JEAN PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

JEAN PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

‘Cognition’ means ‘to perceive’, comprehend’ and, ‘conceive’ or simply ‘to know’

“Cognitive development means intellectual development or mental development. It includes mental process such as knowing, reasoning, memorizing, imagining, language acquisition and thinking”.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

·        Swish Biologist

·        Interest in epistemology

·        Later he developed a keen interest in child and cognitive psychology.

·        He opposed Binet’s idea of defining intelligence in terms of number of correct responses to the items contained in a particular intelligence test.

·        He defined intelligence as the ability to adjust, adapt or deal effectively with one’s environment.

·        His Approach is known as ‘genetic epistemology’ it focuses attention on the interaction between his biological inheritance and his environment for cognitive development.

A. Schema (cognitive structure)

·        The structural unit of the human mind.

·        Emergence of new cognitive abilities occurs as a result of the modification of Behaviour pattern that are present at the time of birth. These patterns of Behaviour constitute the structural unit of human mind. 

·        Schemas constitute organized pattern of behaviour that an individual use in dealing with objects in his environment.

·        As the development proceeds, the existing schema enlarges and it is coordinated with new patterns of behaviour to from more complex schemas. 

B. Cognitive Functioning

The process of organization of these structural units (Schemas) takes place by three different activities – assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium. These activities constitute the functional aspects of human mind (cognitive process).

Assimilation

·        It is the process of building schemas by modifying new experience so that it fits into the already developed cognitive structure.

·        During assimilation individual uses his current schema to interpret the external world

·        Ex: a child who learnt only primary colours (Red, Green, Blue) may identify a man wearing a pink shirt as one wearing red shirt. Here the child organizes the new experience (pink colour) in terms of his existing schema (red colour)  

Accommodation

·        It is the modification of existing schema to deal with new information.

·        It involves transformation of an old schema for learning new schema, which is more appropriate for the new situation.

·        Ex: the moment the child learns to discriminate between a red shirt and a pink shirt, the preexisting schema of red colour is accommodated with a new experience of identification of the shade of red, that is, pink colour.

Equilibration

·        It means optimal level of intellectual functioning taking place when there is a balance between assimilation and accommodation.

·        The cognitive structure changes from one stage to another by the process of equilibration, maintaining balance between the child and his changing environment.

Stages of Intellectual development

Stages	Duration
1.      Sensory-motor stage	Birth to 2 years	Primary circular reaction (1-4 months)	Coordination of  reflexes  (child suck his thumb)
		Secondary circular reactions ( 4-8 months)	Objectified causality
		Co-ordination of secondary schemas  (8-12 months)	Coordinate secondary actions
		Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)	trial and error experimentation
		Object permanence
2.      Pre-operational stage Pre conceptual stage (2 to 4) Intuitive phase (4 to 7)	2 to 7	Representational thought	Imitation, symbolic play
		Transductive reasoning
		Ego-centrism
		Animistic thinking
		Artificialism
3.      Concrete operational stage	7 to 11	Inductive deductive reasoning Flexibility in thinking Classification and serialization Transitivity Reversibility of thought
4.      Formal Operational Stage	12 to 15	Ability to deal with abstraction Hypothetico-deductive reasoning Systematic approach to solve problems Ability to transfer knowledge

Sensory- motor stage (B to 2yrs)

Uses his senses and his increasing motor skills to explore the environment

Primary circular reaction (1 to 4 months)

·        Un coordinated reflexes, which are present at birth, are coordinated in to simple schemas.

·        Ex: child suck his thumb by accidently then later intentionally repeat the action because he find it pleasurable

Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)

·        Child become more focused on the external world

·        Infant gradually learn that there is a relationship between their actions and the external world (Objectified causality). They discover that they can manipulate objects and produce effects.

·        Ex: a child may purposefully squeeze a rubber duck to hear it quacks.

Co-ordination of secondary schemas (8-12 months)

·        Infant coordinate secondary actions to achieve simple goals

Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)

·        Period of trial and error experimentation with objects which often lead to new outcomes.

Object permanence

·        Objects continue to exist even when they are not immediately in view.

Pre-operational stage (2-7)

·        Language development is one of the hallmark of this period

·        Better speech communication

·        His thinking is often not logical

·        Can imagine the future & reflect on the past

·        Develop basic numerical abilities

·        Still pretty egocentric, but learning to be able to delay gratification

·        Can’t understand conservation of matter

·        Has difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality (ex: cartoon characters are real people).

Pre-conceptual phase (2 to4)

·        This is the period of the rudimentary concept formation and is characterized by following futures

Representational thought

·        Child develops the ability to form mental symbols to represent objects or events that are not present. (Imitation, symbolic play)

Transductive reasoning (particular to particular)

·        Ex: cows are big animals with four legs and long tail. This animal also big and has four legs and a long tail, therefore it is a cow.

Ego-centrism

·        The child can see the world only from his own standpoint. He considers that the sun and the moon are following him.

Animistic thinking

·        Children attribute human feelings and motives to inanimate objects.

Artificialism

·        It is the belief that environmental features were made by people.

Intuitive phase (4 to 7)

·        At this stage the child progress towards the formation of various concepts at a more advanced level.

·        Ex: now he will agree apple, orange, and bananas are fruits despite the difference in their shape, colour or taste.

·        Child ‘s thinking at this stage not logically

·        Absents of two main cognitive characteristics namely

Reversibility (ability to reverse) and

Conservation (ability to see an object as permanent even through its length, width and shape changes)

Concrete operational stage (7 to 11)

·        The child has the ability to do simple math and measurement, with manipulative

·        He begins to understand cause & effect

·        He can think about real, concrete things in systematic ways, but cannot understand abstract concepts

·        He is no longer egocentric (he can now understand other people’s points of view)

·        Understands conservation of matter

·        Inductive deductive reasoning

·        Flexibility in thinking

·        Classification and serialization

·        Transitivity (ability to recognize relations among elements in a series)

·        Reversibility of thought

Formal Operational Stage (12 to 15)

·        A child is able to think and reason in purely abstract terms (in his head, without having concrete items in front of him)

·        He is able to use logic and abstract thinking

·        He questions previously accepted thoughts, ideas and values

·        Ability to deal with abstraction

·        Hypothetico-deductive reasoning

·        Systematic approach to solve problems

·        Ability to transfer knowledge

Educational Implications of Piaget’s theory

·        School curriculum should be constructed based on the cognitive abilities and maturation. It should be Ability based curriculum.

·        Teacher should follow the appropriate methods- simple to complex, concrete to abstract etc.

·        Provide sensory motor activities in infancy stage

·        Provide concrete and real experience to the children

·        Child centered education.. etc.

Problems with Piaget’s theory

·        Children often grasp ideas earlier than what Piaget found

·        Cognitive development across domains is inconsistent (e.g. better at reading than math)

·        Studies have shown that development can to some degree be accelerated

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