Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Was A Cognitive Constructivist

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.

Jean Piaget was a psychologist who looked at a child’s developing their reasoning skills. Piaget carried out detailed observations of them and as his work started taking shape on how our understanding a child’s intellectual skills and as a result of this he has made changes in education. Piaget understood that cognitive developments occurred in stages, his research concentrated on how children learn and start to gain an understanding of their stage of development to be able to learn new concepts. He identified a four-stage process of cognitive development all the way through childhood. He stated that every child would go through each stage but not at the same time, but he also said that some children would sometimes never reach the later stages.

Jean Piaget is a key figure for development, focusing on cognitive constructivism – that being that we must learn from experience and development, building on knowledge that has already been developed. The strengths and weaknesses of Piaget 's cognitive development theory will be discussed.

Jean Piaget’s theory believed that cognitive development involves changes in cognitive processes and abilities. Piaget believed that early cognitive development is based upon actions and later progresses to changes in mental operations. Jean Piaget’s interest in cognitive development in children was first influenced by watching his 1-year-old nephew at play. Piaget observed his nephew playing with a ball. When the ball rolled to a place where the boy could still see it, the infant simply retrieved the ball and continued playing. When the ball rolled out of his sight, however, the child began looking for it where he had last seen it. This reaction surprised Piaget and struck him as irrational.

Piaget (Berger, 1994) is a well know cognitive theorist whose concept of cognitive development placed great importance on early childhood education. Piaget’s theory has four specific stages. He deemed that children learn by actively involving themselves in their domain. Piaget is also linked to the Constructivist Theory：children construct

Piaget’s cognitive development theory states that a child’s knowledge comes from his or her experiences as they explore their world (Berk, 2007).

Secondary circular reactions is the third substage of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage. It occurs from four months to eight months and includes repeating pleasing actions that involve objects and the baby’s own body (McLeod, 2010). Two examples of the secondary circular reactions substage are, when an infant shakes a rattle for the pleasure of hearing the sound and when an infant coos to make a person stay near them. The fourth substage happens from eight to twelve months and is known as coordination of secondary circular reactions. During this substage, the infant now shows that they can use their knowledge to reach a goal (McLeod, 2010). The infant is now able to know to use a stick to bring a toy within reaching capacity (Santrock, 2015). Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity occurs from twelve months to eighteen months and is the fifth substage of the sensorimotor stage. In the fifth substage, infants become interested in the many effects of objects and what they can make the objects do; such as spinning a block, making it fall, sliding it across the ground, and hitting another object (Santrock, 2015). Piaget’s last substage of the sensorimotor stage is internalization of schemes, this lasts from eighteen months to twenty-four months. Once infants reach this last substage, they can form mental representations of objects and “develop the ability to use primitive

The last substage lasts from 18 to 24 months and this is where the external exploration is replaced by mental exploration (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.83). Ojose studied Piaget’s theory and concluded in this stage that object permanence is shown, which is when the child can find objects after the objects are placed in an unknown spot, they can still find the objects even though they are unable to see them (Ojose, 2008, p. 26). External stimuli increase the infant’s cognitive development because you are introduced to different objects and noises around you. When that happens, you observe what is happening around you and you can connect with things. External stimuli also triggers your motor skills. Over all, sensorimotor focuses on knowing where objects are and discovering your world, and that is what external stimuli helps the infant do.

Jean Piaget developed a systematic study of cognitive development. He conducted a theory that all children are born with a basic mental structure. He felt that their mental structure is genetically inherited and their learning evolved from subsequent learning and knowledge. Piaget’s theory is different from other theories and he was the first to study a child’s learning by using a systematic study of cognitive development. His theory was only concerning the learning of children, their development and not how they learn. He proposed stages of development marked more by qualitative differences than by a gradual increase in number and complexities of behavior or concepts. His goal for his theory was to explain the mechanisms a child uses from the infant stage to the growing child who develops into a thinking and reasoning individual when reasoning and using hypotheses. His theory was that cognitive development was how the brain reorganized mental processes over time due to biological maturation and the experiences they have in an environment. The three basic components to Piaget’s cognitive theory is schemas, adaption processes that allow the child to transition from one stage to another, and the four different stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational.

Throughout history, many brilliant minds have made impactful contributions in Psychology which have shaped our understandings of the human mind and our behaviors. Jean Piaget was by no means an exception. Piaget was a clinical psychologist known for his pioneering work in child development. He was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. Over the course of his later career in child psychology, he identified four stages of mental development that took into account young people 's development from basic object identification to highly abstract thought. This paper will focus on Piaget’s life history and personality, as well as his theory on the cognitive developmental stages, its purpose, and its applications during his lifetime and now.

H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Sensorimotor period starts at birth and ends at two years of age (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Babies go from simple reactions to understanding the environment (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Babies learn about their senses. They learn that the same object can give off different sensations and they understand that they can see and hear their parents at the same time (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). During this period, they learn about object permanence; which is, understanding when an object is out of sight it is still there (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). This takes us to the next stage, preoperational thought period (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). This stage starts at two and ends at seven (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Language is used for thought when objects are unseen (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). The inability to see different points of view is called egocentrism which is displayed during this stage (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Focusing on one detail of a certain object and ignoring the rest is called centration (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). The inability to reverse the order of directives is called irreversibility (Zastrow, C. H., &

Piaget, Erikson, Skinner and Vygotsky all have similarities and differences within their approaches in regards to cognitive development. Firstly, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development describes the changes in logical thinking of children and adolescents. Piaget suggested that children proceed through four stages that are based on maturation and experience. Piaget managed numerous intelligence tests to children and this led to him becoming interested in the types of faults children of different ages were most probable to make. Piaget hypothesized that cognitive development proceeds in four genetically determined stages that always follow the same sequential order (Developmental and Learning Theories, 2011). The four stages in Piaget theory are the Sensorimotor stage (infancy), the Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood), the Concrete operational stage (Elementary and early adolescence), and the Formal operational stage (Adolescence and adulthood). Furthermore, Piaget’s theory is guided by assumptions of how learners interact with their environment and how they integrate new knowledge and information on existing knowledge. In brief, Piaget proposed that children are active learners who build knowledge from their environments and they learn through assimilation and accommodation, and complex cognitive development occurs through equilibration (Developmental and Learning Theories, 2011). Piaget also believed that the interaction with physical and social

Jean Piaget is considered to be very influential in the field of developmental psychology. Piaget had many influences in his life which ultimately led him to create the Theory of Cognitive Development. His theory has multiple stages and components. The research done in the early 1900’s is still used today in many schools and homes. People from various cultures use his theory when it comes to child development. Although there are criticisms and alternatives to his theory, it is still largely used today around the world.

In the sensorimotor stage the child discovers the environment through physical actions such as sucking, grabbing, shaking and pushing. During these first two years of life children realize objects still exist, even if it is out of view. This concept is known as object permanence. Children in the preoperational stage develop language skills, but may only grasp an idea with repeated exposure. As Piaget describes in the next stage, children draw on knowledge that is based on real life situations to provide more logical explanations and predictions. Lastly, in the formal operational stage children use higher levels of thinking and present abstract ideas.

The first stage of Piaget’s development theory is the sensorimotor stage which takes place in children most commonly 0 to 2 years old. In this stage, thought is developed through direct physical interactions with the environment. Three major cognitive leaps in this stage are the development of early schemes, the development of goal-oriented behavior, and the development of object permanence. During the early stages, infants are only aware of what is immediately in front of them. They focus on what they