SOUTHERN LUZON STATE UNIVERSITY

TIAONG CAMPUS
Teacher Education Department
Tiaong, Quezon

MODULE 3.2
Cognitive Development Theory
(Developmental Theories and Other Relevant Theories)

OVERVIEW
Cognition refers to thinking and memory processes, and cognitive development refers to
long-term changes in these processes. One of the most widely known perspectives about cognitive
development is the cognitive stage theory of a Swiss psychologist named Jean Piaget. Piaget created
and studied an account of how children and youth gradually become able to think logically and
scientifically. Because his theory is especially popular among educators, we will focus on it in this
module. Piaget proposed four major periods of cognitive development: the sensorimotor stage (birth
to age 2), the preoperational stage (ages 2 to 7), the concrete operations stage (ages 7 to 11), and the
formal operations stage (ages 11 to 12 or older). Let us know more about it through the help of this
module. Enjoy learning! In order to be well guided in answering the module, you may first read the
objectives in order for you to understand the goals and targets of this module. Reading this module
should make you more aware of your own assumptions about human development and how they
compare with those of the major theorists. We therefore invite you to clarify your stands on these
issues by completing check-up questions/ activities that you will encounter as you read the discussion
for this will help you in answering the evaluation. For further readings, you may see the references at
the last part of this module.
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the module, the student is expected to:
1. Describe the cognitive development of Piaget;
2. Understand the cognitive changes throughout the individual lifespan; and
3. Apply the cognitive theory of Jean Piaget in teaching.

DISCUSSION
Piaget was a psychological constructivist: in his view, learning proceeded by the interplay of
assimilation (adjusting new experiences to fit prior concepts) and accommodation (adjusting
concepts to fit new experiences). The to-and-from of these two processes leads not only to
short-term learning, but also to long-term developmental change. The long-term developments are really
the main focus of Piaget’s cognitive theory. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic
mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge are
based.

The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant, and then the
child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses. To Piaget, cognitive
development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation
and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, and then
experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment.

There are three basic components to Piaget's Cognitive Theory; schemas, adaptation, and stages of
Cognitive Development. Schemas are the basic building blocks of such cognitive models, and enable us
to form a mental representation of the world. Imagine what it would be like if you did not have a mental
model of your world. It would mean that you would not be able to make so much use of information from
your past experience or to plan future actions. Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive
development and described how they were developed or acquired. A schema can be defined as a set of
linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations.
The assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed. For example,
a person might have a schema about buying a meal in a restaurant. The schema is a stored form of the
pattern of behavior which includes looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying the bill. This is
an example of a type of schema called a 'script.' Whenever they are in a restaurant, they retrieve this
schema from memory and apply it to the situation.

Jean Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This
happens through assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration. Assimilation is using an existing
schema to deal with a new object or situation. For example, a 2-year-old child sees a man who is bald on
top of his head and has long frizzy hair on the sides. To his father’s horror, the toddler shouts “Clown,
clown”. Accommodation happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be
changed to deal with a new object or situation. For instance, in the “clown” incident, the boy’s father
explained to his son that the man was not a clown and that even though his hair was like a clown; he
wasn’t wearing a funny costume and wasn’t doing silly things to make people laugh. With this new
knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of “clown” and make this idea fit better to a standard
concept of “clown”. And finally, equilibration, this is the force which moves development along. Piaget
believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.
Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation.
Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek
to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation). Once the new information is
acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema will continue until the next time we need to
make an adjustment to it.

After observing children closely, Piaget proposed that cognition developed through distinct stages
from birth through the end of adolescence. By stages he meant a sequence of thinking patterns with four
key features: (1) They always happen in the same order, (2) No stage is ever skipped, (3) Each stage is a
significant transformation of the stage before it, and (4) Each later stage incorporated the earlier stages
into itself. Basically this is the “staircase” model of development mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter. Piaget proposed four major stages of cognitive development, and called them (1) sensorimotor
intelligence, (2) preoperational thinking, (3) concrete operational thinking, and (4) formal operational
thinking. Each stage is correlated with an age period of childhood, but only approximately.

STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

1. The sensorimotor stage: birth to age 2
The sensorimotor stage is first, and is defined as the period when infants “think” by means of
their senses and motor actions. As every new parent will attest, infants continually touch, manipulate,
look, listen to, and even bite and chew objects. According to Piaget, these actions allow them to learn
about the world and are crucial to their early cognitive development. The infant’s actions allow the child
to represent (or construct simple concepts of) objects and events. The main achievement during this stage
is object permanence - knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden.
The term "sensorimotor" comes from the child understanding their world largely through their
senses for their first 2 years. This stage is characterized by the lack of language and internal
representation. It focuses on the reflexes that the child is born with such as sucking, reaching and
grasping. In this stage of development the child eventually develops primary circular reactions, which are
activities centered on the child’s body and repetitious in nature. Eventually, children develop the
coordination of separate activities and the evolution of language. A final achievement in this stage is
recognizing cause-and-effect relationships.

2. The preoperational stage: age 2 to 7

In the preoperational stage, children use their new ability to represent objects in a wide variety of
activities, but they do not yet do it in ways that are organized or fully logical. Thinking is still egocentric,
and the infant has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others.

3. The concrete operational stage: age 7 to 11

Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child's cognitive development
because it marks the beginning of logical or operational thought. This means the child can work things
out internally in their head (rather than physically try things out in the real world).

4. The formal operational stage: age 11 and beyond

In the last of the Piagetian stages, the child becomes able to reason not only about tangible
objects and events, but also about hypothetical or abstract ones. Hence it has the name formal operational
stage—the period when the individual can “operate” on “forms” or representations.

Piaget (1952) did not explicitly relate his theory to education, although later researchers have
explained how features of Piaget's theory can be applied to teaching and learning.

Piaget has been extremely influential in developing educational policy and teaching practice.
Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and stages, the notion of 'readiness' is
important. Readiness concerns when certain information or concepts should be taught. According to
Piaget's theory children should not be taught certain concepts until they have reached the appropriate
stage of cognitive development. According to Piaget (1958), assimilation and accommodation require an
active learner, not a passive one, because problem-solving skills cannot be taught, they must be
discovered. Within the classroom learning should be student-centered and accomplished through active
discovery learning. The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, rather than direct instruction.
Therefore, teachers should encourage the following within the classroom:

 Focus on the process of learning, rather than the end product of it.
 Use active methods that require rediscovering or reconstructing "truths."
 Use collaborative, as well as individual activities (so children can learn from each other).
 Devise situations that present useful problems, and create disequilibrium in the child.
 Evaluate the level of the child's development so suitable tasks can be set.

The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed
how people viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying children. His ideas have been of
practical use in understanding and communicating with children, particularly in the field of education

References:

Rathus, S.A (2012). Psychology 2nd Edition. Pasig City: Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd.

Sigelman, C.K & Rider, E.A. (2012). Life-Span Human Development, Seventh Edition. Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning

Shaffer, D.R , & Kipp, K. (2014). Developmental Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence, 9th Edition,
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Corpuz, B.B et al. (2018). The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles. 776 Aurora
Blvd.,cor Boston Street, Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila. Lorimar Publishing Inc.