PIAGET About 11 min From Cognition to Development

PIAGET About 11 min

From Cognition to Development… • Most theories of cognition (e. g. , CIP, schema theory, situated cognition theory) have been tested with adults • But cognition in children is different. The process by which children approximate adult cognition is cognitive development. • We will cover various approaches to understanding cognitive development – Piaget – Bruner & Bandura – Vygotsky

Jean Piaget • Examined the seemingly qualitative differences between child and adult learning processes • Why do these differences exist?

Cognitive Development EXPERIENCE MATURATION COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT STAGE THEORIES (Piaget, Bruner) PROCESS THEORIES (Vygotsky, Bandura)

Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology • Genetic Epistemology = origins of knowledge • Piaget believed that knowledge (cognition) is an interaction between the heredity and the environment • That is, learners acquire knowledge by interacting with the environment – Constructivism = knowledge acquisition is a process of continuous self-construction

Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development • Each stage is associated with a particular cognitive structure (scheme), which dictates how we interact with the world • Children acquire three kinds of knowledge – Physical Knowledge – Logical-Mathematical Knowledge – Social Knowledge

3 Processes of Developmental Change • Assimilation = perceive new objects in terms of existing schemes or operations • Accommodation = modify existing schemes to account for new experiences • Equilibration = confronting existing schemes with conflicting knowledge; moving past confused state leads to development into next stage ***Compare these processes to those you learned about in the Schema Theory unit***

Next: Piaget’s stages of cognitive development