1. Jean Piaget 1896 – 1980 Genetic Epistomology IBE director
“only education is capable of saving oursocieties from possible collapse, whether
violent, or gradual”

2. cognitive development occurs in stages:
Sensory Motor
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Formal Operational
development in each stage follows the principles of
Adaptation
Organization

3. Schemas
mental representations of an associated set of perceptions
concepts of how the world works
Adaptation
how we assimilate or accommodate information in order to survive
assimilation
incorporating new information to fit into your schema
accommodation
adjusting schemas to fit new information

4. Child has two schemas: Bigger is Better More is Better
Consider the following examples
Child has two schemas:
Bigger is Better
More is Better
you offer her money to buy candy
three nickels or two dimes

5. The Sensory Motor Stage
birth through 2 years of age
knowledge develops as the infant gains experience through sensory input
Object Permanence develops

6. Object Permanence
according to Piaget develops between 8 and 12 months of age
tested as the child's search for the covered object

7. Preoperational Stage 2 - 7 years of age
use of symbols, symbolic thinking and mental reasoning emerges (or increases)
reasoning is still mostly intuitive - not based on logic
thinking is largely egocentric

8. Concrete Operational Stage
years of age - beginning of logical thought
characterized by ability to apply logical processes or operations to specific or concrete examples and development of conservation
cannot think in purely hypothetical terms

9. Formal Operational 11 years of age and older
the beginnings of hypothetical and abstract thought
asking a concrete or preoperational child the question "what would elephants see if they could fly?" gives insight into the establishment of formal operational thought

10. Postformal Thought
a type of adult thinking well-suited for solving real world problems
generally emerges in the mid 20s but it depends on your experiences

11. Giesela Labouvie-Vief in 1985
she objected to traditional models such as Piagetian which considered only objective logical thought
using only logic, she argued, produces closed rigid thinking

12. post formal thinkers can:
consider and utilize objective processes in interaction with subjective processes
can consider the complexities of human experience when drawing conclusions

13. characterized by a flexible perspective
hallmark of postformal thought is an awareness that validity (knowledge) is context specific
characterized by a flexible perspective
assessed via “brief narratives”
the answer is not the important factor, how you arrive at the answer is important

14. Mary, Phoebe, and Julie all have daughters
Mary, Phoebe, and Julie all have daughters. Each mother has held a set of values that has guided her efforts to raise her daughter. Now the daughters have grown up, and each of them is rejecting many of her mother's values. How did it happen and what should they do?