Jean Piaget 's Theory Of Education Essay

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.

Chapter two discusses various theorists that helped to mold and shape early childhood education to where it is today. There are several different theorists that contributed to the development of early childhood education. Some of these theorists include Alfred Adler, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and John Dewey. Each theorist developed a unique theory that has caused early childhood guidance and education to flourish like it has today. Without learning and building on these theories, early childhood guidance and education would never develop or change. The chapter explains how some theories may seem strange to the contemporary families, but these theories are the foundation of how early childhood education got to where it is today. The book goes

Piaget developed a workable theory that has had considerable implications for education, most notably for child-centred learning methods in nursery and infant schools. Piaget argued that young children think quite differently from adults so therefore the teacher should adapt the teaching methods to suit the child. For example, nursery school classrooms can provide children with play materials that encourage their learning. Using sets of toys that encourage the practice of sorting, grading and counting. Play areas, where children can develop role-taking skills through imaginative play. Materials like water, sand, bricks and crayons that help children make their own constructions and create symbolic representations of objects and people in their lives. A teacher’s role is to create the conditions in which learning may best take place.

His views of how children and young people’s minds work and develop have been enormously influential particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation and increasing the capacity to understand their world, they can’t undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. The research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has undermined the detail of his own, but like many other original investigations his importance comes from his overall vision. Today Piaget’s theories have helped to change how people viewed the child or young person’s world and the way they study them he has inspired many theorist to improve on his studies. Piaget’s ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating, particularly in education. What he didn’t consider was the effect in the

This essay will discuss Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and their theories as well as critical points from their theories and explain how they relate back to each theory. It will discuss how both of these theories can be applied to work in relation to a role in the Early Childhood sector. It will include Dr. Rangimarie Pere’s studies in education and how they compare to those of Piaget and Vygotsky. This essay will also link the chosen theories back to Te Whāriki and the New Zealand early childhood curriculum.

Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget are two educational philosophers whose theories are still being used and influence today’s educational system. Their theories and methods were revolutionary for their times, but they came to be greatly respected. Both of these theorist developed their own stages of child development and were able to base education on these stages. Although in many ways Piaget and Montessori were very similar in their thinking they were also very different in their teaching approaches. Piaget and Montessori are two main players in the early childhood education field and based most of their ideas on their observations of children.

Jean Piaget was born on 9th August 1896 in Switzerland. He studied natural sciences at the University of Neuchatel where he received a Ph.D. He then went onto the University of Zurich where he became interested in psychoanalysis. It was from there he went onto the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1919 to study clinical psychology. It was while Piaget was in Paris that he began working with Alfred Binet marking intelligence tests. It was whilst working on the intelligence tests that he became aware of the process of cognitive development and how it differed considerably from young children to older children to adults. It was from this that he then began his study on the process of thinking in the development of children. (The famous people, 2016)

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.

Subject exhibits advanced vocabulary for her age range. She can recognize colors, count to 20, in addition to writing her first and last name. Subject is in stage two of Piaget’s model, preoperational thought, evidence includes the child’s outburst when the parent did not cut her sandwich the way she wanted it, therefore she refused to eat it (Chapter 5, pages

Jean Piaget is best known for his theory that suggested children think differently than adults. His theory proposed that children’s cognitive development developed in

Piaget worked in a psychiatric lab in Zurich for a year where he studied the thoughts of Jung and Freud. Piaget also started teaching psychology in 1919 in Paris. This is where he started doing studies of intelligence testing with Simon-Benet Fame. Piaget felt that the “right-wrong” ways of intelligence testing was an unreliable source; instead he started interviewing school boys. He used psychiatric techniques to learn about adolescence reasoning (Boeree n.d.). Piaget researched in many places, such as, the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute of Geneva in 1921 where he studied the mental capabilities of an infant in the first two years of life. This is where he would write and publish his first works on children phycology. During this time he met his soon to be wife, Valentine Chatenay. After his success of his first five books, in 1925 Piaget started teaching psychology at Neuchatel University (Presnell 1999). During this time he would become a father of two daughters and a son. He would use them as observational studies as they grew up (Boeree n.d.). Piaget continued to study and teach at numerous places, such as, Lausanne and Paris (Jean Piaget Biography n.d.). He ended up writing over sixty books and articles during his long career. Piaget past away in Geneva, Switzerland on the 16th of September 1980, over fifty years of excellent research that will shape the world of psychology and sociology for years to come (Boeree n.d.).

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.

The first difference is on the points of emphasis on the theory by the two psychologists. According to Vygotsky theory, more emphasis is on the culture as the main factor that affects cognitive development in human beings. However, Piaget theory contradicts this emphasis by maintaining his views that development happens in stages and the stages are universal, that means all children develop in the same way, that means environment, culture and social relationship have no effect on children development (Jones, & Reynolds, 1992). In summary, Piaget’s theory believes that there is uniform development of children across culture while, Vygotsky emphasizes every child different cognitive development depending on the social environment and culture.

Jean Piaget: has influenced early childhood education by focusing on the developmental psychology aspect to understand the development in children (Ailwood, Boyd & Theobald 2016, p. 52). Piaget’s theory has led to research in cognition in the early years (Goswami 2001) that supports and challenges Piaget’s ideas and becomes a basis for the creation of new theories (Berk & Meyers 2016, p. 213). Piaget theory has also influenced the teaching and planning styles as educators may use ‘Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development’ as a structure in an educational setting to support development (Berk & Meyers 2016, p. 213).

can put the things they observe in some sort of order the easier it is