PECULIAR CALLING

Piaget’s Stages
of Cognitive
Development
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, the students should
be able to:

Describe and understand the cognitive

accomplishments characterized by the four
stages of cognitive development according
to Jean Piaget, namely, Sensori-motor
stage, Pre-Operational stage, Concrete-
Operational stage and Formal Operational
stage.

Identify the stages of cognitive

development given examples of children’s
behavior.

Apply and relate Piaget’s Stages of

Cognitive Development in real life
scenarios.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

JEAN PIAGET
Jean William Fritz Piaget (1896-1980) was a
pioneer in the field of child psychology. He
reframed the study of intellectual development
during the 20th century. Born in Neuchâtel,
Switzerland, on August 9, 1896, Jean was the
oldest child of Arthur Piaget and Rebecca Jackson.
His father was a professor of medieval literature at
the University of Neuchâtel with a keen interest in
local history and a dedication to education. His
mother was the daughter of a prominent French
family. She was intelligent but a bit neurotic— this
impression sparked Piaget’s interest in psychology.

ABSTRACTION
For sixty years, Jean Piaget conducted research on cognitive
development. His research method involved observing a small
number of individuals as they responded to cognitive tasks that
he designed. These tasks were later known as Piagetian tasks.

Piaget called his general theoretical framework "genetic

epistemo-logy" because he was interested in how knowledge
developed in human organisms. Piaget was initially into biology
and he also had a background in philosophy. Knowledge from
both these disciplines influenced his theories and research of
child development. Out of his researches, Piaget came up with
the stages of cognitive development.
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
BASIC COGNITIVE
CONCEPTS

SCHEMA
Piaget used the term "schema" to refer to the cognitive
structures by which individuals intellectually adapt to and
or- ganize their environment. It is an individual's way to
understand or create meaning about a thing or experience.
It is like the mind has a filing cabinet and each drawer has
folders that contain files of things he has had an experience
with.

ASSIMILATION
This is the process of fitting a new experience into an existing or
previously created cognitive structure or schema.

ACCOMMODATION
This is the process of creating a new schema.

EQUILIBRATION
Piaget believed that people have the natural need to understand how
the world works and to find order, structure, and predictability in
their life. Equilibration is achieving proper balance between
assimilation and accommodation. When our experiences do not
match our schemata (plural of schema) or cognitive structures, we
experience cognitive disequilibrium. This means there is a
discrepancy between what is perceived and what is understood. We
then exert effort through assimilation and accommodation to
establish equilibrium once more.

Cognitive development involves a continuous effort to adapt to the environment in terms of

assimilation and accommodation. In this sense, Piaget's theory is similar in nature to other
constructivist perspectives of learning like Bruner and Vygotsky.
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
PIAGET’S STAGES OF
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Stage 1. Sensori-motor Stage

(Birth to 24 Months/Infancy)
The first stage corresponds from birth to infancy. This
is the stage when a child who is initially reflexive in
grasping, sucking and reaching becomes more
organized in his movement and activity. The term
sensori-motor focuses on the prominence of the
senses and muscle movement through which the
infant comes to learn about himself and the world. In
working with children in the sensori-motor stage,
teachers should aim to provide a rich and stimulating
environment with appropriate objects to play with.

Object permanence
This is the ability of the child to know that an object
still exists even when out of sight. This ability is
attained in the sensory motor stage.

Stage 2. Pre-Operational Stage

(2 to 7 years old)
The preoperational stage covers from about two to
seven years old, roughly corresponding to the
preschool years. Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in
nature. At this stage, the child can now make mental
representations and is able to pretend, the child is now
ever closer to the use of symbols. This stage is
highlighted by the following:
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Symbolic Function
This is the ability to represent objects and events. A
symbol is a thing that represents something else. A
drawing, a written word, or a spoken word comes to be
understood as representing a real object like a real
MRT train. Symbolic function gradually develops in the
period between 2 to 7 years.

Egocentrism
This is the tendency of the child to only see his point of
view and to assume that everyone also has his same
point of view. The child cannot take the perspective of
others.

Centration
This refers to the tendency of the child to only focus
on one aspect of a thing or event and exclude other
aspects.

Irreversibility
Pre-operational children still have the inability to
reverse their thinking.

Animism
This is the tendency of children to attribute human like
traits or characteristics to inanimate objects.
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Transductive reasoning
This refers to the pre-operational child's type of
reasoning that is neither inductive nor deductive.
Reasoning appears to be from particular to particular
i.e., if A causes B, then B causes A.

Stage 3. Concrete-Operational
Stage (8 to 11 years old)
This stage is characterized by the ability of the
child to think logically but only in terms of
concrete objects. This covers approximately the
ages between 8-11 years or the elementary
school years. The concrete operational stage is
marked by the following:

Decentering
This refers to the ability of the child to perceive the
different features of objects and situations. No longer
is the child focused or limited to one aspect or
dimension. This allows the child to be more logical
when dealing with concrete objects and situations

Reversibility
During the stage of concrete operations, the child
can now follow that certain operations can be
done reverse.

Conservation
This is the ability to know that certain properties of objects like number,
mass, volume, or area do not change even if there is a change in
appearance. The children progress to attain conservation abilities
gradually being a pre-conserver, a transitional thinker and then a
conserver.
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Seriation
This refers to the ability to order or arrange things in
a series based on one dimension such as weight,
volume or size.

Stage 4. Formal Operational

Stage (12 to 15 years old)
In the final stage of formal operations covering
ages between 12 and 15 years, thinking becomes
more logical. They can now solve abstract
problems and can hypothesize. This stage is
characterized by the following:

Hypothetical Reasoning
This is the ability to come up with different hypothesis
about a problem and to gather and weigh data in order
to make a final decision or judgment. This can be done
in the absence of concrete objects. The individuals can
now deal with "What if" questions.

Analogical reasoning
This is the ability to perceive the relationship in one instance and
then use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in
another similar situation or problem. The individual in the formal
operations stage can make an analogy. Through reflective thought
and even in the absence of concrete objects, the individual can now
understand relationships and do analogical reasoning.

Deductive Reasoning
This is the ability to think logically by applying a general rule to
a particular instance or situation.
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
From Piaget's findings and
comprehensive theory, we
can derive the following
principles:

1. Children will provide different explanations of

reality at different stages of cognitive development

2. Cognitive development is facilitated by

providing activities or situations that engage
learners and require adaptation (i.e.,
assimilation and accommodation).

3. Learning materials and activities should

involve the appropriate level of motor or mental
operations for a child of given age; avoid asking
students to perform tasks that are beyond their
current cognitive capabilities.

4. Use teaching methods that actively involve

students and present challenges.
 Peculiar Calling
GROUP 4

LEADER: Alvarez, Kimberly

SECRETARY: Real, King Howard
MEMBERS:
De Silva, Kurt Dainiel
Macalam, Wowie
Desabayla, Shema
Macuha, Kimberly
Masas, Arlen
Penapit, Gicel