Piagets Theory of Learning Jean Piaget was primarily interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms.

Cognitive structuring of the knowledge was fundamental in his theory. According to his theory, cognitive structures are patterns of physical or mental action that underlie specific acts of intelligence and correspond to stages of child development. He has integrated both behavior and cognitive aspects in one developmental theory. In his theory he put forward four primary developmental stages. They are sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations. In the sensorimotor stage (0-2 years), intelligence takes the form of motor actions. Intelligence in the preoperation period (3-7 years) is intuitive in nature. The cognitive structure during the concrete operational stage (8-11 years) is logical but depends upon concrete referents. In the final stage of formal operations (12-15 years), thinking involves abstractions. (Cameron, 2002) When it comes to the educational reflections of his theory, Paiget sees the child as continually interacting with the world around him/her solving problems that are presented by the environment and learning occurs through taking

action to solve the problems. Moreover, the knowledge that results from these actions is not imitated or from birth, but actively constructed by the child. In this way thought is seen as deriving from action; action is internalized, or carried out mentally in the imagination, and in this way thinking develops. For Piaget, action should be praised as fundamental to cognitive development, and development is the result of two ways, which are assimilation and accommodation. When the action occurs without causing any change in the child assimilation happens; on the contrary, when the child adjusts himself to the environment in some ways, accommodation is involved. Both of these adaptive processes occur together, despite they are very different; they are initially adaptive processes of behavior, but become processes of thinking. Cognitive development consists of a constant effort to adapt to the environment in terms of assimilation and accommodation. Mclaughlin (1992) reports that Accommodation is an important idea that has been taken into second language learning under the label restructuring used to refer to the re-organization of mental representations of a language. In this sense, Piaget's theory is similar in nature to other constructivist

perspectives of learning. From a Piagetian viewpoint, a childs thinking develops as gradual growth of knowledge and intellectual skills towards a final stage of formal, logical thinking.( Cameron, 2002) Thoroughly, according to his notion of discrete stages and the idea that children cannot do certain things if they have not yet reached that stage should be considered as well. For, children cannot achieve to perform some cognitive or physical actions until maturation. Consequently, learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental operations for a child of given age; asking students to perform tasks that are beyond their current cognitive capabilities should be avoided. Child is seen as an active learner and thinker, as a sense maker who is constructing his own knowledge by thriving with objects and ideas. Moreover, (the child) actively tries to make sense of the world asks questions wants to know Also from very early stage, the child has purposes and intentions. Donaldson 1978:86) However, childs sense making is limited by their experience, so, teachers should employ teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges From Piagets theory we can interpret the classroom and

classroom activities as creating and offering opportunities to learners for learning. This view coincides with ecological thinking that sees events and activities as offering affordances or opportunities for use and interaction that depend on who is involved. (Cameron2002:5) Piaget has related cognitive development of an individual and his environment. Thus, he has made it possible for later theoreticians to prepare frameworks for other theories, like Constructivism, standing on his views.
Adaptation Assimilation What it says: adapting to the world through assimilation and accommodation The process by which a person takes material into their mind from the environment, which may mean changing the evidence of their senses to make it fit. The difference made to one's mind or concepts by the process of assimilation. Note that assimilation and accommodation go together: you can't have one without the other. The ability to group objects together on the basis of common features. The understanding, more advanced than simple classification, that some classes or sets of objects are also sub-sets of a larger class. (E.g. there is a class of objects called dogs. There is also a class called animals. But all dogs are also animals, so the class of animals includes that of dogs) The realisation that objects or sets of objects stay the same even when they are changed about or made to look different. The ability to move away from one system of classification to another one as appropriate. The belief that you are the centre of the universe and everything revolves around you: the corresponding inability to see the world as someone else does and adapt to it. Not moral "selfishness", just an early stage of psychological development.

Accommodation

Classification Class Inclusion

Conservation Decentration Egocentrism

Operation

The process of working something out in your head. Young children (in the sensorimotor and pre-operational stages) have to act, and try things out in the real world, to work things out (like count on fingers): older children and adults can do more in their heads. The representation in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas, and/or actions, which go together. A period in a child's development in which he or she is capable of understanding some things but not others

Schema (or scheme) Stage

Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage Sensori-motor (Birth-2 yrs) Characterised by Differentiates self from objects Recognises self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise Achieves object permanence: realises that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense (pace Bishop Berkeley) Pre-operational (2-7 years) Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of colour Concrete operational (7-11 years) Can think logically about objects and events Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9) Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size. Formal operational (11 years and up) Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systemtically Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems

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