Piaget and Classroom Assessment
Introduction
The Cognitive Learning Theory came into the forefront of educational psychology predominately in the 1950s. At the end of the era of behaviorism, many theorists questioned whether or not behaviorism fully explained learning. Sure, there was an understanding of observable behaviors, but what about what was going on in the mind? Theorists such as Tolman, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner all helped to pioneer a movement away from behaviorism to a cognitive approach (Yilmaz, 2011).
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Although Tolman may be considered the forefather of the Cognitive Revolution, many consider Jean Piaget to be this theory’s most notable figure. Like Tolman, Piaget believed that learning was more than just a response to stimuli, but rather an active process, in which the brain adapts, seeks information, stores it, and makes connections. (Yilmaz, 2011) In short, the Cognitive Learning Theory focuses on the way we think, how we come to understanding, and what we know (Learning Theories). Piaget spent many years researching the way children learn. Notably, he examined children in their natural environment instead of a lab. He assessed that knowledge comes in the form of schemas, which is basically everything we already know (Cognitive Development, 2015). Later, he claimed that our schemas work hand in hand with two processes called Assimilation, which is when the learner takes on knew information and it connects it
On the other hand, Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner have also offered theories about cognitive development for foundation year children. First, Piaget mainly approved on the interaction between the child and his environment. He believed the child can only learn when regularly interacting with his environment through “making mistakes and then learning from them” (Eddy, 2010). He saw the child as the only scientist who learns from his own experiences. Whilst, Bruner saw that young children are able to learn mathematics by exploring and discovering on their own. As well as, through interacting creatively with well-informed adults and peers who can offer
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development; contributing a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities (McLeod, 2009). Analysing of this information indicates that Piaget undertook multiple educational studies, which undoubtedly helped with the creation of his theory. Questions could be asked in relation to this theory, for example, what were the specifics of these theories and how do they support child development? The theory can be implemented into teaching practices however there maybe strength and weaknesses as a result.
Piaget believed that there is an “inborn plan for cognitive development but it is dependent on the child’s environment” (Boyd & Bee, 2012, p.138). “Piaget’s most central assumption was that the child is an active participant in the development of knowledge, constructing his own understanding” (Boyd & Bee, 2012, p.156). The two environmental factors that Piaget believed were crucial were social transmission and experience. Social transmission is the information that the child gets from other people. Experience, in Piaget’s perspective, means “the child’s own opportunities to act on the world and to observe the results of those actions.”
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development has both similarities and differences. Both Piaget and Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development offers explanations for a child’s cognitive learning styles and abilities. Their theories on cognitive development focus on the emphasis of children’s development.
Jean Piaget was a psychologist who spent numerous years studying children and writing on their development. Psychology played a major role in understanding the development of intelligence in children. Piaget’s methods for doing accurate research required meticulous observations then he reported on what was observed. He started out making observations using his own three children as they engaged in several different tasks, then moved to other children and young adults. After concluding very extensive research he created a detailed stage theory of development known as “Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development”.
What are the major challenges to Piaget's theory of cognitive development and what aspects still have value?
Jean Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development represents children as explorers of the environment, trying to make sense of their world, and in doing this, they discover new things and adapt to this world they live in. There are three basic components to Piaget’s theory; adaptation, schemas, and stages of cognitive development. Adaptation refers to adjusting to the demands of the environment, through such things as coping with challenges, problem solving and improving their way of thinking. Assimilation (incorporating some outside event into one’s way of thinking), accommodation (changing or modifying an existing schema to make sense of new or different information) and disequilibrium (state of cognitive conflict occurring when one’s experience is contradicted by their way of thinking) are the processes that enable adaptation to occur. Schemas are the basic building blocks for thinking and organising information. According to Piaget, there are three types of schemas; behavioural (mental representations of physical actions), symbolic (language-based representations of objects and events) and operational (mental action or manipulation used to solve a problem or for logic reasoning). Piaget proposed that all children experience growth in cognitive development in a four-stage sequence; sensorimotor (infancy or 0-2 years), preoperational (preschool/early primary school or 2-7 years), concrete operational
There is no single theorist or group that the cognitive theory of learning was built upon, it is a multifaceted approach built upon information presented by numerous contributions of many theorists (Yilmaz, 2011). However, it is generally accepted that cognitive learning theory was pioneered by Jean Piaget and further expounded upon by Lev Vygotsky in the 1920’s (Ormrod, 2012; Yilmaz, 2011). Cognitivism was birthed as a result of behaviorists failing to explain how and why individuals process information and make sense of the information that has been processed (Yilmaz, 2011).
A central theme in developmental psychology is the question of how development can be conceptualized. One approach is to divide development into different stages. For example Freud (..) and Piaget (2003, 2000, 1985) described development as a qualitatively distinct series of stages. But there has been criticism about stage-based approaches in terms of how it is able to take on account the individual differences between children in development. The focus of this essay is on Piaget’s theory because it is one of the most influential theories. Furthermore, this essay will evaluate whether Piaget’s theory is able to account for individual differences in cognitive development. The main focus will be the development of children.
This essay will describe and evaluate two of the main three theories concerning cognitive development and comment on how they have impacted education. Cognitive development is the mental process in which we think and how we remember, problem solving and decision making. There are three main theorists that have a theory on cognitive development, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. Piaget and Vygotsky are the two main theorist whose theories will be described and evaluated within this essay Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who researched how people learn and how people’s knowledge grows and did many experiments to back up his research. Lev Vygotsky is another theorist who researched how a child develops and how there language develops as they get older.
There have been many people that have made huge contributions to the school of psychology. Perhaps one of the most influential theorists was Jean Piaget. Piaget was a philosopher, biologist, educationalist, and psychologists. He decided to study the many ways in which children develop knowledge. He made many contributions to his theories on the cognitive development stages. Cognitive development is the process of acquiring intelligence an increasingly advance thought and problem-solving ability from infancy to adulthood (Oakley 2004). It was Piaget who first noted that children learned difficulty than adults do in the ways in which they thought about and interpreted the world (Oakley 2004). He’s ideas were that adults did not simply know more than children, but that their knowledge of the world was structured differently. Piaget suggested that children at different stages of their development thought about and interpreted their world in many different ways (Oakley 2004). There are three main principals of Piaget’s theory along with the four stage of cognitive development that will be discussed in the paper below. Thanks to Piaget, the theory of cognitive development has made a significant impact in the way that teachers teach in the classroom today.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Freudian psychology was changed with the initiation of the empirical methods to study the human behavior. Psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget empirically verified, moving towards the cognitive development theory to provide the new perspective to the individual in getting awareness about the developmental stages of the children. Just like Freud, Piaget thought that human development could only be described in stages. On the other hand, Piaget did not believe the learning and growth are linked with the repressed sexuality that Freud empathized. Piaget has given the cognitive developmental theory by having the experiment of the children, adolescents and young adults to
Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. He wanted to answer the fundamental question of how does a child’s knowledge of the world change with age. In answering this question, Piaget made the assumption that the child is an active participant in the development of knowledge; constructing his/her own understanding. This idea, perhaps more than others, has influenced the thinking of all developmentalists who have followed Piaget. However, the hundreds of studies that have been done since Piaget’s original account of cognitive development have found a number of shortcomings in his theory. Even so, his basic assumption on cognitive changes from infancy to
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development. During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. Children go through a period of dramatic growth and learning. As kids interact with their environment, they are continually making new discoveries about how the world works. The foundations of language development may have been laid during the previous stage, but it is the emergence of language that is one of the major hallmarks of the preoperational stage of development. Children become much more skilled at pretend play during this stage of development, yet still think very concretely about the world around them. While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point in development, they become much more adept and using logic. The egocentrism of the previous stage begins to disappear as kids become better at thinking about how other people might view a situation. The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas. At this point, people become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world around them. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.
Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development, he was an employee at the Binet Institute for the Development of French versions of the questions on intelligence tests, and he became interested because of the provision of the kids for the wrong answers to questions that require logical thinking.