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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