1. Theorist: Jean Piaget
Katie Ross

2. “Piaget’s theory described stages that children pass thought in the
Background
“Piaget’s theory described stages that
children pass thought in the
development of intelligence and
formal thought processes.”
Born August 9, 1896
Died September 16, 1980
At a young age he became interested in research
Earned his Ph. D in Zoology from the University of Neuchatel
Developed his theories by studying the intellectual development of his own three children
“Provided support for the idea that children think differently than adults.”
References:
fmajorthinkers/p/piaget.htm

3. The Four stages of Cognitive Development
Name of Piaget’s Theory
The Four stages of Cognitive Development

4. Background Information About Piaget’s Theory

5. Four Factors that Influence Changes in Thinking
Biological Maturation: The unfolding of the biological changes that are genetically programmed.
Activity: Acting on the environment and learning from it.
Social Experiences: Learning from others.
Equilibration: Search for mental balance between cognitive schemes and information from the environment.
References: Woolfolk, 2010, p. 32

6. Two Basic Tendencies in Thinking
Organization
Adaptation
The combining, arranging, recombining, and rearranging of behaviors and thoughts into coherent systems.(Woolfolk, 2010, p. 32)
Piaget says humans are born with a tendency to organize thinking processes into psychological structures (these structures are for understanding and interacting with the world). (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 32)
These structures are schemes.
Piaget defines schemes as, organized patterns of thought and behavior used in particular situations (Papalia, 2009, p. 147)
Adjustment to the environment. (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 33)
Humans adapt by assimilation and accommodation in order to achieve equilibration.
Assimilation: Fitting new information into existing schemes
Accommodation: Altering existing schemes or creating new ones in response to new information.
Equilibration: Search for mental balance between cognitive schemes and information from the environment.(Woolfolk, 2010, p. 33)
Assimilation example: children seeing a raccoon for the first time and calling it a “kitty”, They matched the new experience with an existing scheme for identifying the animal
Accommodation example: Adding the scheme for recognizing the raccoons to the system for identifying animals

7. Importance of Equilibration
Piaget’s theory is based around this principle
“…the actual changes in thinking take place through the process of equilibration.” (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 33)
Process:
We relate a certain scheme to an event and it works, than it is in equilibration. If not, then disequilibrium occurs and this causes humans to search “for a solution assimilation and accommodation” therefore thinking changes. (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 33)

8. The Four Stages of Cognitive Development

9. Sensorimotor Stage Infancy (age 0-2)
Infants learn, “about themselves and their world through their developing sensory and motor activity” (Papalia, 2009, p. 146)
Schemes remain tied to physical actions
Thinking at this stage involves: seeing, hearing, moving, touching, and asking
Accomplishments:
Ability to mentally represent objects and actions in memory
Start to recognize that objects still exist even if they are removed from sight
They move from reflex actions to goal-directed activity

10. Preoperational Stage Ages 2-7 Tend to be egocentric
Egocentric: Assuming that others experience the world the same way they do (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 35)
Expansion of symbolic thought
Symbolic Thought: Ability to use mental representations (words, numbers, or images) to which a child has attached meaning (Papalia, 2009, p. 229)
Good at one way logic but have difficulty thinking backwards
Can do simple categorization
Difficulty with conservation and decentering
Conservation: Some characteristics of an object remain the same despite changes in appearance (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 35)
Decentering: Focusing on more than one aspect at a time (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 35)

11. Concrete-Operational Stage
Ages 7-11
Use reasoning to solve actual problems
Understanding of conservation, knowledge that things can change or be transformed and still conserve its original characteristics
Thinking is limited to real situations (the here and now), they cannot reason hypothetically or solve abstract problems
Education/Learning Affects:
Master classification
Categorizes well
Number and mathematics sense grow
Understanding of maps, models, distance, and time grow
Use only inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning: Type of logical reasoning that moves from particular observations about members of a class to a general conclusion about that class.
Example: “my cat meows, Mrs. Salvo’s cat meows, Staci’s cat meows, so all cats meow.”

12. Formal Operations Ages 11 to Adulthood
Biggest part of this stage: Ability to think ABSTRACTLY!
Thinking shifts from what is, to what might be
Emotional Affects:
Adolescent Egocentrism- they know that others have different opinions and beliefs but are focused on their own ideas (Woolfolk, 2010, p. 39)
The possible and ideal start captivating the mind and feelings (Papalia, 2009, p. 372)
Education/Learning Affects:
Use symbols to represent other symbols (x stands for an unknown number), which is used in Algebra and Calculus
Better understand metaphor and allegory in Language Arts
Capable of hypothetical-deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning: a strategy in which an individual begins by identifying all the factors that might affect a problem and then deduces and systematically evaluates specific solutions (what our text book says). In other words they can develop a hypothesis and design an experiment to test what causes it.

13. Implications
for
Teaching and
Learning

14. Cognitive Development in the Classroom
“There are at least two aspects of Piaget’s work that we believe are important parts of any course dealing with children’s learning and development: the logical problem developed by Piaget to demonstrate children’s thinking processes and the clinical method used to administer these problems.” (Ormrod, 1985, p. 216)
Educator’s can perform the clinical methods on students through already set-up logical problems to figure out what stage of development the child is at.
Different Experiments used: reverse seriation, conservation of substance, conservation of area, conservation of displaced volume, combinatorial logic, separation and control of variables, and proportional reasoning. (Ormrod, 1985, p. 216)

15. Teaching Children at Different Levels
Preoperational
Concrete-Operational
Use props and visual aids
Make instructions as short as possible
Help students gain the ability to see things from another's point of view
Understand that students might have different meanings for the same word
Hands-on practice is a must
Provide a wide range of experiences to help build children’s schemas
Use props and visual aids
Allow children to manipulate and test material
Instruction time needs to still remain brief and organized
When explaining complex ideas use familiar examples
Allow time for classification and grouping
Give children logical problems to think about and solve
References: Woolfolk, 2010, p.36-38

16. Formal Operations
Fostering Formal-operational Thinking
“…only 30% to 40% of high school students can do Piaget’s formal- operational tasks” (as cited in Woolfolk, 2010, p.39)
It is questioned whether all adults ever get to this stage and at what age this occurs
Allow students to experiment
Allow them to think hypothetically
Teach broad concepts, not just specific facts and relate the material to their own life’s
References: Woolfolk, 2010, p. 40

17. Bottom Line with Cognitive Development and Teaching
Piaget’s theory gives educators one way of figuring out how students think differently
A teacher needs to understand that they could and probably will have all types of learners, who are in different stages, trying to learn in their classroom
Materials need to be set up to benefit concrete thinkers but also formal thinkers
Instruction, tasks, and presentations need to be set up to satisfy all the levels of learners and thinkers
The Cognitive Development logical problems and clinical methods can be used by teachers as they plan
The specific teaching advice discussed previously can help teachers set up their instruction based on what age group they are teaching in order to provide the best education

18. Teacher’s need to remember that there is no one size fits all education for all age groups! Younger children learn and think differently then older children!

19. References
Cherry, K. (n.d.). About.com: Psychology. Jean Piaget biography. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from
od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/piaget.htm
Ormrod, J.E., & Carter, K.R. (1985). Systematizing the piagetian clinical interview for classroom use [Electronic Version]. Teaching of Psychology, Vol. 12, No. 4,
Papalia, D.E., Olds, S.W., & Feldman, R.D. (2009). Human development (11th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Woolfolk, A. (2010). Educational psychology (11th ed.) New Jersey: Merrill, Pearson.