Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) was employed at the Binet Institute in the 1920s, where his job
was to develop French versions of questions on English intelligence tests.
He became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers on the
questions that required logical thinking. He believed that these
incorrect answers revealed important differences between the
thinking of adults and children.
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a
systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions
include a theory of cognitive child development, detailed
observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of
simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive
abilities.

Piaget's Theory Differs From Others In Several Ways:
o It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.
o It focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does not address learning of
information or specific behaviors.
o It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather
than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc.
The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant,
and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses.
To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes
as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an
understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they
already know and what they discover in their environment.

There Are Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory:
1. Schemas
(building blocks of knowledge)
2. Adaptation processes that enable the transition from one stage to another
(equilibrium,assimilation and accommodation)
3. Stages of Development:
sensorimotor,
preoperational,
concrete operational,
formal operational
Schemas
Piaget (1952) defined a schema as 'a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing
component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning'.
In more simple terms Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent
behavior a way of organizing knowledge. Indeed, it is useful to think of schemas as units of
knowledge, each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions and abstract (i.e.
theoretical) concepts.
Wadsworth (2004) suggests that schemata (the plural of schema) be though of as 'index
cards' filed in the brain, each one telling an individual how to react to incoming stimuli or
information.
Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive development, and described
how they were developed or acquired. A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental
representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. The
assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed.
For example, a person might have a schema about buying a meal in a restaurant. The
schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior which includes looking at a menu, ordering
food, eating it and paying the bill. This is an example of a type of schema called a 'script'.
Piaget believed that newborn babies have a small number of innate schemas - even before
they have had much opportunity to experience the world. These neonatal schemas are the
cognitive structures underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are genetically programmed into
us.
For example babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by something touching the
baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter (dummy), or a person's finger. Piaget
therefore assumed that the baby has a 'sucking schema'.
Similarly the grasping reflex which is elicited when something touches the palm of a
baby's hand, or the rooting reflex, in which a baby will turn its head towards something which
touches its cheek, were assumed to result operations: for example shaking a rattle would be the
combination of two schemas, grasping and shaking.
Assimilation and Accommodation
Jean Piaget (1952; see also Wadsworth, 2004) viewed intellectual growth as a process of
adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through:
Assimilation
Which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation.
Accommodation
This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be
changed to deal with a new object or situation.
Equilibration
This is the force, which moves development along. Piaget believed that cognitive
development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.
Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through
assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new
information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).
Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be
frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge
(accommodation).
Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema
will continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it.


Stages of Development
Jean Piaget was interested both in how children learnt and in how they thought. He
studied children from infancy to adolescence, and carried out many of his own investigations
using his three children. He used the following research methods:
Naturalistic observation: Piaget made careful, detailed observations of children. These
were mainly his own children and the children of friends. From these he wrote diary descriptions
charting their development.
Clinical interviews and observations of older children who were able to understand
questions and hold conversations.
Piaget believed that children think differently than adults and stated they go through 4
universal stages of cognitive development. Development is therefore biologically based and
changes as the child matures. Cognition therefore develops in all children in the same sequence
of stages.
Stage of Development Key Feature
Research
Study
Sensorimotor
0 - 2 yrs.
Object Permanence
Blanket &
Ball Study
Preoperational
2 - 7 yrs.
Egocentrism
Three
Mountains
Concrete Operational
7 11 yrs.
Conservation
Conservation
of Number
Formal Operational
11yrs +
Manipulate ideas in head, e.g.
Abstract Reasoning
Pendulum
Task

Educational Implications
Piaget (1952) did not explicitly relate his theory to education, although later researchers
have explained how features of Piaget's theory can be applied to teaching and learning.
Piaget has been extremely influential in developing educational policy and teaching. For
example, a review of primary education by the UK government in 1966 was based strongly on
Piagets theory. The result of this review led to the publication of the Plowden report (1967).
Discovery learning the idea that children learn best through doing and actively
exploring - was seen as central to the transformation of primary school curriculum.
According to Piaget (1958), assimilation and accommodation require an active learner,
not a passive one, because problem-solving skills cannot be taught, they must be discovered.

Evaluation of Piaget's Theory
Support
The influence of Piagets ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous. He
changed how people viewed the childs world and their methods of studying children. He
was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have
generated a huge amount of research which has increased our understanding of cognitive
development.
His ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating with children,
particularly in the field of education (re: Discovery Learning).
Criticisms
Because Piaget concentrated on the universal stages of cognitive development and
biological maturation, he failed to consider the effect that the social setting and culture
may have on cognitive development (re: Vygotsky, 1978).
Piagets methods (observation and clinical interviews) are more open to biased
interpretation than other methods. Because Piaget conducted the observations alone data
collect are based on his own subjective interpretation of events. It would have been more
reliable if Piaget conducted the observations with another researcher and compared the
results afterwards to check if they are similar.
As several studies have shown Piaget underestimated the abilities of children because his
tests were sometimes confusing or difficult to understand (e.g. Martin Hughes, 1975).
The concept of schema is incompatible with the theories of Bruner (1966) and Vygotsky
(1978). Behaviorism would also refute Piagets schema theory because is cannot be
directly observed as it is an internal process. Therefore, they would claim it cannot be
objectively measured.
Piaget carried out his studies with a handful of participants (i.e. small sample size) and
in the early studies he generally used his own children (from Switzerland). This sample is
biased, and accordingly the results of these studies cannot be generalized to children from
different cultures.