Schema refers to the cognitive structures by which individuals intellectually adapt to and organize their environment. It is an individuals way to understand or create meaning about a thing or eperience. It is li!e the mind has a "ling cabinet and each drawer has folders that contain "les of things he has had an eperience with. #ssimilation $his is the process of "tting a new eperience into an eisting or previously created cognitive structure or schema. #ccommodation $his is the process of creating a new schema. %&uilibration is achieving proper balance between assimilation and accommodation. 'hen our eperiences do not match our schemata or cognitive structures( we eperience cognitive dise&uilibrium. $his means there is a discrepancy between what is perceived and what is understood. 'e then eert e)ort through assimilation and accommodation to establish e&uilibrium once more. *iagets Stages of Cognitive +evelopment S$#,% - .Birth to Infancy/ S%0S12I341$12 S$#,% 3 $his is a stage when a child who is initially re5eive in grasping( suc!ing and reaching becomes more organized in his movement and activity. 3 $he term 6sensori3motor7 focuses on the prominence of the senses and muscle movement through which the infant comes to learn about himself and the world. 1b8ect permanence $his is the ability of the child to !now that an ob8ect still eists even when out of sight. S$#,% 9 .93: years old/ *2%31*%2#$I10#; S$#,% 3 Corresponds to the preschool years 3 Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in nature. 3 $he child can now ma!e mental representations is able to pretend( the child is now ever closer to the use of symbols. Symbolic <unction $his is the ability to represent ob8ects and events. # symbol is a thing that represents something else. # drawing( a written word( or a spo!en word comes to be understood as representing a real ob8ect. %gocentrism $his is the tendency of the child to only see his point of view and to assume that everyone also has his same point of view. $he child cannot ta!e the perspective of others. Centration $his refers to the tendency of the child to only focus on one aspect of a thing or event and eclude other aspects. Irreversibility *re3operational children still have the inability to reverse their thin!ing. $hey can understand that 9 = > is ?( but cannot understand that ? > is 9. #nimism this is the tendency of children to attribute human li!e traits or characteristics to inanimate ob8ects. $ransductive reasoning $his refers to the pre3operational childs type of reasoning that is neither inductive nor deductive. S$#,% > .between @ -- years/ C10C2%$%31*%2#$I10#; S$#,% 3 $his stage is characterized by the ability of the child to thin! logically but only in terms of concrete ob8ects. +ecentering $his refers to the ability of the child to perceive the di)erent features of the ob8ects and situations. 0o longer is the child focused or limited to one aspect or dimension. $his allows the child to be more logical when dealing with concrete ob8ects and situations. 2eversibility +uring the stage of concrete operations( the child can now follow that certain operations can be done in reverse. Conservation $his is the ability to !now that certain properties of ob8ects li!e number( mass( volume( or area do not change even if there is a change in appearance. Seriation $his refers to the ability to order or arrange things in a series based on one dimension such as weight( volume or size. S$#,% A .between -9 -?/ <124#; 1*%2#$I10#; S$#,% 3 In the "nal stage of formal operations( thin!ing becomes more logical. $hey can now solve abstract problems and can hypothesize. $his stage is characterized by the following: Bypothetical 2easoning $his is the ability to come up with di)erent hypothesis about a problem and to gather and weigh data in order to ma!e a "nal decision or 8udgment. $his can be done in the absence of concrete ob8ects. $he individuals can now deal with 6'hat if7 &uestions. #nalogical reasoning this is the ability to perceive the relationship in one instance and then use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in another similar situation or problem. $he individual in this stage can ma!e an analogy. +eductive reasoning $his is the ability to thin! logically by applying a general rule to a particular instance or situation. #s reported by: SIM A. BELSONDRA BS%+ 3 %nglish