Piaget 's Theory Of Cognitive Development

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.

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 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.

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 has introduced theories on child development from 1896-1980. He is the the most cited and most influential on cognitive development. Piaget is the foundation of current child developmental in psychology. His inspiration came from observing children’s as he even used his own. His development of the cognitive deployment focused on mental process, remembering, believing and reasoning. To help explain his theory, Piaget’s came up with Stage-bound cognitive development. “Stage-bound is the development progresses through a series of stages as a result of assimilating (using the environment for already-learned activities)and accommodating (changing behaviors—and mental structure—in the face of environmental demands)” (Lefrancois, G. R. 2012). Piaget’s stage theory makes up four components, Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete operations, and Formal operations. With these components a teacher or educator can designs its class room and better understand the deployment a child goes through. Once the knowledge of the theories is understood the teacher can teach the child the correct development that they are in. It’s important to know the characteristics of the development a child is going trough because all different age group have their own development stages.

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,

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..

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

Boundless. “Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development.” Boundless Psychology. Boundless, 27 Jun. 2014. Retrieved 05 Apr. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/human-development-14/theories-of-human-development-70/piaget-s-theory-of-cognitive-development-270-12805/

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

What are the major challenges to Piaget's theory of cognitive development and what aspects still have value?

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.

For this paper I will be exploring Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget, theorized that children progress through four key stages of cognitive development that change their understanding of the world. By observing his own children, Piaget came up with four different stages of intellectual development that included: the sensorimotor stage, which starts from birth to age two; the preoperational stage, starts from age two to about age seven; the concrete operational stage, starts from age seven to eleven; and final stage, the formal operational stage, which begins in adolescence and continues into adulthood. In this paper I will only be focusing on the

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

Jean Piaget, a cognitivist, believed children progressed through a series of four key stages of cognitive development. These four major stages, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, are marked by shifts in how people understand the world. Although the stages correspond with an approximate age, Piaget’s stages are flexible in that if the child is ready they can reach a stage. Jean Piaget developed the Piagetian cognitive development theory. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposes that a child’s intellect, or cognitive ability, progresses through four distinct stages. The emergence of new abilities and ways of processing information characterize each stage. Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.