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JEAN PI﻿AGET'S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT By: Kaitlin Cohen Jason Shaw Emily Wireman

Swiss Psychologist and Biologist 1896 - 1980. [|Click here to learn more about Piaget's background.]

Piaget is renowned for his Cognitive Development Theory in which he supports the idea that children actively acquire knowledge through their own actions. Piaget identifies three types of knowledge that children acquire which form a hierarchy with Physical Knowledge being the base and Social-Arbitrary Knowledge being the peak. These three types of knowledge are:

**Physical Knowledge** - knowledge about objects in the world which can be gained through their perceptual properties.

**Logical - Mathematical Knowledge** - abstract knowledge that must be invented.

**Social - Arbitrary Knowledge** - culture specific knowledge learned from people within one's culture group.

The three types of knowledge must be acquired in order. For example, a child can not have an understanding of Social -Arbitrary knowledge before obtaining Physical Knowledge.

Piaget also identifies four stages that a child will pass through while developing knowledge. Below is a link to a Concept map detailing the four stages as well as a full description of each stage:



**1st stage - Sensorimotor stage (birth – 2 years old)**–The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight (object permanence). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> media type="youtube" key="ue8y-JVhjS0" height="156" width="383"

**2nd stage - Preoperational stage (ages 2-7)**–The child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations.

media type="youtube" key="GLj0IZFLKvg" height="195" width="240"

**3rd stage - Concrete operations (ages 7-11)**–As physical experience accumulates, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage.

media type="youtube" key="gA04ew6Oi9M" height="195" width="240"

**4th stage - Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15)**–By this point, the child’s cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning. media type="youtube" key="zjJdcXA1KH8" height="194" width="239"


 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3 main principles of Development Theory __**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Assimilation** - affirming a structure by testing it against new information. Structure remains essentially unchanged by the new experience. The child is incorporating new events or objects into existing schemas.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Accomodation** - a new experience that requires adjustment to existing structure so that it better deals with experience. The child must modify existing schemas in order to incorporate new objects or events.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Equilibration** - process of maintaining a stable, productive organization. This is the result of assimilation and accommodation experiences. It is the master developmental process. A child will discover shortcomings in their ways of thinking which will result in disequilibrium and thus eventually moving to equilibrium.


 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[image:DownloadedFile.jpeg width="63" height="46"]]Strengths of Development Theory __**

One of the biggest strengths of Piaget's Development Theory is that it gives teachers fairly specific guidelines regarding a students stage of knowledge and which stage they should be striving for next. Also, it is very simple to apply Piaget's stages to the real world. As seen in the above videos, in order to explore the stage that a child may be in, it can be as simple as showing them 2 glasses of water. Another strength is that it proposes a fundamental unit for cognition, the schema. All knowledge-structures are constructed from the schema and it is the basis to which three of Piaget's main principles: Assimilation, Accommodation, and Equilibration will be applied.


 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[image:DownloadedFile-1.jpeg width="67" height="52"]]Weaknesses of Development Theory __**

One weakness of this theory is that it is hard to put a concrete time frame on when a child should be developing. Some gifted children might develop quicker than other children while special needs children might develop a little slower. Some children might just develop later than expected. Piaget's theory does not address these kinds of situations, and it is unfair to say that these children would be abnormal. Another weakness is that it does not address any kind of environmental factors that could possibly hinder or help development, or that on what basis do you judge development if one child is born into wealth and another is born in the middle of the jungle.


 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[image:DownloadedFile-3.jpeg width="150" height="80"]]How is Development Theory related to direct instruction or constructivism? __**

The idea of constructivism is based on the principle that the child should be interactive with the educational process. The teacher should not be forcing facts but experiencing things with the students that can be discussed and rationalized together. His theory states how the child learns through hands on experience which is exactly what constructivism is about. It is because of this principle that Piaget's theory is related to constructivism.


 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[image:images.jpeg width="75" height="56"]]How can technology be integrated into a classroom instruction that uses the Development Theory? __**

The pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages occur while a child is attending school. Educators can incorporate technology throughout each of these stages. During the pre-operational stage, teachers can create a match game on the computer. This game would require students to match a picture to the appropriate word. Thus, they are representing objects using images and words. For the concrete operational stage, teachers can set up another game on the computer which requires students to classify numerous objects. This would give the teacher an assessment of the child's ability to sort objects into groups based on different characteristics. Lastly, during the formal operational stage students could keep an online journal where they type up their thoughts or feelings about real-life problems they are experiencing. They can also type up things that worry, bother, or sadden them. This will help the teacher get a better understanding of their concerns dealing with hypothetical, future, and ideological problems.

This classroom would have a one to one ratio of students to computers. With this ratio, students will be able to use these computers frequently for their online journal and other instructive games. The classroom would be an interactive environment where students are encouraged to explore and experiment.
 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">[[image:StudentComputer.jpg width="42" height="44"]] What __****__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> would this classroom look like? __**

[|Click here for pictures of the classroom environment at a New Jersey Learning Center.]

All instruction would take place on the carpet. Each students will have assigned "carpet" seats so that they are seated next to children in which they can work best with. Prior to being sent back to their seats, the teacher will give explicit directions to the students. If a computer activity is being assigned after a lesson, the teacher will model the lesson on her computer. Due to the fact that the last three stages (pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational) range from ages 2+, the targeted grade level for this instruction would be grades K-4, however, the computer activities would be differentiated so that it meets appropriate grade level standards.
 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[image:DownloadedFile-2.jpeg width="67" height="46"]]What would the instruction look like? __****__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Include the targeted grade level. __**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The goals for the instruction would be to first determine which stage in the development process a child is in. The instructor would then encourage play and experimentation based on the stage a child is in. A child at this age creates his/her own knowledge and therefore Piaget believed that play will create the experiences that create schemas which will eventually help children learn. The teacher's ultimate goal will would be to build upon schemas that they have already determined to be in place. Technology can be used in every facet of a classroom that focuses on Development Theory. Because Piaget's theory focuses on experimentation, interactivity and instruction, a traditional drill and memorize lecture would not be helpful. Therefore, the use of multimedia elements should be used as much as possible.
 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[[image:images-3.jpeg width="119" height="63"]] What are the goals for instruction? What would the technology integration look like? __**

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