilities from all kind perspective.  

FormalOperations

(11 years old age through adulthood)