Introduction to a Critical Evaluation of the Psychological Foundations of Education, Theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, Ericson and Kohlberg

Jean Piaget was a Swiss clinical psychologist who believed that children go through four stages of cognitive development at various age levels. Piaget’s studies help us to understand what to expect from children, why they are so inquisitive and why they think much more differently to adults. Piaget firmly believed that children are not less intelligent than adults but that their brain functions differently in certain situations and as children gain more experience in the real world, that is when their cognitive thinking starts to develop. Piaget started his research in the 1920’s and his theory is still widely considered throughout the world today as it is still considered by many people to be valid. (Pulaski, 1971). Piaget based his research around qualitative, not quantitative characteristics that children develop over these four stages stated below. (Singer, 1978) (page 3)

Piaget developed the theory of stage development; he had based his theories on his children by carrying out detailed observations where he came up with four stages in each process. But he believed a child had to be at a certain age to learn something or they simply couldn’t learn it or know it. I believe he underestimated children’s abilities and knowledge. The first stage was called sensorimotor stage- in this stage children learnt through using their 5 senses, touch, taste, smell, seeing and hearing. He believe they understood that the

At the centre of Piaget's theory is the principle that cognitive development occurs in a series of four distinct, universal stages, each characterized by increasingly sophisticated and

Jean Piaget theory focuses on children and how they develop up to the age of twelve years old. I believe Piaget’s theory is true because he observed kids and say that once they see something that’s round like a ball, everything that is similar to that ball is going to be a ball even if it really isn’t a ball. Kids at a young age can’t figure out that an egg isn’t a ball, yes its round but its an egg is breakable. Piaget has four different stages of cognitive development. The first stage is sensorimotor which starts at birth up to the age of two. Sensorimotor is when infants use their senses and motor abilities to learn about the world around them, like grasping, pushing, tasting and anything similar. Sensorimotor is when infants keep grabbing their toes and eating them, or them laughing when they are playing “peek a-boo” with mom or dad. The second stage is preoperational which it starts at age two and ends at age

Piaget was a Swiss Psychologist and is most famous for his work and research on cognitive development. He put forward the Theory of Cognitive Development and key elements in this theory include the formation of “Schemas” and “organisation”. A “schema” is an individuals thoughts and beliefs about an object or event and “organisation” refers to the ability of the child to put stages of each period (eg. Sensori-Motor Period) into a logical order (Miller,

Jean Piaget view children as little scientist and believed that they are actively exploring their world as they try to make sense of things that are happing around them. Piaget observed the motor still and language of children as they developed. With that being said, Piaget thinks that children progress from four distinct cognitive stages. Such stages he referred to as the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage and formal operational stage. He believed that each stage was a fundamental stage in how children think and

Piaget’s theory is that he believed it is in a child's nature to be curious about their surroundings, children want to grasp an understanding of what is going on around them, sometimes their ideas may or may not be correct. According to Piaget, “Assimilation which occurs when new experiences are readily incorporated into a child’s existing theories” (172). For example, this means that a child knows when the family dog barks and licks his face. When the child has the same experience at another house it makes sense because they child has already learned that theory of the dog.

It has been generally believed that what he proved is the fact that a child moves through cognitive developmental stages from a simple pre-operational to a concrete level and then to a more complex and abstract operational cognitive level in the process of maturation. Piaget’s theories have been heavily critiqued, both in terms of his assumptions of developmental stages as well as in terms of the smooth progression from stage to stage, however, the necessity of the shift from the concrete to the abstract level of cognition still appears to be firmly embedded in most educational theories today.

Piaget had 4 different stages to his Cognitive-Development theory. His ideas included the stages sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The main idea of Piaget’s theory was to explain that a childs reasoning develops in four different stages. His theory helped explain how children of different ages start to think and view the world for themselves.

1902-1994” Erik Erikson – Erikson changed the way of thinking around the development of children. His theory was that child’s personality develops through the social influences throughout one’s life. His theory was that there are 8 stages in life that people encounter and through these stages, if resolved, one will continue to mature in their social development and one’s personality throughout life, not just through single events.

Piaget believed that children are born with basic mental structures and as they grow older the mental structure becomes the basis of

To begin with, there are three basic components to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. The three main components are schemas, adaptation processes, and stages of development (McLeod, 2009, p. 1). Piaget’s theory made an huge impact on the education system. Piaget started studying cognitive development after he became intrigued with the reasons of why children gave wrong answers to questions that required logical thinking (McLeod, 2009, p. 1). Piaget was also the first psychologist to make a planned study of cognitive development (McLeod, 2009, p. 1). Piaget changed the way people thought about children thinkers. This lead to major changes into schools. This also caused teachers to reevaluate the way that they taught. Piaget’s contribution to society should be greatly appreciated by people in the educational system. Without Piaget’s theory, we may not have been able to make greater feats in the education system.

Piaget was a Swiss scholar and a psychologist who studied children’s cognitive development. He developed the four critical stages of cognitive development and believed that children progress from the stages. The sensor motor stage is from birth to two years. Children experiment and learn the world through senses and actions. The Pre-operational stage is from around two to seven years. Children start to expand and develop vocabulary through pretend play, but still lack of logical reasoning. They begin to represent the world symbolically. The concrete operational state is to eleven years. Children think logically and rational. They begin to understand the thoughts and others are not necessarily the same. The formal operations stage to sixteen or more. At this final stage, children have abstract reasoning and concrete thinking.

Piaget also theorized that each child acts on his own environment for learning, thereby constructing his or her own knowledge. He also believed that hands-on activities provide aid when learning future complex skills. Consequently, children will repeat these activities until they understand them.

Piaget’s theory was more interested in was the way in which fundamental concepts like the very idea of number, time, quality, interconnection, justice and son on emerged. Children are less competent thinkers than adults, resulting in the common assumption in psychology.