1. EDU 330: Educational Psychology Daniel Moos
Development of Cognition and Language: Introduction to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
EDU 330: Educational Psychology
Daniel Moos

2. Intellectual Development (I)

3. Assumptions of Piaget’s Theory
Stage theory
Role of adults and children
Schemes
Intrinsic Activity; Constantly searching for equilibrium based on prior experience/knowledge

4. Assumptions of Piaget’s Theory
Intrinsic Activity; Constantly searching for equilibrium…example
Rocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape.. He hesitated and thought. Things were not going well. What bothered him most was being held, especially since the charge against him had been weak. He considered his present situation. The lock that held him was strong but he thought he could break it. He knew, however, that his timing would have to be perfect. Rocky was aware that it was because of his early roughness that he been penalized so severely-much too severely from his point of view. The situation was becoming frustrating; the pressure had been grinding on him too long. He was ridden unmercifully. Rocky was getting angry now. He felt he was ready to make his move. He knew his success or failure would depend on what he did in the next few seconds.
Summarize in two or three sentences….

5. Learning a result of disequilibrium
Assimilation
Accommodation

6. Practice: Mechanisms/processes in Piaget’s Theory
equilibrium; disequilibrium; accommodation; assimilation
You have learned to drive a car with an automatic transmission, and you’re very comfortable driving a variety of cars.
Then, you are asked to help a friend move, and your friend asks you to drive her car to her new location as she drives a moving truck. However, the car has a stick shift, and you’re very uncomfortable trying to drive it. Your friend helps you get started, and finally you’re able to manage and you’re now able to drive vehicles with both automatic transmissions and with stick shifts.
Sometime later, you help another friend move, and he has a pickup truck with a stick shift. Now, you’re able to comfortably drive the pickup truck.
How might this process translate to learning in the classroom?

7. Sensorimotor Stage ( birth - 2)
1. Sensorimotor Period (birth – 2)
Motor reflexes
Cognition progresses from the exercise of reflexes
Child coordinates them into increasingly long chains of behavior
 By the end of this period, the child understands that objects continue to exist even when they are not seen

8. Preoperational Stage (2 -7)
2. Preoperational Period (2 - 7)
Begin to interact symbolically
Vocabulary increases substantially
Grammatical and sentence construction moves to sentences
Limitations to this period:
(1) Egocentricity
(2) Perceptual Centration
(3) Inability to conserve (youtube video)

9. Concrete Operations (7 -11)
Achievements in Period:
- Conservation understood
- Empathy possible
- More likely to obey logical rules.
For example, “Jane is taller than Kim and Kim is taller than Sue. Who is tallest?” (transitivity)

10. Formal Operations Period (11- onward)
Achievements in Period:
Change in Reasoning (Scientific reasoning)
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning (not restricted to previously acquired facts)
3x – 11 = 22
Thinking like a scientist (Inductive reasoning)
Children 11 and onward can generate hypotheses and systematically test them using experiments
Thinking about thinking
Reflective abstraction: Acquire new information as a result of internal reflection

11. Formal Operations Thinking: Example
What is my rule???
Trial 1: M Does this meet my rule: No
Trial 2: D Does this meet my rule: Yes
Trial 3: O Does this meet my rule: Yes
Trial 4: F Does this meet my rule: No
Trial 5: Z Does this meet my rule: No
Trial 6: B Does this meet my rule: Yes
Trial 7: I Does this meet my rule: No
Trial 8: X Does this meet my rule: No
Trial 9: R Does this meet my rule: Yes
Trial 10: P Does this meet my rule: Yes
Trial 11: C Does this meet my rule: Yes
Trial 12: A Does this meet my rule: No
Trial 13: K Does this meet my rule: No
Trial 14: S Does this meet my rule: Yes

12. Piaget Summary

13. Piaget: Cognitive Development
Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
 Underestimating Children’s Capabilities
 Overestimating Adolescents’ Capabilities
 Vague Explanations for Cognitive Growth
 Cultural Differences 8