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Jean Piaget

August 9, 1896 – September 16, 1980

Swiss philosopher

Educational Theories: Cognitivism and Constructivism

Theory: Piaget divided cognitive growth and development into fixed stages. Piaget's particular focus was on the intellectual or cognitive development of children and on the way in which their mind's processed and progressed in knowledge. Piaget's central thesis was that children

• develop self-centric theories about their environment, and about objects or persons in that environment as they grow;
• children base these theories on their own personal experiences interacting with persons and objects in their environment;
• children use "schemas" to master and gain information about the environment;
• the sophistication of a child's cognitive structures increase as the child grows and developes, in direct correlation with the child's "schemas". (Schemas, which are the childs tool bag of actions and responses to make things happen, start with rudimentary interactions such as grabbing and mouthing objects and eventually progress to highly sophisticated skills such as scientific observation.)

Piaget divided the child's path of development into four stages which began with birth and culminated in the teen years. These stages are (note:according to Piaget these stages do not vary in order, cannot be skipped, and should not be rushed):

1. Sensorimotor stage (0-2 yrs)-- Child interacts with environment through physical actions (sucking, pushing, grabbing, shaking, etc.) These interactions build the child's cognitive structures about the world and how it functions or responds. Object permanence is discovered (things still exist while out of view).
2. Preoperational stage (2-7 yrs)-- Child is not yet able to form abstract conceptions, must have hands-on experiences and visual representations in order to form basic conclusions. Typically, experiences must occur repeatedly before the child grasps the cause and effect connection.
3. Concrete operations (7-11 yrs)-- Child is developing considerable knowledge base from physical experiences. Child begins to draw on this knowledge base to make more sophisticated explanations and predictions. Begins to do some abstract problem solving such as mental math, etc. Still understands best when educational material refers to real life situations.
4. Formal operations (from 11-15 and up)-- Child's knowledge base and cognitive structures are much more similar to those of an adult. Ability for abstract thought increases markedly.

Summary: Piaget emphasized that knowledge and understanding are not simply about ingesting a bunch of facts. Rather, knowledge is about structures, about understanding how the facts fit together, having mental models that allow one to accurately assimilate additional information and from it make useful predictions and conclusions. He theorized that children build this knowledge during four primary stages of life: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

References:

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget