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Theorist Profile

 

 

                Jean Piaget was born on August 9th in Switzerland in 1896.  Piaget was the first born of his parents Rebecca and Arthur a medieval literature professor.  His parents contribute his own neurotic tendencies to his love for science.  Jean began to emulate his father’s trait of passion and dedication in his work.  When Piaget was around the age of 11 he was publishing papers on mollusks.  Which he would go to the museum and study for hours just by standing and staring at the display.  When Piaget was done with high school he went on to college to study zoology.  He graduated in 1918 with a degree in natural sciences (Piaget, 2013).  When he was done he went on to learn all about psychology under Carl Jung.  During a year studying with Jung and Bleuler, Piaget developed a deeper interest in the field of psychoanalysis.  In the 1920’s he work at the Binet Institute where he developed French version of English questions to measure intelligence of kids.  In 1980 Piaget past away of unknown causes in Switzerland (Piaget, 2013).

                Piaget in general studied the cognitive development of kids.  The mainstream thought before he introduced his theories was that kids were inferior thinkers compared to adults.  In reality Piaget proved that kids had a totally different way of thinking than adults.  The cognitive development was the main line of thinking Piaget’s study took.  He and Theodore Simon collaborated and developed a standardized test for testing the intelligence of kids.  Piaget’s theories differ from others in many ways but the ways in particular are the theories that focused on children not all learners.  The theories focused on the development of the kid’s brain but not on all of the learning aspects.  So the theories do not focus on the learning of information or specific of behaviors and they propose discrete stages of development marked by qualitative differences rather than a gradual increase in a number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc. (Mcleod, 2009, Updated 2012).     

                    There are 3 basic components to what Piaget has in his cognitive theories.  Schemas which are the building blocks of knowledge.  Schemas deal with what things are and how the kid deal with a certain situation or object. The next stage would be about the process or the ability to go from one stage to another.  The stages of equilibrium, assimilation, accommodation which have to do with a child’s process to adapt what the world is like around him or her.  Assimilation means that the kid is going to deal with a new object in its life.  The accommodation phase is the phase when the kid has to change to adapt to what is going on in its life.  Equilibrium is what moves the whole phases along from one to another (Mcleod, 2009, Updated 2012).  Disequilibrium happen when the kid learns new information and that contradicts existing information and does not know how to process the information.  But equilibrium happens through the assimilation stage when the kid gets reinforcing information which is what kids strive towards.                         

                The third stage that Piaget has is the stages of development.  The first stage in the 3 stages is sensorimotor.  The sensorimotor is the development for kids between the ages of birth to 2 years.  The sensorimotor part deals with the movement the kids has and learning about things that move on its body.  The other part is the kid learning about the surrounding it lives in and what is were through assimilation.  For example the kid moving it’s arm and legs to see how they move and how they work.  The other example is the kid learning about where it lives and it’s surrounding like where people are where it can move and what kind of acts get certain kind of reactions.  Mainly it is where things are located and just general information about the surroundings. 

                The second stage is preoperational is around the age from 2 to 7 years of age.  The preoperational stage kids can recognize events and objects.  With this stage kids are still ego centric which means they assume that you feel and think like them.  Kids from about 2 to 4 believes that objects have the same feeling and thought process as them as well.  For example they have teddy bears that share the same feelings and they may talk to them like they are people.  They also recognize places and events but they are not necessarily understanding the details of the event.  Just that there is a gathering and a group of people are there for a reason.  

                The third stage is the concrete operational phase of development.  According to Piaget this is the most pivotal stage in the cognitive development of a child.  The age of this stage ranges from 7 to 11 years and the kid is no longer ego centric and is more of a conservation type thinker.  The conservation type thinker is aware that the quantity stays the same even if the shape changes or if there is a redistribution of materials.  The Concrete Operational stage because of the way a kid thinks at this stage.  It is a stage where kids start thinking logical and operational but only for inanimate objects.  Since this stage marks the beginning of logical thought it starts a sort of maturing process for the kid.

                The next and last stage is the formal operational phase of the kid’s development.  This stage starts around the age of 11 years and continues into adulthood.  This is where the kids starts to think in an abstract way and is a more complex way than the previous stage.  This is also the age where the kid starts to manipulate ideas in their head.  They can manipulate ideas without the use of inanimate objects which means it could be a higher complex reasoning.  There are 2 sub topics within this topic one is inferential learning and the other is the pendulum task.

               The inferential learning is where kids can draw a conclusion without experiencing the event.  An example is telling the kid to judge how far a place is by telling them A is farther than C, but B is father than C.  From the example you can see the kids can figure out the problem in their head.  The pendulum task is what the title says, its 3 weights hanging from a string.  You take one weight and swing it and see how it reacts with the other weights in the space it has to swing.  When the kids are watching the pendulums swing they are paying attention to the many variables that are happening (i.e. speed, how far the swing is, and the interruptions of the swing).  Older kids in the formal operation phase tend to look at these aspects systematically (Mcleod, 2009, Updated 2012).  The even younger children who are not in the formal operation phase tend to take the task randomly without any sort of pattern.  After many test psychologists have determined that kids cannot complete the pendulum task until they reach the formal operational stage in their learning (Mcleod, 2009, Updated 2012). 

                Piaget’s theories are more for discovery learning than any other type of educational learning.  The previous statement is evident when you look at the operations that are suggested.  It is suggested that a learner’s centered model in the teacher’s role is to facilitate the leaning.  Piaget also has 5 points that teachers should do in their classroom to encourage learning. 

-The Focus on the process of learning, rather than the end product.

-Using active methods that require rediscovering or reconstruction “truths”.

-Using collaborative, as well as individual activities (group work).

-Devising situations that present useful problems, and create dis equilibrium in the child.

-Evaluate the level of the child’s development, so suitable tasks can be set.

The five points that are mentioned above are what Piaget believed teachers should be doing in their classrooms (Mcleod, 2009, Updated 2012).

                Piaget has won many prestigious awards in the field of psychology.  He was also a published author by the age of 11 and also asked to be a curator of a museum by the age of 16 years.  He created theories about the learning of kids and are studied and discussed to this day.  One point I would like to bring up is that there are 2 other forward thinkers on the topic of child learning were Vygotsky and Bruner.  They had a different stance compared to Piaget and had same theories but different methods.  The one thing I took away from the differences was that Vygotsky and Bruner thought that learning was continuous and not in stages like Piaget laid out.  Piaget’s thought about cognitive development was forward thinking at the time were a child’s though process was thought to be inferior to an adult.  Piaget changed the common thought of the child mind being inferior to an adult and that the child’s mine just learns different than an adult.  Now Piaget stages of cognitive development is one of the more common things that is known when talking about child teaching (Piaget, 2013).

                When looking at a writing by Piaget called development and learning I was intrigued by the first couple paragraphs in the article.  Piaget starts off by talking about his stages and the cognitive development of children.  But there is a comment he says that stuck with me, he basically understands the different opinions.  He stated that he was not going to stand up and lecture and tell you how or what he was doing because the topic is too big and so many varied opinions.  He was just going to mention the points or stages and let the people in the field or whomever discuss the stages.  By doing this method of discussion I think brought a chance for more ideas and a more of a brainstorming atmosphere than him telling people what they need to know (Piaget, 1964).

 

Bibliography

Leila Edwards, Jane Hopgood, Katie Rosenberg and Kymberley Rush. (n.d.). Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development. Retrieved from Mental development & Education: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/DLiT/2000/Piaget/stages.htm

Mcleod, S. (2009, Updated 2012). Jean Piaget. Retrieved from Simply psychology: http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html#idc-cover

Piaget, J. (2013). The Biography channel. Retrieved from Bio. true story: http://www.biography.com/people/jean-piaget-9439915

Piaget, J. (1964). Development and learning IN R.E. Ripple & V.N. Rockcastle (eds.), Piaget Rediscovered   (pp.7-20). Retrieved from: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/35piaget64.pdf