PIAGET'S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Jean Piaget introduced concepts of cognitive development. Within each stage are finer units of schemas. Each period is an advance over the previous one.
PIAGET'S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Jean Piaget introduced concepts of cognitive development. Within each stage are finer units of schemas. Each period is an advance over the previous one.
PIAGET'S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Jean Piaget introduced concepts of cognitive development. Within each stage are finer units of schemas. Each period is an advance over the previous one.
development or the way children learn and think that they have roots similar to those of both Freud and Erickson and yet separate from each ( Wadsworth, 2003). Piaget defined four stages of cognitive development: within each stage are finer units of schemas. Each period is an advance over the previous one. To progress from one period to next, children reorganize their thinking process to bring them closer to adult thinking.
A. The Infant*(SENSORIMOTOR STAGE)
Piaget referred to the infant stage as the
Sensorimotor Stage. Sensorimotor intelligence is practical intelligence, because words and symbols for thinking and problem solving are not yet available at this early age. At the beginning of infancy, babies relate to the world through their senses, using only reflex behavior. The term secondary refers to activities that are separate from the childs body. An example of secondary schema learning is when a baby hits a mobile, notices that this makes it move, and so hit it again. During this secondary schema, infants also learn the objects in the environment- bottle, blocks, bed, or even though they are out of sight or changed in some way. For example: (Infants will search for a block hidden by a blanket, knowing the block still exist.) During the final phase of the infant year (coordination of secondary reactions), infants begin to demonstrate goal directed behavior. After noticing that hitting a mobile makes it move, infants then reach for and hit a music box nearby, in these way actively seeking new experiences. It is important for infants to have stimulating objects around for exploring in this way so that experimenting and learning can proceed.
B. The Toddler *(PREOPERATIVE PERIOD)
The Toddler period is one of transition as
children complete the final stages of the Sensorimotor period and begin to develop some cognitive skills of the Preoperative period, such as symbolic thought and ego-centric thinking. And the tertiary circular reaction schema, children use trial and error to discover new characteristics of objects and event. A Toddler sitting in a high chair who keeps dropping objects over the edge of the tray is exploring both permanents and different action of toys. During the schema of Inventions of new means children become able to think through actions and mentally project the solution to a problem. If given a box, a Toddler will investigate how the top of the box can be removed; if given a second box, even one that varies in shape, the child can foresee how the top can be removed. Toddlers following a ball that has rolled under a coffee table no longer have to follow the balls path to retrieve it but can project where it will have rolled and walked around the coffee table to find it again. During the period of Preoperational thought, children relearn on a conceptual level some of the lessons they mastered as infants at the Sensorimotor level, before having language. Now, children are able to use symbols to represents objects. They may have difficulty viewing one object as being different from another, However, on a walk through a department store decorated with teddy bears, for example, children are not sure whether they are seeing a succession of bears or if the same bear keeps reappearing as if it is following them, asking to be taken home.
C. The Preschooler STAGE)
*(PREOPERATIONAL
Piaget saw preschool children as moving on to a
sub stage of preoperational thought termed intuitive thought. During this time children tend to look at an object and see only one of its characteristics (referred to as centering). For example they see that a banana is yellow not to notice it is also long. Centering is noticeable when children are learning about medicine (they observe that it tastes bitter but cannot understand it is also good for them). Centering contributes to the preschoolers lack of conservation (the ability to discern truth, even though physical properties change) or reversibility (ability to retrace steps). Egocentrism or perceiving that ones thought and needs are better or more important than those of others, is also strong during this period. Preschoolers cannot believe that not everyone knows facts they know: if ask, What is your name? they may reply, Dont you know my name? as a part of this, children define objects mainly in relation to themselves, so that a spoon is What I eat with, not just a curved metal object.
D. The School-Age OPERATIONAL STAGE)
Child*(CONCRETE
Piaget viewed school age as a period during
which concrete Operational Thought begins as school-age children can discover concrete solutions to everyday problems and recognize cause-andeffect relationships. A child who understands water does change in amount just because it is poured from one glass to another has grasped the concept of conservation. Conservation of numbers is learned as early as 7 years, conservation of quantity at age 7 or 8 years, conservation of weight at age 9 years and conservation of volume at age 11 years. Reasoning during school age tends to be inductive, proceeding specific to general: school-age children tends to reason that a toy they are holding is broken, the toy is made of plastic, so all plastic toys break easily.
E. The Adolescent* (FORMAL OPERATIONAL
STAGE)
Piaget saw adolescence as the time when
cognition achieves its final form, that a formal operational thought. When this stage is reached, adolescents are capable of thinking in terms of possibility- what could be (abstract thought) rather than being limited to thinking about what already is (concrete thought). This makes it possible for adolescents to use scientific reasoning or also understand deductive reasoning, or reasoning that proceeds from general to specific (plastic toys break easily, the toy they are holding are plastics, it will break easily.
PIAGETS THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget introduced concepts of cognitive
development or the way children learn and think that they have roots similar to those of both Freud and Erickson and yet separate from each ( Wadsworth, 2003). Piaget defined four stages of cognitive development: within each stage are finer units of schemas. Each period is an advance over the previous one. To progress from one period to next, children reorganize their thinking process to bring them closer to adult thinking.
A. The Infant*(SENSORIMOTOR STAGE)
Piaget referred to the infant stage as the
Sensorimotor Stage. Sensorimotor intelligence is practical intelligence, because words and symbols
for thinking and problem solving are not yet
available at this early age. At the beginning of infancy, babies relate to the world through their senses, using only reflex behavior. The term secondary refers to activities that are separate from the childs body. An example of secondary schema learning is when a baby hits a mobile, notices that this makes it move, and so hit it again. During this secondary schema, infants also learn the objects in the environment- bottle, blocks, bed, or even though they are out of sight or changed in some way. For example: (Infants will search for a block hidden by a blanket, knowing the block still exist.) During the final phase of the infant year (coordination of secondary reactions), infants begin to demonstrate goal directed behavior. After noticing that hitting a mobile makes it move, infants then reach for and hit a music box nearby, in these way actively seeking new experiences. It is important for infants to have stimulating objects around for exploring in this way so that experimenting and learning can proceed.
B. The Toddler *(PREOPERATIVE PERIOD)
The Toddler period is one of transition as
children complete the final stages of the Sensorimotor period and begin to develop some cognitive skills of the Preoperative period, such as symbolic thought and ego-centric thinking. And the tertiary circular reaction schema, children use trial and error to discover new characteristics of objects and event. A Toddler sitting in a high chair who keeps dropping objects over the edge of the tray is exploring both permanents and different action of toys. During the schema of Inventions of new means children become able to think through actions and mentally project the solution to a problem. If given a box, a Toddler will investigate how the top of the box can be removed; if given a second box, even one that varies in shape, the child can foresee how the top can be removed. Toddlers following a ball that has rolled under a coffee table no longer have to follow the balls path to retrieve it but can project where it will have rolled and walked around the coffee table to find it again. During the period of Preoperational thought, children relearn on a conceptual level some of the lessons they mastered as infants at the Sensorimotor level, before having language. Now, children are able to use symbols to represents objects. They may have difficulty viewing one object as being different from another, However, on a walk through a department store decorated with teddy bears, for example, children are not sure whether they are seeing a succession of bears or if the same bear keeps reappearing as if it is following them, asking to be taken home.
C. The Preschooler STAGE)
*(PREOPERATIONAL
Piaget saw preschool children as moving on to a
sub stage of preoperational thought termed intuitive thought. During this time children tend to look at an object and see only one of its characteristics (referred to as centering). For example they see that a banana is yellow not to notice it is also long. Centering is noticeable when children are learning about medicine (they observe that it tastes bitter but cannot understand it is also good for them). Centering contributes to the preschoolers lack of conservation (the ability to discern truth, even though physical properties change) or reversibility (ability to retrace steps). Egocentrism or perceiving that ones thought and needs are better or more important than those of others, is also strong during this period. Preschoolers cannot believe that not everyone knows facts they know: if ask, What is your name? they may reply, Dont you know my name? as a part of this, children define objects mainly in relation to themselves, so that a spoon is What I eat with, not just a curved metal object.
D. The School-Age OPERATIONAL STAGE)
Child*(CONCRETE
Piaget viewed school age as a period during
which concrete Operational Thought begins as school-age children can discover concrete solutions to everyday problems and recognize cause-andeffect relationships. A child who understands water does change in amount just because it is poured from one glass to another has grasped the concept of conservation. Conservation of numbers is learned as early as 7 years, conservation of quantity at age 7 or 8 years, conservation of weight at age 9 years and conservation of volume at age 11 years. Reasoning during school age tends to be inductive, proceeding specific to general: school-age children tends to reason that a toy they are holding is broken, the toy is made of plastic, so all plastic toys break easily.
E. The Adolescent* (FORMAL OPERATIONAL
STAGE)
Piaget saw adolescence as the time when
cognition achieves its final form, that a formal operational thought. When this stage is reached, adolescents are capable of thinking in terms of possibility- what could be (abstract thought) rather than being limited to thinking about what already is (concrete thought). This makes it possible for adolescents to use scientific reasoning or also understand deductive reasoning, or reasoning that proceeds from general to specific (plastic toys break easily, the toy they are holding are plastics, it will break easily.