Transcript Piaget*s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory
of Cognitive Development
EDU 251
Fall 2014
The Beginning
• Piaget was interested in the • Piaget’s theory is based on the
study of knowledge in
idea that the developing child
children.
builds cognitive structures
(schemes used to understand and
• He administered Binet’s IQ
respond to physical
test in Paris and observed
environment).
that children’s answers
were qualitatively different.
Piaget’s Theory of
Cognitive Development
• Cognition: How people think & Understand.
• Piaget developed four stages to his theory of
cognitive development:
– Sensorimotor Stage
– Pre-Operational Stage
– Concrete Operational Stage
– Formal Operational Stage.
CONCRETE
OPERATIONAL
STAGE
FORMAL
OPERATIONAL
STAGE
The child begins to
represent the world with
words and images.
These words and images
reflect increased
symbolic thinking and go
beyond the connection of
sensory information and
physical action.
He child can now reason
logically about concrete
events and classify
objects into different sets
The adolescent reasons
in more abstract,
idealistic, and logical
ways.
2 to 7 Years of Age
7 to 11 Years of Age
11 Years of Ages
Through Adulthood
SENSORIMOTOR
STAGE
PREOPERATIONAL
STAGE
The infant constructs an
understanding of the
world by coordinating
sensory experiences
with physical actions.
And infant progresses
from reflexive, instinctual
action at birth to the
beginning of symbolic
thought toward the end
of the stage
Birth to 2 Years of Age
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The Sensorimotor Stage
• From birth to approximately 2 years
• The child relies on touching, feeling and using
his senses to find out about the world
• Begins with reflexive responding and ends with
using symbols
• Object permanence
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Object Permanence
• The differentiation in
the sensorimotor stage
that objects and other
people continue to exist
outside the infant’s
perception.
• Forerunner of
perceptual constancy
The Preoperational Stage
• From approximately 2 to 7 years
• Two substages
– Preconceptual (2-4 years)
– Intuituve (4-7 years)
• Children use symbols but are many errors in thinking
> Egocentrism: The inability to distinguish between one’s
own perspective and someone else’s perspective.
> Centration: Focusing on one characteristic to the
exclusion of others
> Confuse appearance and reality (lack Conservation)
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Conservation
• The ability to
understand that
quantities of objects
continue to have the
same amount of length,
substance, number, etc.
if only the form has
changed.
The Concrete Operational Stage
• From approximately 7 to 11 years
• Thinking based on mental operations (strategies
and rules that make thinking more systematic
and powerful)
• Operations can be reversed
• Focus on the real and concrete, not the abstract
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The Formal Operational Stage
• From approximately 11 years to adulthood
• Adolescents can think hypothetically
• Use deductive reasoning
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According to Piaget, there are four
interrelated factors which together help a
child move from one stage to the next:
Operations
• Actions carried out mentally
• Conservation
• Reversibility
– The realization that any change of position, shape,
order, etc. can be reversed, i.e. returned to its
original shape, position or order.
Three Types of Knowledge
Equilibrium
• Assimilation
• Accommodation
Other Terms from Glossary
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Animism
Cognitive Conflict
Disequilibrium
Overdifferentiation
Overgeneralization
Play (assimilation)