Cognitive Development Stage Theory of Jean Piaget PIAGETS

Cognitive Development Stage Theory of Jean Piaget

PIAGET’S DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY of COGNITION is a Constructivist, Stage Theory Knowledge grows in stages with mental growth This means that knowledge changes as we grow. How an infant thinks about the world is qualitatively different from the way a 10 year old or a 30 year old sees and thinks about the world. For example, a preschool aged child (3 -5 years old) thinks that their shadow “follows” them around, that their stuffed teddy bear has “feelings” – can hear, and breathe. When I was very little, I had a stuffed tiger that had felt ears. I cut holes in the ears to “make him hear better”! Eventually we reconstruct these notions and realize that our shadow is there because we got “between” the sun and the ground! We learn that our toys are “not alive”, and they cannot “hear”!!

Knowledge is always constructed, is a creation What Piaget is saying here is that we don’t simply passively learn what is directly taught to us. We actually construct and re-construct what we know EVERY time we think about these things or do something. When young children try to solve problems, they “construct” a solution based on what they know and “how” they think.

Preschool aged children are pre-logical. For example, I used to live in New York City and worked in a preschool. One of the children, a little girl, became fascinated by the way the subways are “under” the city. She actually became concerned about this, wondering how the buildings (which she knew were very heavy) were able to stay there when there were “holes” under the sidewalk! Here is what she told her mother. “The buildings on the sidewalks are very heavy. Bears are very strong. There must be bears under the sidewalks holding them up!” What an image!!! But, from a 4 year olds’ point of view, it made sense!

Piaget describes stages of cognitive development (which makes this a discontinuous theory) – A discontinuous theory of development is one in which behavior at each stage of development is qualitatively different from behavior at other stages. Infants are in the Sensori-motor period in which they construct the world on a sensory level and through action on the environment. Infants explore and learn about the world through their senses (taste, touch, sight, sound, smell). They also learn through motor behavior, through acting on the world (hold a rattle and shake it).

Preschoolers are in the Preoperational Period where they construct the world on a symbolic level – with language. By the preschool period (approximately 2 ½ to 5 -6 years), children have language with which to learn. They do not ONLY depend on learning through their senses and motor behavior. They learn that a word “stands in for” an object, an action, a person. The ability to have a symbol (a wooden block) stand in for an object and an action (holding the block, bringing it to the lips and pretend to drink from it) gives the child a “bridge” of sorts to learning to read and write- to have some letters stand for a word that stands for an object.

Schoolagers are in Concrete Operations where they re-construct what they know based on logic and rules. In the school-age period, logic develops as does the ability to understand, remember and apply rules. Once logic and rules are “on board”- the child then reconstructs what they have learned before based on logic. For example, to be alive, something has to breathe, eat, and move. My teddy bear does none of these, so it must not be alive. Families with a preschooler and a schoolager know the frustration of them playing board games together! The school-aged child follows the rules precisely, and the preschooler “just wants to move his man around the board”. This often concludes with the older child calling out that the younger child “doesn’t play right”!!!

Teenagers are in Formal Operations where they reconstruct what they know based on ideals and possibilities. The transition to formal operations is progressive, beginning at about age 12 and concluding in the late teens and early twenties. This type of thinking allows us to hypothesize about “what if. ” Teenagers can conceptualize ideals: the ideal parent, the ideal school, the ideal life. At first they start to compare their reality with their ideals, which can lead to some criticism of parents and teachers. Teenagers can also project themselves and others into the future. “If I go from high school straight into college, this will happen. If I go from high school into a job, then this will happen. ” They can conduct “mental” experiments.

In conclusion: Piaget saw children constructing knowledge from their experiences in the world. When combined with Lev Vygotsky’s theory of the co-construction of knowledge through interaction with other people, we get a more complete picture of how children learn.