Jean Piaget By Patricia Dawson

Biography  Biologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget was born on August 9,1896 in Neuchatel Latin, Switzerland, and died in 1980 in Geneva, Switzerland.  At the age of 11 he attended high school at Neuchatel Latin in Switzerland. Science was something he was interested at a early age, he also published a scholarly paper that same year.  Some of the accomplishments he made throughout his extended career was that he wrote over sixty books and hundreds of articles.  Even though Piaget has been referred to as a psychologist he was really a epistemologist. When doing this work it is what made him a major contributor on the base of educational psychology.  After graduating from High School Piaget went on to the University of Neuchatel and studded zoology and got his Ph.D. in the natural sciences in He also got his doctorate in biology even though he never worked in the field. The field he went to work in was psychology in 1919.

Theory of Cognitive Development His theory of cognitive development consists of four stages of intellectual development.

Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development AgeStageBehaviors Birth-18 MonthsSensorimotorLearn through sense Learn though reflexes Manipulate materials 18 Months-6 YearsPreoperationalForm ideas based on their perceptions Can only focus on one variable at a time Overgeneralized based on limited experience 6 Years-12 YearsConcrete OperationalForm ideas based on reasoning Limit thinking to objects and familiar events 12 Years and OlderFormal OperationalThink conceptually Think hypothetically

Stage 1: Sensorimotor (Birth-18 Months) During this Stage, the child begins to develop:  Reflexes  Habits  Hand-eye coordination  Object Permanence (knowing something exists, even though it can’t be seen)  Experimentation and creativity. Piaget referred to the children in this stage as “little scientists”.  Trial and error experiments  Also children at this age can begin showing signs in separation anxiety

Activity for Sensorimotor Activities:  Reflexes will be learned when having tummy time by doing this children build their upper and core body strength which they will need to start moving. This should happen many times a day during the first 2 months. The stepping reflex happens when you first pick up a baby, they move one foot forward.

Stage 2: Preoperational (18 Months-6 Years)  Language: Development and expansion of vocabulary and grammar.  Pretend play: Performance of real-life or fanciful scenarios with specific roles and storylines.  Thinking: Differs most from adult thought patterns.  Children at this stage are also egocentric meaning they can only think of how things relate to them.  A related limitation is centrism, the tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event.

Activity for Preoperational Activities: Planting a seed and helping it grow is a fun way to incorporate preoperational stage activities into learning about nature.  Children will need small pots, soil, seeds, and water  They will fill their pot with soil  Put a 1 inch hole in the soil and place a seed in it  Then cover it with soil and then add water  The children will journal each day the growth of their plant

Stage 3: Concrete Operational (6 Years- 12 Years)  Thinking systematically remains difficult  Children being to reason logically about the world  They can solve conservation problems, but their successful reasoning is largely limited to concrete situations  Distinctions between one’s own and other’s perspectives: understanding that one’s personal thoughts and feelings can differ from someone else’s

Activity for Concrete Operational One activity that a child at this age would enjoy is a cooking activity. If you get creative you can incorporate several components of Piaget’s theories in this activity.  Baking involves measuring different ingredients such as liquids and solids  Children can learn categories by sorting dry and we ingredients  Numbers and seriating come into play with the distinct steps in the directions  Children at this age can enjoy working together and making something  This turns into a great learning opportunity

Stage 4: Formal Operational (12 Years and Older)  Idealism: the capacity to imagine alternatives to current social and political practices  Reasoning: ability to draw logical conclusions about abstract and hypothetical ideas and situations  Proportional Reasoning: conceptual understanding of fractions, percentages, and ratios  Children begin thinking in a formal systematic way  Ability to hypothesize, test and reevaluate hypotheses

Activity for Formal Operational Children at this stage should be encouraged to work in groups to explore and discuss hypothetical topics.  Students should be encouraged to discuss how they solve problems  Students could work in pairs, with one being the listener while the other is the problem solver  The problem solver works the problem aloud, while the listener checks to see that all steps are followed and seem logical

The teachers role of implementing Piaget’s theory  The teachers main role is the facilitation of learning by providing various experiences for the student.  Discovery learning allows opportunities for students to explore and implement, while encouraging new understandings.  They need opportunities that allow learners of different cognitive levels to work together to help encourage less mature students to advance to a higher understanding of materials.  One feature implication for the instruction of students is the use of hands on experience to help the students learn.

Implementing Piaget’s Theory in the Classroom  Students must be given opportunities to experience knowledge through their own experiences.  Use concrete props and visual ads whenever possible  Make instructions relatively short using actions as well as words  Do not expect the student to constantly see the world someone else’s point of view  Be sensitive to the possibility that students may have different meaning for the same word or different words for the same meaning. Students can also except everyone to understand words they have invented  Give children a great deal of hands on practice with the skills that serve as building blocks for more complex skills like reading comprehension  Provide a wide range of experiences in order to build a foundation for concept learning and language

Reference  Mooney, Carol G. Theories of Childhood. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf, Print.  "Jean Piaget Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 03 Aug  "Which of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Is Deshandra in - Ask Community." Which of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Is Deshandra in - Ask Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Aug