Jean Piaget

French Speaking developmental psychologist and philosopher known for epistemological studies with children. Created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva 1955 His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology". According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget is "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing.

Accomplishment In 1921 he was a research director at the Institute Jean Jacques Rousseau in Geneva.
Director of the International Bureau of Education. Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences(1929) Director of the International Center for Genetic Epistemology(1955) Professor and Emeritus of Sociology, Experimental Psychology,

 Co-editor of eight journals and has honorary doctorates from Harvard, Manchester, Cambridge and about 28 other universities. Received the Erasmus Prize in 1972 .

1979 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Social and Political Sciences. In the 1920s. He investigated the hidden side of childrens minds. Piaget proposed that children moved from a position of egocentrism to sociocentrism

 Piaget noticed that young children consistently gave wrong answers to certain questions. Piaget did not focus so much on the fact of the children's answers being wrong, but that young children consistently made types of mistakes that older children and adults did not. This led him to the theory that young children's cognitive processes are inherently different from those of adults

Books by Jean Piaget

The Psychology Of The Child

The Psychology of Intelligence

The Language and Thought of the Child The Origins Of Intelligence In Child The Moral Judgment of the Child

Piaget Classroom Environment

Teachers should encourage children to explore and experiment Individualized instructions Classroom have concrete materials to touch.

Piaget Theory
Schemas

Assimilation and Accommodation

Process of Cognitive Development

Organization

Equilibration

Schemes

Actions or mental representations that organize knowledge A basic building block of intelligent behavior. It is a way of organizing knowledge relating to one aspect of the world including objects, actions, colours and abstract.

Assimilation
Incorporating new knowledge into existing schemes Example computer programmer learning a new programming language. The individual is adding information to their existing schema. Remember, if new experiences cause the person to alter or completely change their existing beliefs

Accommodation
Happens when the existing schema (knowledge) needs to be changed to take in new information. For example, a young child may have an existing schema for dogs. Dogs have four legs, so the child may automatically believe that all animals with four legs are dogs. When the child learns that cats also have four legs, she will undergo a process of accommodation in which her existing schema for dogs will change and she will also develop a new schema for cats.

Organization
Grouping isolated behaviors into a higherorder system Example: A boy with only a vague idea about how to use hammer also may have vague ideas to use other tools. After learning use of all tools he relates these uses, organizing his knowledge.

Equilibration
A shift, a resolution of conflict to reach a balance A mechanism to explain how children shift from one stage of though to the next.

4 Stage of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Stage
(Birth for 2 years ) Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating their sensory experiences. Manipulate groups of objects Children continue to organize their perception by classifying object into groups and name it Draw conclusions and explain why Encourage children to discover concepts and principles. Assign operational tasks. Propose problems and encourage hypothesis formation. Suggest alternative approaches to problems. Develop projects and investigations.

Preoperational Thinkers
(2 to 7 years )

Concrete Operations (7 to 11 years ) Formal Operations

(11 years old age through adulthood)

Sensorimotor Stage

(Birth for 2 years )

Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating their sensory experiences. Explore by using the mouth ,eyes, hands and coordinate their senses to construct the world

6 stages of SensoriMotor
Simple Reflexes Happens within first month of newborn life . The physical and cognitive life of the baby is its inborn reflexes. These reflexes helps interact with world .The sucking reflex allows the body to sucks reflex allows the baby to sucks at anything placed in their lips. First habits and Primary Circular Reactions Between ages 1-4 month. Baby will coordinate separate actions into single activities

 Secondary Circular Reactions

During this stage baby start to act and react to outside world. This demonstrate when baby pick up their rattle and shake it to listen to different noises. Coordination of Secondary Circulation Reactions Baby begins to develop goal directed behavior where several activities are combined to solve problems. For example when baby playing with their toys ,if somebody took away, they would begin looking for it.

 Tertiary Circular Reactions During this time child carries miniature experiments to observe certain consequences.

Beginning of thought Childs form mental and symbolic thought. This means child start to remember past events and objects.

Preoperational Thinkers

(2 to 7 years )
Manipulate groups of objects Children continue to organize their perception by classifying object into groups and name it. Begin at seven ,Childs can think about certain things as events that are not happening in presents. Children start to think outside world and play pretend.

Concrete Operations (

7 to 11 years )

Use their knowledge in a more complex mental operations. Children begin to think abstract and make rational judgment. The child will begin to ask questions which allow them to manipulate information.

Formal Operations

(11 years old age through adulthood)

Able to formulate abstract conclusions understand cause and effect relationships. During this stage human no longer need to concrete object to make rational decisions. A person also able to consider many possibilities from all kind perspective.