Jamal Poitier's Cognitive Development

Piaget claimed that children were in charge of the construction or the building of their own knowledge and that construction was superior to instruction (Gordon and Browne, 2004). Piaget thought that educators should provide a stimulating environment and have the children explore. Teachers should watch and also interact with the children, but they should let the children find and experience new ideas and knowledge on their own. (Crain, 2005)One of Piaget's major contributions is what is known as the general periods of development. He found four major general periods or stages of child development (Crain, 2005, p. 115): Sensorimotor Intelligence (birth to two years). Babies organize their physical action schemes, such as sucking, grasping, and hitting. Preoperational Thought (two to seven years). Children learn to think but their thinking is illogical and different from that of adults. Concrete Operations (seven to eleven years). Children develop the capacity to think systematically, but only when they can refer to concrete objects and activities. Formal Operations (eleven to adulthood). Young people

Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. Piaget’s work includes a detailed observational study of cognition in children. Piaget showed that young children think in different ways to adults. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent knowledge is based.

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

Though his has a multicultural approach with its emphasis on individualism, this makes it difficult to test. In addition, the theory fails to address how development occurs. This is where Piaget’s theory comes in. Piaget’s theory has been widely accepted by developmental theorists as it focuses on how development occurs through childhood and into adolescents. Despite having the potential for yielding based results, his theory has been widely accepted by developmental theorist (Belsky, 2016). Unlike Erikson’s theory, Piaget’s theory is not culturally friendly, in that it is near impossible to apply this theory to children who have intellectual disabilities or those who missed developmental milestones as it can underestimate their cognitive ability.

Most of the criticism of Piaget’s work is in regards to his research methods. A major source of his inspiration for the theory was based on his observations of his own children. And because of this small sample group, people believe that it is difficult and incorrect to generalise his findings to a larger population. Similarly, many psychologists believe that Piaget underestimated the age which children could accomplish certain tasks and that sometimes children understand a concept before they are able to demonstrate their understanding of it. For example, children in the Sensorimotor stage may not search for a hidden object because their motor skills are not developed, rather than because they lack object permanence. This has been supported by evidence from Bower & Wishart (1972). They found that the way that an object is made to disappear influences the child’s response. As well as this, Piaget’s theory has been said to overestimate that every child and adult reaches the formal operational stage of knowledge development. Dasen (1994) claims that only a third of adults ever reach this stage.

Jean Piaget is known for his theories in cognitive development theory. His theory is based on the idea that children constantly construct knowledge as they explore and mold their environment. There are four stages in Piaget’s theory, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operations, the stages also corresponds with how old the child is. Not every child will be in the stage that matches the child’s age because some children are exceptional. Piaget’s theory is based on the cognitive development of how the average child shows their learned behavior through performed tasks. As I went through the first interview, I realized that how the children came to develop their answers was what’s important about the assignment. each child with the Piagetian Task Kit, I started to realize The Piagetian Task Kit helped me examine and see where each child was at in their cognitive development level.

Following college, Piaget landed a job at Binet Institute where he became fascinated with the logical thinking of children and the way they processed information differently than adults. He was determined to find out why younger children gave different answers than slightly older children. Was it because they weren’t as intelligent and not as mature? His studies soon lead him to the answer and theory that younger children aren’t dumb compared to older children. The reason they give different answers than older children is that they have a different thought process. His research raised more questions about child development that he was determined to find out. While working at the Institute, his job was to calculate standardized tests that were intended to evaluate the relationship between children and their incorrect answers. He became fascinated with his job and wanted to find out himself as

Jean Piaget believes that children go through a series of four stages of cognitive development and that each stage shows how kids understand the world. He believes that they are like “little scientists” that explore to make seem of the world around them. Piaget states that children see the world with schemes which is when it has a structure that organizes experience, in other words put into categories such as birds, dogs and fish are all in the category of “pets” or apple, meat and eggs are in the category of “food.” As they children get older they start to add schemes based on abstract categories. Schemes are constantly changing modifying to children’s experience. Assimilation is when a new experience occurs in already existing scheme, example used in Essential of Human Development is a baby being familiar with grasping scheme.

“According to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, it states that all children go through specific stages as their brain matures. It also stated that these stages are completed in a fixed order within all children, according to their range of age (Atherton).” In other words, one cannot expect a two month old baby to solve simple math problems as that of a five year old. There are four stages in which Piaget grouped the development of a child according to their age groups, in which children interact with people and their environment. The sensorimotor stage (birth until age 2) children use their senses to explore their environment. During this stage, children learn how to control objects, although they fail to understand that these objects if not within their view continue to exist. The preoperational stage (2 until age 7) children are not able to see other's viewpoints other than their own. In other words, if the same amount of water is poured into a short wide glass and then a tall thin glass the child will perceive that the taller glass has more water because of the height. The concrete operational stage (7 until 12) children begin to think logically, but only with a practical aid. The last stage of Piaget’s cognitive theory is the formal operation stage (12 through adulthood) in which children develop abstract thinking and begin to think logically in their minds (Piaget).

Piaget investigated children’s cognitive development by administering sets of experimental tasks and that typically children achieve these stages at certain ages. Children’s performance on these tasks reflected their stage of development and these tasks have come to be seen as classic experiments in developmental psychology. He was carrying out a set of controlled tests. Children's understanding varies according to the different areas..

The second and third stage Piaget proposed are the preoperational and concrete stage at this stage children understand object permanence (that objects continue to exist even though they cannot see them) , spatial layouts and also the use of language for problem solving starts during the preoperational stage through constructing existing information and eventually expanding this information. However until the age of seven children still see the world from their egocentric view (i.e. refusing to see the world from a different point of view). At the concrete stage children are able to solve visual problems such as lining in order dolls from the tallest to the shortest, however they are not able to solve mental

Experiments highlighted one of the major flaws in Piagets work – he failed to take notice of the context of the tasks he gives to children. He concentrated on a few tasks which often led to an under-estimation of the

Research done by Piaget involves the theory of cognitive development in children (Packer, 2017). Piaget used his own child to develop what is considered the most comprehensive methods for understanding the phases of child development. Dr. Franco uses Piaget’s research to build upon her own research. All

The educational implications of Piaget’s theory are closely tied to the concept of intelligence as the dynamic and emerging ability to adapt to the environment with ever increasing competence (Piaget, 1963). According to the development ideas presented by Piaget’s theory, cognitive structures are patterns of physical and mental action that underlie specific acts of intelligence and correspond to changes in child development. A review of the assumptions and ideas grounded in his theory and investigation into research conducted since will illustrate applications of his developmental

Educational Implications of Piaget’s Theory. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is well-known and provides a basic understanding of the cognitive process and how children