Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

Cognition is described as ‘the mental activities involved in acquiring and processing

information (Oxford Dictionary of Psychology 2015) and Bruning et al. (2011) states that
Cognitive psychology is ‘a theoretical perspective that focuses on understanding human
perception, thought and memory. It portrays learners as active processors of information’.
Therefore, ‘cognitive development is the process of acquiring increasingly advanced thought
and problem-solving from infancy through to adulthood’ (Dictionary.com 2017). Piaget’s
Cognitive Development theory has two distinct key ideas, as well as four stages of a child’s
development. This essay critically analyses the impact Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
has in a classroom, and how Piaget’s theory supports children’s learning and development.
The aim of the discussion is to investigate the key ideas of Piaget’s theory including, the four
stages of development- Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, and Formal
Operational-, Schemas, and adaption which includes assimilation, accommodation,
disequilibrium, and equilibrium. The strengths and limitations of Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development will also be discussed.

Piaget identified four major stages of cognitive development- Sensorimotor (birth to two
years), Preoperational (two years to seven years), Concrete Operational (seven to eleven) and
Formal Operational (eleven years and older). Piaget alleged that children move through the
same four stages in chronological order. These stages are usually associated with age;
however, that is only a guideline (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). The first stage is from birth
to approximately two years old and is called the sensorimotor stage; this is from the
statement ‘the characteristics of the child’s thinking and understanding of the world is
informed by their physical actions such as hearing, seeing, moving, touching, tasting, etc’
(Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). A characteristic of the sensorimotor stage is that, children
begin to realise that objects still exist, even when they have disappeared (Pritchard 2014). It
is in the sensorimotor stage that children develop object permanence, mental
representations, and deferred imitation (Berk 2012). The Preoperational stage is from two to
seven years old and in this stage, the child has not yet grasped the mental operations, but is
moving towards meeting them; This stage builds on from the sensorimotor stage by using

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Student ID: 110231658 Tutor: Therese Lovett
their knowledge of actions and objects to understands symbols and language. The
preoperational stage is limited by centration, irreversibility, egocentrism, and animistic
thinking (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). The next stage is the Concrete Operational stage,
which is between the average ages of seven and eleven and it is during this stage, children
learn to mentally manipulate objects and events, and are increasingly able to consider
different perspectives (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). The last stage is from eleven years old
to adult and is the formal operational stage which is categorised as being able to mentally
operate on objects involving abstract thinking (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). These four
stages are key for educators to understand so that in the classroom, educators can help the
children build on the characteristics of the stages that they are in and implement the stages
into the pedagogy. A Piaget inspired primary classroom would include learning through play,
providing large blocks of time for learning, such as experiments and projects, and hands on
learning will also help students construct knowledge (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). I believe
that when I become a teacher I would use Piaget’s theory to understand how a child develops
and I would implement hands on learning experiences and learning through play. Educators
also need to learn how children build knowledge in their minds.

According to Pritchard (2014, pp 25), ‘Cognitive psychologists refer to units of knowledge,

understanding, and skill as schemas, as a way of referring to conceptual knowledge that is
stored in long-term memory’. It can be estimated that adults have many, many schemas in
their memory that would all be interrelated in different ways and there is no limit to the
number of connections within a schema, and there are no restrictions on how schemas can
link and interconnect with other schemas. Schemas are always incomplete and constantly
evolving to take in new information learnt (Pritchard 2014, pp 23). This will be elaborated in
the next paragraph. An example of a schema is handwriting because there are correct ways
to construct letters and the ways which spaces are created between words. This concept helps
educators support the development of children because educators understand how children
store similar information together and this may be why children can get confused when
introduced to new information. To implement this into a pedagogy I would try to be explaining
new information to children by using lots of examples and connecting new information to
information that they already know.

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Student ID: 110231658 Tutor: Therese Lovett
Piaget stated that ‘learning is a process of adapting to environmental influences’ (Pritchard
2014, pp 21). Equilibrium is ‘the search for balance between cognitive schemas and
information from the environment’ (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). If a particular schema is
applied to an event or situation and the schema works, then a state of equilibrium exists. If
the schemas do not work, then this creates a state of disequilibrium, and this produces an
uncomfortable feeling which humans will try hard to clear. This disequilibrium state is great
to achieve in the classroom, in small amounts, so students can be challenged (Woolfolk and
Margetts 2016). Adaption is ‘the process of adjusting a schema in order to maintain a state of
equilibrium’ (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). There are two basic processes of adaption and
these are assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is fitting new information into
existing schemas, whereas accommodation is altering existing schemas or creating new ones
when they come across new information (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). This concept
supports the development and learning of children and young people by explaining how
children learn and are challenged, as well as the different ways to adapt schemas so the
children can feel satisfied and content with an activity. Problem-solving skills cannot be
taught, they must be discovered, therefore during assimilation and accommodation, an active
learner is required instead of a passive learner. I feel that when I become a teacher, Piaget’s
theory will be implemented by disrupting the student’s equilibrium’s so as educators, we
need to ensure the learning material is challenging enough to create curiosity and motivate
learning to create a sense of disequilibrium that the students can then try to get back to being
in an equilibrium state. Providing a balance of new learning content that requires assimilation
and accommodation will help the students learn more (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016).

The strengths of Piagets theory are that his research has influenced many other scholars to
research children’s development, which has led to many theories being established, which
also helps educators to plan and implement pedagogies to support cognitive development
(Berk 2013). Piaget has also taught people to observe and listen to children about their
development, rather than trying to understand children’s development through researching
adults or animals. Piaget provided insights into how a child’s mind develops and his research
procedure created new ways of thinking about research and children (Woolfolk and Margetts
2016).

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Student ID: 110231658 Tutor: Therese Lovett
Limitations include the fact that Piaget’s theory is a ‘Deficit theory’ which is a theory that
focuses on what children cannot do as opposed to what they can do; this has also lead to
people arguing that Piaget underestimated children’s abilities, as well as overestimating
children’s abilities (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016). Piaget’s theory is culturally specific to
Westernised cultures and does not factor in the importance of culture and social groups or
contexts (Saxe 1999). Psychologists also question the idea of having four distinct stages of
development in which children must reach particular skills or procedures before they move
to the next stage (Miller 2011). Another limitation is that Piaget’s theory does not explain how
certain children can operate at a high level in a specific area, but cannot apply those skills in
other areas; which leads to another statement that becoming proficient at a skill in a stage
should mean that a child can solve all problems requiring these skills; however, that is not the
case (Woolfolk and Margetts 2016).

As shown in the essay, Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory has helped educators
understand the development of children and has explained how humans store information in
schemas and how these schemas can be adapted. The essay also explains equilibrium and
disequilibrium, and how a child needs to be challenged in order to learn new information.
The four stages of development- sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and
formal operational- are key for educators to know and understand to help children build the
key characteristics in a certain stage so they can move onto the next stage. To conclude, it
can be seen that Piaget’s theory is important for educators and guides educator’s pedagogies
so that students can be cognitively developing.

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Student ID: 110231658 Tutor: Therese Lovett
Reference List

Berk, L 2012, Infants, children, and adolescents, 7th edn, Pearson, Boston.

Berk, L 2013, Child development, 9th edn, Pearson, Boston

Bruning, R, Schraw, G, Norby, M 2011, Cognitive psychology and instruction, 5th edn,
Pearson, New York

Dictionary.com. (2017). the definition of cognitive development. [online] Available at:

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cognitive-development [Accessed 30 May 2017].

McLeod, S. (2017). Jean Piaget | Cognitive Theory | Simply Psychology. [online]

Simplypsychology.org. Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
[Accessed 30 May 2017].

Miller, P.H. (2011). Theories of developmental psychology. 5th ed. New York, NY: Worth

Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, (2015). Cognition - Oxford Reference. [online] Available at:
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199534067.001.0001/acref-
9780199534067-e-1594?rskey=GY2XmN&result=1631 [Accessed 30 May 2017].

Pritchard, A. (2014). Ways of learning. 3rd ed. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Saxe, G.B. (1999). Source of concepts: A cross cultural-developmental perspective. In E.K

Scholnick. Nelson, S.A. Gelman & P.H. Miller (Eds), Conceptual development: Piaget’s legacy
(pp.253-267). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Woolfolk, A. and Margetts, K. (2016). Educational Psychology. 4th ed. Melbourne, VIC:
Pearson Australia, pp.221-243.

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Student ID: 110231658 Tutor: Therese Lovett