PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY
JEAN PIAGET’S
THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Full
name
|
Jean
William Fritz Piaget
|
Born
|
9
August 1896
|
Died
|
16
September 1980 (aged 84)
|
Native
|
Switzerland
|
Region
|
Western philosophy
|
School
|
Developmental
|
Notable
ideas
|
Genetic
Epistemology, Theory of cognitive development, Object permanence, Ego centrism
|
Although there is no general theory of cognitive development, the
most historically influential theory was developed by Jean
Piaget, a Swiss Psychologist (1896-1980). His theory provided many central
concepts in the field of developmental psychology. His theory
concerned the growth of intelligence, which for Piaget meant the ability to
more accurately represent the world, and perform logical operations on
representations of concepts grounded in the world. His theory concerns the
emergence and acquisition of schemata—schemes of how one perceives the world—in "developmental stages," times when children
are acquiring new ways of mentally representing information. For his
development of the theory, Piaget was awarded the Erasmus Prize. Intelligence,
according to Piaget, is a tool by which the organism organises its experiences
and adapts to the world.
Stages in cognitive
development
Piaget has identifies four sequential
stages through which every individual progresses in cognitive development. Each
stage has an age span with distinctive learning capabilities. This would be
helpful in framing curriculum. An understanding of this developmental sequence
is indispensable for parents as well as teachers because these influence a
great deal during infancy, childhood and adolescence.
ü Sensory
motor stage - Birth to 2 years
ü Preoperational
stage - 2
to 7
ü Concrete
operational stage - 7 to 11
ü Formal
operational stage - 11 years and above
SENSORY MOTOR STAGE
(BIRTH TO 2 YEARS)
It
is mainly based on immediate experience through the ‘sense’ and the major
intellectual activity is the sensory interaction of the environment. This stage
is characterised by:
ü Development
of sensory, motor and perceptual
skills.
ü Coordination
of motor activities.
(For example if a small coloured ball is
presented to a six month old infant, it tries to hold it by using all its four
limbs (two hands, and two leges) but an eight month old infant will try to hold
the ball only with hands, a ten month old infant tries to hold a small objects
like a lemon by a single hand and use both hands for objects of big size.)
ü Object
permanence: Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even
when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. At
first, for a child an object ‘out of
sight’ is ‘out of mind’. But towards the close of the second year it learns
object permanence in space and time’
ü Development
of curiosity and trial and error
exploration of immediate surroundings.
ü In
this stage the child develops practical intelligence like seeing, grasping, sucking, etc.
to deal with objects in the environment and cannot use symbolic operations.
PRE OPERATIONAL
STAGE (2- 7 YEARS)
This stage is characterised by:
ü Ego centrism:
The child has
difficulty taking the viewpoint of others.
ü Animism:
the child treating inanimate objects as living ones. (eg. Children bathing,
dressing and feeding their dolls as if they are alive)
ü Realism:
dreams are considered real.
ü Irreversibility:
cannot understand reversibility. It is easier for the child to solve 4+8 = 12,
but he finds it difficult to solve 12-8=4
ü Omnipotent:
consider their parents as omnipresent and omnipotent.
ü Inability to play
any game, following the rule.
ü Centring:
the child can concentrate on only one aspect of a thing at a time.
ü Conservation:
due to centering, they can not understand that objects are conserved even if
they change their positions or their shapes altered.
Volume Concept:
The child may accept that the
identical jars A and B contain equal amount of water. However on transferring
the entire amount of water from B to a wide mouthed jar C without spill or
splash, the child will assert that A contains more amount of water as compared
to C. the child considers the height of water column along without taking into
account the breadth of the jar. On transferring water from C to B back, again
the child will say A and B are equal.
Length
concept:
when two sticks of identical length are placed one below the other, matching
both ends, the child says that both are of equal length (A). it the bottom one
is shifted a little to the right, the child would say it is longer, because it
extends (B).
CONCRETE
OPERATIONAL STAGE (7 TO 11 YEARS)
The Concrete
operational stage is the third of four stages of cognitive development in Piaget's
theory. This stage, which follows the Preoperational stage, occurs
between the ages of 7 and 11 years and is characterized by the appropriate use
of logic. Important processes during this stage are:
ü Elimination of
Egocentrism—the ability to view things from another's perspective (even if they think
incorrectly).
ü Reversibility—the child understands
that numbers or objects can be changed, then returned to their original state.
For this reason, a child will be able to rapidly determine that if 4+4 equals
8, 8−4 will equal 4, the original quantity.
ü Decentering—where the child takes
into account multiple aspects of a problem to solve it. For example, the child
will no longer perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to contain less
than a normally-wide, taller cup.
ü Conservation—understanding that
quantity, length or number of items is unrelated to the arrangement or
appearance of the object or items.
ü Can play any game according to rule
ü Evaluate crime in terms of magnitude and not in terms of motive.
ü Seriation—the ability to sort
objects in an order according to size, shape, or any other characteristic. For
example, if given different-shaded objects they may make a color gradient.
ü Transitivity- The ability to
recognize logical relationships among elements in a serial order (for example,
If A is taller than B, and B is taller than C, then A must be taller than C or
if a=2b, and a=2c, then b=c)
ü Classification—the ability to name
and identify sets of objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic,
including the idea that one set of objects can include another.
By
seven or eight years old, children develop conservation of substance: If
I take a ball of clay and roll it into a long thin rod, or even split it into
ten little pieces, the child knows that there is still the same amount of
clay. And he will know that, if you rolled it all back into a single
ball, it would look quite the same as it did -- a feature known as reversibility.
By
nine or ten, the last of the conservation tests is mastered: conservation
of area. If you take four one-inch square pieces of felt, and lay them on
a six-by-six cloth together in the center, the child who conserves will know
that they take up just as much room as the same squares spread out in the
corners, or, for that matter, anywhere at all.
FORMAL OPERATIONAL
STAGE (11 YEARS AND ABOVE)
During this stage thought becomes
increasingly flexible and abstract. He understands abstract ideas and
principles. Children are able to tackle any problem in a logical sequence. Like
scientists.
This
stage is characterised by:
ü Understand
that the rules of any games or social system are developed by man by mutual
agreement and hence could be changed or modified.
ü Start
believing that there could be many points of view on any problem, even though
he may not know all.
ü Understand
that nothing is absolute. Everything is relative.
Formal logical systems can be
acquired. Can handle proportions, algebraic manipulation, and other
purely abstract processes. If a + b = x then a = x - b. If ma/ca =
IQ = 1.00 then Ma = CA
Formal operations consist of four
overlapping logical abilities, namely, (1) Hypothetico-Deductive thinking (2)
Inductive thinking (3) Reflective Thinking and (4) Interpropositional Logic.
Hypothetico- deductive thinking
and inductive thinking are the abilities to generate hypotheses and to think
logically about abstractions such as symbols and proposition as well as about
available information.
Reflective thinking,
which is called recursive thinking, is the ability to think about thought to
reflect one one’s own mental processes. In information-processing theory it is
called metacognition.
Interpropositional logic
is the ability to judge the truth of logical relationships of propositions. For
example
Prepositional logic, as-if and if-then
steps. Can use aids such as axioms to transcend human limits on
comprehension.
Proposition 1 : square
is a quadrilateral
Proposition 2 : quadrilateral
has four sides
Conclusion : square has
four sides.
Educational
implications of Piaget’s theory.
The teacher's role
is to facilitate learning by providing a variety of experiences.
"Discovery learning" provides opportunities for learners to explore
and experiment, thereby encouraging new understandings. Opportunities that
allow students of differing cognitive levels to work together often encourage
less mature students to advance to a more mature understanding. One further
implication for instruction is the use of concrete "hands on"
experiences to help children learn. Additional suggestions include:
ü Emphasis on discovery
approach in learning.
ü Arrange classroom activities
so that they assist and encourage self learning.
ü Cocurricular activities
have equal importance.
ü Activity approach at the
primary classes and concrete methods of illustration (use of aids,
demonstrations, etc) all the middle school level are advocated. Verbal method
of teaching should be practised only from high school classes.
ü
Use familiar
examples to facilitate learning more complex ideas, such as story problems in
math.
ü Present problems that require logical analytic thinking; the use of
tools such as "brain teasers" is encouraged.
ü Use visual aids and models.
ü Provide opportunities to discuss social, political, and cultural issues.
ü
Teach broad
concepts rather than facts, and to situate these in a context meaningful and
relevant to the learner.
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