Piaget's Theory, And Developmental Theories Of Early Childhood Education

In the “Study of the Child: Theories of Development I” (Learning Seed, 1997), according to Vygotsky, the cognitive development in children is in direct relationship, and dependent on interaction with others. (Feldman 2010, pg. 20). Vygotsky believed to truly understand cognitive development; a child’s social and cultural experiences must be considered.

Psychologist Jean Piaget was the first to make a study surrounding the theory of cognitive development. The interesting thing about Piaget’s way of studying was that he was more concerned about how children’s thoughts got to the answer in relation to their IQ rather than simply their ability to answer a question correctly.

Tim is most likely withdrawn because of his traumatic experience as a young child. From the start of Tim’s life, he is already predisposed to an idea of abandonment with the type of relationship he had with his birth mother the first few years of his life. Tim’s mother going into the role of more so a sibling than parental figure most likely set the stage for these ideas of the instability of relationships. Though he was successful with his grandma, the household dynamic was set up in a confusing way for a young child. Without the full understanding of the situation and these dynamics, left Tim to come up with his own idea of his role in the family. According to Piaget’s stages of cognitive operations, at this time in Tim’s life he would

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.

According to Piaget (1957), cognitive development was a continuous restructuring of mental processes due to varied situations and experiencing the world and maturing biologically. His view of cognitive development would have us look inside a child’s head and glimpse the inborn process of change that thinking goes through. “He was mainly interested in the biological influences on “how we come to know’” (Huitt and Hummel, 2003). Piaget’s views helps us to have appropriate expectations about children’s mental abilities during different periods of development, especially in terms of logical-mathematical intelligence, and that it was our ability as humans to think abstractly that differentiated us (Science and Cognitive Development). There are three elements of Piaget’s cognitive development theory: schemas, the adaptation process and stages of development. Schemas are basically mental templates of knowledge that individuals use to help make sense of the world around them. The adaptation process which allows for the transition from one stage to another, including assimilation, accommodation and equilibrium and the stages of development in which each child must pass through.

After having been granted permission from the parents of “Sophie,” I was able to observe her while she interacted with her family, played, and walked from one place to the next. Sophie is the three year old toddler of one of my family members.

There is a theory by Piaget in where he describes the many stages of child development to adulthood. There are two stages in the thinking pattern of a three year old preschooler and nine year old student. The first stage is the preoperational stage for the two to seven year olds then there is the concrete operations stage for the kids that are nine years old. When kids are three years old they are in the preoperational stage in which a young child can mentally represent and talk about certain objects even events with words or pictures. They have a little imagination where they are able to pretend. With a lot of imagination and pretending they aren’t able to conserve, logically and won’t be able to consider a lot of different objects. While

Children are not simply small adults who are still growing; they learn differently and experience the world in a variation of ways that opposes adult reasoning. Piaget’s theory on child development asserts that there are four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Piaget also suggested that human thinking is arranged into schemes, “organized mental patterns that represent behaviors and actions” (Feldman, 2015, p. 17). These schemes are the building blocks of knowledge and experience growth through two basic principles: assimilation and accommodation (Feldman, 2015). Assimilation refers to the process in which people understand new ideas in relation to their own way of thinking and adapt, where as accommodation refers to changes in the way of thinking caused by new stimuli.

The cognitive development theory refers to the ability to learn through thinking and reasoning. Theorist Jean Piaget developed the stages of cognitive developmental according to age and how individuals learn through their environment and senses. These stages are from infant to teenage years. The first stage of Piaget’s Stages of Development is called Sensorimotor, which are ages 0-2. It describes how babies learn through their environment. The Next stages is preoperational for ages two through seven. During this stage, a child uses his or her own logic to express thinking. From the seven to eleven years of age, a child is in the Concrete Operational stage, where he or she will use hands-on experience to develop knowledge. The final stage is Formal Operational. Between the ages of eleven and fifteen, an adolescent develops a more abstract form of knowledge. One of the main differences between these stages is object permanence. Piaget designed these stages in a rigid format. This theory does not allow individual experience and background to be considered. In conclusion, a weakness of this theory is that is doesn’t mention how culture impacts learning. A strength of this theory is that it acts as a guide for educators to provide variation while lesson planning.

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.

What I got from reading his theory/approach was that Piaget wanted to see what children progress was through his four stages. The four stages are Sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2 years old), Preoperational stage (ages 2 to 4), Concrete operations (ages 7 to 11), and Formal operations (beginning at ages 11 to 15). The whole propose was to see how children thought and ways they learned. What he wanted to see or observe was the stage a child go through the ins and outs of an infant to a child. He wanted to know how each child learned individual and the way there minds solved problems. He was learn how a child can grow based on biological and environmental factors. See a child learn through many factors and through many experiences as well. He also figured out that children learn by seeing the physical knowledge by what they interact with such as people, situations and objects.

Piaget’s Development Theory consists of four stages that that every human goes through from birth to adulthood. The four stages include: the sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage. The sensorimotor stage begins at birth and usually lasts up to two years of age. At this stage infants begin to participate and discover different sounds, see and touch their surroundings and various objects that catch their attention. By one month, an infant has learned reflexes such as to suck and grasp for nutrition (Santrock 178). By 18 to 24 months of age an infant masters object permanence, where the infant comes to find out that even though an object may be hidden behind another or disappears, they will continue to search because of their understanding that the object continues to exist despite not being visible (Santrock 179).

This essay is concerned with the Concrete Operational Stage of Piaget’s development theory, which he described as “a major turning point in a child’s cognitive development as it is the beginning of logical thought processes” (Piaget, 1954). This typically occurs between seven and eleven years of age. It will describe the developmental tests used to evidence development and evaluate the strengths and weakness of the theory in relation to the stage and tests used.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was based around his belief that children will develop their intelligence through a series of stages: Sensorimotor (birth – 2yrs), Preoperational (2-7yrs), Concrete Operational (7-11yrs) and Formal Operational (11+). He believed these stages to be invariant, the same stages taking place in a fixed order, and universal, the same for every child regardless of their background or culture. (McLeod, 2015)

The first theorist to study cognitive development was Jean Piaget. Piaget studied that all children go through the same 4 stages, even if it happens at different times. Erik Erikson believed that the sociocultural elements that we experience can affect our personality, therefore we need to get through every step of his theory of Psychosocial development. The following is going to describe the stages each of these men made and how I see it throughout my life.