Piaget Essay

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposes that the developmental process of a child is the result of their brains maturity, their nervous system, and environmental factors. He believes the foundation of a child's ability to learn is through discovery learning (Gordon & Browne, 2016). Piaget suggests that a child’s logic of thinking is different from that of an adults. Children’s cognitive performance is directly related to the stage of development that they are in currently. Additionally, these stages are divided into sub-stages to provide greater insight into a child’s cognitive growth process. The initial stages of development is considered a difficult point to try to determine a child’s developmental

Psychology is full of theories that explain why we think the way we think. Of those theories, is the popular Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Jean Piaget introduced a variety of ideas and concepts to the world of psychology describing logical thinking in children and adolescents. To fully comprehend just how valuable his theories are today, it is important to explore the life of Jean Piaget, his educational background, and the stages of cognitive development and how the stages impact the classroom. This will give a further analysis and explanation of how Piaget has helped to shape our viewpoints as teachers today.

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 and Vygotsky both believed that young children actively learn from their hands-on, day-to-day experiences. Jean Piaget portrayed children as "little scientists" who go about actively constructing their understanding of the world. His theories hold the essence of developmentally appropriate curriculum since Piaget believed that children undergo cognitive development in a stage-based manner, such that a very young child would not think about things the same way that an adult might. He referred to the knowledge and the manner in which the knowledge is gained as a schema. In order to build on the cognitive stages that children experience, informal learning opportunities, formal instructional sessions, and the utilized curriculum must all dovetail with a child's current cognitive stage so that assimilation of the new knowledge may occur. Working with what the child knows and experiences, parents and teachers create bridges to the next cognitive stage that are characterized by the child's accommodation. Piaget argued that optimal learning took place in this manner and that adults should avoid thinking that they can accelerate a child's development through the age-based, maturity-referenced stages. This is because a child works toward establishing an equilibrium between the assimilation and application of new knowledge and changing their behavior to accommodate their newly adopted schemas.

Piaget’s work is evident today where children are provided with opportunities to explore, manipulate materials, and make sense of their environment (Crain, p.121). Teachers are constantly providing age appropriate experiences for children of all ages that stimulate learning and growth. As a result, children are continuously assimilating, accommodating and organizing information and at the same time, constructing knowledge based on the experiences they encounter. For example, a child might be playing in the sand table, using a brush to clean the sand on fossils. Based on observation, a teacher can notice the child is engaged in brushing the sand. A teacher can then use this as an opportune moment to ask open-ended questions to see what the child knows about fossils and the tools used by scientist, By doing so, the teacher is able to assess what the child knows, then

After circle time we will head to our lesson area. This is the location where the “academics” will take place. At this age the children will be working on fine motor skills by coloring and using scissors. Arts and crafts may be one of the most beneficial activities in the lesson area. The students can learn to recognize letters or number using the art activities.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development outlined how a child’s ability to think develops through a number of different stages as they mature. Piaget believed that these stages were maturational which means development is genetic and unaffected by environmental factors. However, Samuel and Bryant advocate a cognitive approach to child development. Samuel and Bryant’s experiment showed that children under five were capable of more sophisticated thought than Piaget claimed.

In this essay I intend to evaluate and analyze Jean Piaget cognitive learning theories to the current educational environment and demonstrate the understanding of the reading assignments, class discussions, my research, and the application of the learning theories to the current educational environment. I believe that Piaget is one of the most influential researchers of all time, and he will always be the greatest theorist by far in the field of psychology, because he was best known for his research on children 's cognitive development and studied and theorized the biological influences. Piaget brought a vast knowledge of understand in his era and his contributions were remarkable and profound and it relate to cognitive learning and an in

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development explained how a child’s ability to think progresses through a series of distinct stages as they mature. Piaget believed that these stages were maturational. That is, development is genetic and largely unaffected by environmental factors.

The present study aims to compare how Piaget and Vygotsky theories promote conceptual change in children’s scientific thinking. The investigation is an adaptation of a procedure used in 1930 by Piaget and compares two children’s predictions and explanations of why some objects float or sink. Children’s thinking is then challenged using discovery learning and scaffolding with the aim to investigate how each approach promotes a shift in their scientific thinking. Their explanations are coded, quantified and compared. The findings support Piaget stage theory and although scaffolding approach proved more effective,

Jean Piaget created one of the most famous theories of cognitive development he suggested that children are not just passive recipients of information. Instead, he states that children are like little scientists who actively construct

Jean Piaget’s theory of child development along with effective learning methods and teaching strategies used in secondary school classrooms with particular attention paid to science

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

As Dr. Woody McKenzie, one of the professors of Lynchburg College, teaches students who wants to become science teachers in elementary school mentioned, “We live in the age of information and there is too much information to memorize.” Indeed, in science classes instead of memorization students have to know main concepts or the objective of the lessons. This concept is one of the characteristics of “Inquiry Lessons” which describes a systematic way of thinking critically through observation and asking questions. Indeed, the information that is memorized can be easily forgotten, but the “big picture” information that has been learned would not be forgotten easily. Therefore, students should always put the stress on learning the main concepts because it is worth it acquire long term knowledge.

In order to discuss what I have learnt so far about effective pedagogy in science, the term pedagogy needs to be defined and the associated processes understood.