Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

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POW ERED BY W ISTIA

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development focuses on how learners interact with their
environment to develop complex reasoning and knowledge. This lesson will focus on the six
basic assumptions of that theory, including the key terms: assimilation, accommodation and
equilibration.

Introduction
If you have ever been around a toddler, it's amazing to witness the growth and development of
knowledge over the course of weeks and months. As children interact with their environment
and new objects, they learn and develop ideas. Take any child to a zoo, and you will witness
this process. Perhaps they have seen a typical bird before, maybe a blue jay or robin, and they
associate that animal as a bird. But at the zoo they see new exotic animals with wings and
feathers that fly and they know, without being told, that those animals are birds, too. Let's
discuss how this process occurs according to Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Overview and Assumptions

Psychologist Jean Piaget

The Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, introduced a developmental epistemology that focused
on the growth of intelligence from infancy to adulthood. Piaget's theory is influenced by the
following ideas. These ideas helped Piaget to develop his basic assumptions, which form the
foundation of his theory.
The first is that intelligence, like a biological system, constructs the structures it needs to
function. Second, knowledge is the interaction between the individual and the environment.
Third, the growth of intelligence is influenced by four factors:
1. Physical environment
2. Social environment
3. Maturation
4. Equilibration
Let's talk about these ideas a bit more in terms of assumptions. Piaget's theory of cognitive
development has six basic assumptions, which we will focus the majority of our attention on
during this lesson.
The first is that children are active and motivated learners. Children will seek out information
to help them make sense of their world. For example, a child may encounter a new toy.
Instead of passively observing the toy, the child will engage with it - possibly dropping it,
touching it or even tasting it to learn more about what it does.

The second assumption is that children construct knowledge from their experiences. Children
don't have isolated bits of information. Instead, they build and construct knowledge based on
their experiences and observations. For example, a child constructs knowledge about animals
by interacting with them, observing them, learning how they walk and learning what sounds
they make. They continually add to their knowledge in order to create understanding and
beliefs about animals.
The knowledge children acquire is organized into a scheme or groupings of similar actions or
thoughts. Over time, these schemes may change, but they provide an important base level of
information about particular events, objects and information.
Our third assumption is that children learn through two processes: assimilation and
accommodation. These are important terms in understanding the cognitive development
theory, and they typically operate hand-in-hand.
Assimilation is defined as dealing with a new event in a way that is consistent with an existing
scheme. For example, a toddler may assimilate a new ball into the scheme of 'toys that can be
thrown'. Or a second grader may assimilate a new furry animal seen at the zoo into their
'animals that are mammals' scheme. Accommodation is the process of dealing with new
information or events by either modifying an existing scheme or forming a new one. For
example, the toddler may realize that the new ball is too heavy to be thrown, so he may have
to roll it, thereby modifying his existing scheme of all-toy-balls-can-be-thrown. Or the child at
the zoo may note that the furry animal is flying and create a new scheme of animals.
The fourth assumption of Piaget's cognitive development theory is interaction with one's
physical and social environments is essential for cognitive development. According to Piaget,
experimenting and manipulating physical objects is the main way children learn. For example,
playing with new objects and toys and experimenting in a lab are ways to develop a child's
knowledge. The social environment is also critical for cognitive development. Social
interactions allow for multiple perspectives, opinions and introduction of new ways to
approach a task or event.
Our fifth assumption deals with equilibrium. The process of equilibration promotes
progression towards increasingly complex thought. Equilibrium is the state when leaners can
explain new events with existing schemes. The term disequilibrium refers to the discomfort
or cognitive conflict experienced by a child or adolescent when s/he realizes that two views
they holds about a situation can't possibly be both true. The individual's recognition of the
contradiction between the opposing beliefs promotes discomfort. This feeling sets the stage
for the reorganization of his or her thinking on a higher level.
Equilibration is the movement back and forth between equilibrium and disequilibrium that
promotes development of more complex thought and understanding. For example, a
preschooler has a pile of fuzzy, stuffed animals - eight are pink and two white. If we asked the
child, 'Are there more pink animals or more fuzzy animals?' And she replies more pink and is
perfectly comfortable with that answer - she's in equilibrium. Obviously, she is having trouble
thinking of the pink animals as belonging to two categories: pink and fuzzy. However, if we
then count out the pink vs. the fuzzy animals and she recognizes the inconsistency in her
reasoning, she will experience disequilibrium. At this point, the child may reorganize her
thinking to accommodate the idea that stuffed animals can be both pink and fuzzy.