Wednesday, July 16, 2014

JEAN PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT



PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY


JEAN PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT


Full name
Jean William Fritz Piaget
Born
9 August 1896(1896-08-09)
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.