Anggi Andina 1602478

Theresia Kinanti W. P. 1607077

Toya Sadane Soekarno 1606417
Virza Arinmisheila 1604947
Theoretical Bases of EYL

Summary of Piaget’s Theory on Cognitive Development

Background (Virza)

Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist famous for is theory of child development. He was born in
Neuchatel, Switzerland in August 9 1896. He was the first born of the couple Rebecca Jackson
and Arthur Piaget, a professor of medieval literature. He was already writing an article about an
albino sparrow when he was 11 years old, and a paper about mollusks when he was in teens
which made people who were unaware of his age assumed that he was an expert. He went to
Neuchatel Latin High School and continue to study at University of Neuchatel where he study
philosophy and zoology. In 1918 he received his Ph.D. Not far after that he went to Zurich in
1918 to 1919 where he studied under Carl Jung and Eugen Bleuler because of his interest in
psychology. Later Piaget move to France and found work at the Grange-Aux-Belles Street
School for Boys which was run by Alfred Binet. He worked with Theodore Simon and evaluated
the results of standardized reasoning tests that Simon designed. The test was to understand how a
child’s age and the error a child made were connected to each other. Piaget later made the
revised version of the test where he allowed the children to explain the reasons behind their
‘wrong’ answer. This later made him concluded that children’s cognitive processes were
different from older children and adults. However he belief that children’s logic was not flawed
at all and conclude that children were not less intelligent than adults. His observation on his
nephew Gerard and his own daughter Jacqueline further increase his believe that children’s mind
weren’t just miniature adult brain, however that development were gained in stages. Over his six
decade of child psychology career Piaget identified four stages of mental development classified
according to children’s age groups. He published books and papers on psychology related to his
theory of children’s cognitive development which until now still influence today’s psychologist.
Piaget works as the Emeritus Professor at the University of Geneva from 1971 until he died in
1980, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Definition of Cognition and Cognitive Development (Theresia)

The term of Cognition is adapted from Latin word “Cognoscere” which means “to know”, “to
recognise”, or “to conceptualise”. It refers to an ability of a person in form of mental processes to
learn, remember, understand, solve problems and think about a body of information. Cognition
progresses as children development of thinking ability, it relates to the level of complexity, how
children can conceptualise world differently at each age levels. This progress is known as
Cognitive Development.

Cognitive development describes how mental processes develop form birth until adulthood, the
acquisition of the ability to think a reason and to solve a problem, also describes the process
which people’s thinking changes across the life span.

Piaget studied the cognitive development by observing children behaviour, how children have
different way to solve problem as their age level. Children thought process can change with their
ages. There are differences between 4-year-old child and 6-year-old child when they face a
problem, the difference relates to their ability to think which has developed in their life time.
This development is a psychological development which is an adaptation that influenced by
children’s physical and social environment.

Cognitive development is gradual, it changes by which mental process become more complex
and sophisticated. Cognitive development is processed by the ability of children to adapt the
problem that they face in their environment, it involves the process of assimilation and
accommodation. New stage of cognitive development is indicated by the equilibrium which is
the stages when children can deal with new information while assimilation and accommodation
involve with balance.

This balance between assimilation and accommodation is happen when children be able to
applying the existing knowledge for a new information (assimilation), then changing some
behaviour which is adjust it with the new information (accommodation). This balance between
both process will make children be able to face new problem by conceptualise new information
using the existing knowledge that they have experienced. It will make children be able to solve a
problem and get into new stage of cognitive development.

Cognitive Structure (Anggi)

After knowing the definition of cognitive development, we move on to the cognitive structure.
The concept of cognitive structure in humans is central to Piaget's theory. Cognitive structures
are patterns of physical or mental action that underlie specific acts of intelligence. These patterns
correspond with stages of child development. Piaget based his theory on two biological
tendencies: organisation and adaptation. Humans are designed to organise their experiences in to
logical sets of meanings. Organisation defines how experiences are related to each other. The
organisation of information and experiences makes the human thinking process more efficient.
Meanwhile adaptation is the tendency to adjust to the environment. It is the process by which
humans match the original experience and the new experience and this may not fit together.
In Piaget’s theory, there are two processes at work in cognitive development (adaptation), they
are assimilation and accommodation. Cognitive growth is the result of the constant interweaving
of assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation occurs when we modify or change new
information to fit into our schemas (what we already know). It keeps the new information or
experience and adds to what already exists in our minds. Assimilation happens when action takes
place without any change to the child, accommodation involves the child adjusting to features of
the environment in some way. Accommodation is when we restructure of modify what we
already know so that new information can fit in better. This results from problems posed by the
environment and when our perceptions do not fit in with what we know or think. For example, a
child, who has learnt to use a spoon, is presented with a fork to eat with. She may first use the
fork in just the same way as the spoon was used; this is assimilation of the new tool to existing
skills and knowledge. When the child realises that the prongs of the fork offer new eating
opportunities – spiking food rather than just ‘spooning’ it – accommodation occurs; the child’s
actions and knowledge adapt to the new possibility and something new is created. These two
adaptive processes, although essentially different, happen together. Another example is when a
child, who has known a horse, is presented with a donkey. She may first think that both animals
are the same, but then she realizes that both of them are different since they have different
features.

Stages of Development (Toya)

References:

Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.