Piaget’s Cognitive

Learning Theory
1.1 Basic Component of Piaget’s Cognitive
Theory
1.2 Teaching Implications of Piaget’s
Theory
Every time we teach children something, we keep them
from inventing it themselves.
On the other hand, that which we allow them to discover
for themselves will
remain with them visible for the rest of their lives.

- Jean Piaget
 Lesson Objectives
In this chapter, you are expected to:

Explain the meaning of cognitive Differentiate the cognitive learning

01 learning theories;
02 theories by citing their key
features;

And identify the teaching

03 Cite imperical proofs of the
cognitive learning theories;
04 implications of the cognitive
learning theories
 Introduction
The term cognitive learning derives its meaning from the
word cognition, defined by an electronic dictionary, as
*the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the
senses."
 Piaget’s Cognitive
Development Theory
Lesson 1
In his theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget argued that children's cognitive
development is influenced by biological maturation and their interaction with the
environment. Children undergo a similar order or stages of development.
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Piaget introduced the concepts of schema, assimilation, and accommodation. He defined

schemas as "a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that
are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning"
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Schemata guide the person's way of responding to a new experience. Piaget used the term
adaptation to refer to the ability to adjust to a piece of new information or experience,
making it possible for the person to cope with the change. If the person can adapt to
every experience, learning happens.
This ability is believed to be a factor in children’s ability to move
from one stage to another in cognitive development. If the person is
unable to take a balance of these two processes, disequilibrium
occurs.
Stages of Cognitive Development

To Piaget, cognitive development among children has four

phases. Children generally move through these different
stages of mental development. Each stage describes how
children acquire knowledge and the nature of intelligence.
Stages
Sensorimotor ( 0-2 years )
Preoperational ( 2-7 years )
Concrete Operational ( 7-11 years )
Formal Operational ( 12 years and up )
Milestones
Learns through reflexes, senses, and movement -actions on the
environment. Begins to imitate others and remember events; shifts
to symbolic thinking. Comes to understand that objects do not
cease to exist when they are out of wight object permanence.
Moves from reflexive actions to intentional activity.
Begins about the time the child starts talking, to about seven years
old. Develops language and begins to use symbols to represent
objects. Has difficulty with past and future thinks in the present.
Can think through operations logically in one direction. Has
problems understanding the point of view of another person.
Begins about first grade, to early adolescence, around 11 years
old. Can think logically about concrete (hands-on) problems.
Understands conservation and organizes things into categories
and in series. Can reverse thinking to mentally "undo" actions.
Understands the past, present, and future.
Can think hypothetically and deductively. Thinking becomes more
scientific. Solves abstract problems logically. Can consider multiple
perspectives and develops concerns about social issues, personal
identity, and justice.
Sensorimotor Stage. Children at this stage think through what they see, hear, move, touch,
and taste. Two major accomplishments happen at this stage. One is object permanence, the
other major achievement children demonstrate in this stage is goal-directed actions.

Preoperational stage. At this stage, children have not yet mastered mental operations
because they use action schemes connected to physical manipulations, not logical
reasoning. By operations, it means actions a person carries out by thinking them through
instead of performing them. Another ability demonstrated at this stage is children's ability to
form and use symbols to represent a physical action or reality; this is a semiotic function.

Concrete Operational Stage. Concrete operations are described by Piaget as the ability to
engage in "hands-on thinking" characterized by organized and rational thinking. A major
ability at this stage is reversible thinking, thinking backward, from the end to the beginning.
Classification is another skill at this stage. It involves the ability to group similar objects in
terms of color, shape, use, etc.

Formal Operational Stage. At this stage, adolescents can engage in mental processes
involving abstract thinking and coordination of some variables (Woolfolk, 2016). All the
earlier mental abilities have been mastered. The adolescents can now think like a scientist,
as they can give hypotheses and conjectures about the problem, set up experiments to test
them, and control extraneous variables to arrive at a valid and reliable explanation. They are
capable of giving deductions as they systematically evaluate their observations as well as
their answers. This ability is called hypothetico-deductive reasoning.

Another feature at this stage is adolescent egocentrism, the assumption that although others
have different perceptions and beliefs, every individual shares other's thoughts, feelings, and
concerns. This is opposite to the egocentric characteristic in the earlier stages, wherein
children think that what they and others think are similar to theirs.
Teaching Implications of
Piaget’s Cognitive
Development Theory
The influence of Piaget on classroom instruction is summarized in his words, "What is desired is that the
teacher cease being a lecturer satisfied with transmitting ready-made solutions; his role should rather be
that of a mentor stimulating initiative and research." It behooves the teacher to be creative in imparting
knowledge and skills to the students to engage them in a more active learning environment so they can
construct meaning and concepts. In addition to instruction, the classroom environment, curriculum, and
instructional materials should complement each other.

Berk (2013) provided a summary of teaching implications derived from Piaget's theory of cognitive
development. These considerations include the following:
1. A focus on the process of children's thinking. not just its products. Instead of simply checking for a
correct answer, teachers should emphasize the students understanding and the process they used to get
the answer.
2. Recognition of the crucial role of children's self-initiative, active involvement in learning activities.
In a Piagetian classroom, children are encouraged to discover themselves through spontaneous
interaction with the environment, rather than the presentation of ready-made knowledge.
3. A de-emphasis on practices aimed at making children adult-like in their thinking. It refers to what
Piaget referred to as the "American question," which is "How can we speed up development?" He
believes that trying to speed up and accelerate children's process through the stages could be worse
than no teaching at all.
4. Acceptance of individual differences in developmental progress. Piaget's theory asserts that children
go through all the same developmental stages. However, they do so at different rates.
Because of this variation, teachers must exert a special effort to arrange classroom activities for
individuals and groups of children rather than for the whole class.
In addition, Webb (1980) recommended some considerations for teachers to ponder upon in their
teaching practices. These include the following:

• Consider the stage characteristics of the student's thought processes in planning learning activities.
• Use a wide variety of experiences rather than drill on specific tasks to maximize cognitive
development.
• Do not assume that reaching adolescence or adulthood guarantees the ability to perform formal
operations.
• Remember that each person structures each learning situation in terms of his schemata; therefore,
no two persons will derive the same meaning or benefit from a given experience.
• Individualize learning experiences so that each student is working at a level that is high enough to be
challenging and realistic enough to prevent excessive frustration.
• Provide experience necessary for the development of concepts before the use of these concepts in
language.
• Consider learning an active restructuring of thought rather than an increase in content.
• Make full use of wrong answers by helping the student analyze his or her thinking to retain the correct
elements and revise the miscomprehensions.
• Evaluate each student in terms of improving his or her performance.
• Avoid overuse of materials that are so highly structured that creative thought is discouraged.
• Use social interaction in learning experiences to promote increase in both interest and
comprehension.
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