Piaget's Cognitive Theory Essay

Cognitive development is the term used to describe the construction of thought process, including remembering, problem solving and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. In this essay I will compare and contrast the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, both of which were enormously significant contributors to the cognitive development component to/in psychology. In addition to this I will also weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of each theory and outline how they can be applied to an educational setting.

Flanagan (1996:72) states that, ‘Cognitive development is the acquisition of mental process involved in thinking and mental activity, such as attention, memory and problem solving.’ It is therefore a

Experts have argued “...the clear-cut ages and stages forming the basis of Piaget 's theory are actually quite blurred and blend into each other” (Donaldson, page 57). In Donaldson’s book, ‘Children 's Minds’, she suggests that Piaget may have underestimated children 's language and thinking abilities by not giving enough consideration to the contexts he provided for children when conducting his research (Castella, 2011). Although Piaget’s theory gives us a brief understanding of how children’s learning develops, not all children are taught the same way nor do they learn at the same pace. Each of the four stages have been criticised by experts. For instance on evaluation of the sensorimotor stage; Bower (1982) found that children display object permanence at a much younger age than Piaget suggested. We can agree or disagree with Piaget’s theory but one thing is certain, we will always imagine the stages whilst observing our children grow “... it is certainly true that, whether we agree with the theory or not, Piaget has changed the way we think about children’s thinking” (Sternberg, page 761).

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was divided into schemas, adaptation processes, and stages of development. Schemas can be described as the building blocks of knowledge which allow us to development mental models of our environment. The adaptation processes are divided into equilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation. His stages of development were further split into four components of its own; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Before Piaget, many assumed in a society that children were on equal grounds with adults in terms of reasoning and even to some extent, logical thinking. Piaget introduced his theory which essentially describes the active development of a child’s understanding of the world which disproved previous assumptions. The general understanding of this theory is that as their bodies grew their minds did as well.

All children are unique as they learn, progress, develop at different rates and in a variety of ways. Nearly all theorists agree on the principles of children’s learning expansion in general and play a vital fragment of early childhood development. They all accept that cognitive learning is relatively systematic and takes place gradually at a variety of rates. Learning only occurs when experience causes a permanent change in an individual’s knowledge or behaviour (Weatherby-Fell, N. 2013). I am reviewing Burrus Federic Skinner’s behavioural theory and Jean Piaget cognitive development theory. This report style essay will provide an overview of the two theorists, a comparison between the two in relation to the image of the child, teaching, learning and development, and an analysis of how these two approaches align with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). Subsequently, details of both theories will be discussed and explained to illuminate the differences and connections to how children learn. These two extremely well-known theorists’ approaches are stimulating, cause reflection upon learning methods and ensures thought provoking teaching.

Piaget’s theory about the development of children is strictly centered around the children interacting with the physical world around them. The theory has four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage spans from birth to age two. During this time the baby experiences the world mostly through their senses. Young babies (under six months) live very much with the sense that what is out of sight is out of mind.

Piaget’s reception of numerous inquiries regarding accelerated cognitive development from American interviewers can be attributed to the values of American culture. This culture has progressively developed a social hierarchy that idolizes the American Dream, an abstraction that distributes reward equally on the measure of an individual’s capacity for achievement as well as any ensuing accomplishments. Consequently, this idea emboldens parents to seek new ways to improve their children’s prospects at a more successful life. One rumination of improving the aforementioned traits for a fulfilling life is by accelerating the child’s cognitive development from a young age. With an early realization of cognitive development, the child may possess

Piaget’s Critics In the world of cognitive brain development, especially when it comes to children and infants, no one has pioneered the field quite like Jean Piaget has. While Piaget might have been one of the first to create a comprehensive theory on brain development, this means over time researchers have found flaws and criticisms with Piaget’s methods and theories. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is based on four key concepts: Assimilation, Accommodation, Adaptation, and Equilibrium. Assimilation is the concept of a child adding new information to an already existing classification, such as learning that a cat and dog can both be four-legged animals, but are not the same thing in my case as a child.

Most of the basic theories related to cognitive development in infancy and early childhood are based on Jean Piaget’s theories. He was a Swiss clinical psychologist known for his discoveries in child development. Piaget believed that children are born curious, they do experiments throughout their growing process to learn about the environment around them which is known as schemas. According to Piaget’s studies, the infants go through three main process to get a fully awareness of his/her surrounding environment, which are; Assimilation (when the baby learns to grab something, then she/he tries to grab other objects to see if it works) ,Accommodation (some objects can be lifted

During free time in the classroom June was playing with the dolls, when Chloe saw that she asked “Let 's be mommies”. June agreed and they started playing. They were feeding and caring for the baby. Then Jason wanted to play with them and they told him he can play as long as he was the father. Chloe and Jason were parents of the same baby. Jason would go to work, while Chloe stayed home taking care of the baby. Then Chloe would go to work and Jason would care for the baby.

Welcome to the exciting and adventurous camp of Cognitive Ability, where we challenge and cherish the precious minds of babies and teens through our fun activities of psychology through Piaget’s theory of cognitive ability. Piaget’s theory of cognitive ability was designed to distinguish the age at which a child’s cognitive ability was developed through the stages in which he classified as sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational (Lutz & Huitt, 2004). The goal of the camp is to define how children learn, remember, pay attention, and problem solve through each child’s development pace by a series of educational activities for all to enjoy.

Cognition is a complex idea, making it difficult to describe. Hooper and Umansky (p. 307, 2014) define cognitive development as an individual’s ability to translate objects and events into a symbolic form that can be stored in the brain. Cognition can be measured with perceptual and conceptual skills. Perceptual skills are the connection between the senses and experiences. Conceptual skills are higher level processing, such as, making decisions and problem solving (Hooper and Umansky, 2014).

Since the 20th century, the development of psychology is constantly expanding. Erikson and Piaget are two of the ealier well known theorist, both being significant in the field. Their belief 's are outlined in Piaget 's Cognitive Development Theory and Erikson 's Psychosocial Development Theory. These theories, both similar and different, have a certain significance as the stages are outlined.Erikson and Piaget were similar in their careers and made huge progressions in child development and education. With the same goals in my, their theories still had many key distinctions. Erikson used broad life points to identify his stages. His theory concentrated on the entire development process in life through eight stages. His belief was that the environment interacts with a person, which influences their development. The progression of stages depend on how one handles encounters of crisis and success. Erikson believed the ego develops as it solves social problems. Piaget 's theory of cognitive development is based on a person 's thought process. The infancy through adolescence, broken down emphasizes earlier stages prior to age twelve. These two psychologists differ on the aspect of time, only slightly overlapping in the infant years.

A major part of Piaget’s theory focuses around the idea of schemas; a set of linked mental representations used to make sense of the world. According to Piaget (1952), we are born with a small set of schemas such as looking, and a process of organization for developing new schemas. Organization focuses around assimilation, where information corresponds with the pre-existing schema and is absorbed, and accommodation, where new information is presented and a schema is altered to deal more effectively with a situation. Piaget saw assimilation best facilitated through play, however believed that it did not lead to any significant learning, just practicing (Piaget, 1962).

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