Jean Piaget:

Theory of Cognitive Development

Tasheanna M
Becca
Ahmed
ECE 501
Dr. Grace Huang

Piagets Studies

Jean Piaget used the clinical method to conduct his research. He sought to
understand people through listening to them. Piaget did not use previous studies
or research to base his own research. He conducted demonstrations rather than
experiments and did not believe in controlling variables.
Piaget uses generalizations and descriptions instead of explanations because he
thought cause and effect testing was not always accurate. With clinical
method the behavior of the subjects determines the procedure of the
psychologist. This is to ensure that the researcher does not influence the
outcome of the session. The clinical method is also used to preserve the
spontaneous thought of the child.
Piaget thinks about how children see the world around them and rationalizes
what the child sees.

Basic Characteristics of Piagets Stages

(Berk, 2009, p. 224 )

Piaget believed that children move through four

stages.
The stages provide a general theory of
development, in which all aspects of cognition
change in an integrated fashion, following a similar
course.
The stages are invariant; they always occur in a
fixed order, and no stage can be skipped.
The stages are universal; they are assumed to
characterize children everywhere.

Piaget Ideas About Cognitive Changes

(Berk, 2009, p. 225)

Piaget specific psychological structures called schemes--organize ways of

making sense of experience--change with age. First schemes are sensorimotor
action patterns. This is the child just acting on an object.
Thinking before acting for Piaget, this change marks the transition from a
sensorimotor approach to the world to a cognitive approach based on mental
representationsinternal depictions of information that the mind can
manipulate (i.e. categories in which similar objects or events are grouped
together.
Adaptations involve building schemas through direct interaction with the
environment it consist of two complementary activities: assimilation and

accommodation.

During assimilation, we use our current schemas to interpret the external world.
In accommodation, we create new schemas or adjust old ones after noticing
that our current way of thinking does not capture the environment completely.

Piagets Stages of Development

(Driscoll and Nagel, 2008, p. 70)

Sensor motor: 0-2

Begins to make use of imitation, memory, and thought.

Begins to recognize that object do not cease to exist when they
are hidden. Object Permanence
Moves from reflex actions to goal-directed activities.

Preoperational: 2-7

Gradually develops use of language and ability to think in symbolic

form.
Able to think operations through logically in one direction.
Has difficulties seeing other persons point of view.
i.e. make-believe play

Concrete Operational: 7-11 Able to solve concrete (hands on) problems in a logical fashion.
Understands laws of conversation and is able to classify and
seriate.
Understands reversibility,
Formal Operational: 11-15 Able to solve abstract problems in logical fashion.
Becomes more scientific in thinking.
Develops concerns about social issues, identity.

Unknown. (Photographer-Unknown). (2014, October). Unknown [digital image]. Piaget's Theory about Stages of Cognitive
Development: Implication to Teaching Young Learners http://diyahlaily.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/piagets-theory-about-stagesof-cognitive-development-implication-to-teaching-young-learners/

Piagets Contributions
Driscoll and Nagel, 2008, p. 73)
Piagets theories about children and their thinking and
development shifted educators emphases on what children
already know or learn and has had a great impact on the
curriculum of early childhood programs.
Piagets ideas produced a schema or organizational
structure of developmental levels useful for thinking about
cognitive development of children.
Piaget opened the way to explore how children come to learn
new knowledge, which translates into providing activities
and an environment that supports growth corresponding to
the developmental levels.

Piagets Limitations
(Driscoll and Nagel, 2008, p. 73)
Researchers now find that infants exhibit behaviors earlier
than Piaget established in his work.
Other researchers have suggested that Piaget
underestimated young childrens cognitive abilities.
Work by Miller and Gelman (1983) found that preschool
children are able to demonstrate they understand much
more about numbers than was previously thought by Piaget.

References:
Berk, L. (2009). Child development. (8th ed.). Boston:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Driscoll, A., & Nagel, N. G. (1999). Early childhood
education, birth-8: The world of children, families, and
educators. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Unknown. (Photographer-Unknown). (October,
2014). Unknown [digital image]. Piaget's Theory about
stages of cognitive development: Implication to teaching
young learners. Retrieved from:
http://diyahlaily.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/piagetstheory-about-stages-of-cognitive-development-implicationto-teaching-young-learners/

Piaget Stages of
Development VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR
F27F2bn-A