WK 4- Piaget

Changing perspectives of learning and development

- Piaget’s books were translated into English in the 1940’s but not considered until the 60s
- These theories were questioning the foundations of the dominant theories of the time
(behaviourism and social cognitive theory)- those theories weren’t quite accurate as full
explanations for the way in which children learn.
- Pribram’s Monkey (Wood, 1998)
o Monkey was conditioned to operate machinery
o When it pulled the lever, a nut was released
o Monkeys were left to pull the lever whenever they desired a nut
o Sometimes the nuts were stored, not instantly eaten
o A lot of thinking & cognition- not solely an impulsive response
o Reinforcement isn’t necessary for learning- it can just happen
- Constructivism- major learning theory
o Progressive model of learning using schemas, we build out on our foundations
(existing knowledge)

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

- French biologist and psychologist- mostly interested in epistemology and philosophy
- Very influential theories in education- cognitive development
o Never his intention, he was just fascinated with these ideas.
- Placed action and self-directed problem solving at the heart of learning and development-
concrete foundation- verbalised leading to an abstract though process. Need to start with a
concrete structure!
- By acting on the world, the learned comes to discover how to control it. Understanding is
key
- Piaget’s triangle:

A clinical approach
- Detailed face to face discussion and questioning individual children
- Analysed performance, stages
- Work led to descriptive analysis of basic physical, logical, mathematical and moral
concepts from birth to adolescence.

Four factors interact to influence learning

- Biological maturation- genetically programmed.
o Can’t do much- inherit organisations and adaptations
- Activity
o Act on the environment that you are in and learn from it
- Social experiences
o You can learn from others, the amount varies depending on the stage of cognitive
development
- Equilibration- all these skills together lead to learning
 - Our cognition adapts and changes- we can relearn things and alter things as we grow and
learn.
- As children develop, they are constructing their understanding and this leads to them
having a better understanding of the world and of different subjects.

Terminology
- Schema- mental framework- basic building blocks of thinking
o Related operations children use to think and act
o Applied to situations and objects
o Organise systems of actions or thoughts that allow us to mentally represent

- Learning should challenge your assumptions

o Entering a state of disequilibrium as the original view would be in conflict
o This restructures knowledge- disequilibrium motivated the change that moves
learning forward.
- Child will learn a new thing as this will restore the equilibrium and mental operations will
appear as systems rather than isolated entities.