Dr. Manju N.

D
Assistant Professor
SVK National College of Education
Shivamogga
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the 20th
century‘s most influential researchers in the area of
developmental psychology.
He originally trained in the areas of biology and
philosophy and considered himself a ―genetic
epistemologist.‖ (genetic –study of development,
epistemology - study of knowledge)
Piaget wanted to know how children learned
through their development in the study of
knowledge.
He administered Benet's IQ test in Paris and
observed that children‘s answers were qualitatively
different.
Piaget‘s theory is based on the idea that the
developing child builds cognitive structures
(schemes used to understand and respond to
physical environment).
He believed the child‘s cognitive structure
increased with development.
Piaget‘s theories of infant development were
based on his observations of his own three
children.
 What is Cognition?
• The term cognition is derived from
the
Latin word “cognoscere”
which means “to know” or “to
recognise” or “to
conceptualise”.
• It refers to the mental processes an
organism learns, remembers,
understands, perceives, solves
problems and thinks about a body
of information.
• Experts argue that cognition progresses in
stages with increasing levels of
complexity and hence the phrase
―cognitive development‖ which is the
stages a child goes through
conceptualizing the world at different age
levels.
 What is Cognitive Development?
• Cognitive Development describes how these mental
processes develop from birth until adulthood. In
other words, what kind of cognitive skills is a 4 year
old child capable of compared to a 6 year old.

• The acquisition of the ability to think, reason, and

problem solve.

• It is the process by which people's thinking changes

across the life span.
• Piaget studied cognitive development by
observing children in particular, to examine
how their thought processes change with age.

• He pioneered a way of thinking about how

children grow psychologically.

• It is the growing apprehension and adaptation

to the physical and social environment.
How Cognitive Development Occurs?
• Cognitive Development is gradually and
orderly, changes by which mental process
become more complex and
sophisticated.
• The essential development of cognition is the
establishment of new schemes.
• Assimilation and accommodation are both
processing of the ways of cognitive
development.
• The equilibration is the symbol of a new stage
of the cognitive development.
 Key Concepts:
1. Schema : An internal representation of the world.
 A schema describes both the mental and
physical actions involved in understanding and
knowing.
 Schemas are mental or cognitive structures
which enables a person to adapt and to organise
the environment.
 Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us
to interpret and understand the world.
• Piaget called the schema the basic building block
of intelligent behavior.
intelligent behavior: a way of organizing
knowledge (includes both a category of
knowledge and the process of obtaining that
knowledge).
• Indeed, it is useful to think of schemas as
―units‖ of knowledge, each relating to one
aspect of the world, including objects, actions
and abstract (i.e. theoretical) concepts.
• As experiences happen, this new information is
used to modify, add to, or change previously
existing schemas.
• For example, at birth the schema of a baby is
reflexive in nature such as sucking and
grasping.
• The sucking reflex is a schema and the infant
will suck on whatever is put in its mouth such
as a nipple or a finger.
• The infant is unable to differentiate because it
has only a single sucking schema.
• Slowly, the infant learns to differentiate where
milk-producing objects are accepted while
non-milk objects are rejected.
• At this point, the infant has two sucking
schemas, one for milk-producing objects and
one for non-milk producing objects.
Assimilation:
• is using an existing schema to deal with a new
object or situation.
• The process of taking in new information into
our previously existing schema‘s is known as
assimilation.
• A child sees a Zebra for the first time and
immediately calls it a Donkey. Thus, the child has
assimilated into his schema that this animal is a
Donkey.
• Why do you think this happened? The child
seeing the object (Zebra), sifted through his
collection of schemas, until he found one that
seemed appropriate.
• To the child, the object (Zebra) has all the
characteristics of a Donkey– it fits in his
Donkey schema – so the child concludes that
the object is a Donkey. The child has integrated
the object (Zebra) into his Donkey schema.
Accommodation :
• Another part of adaptation involves changing
or altering our existing schemas in light of new
information, a process known as
accommodation.
• Accommodation involves altering existing
schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information
or new experiences.
• New schemas may also be developed during this
process.
• The boy who had assimilated the Zebra as a
Donkey will eventually accommodate more
information and thus realize the different
characteristics between a Zebra and a Donkey.
The child will learn that the Donkey is not a
Donkey but a Zebra, an accommodated ability.
Equilibration :
• Piaget believed that cognitive development did
not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps
and bounds.
• Equilibrium is occurs when a child's schemas
can deal with most new information through
assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of
disequilibrium occurs when new information
cannot be fitted into existing schemas
(assimilation).
• Equilibration is a balance between assimilation
and accommodation.
• Disequilibrium is an imbalance between
assimilation and accommodation
• As children progress through the stages of
cognitive development, it is important to
maintain a balance between applying previous
knowledge (assimilation) and changing
behavior to account for new knowledge
(accommodation).
• Equilibration helps explain how children are
able to move from one stage of thought into
the next.
 Assimilation

Equilibration
Disequilibrium Equilibrium

Accommodation
Adaptation:
• Assimilation and accommodation
are the two sides of adaptation,
Piaget‘s term for what most of us
would call learning through
which awareness of the outside
world is internalized.
• Although one may predominate
at any one moment, they are two
sides and inseparable and exist
in a dialectical relationship.
 Cognitive Structure

Organization

Cognitiv
e Accommodation
Structure
Adaptation

Assimilation
 Stages of Cognitive Development:
1. Sensory motor Stage

2. Pre operational Stage

3. Concrete Operational Stage

4. Formal Operational Stage

 Sensory motor Stage (Birth to age of 2)
During this stage, the child begins to develop:
 Reflexes – sucking, grasping, crying etc.
(Ex: if you put a nipple or pacifier in or near a
newborn‘s mouth, s/he will automatically
suck on it)

 Hand Mouth co-ordination

(Ex: A child may such his or her thumb by
accident and then later intentionally repeat
the action. These actions are repeated
because the infant finds them pleasurable)
 Hand-eye co-ordination (4 to 8 months)
• respects unusual events.
(For example: A child will purposefully pick up a toy in
order to put it in his or her mouth)
•Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months):
Co-ordination of two schemata: object performance
attained.
(Ex: 1 A child might realize that a rattle will make a
sound when shaken.
2. When an infant sees the twine of a pull-toy near
her, rather than crawling over to the toy she
might instead reach out and grab the twine and
then purposely pull the twine in order to acquire
the toy)
• Tertiary Circular Reactions
(12-18 months)

New means through experimentation

follows sequential displacements.

(For Ex: child is able to locate hidden

toys)
• Representational Thought (18-24
months)
• The ability to represent and think
about objects and events in terms of
internal, mental entities, or symbols.
• The ability to recall and copy
another person’s behaviors and
infants show some ability to imitate
others’ actions.

Ex: Words represent things, language

development.
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
– The infant knows the world through their movements
and sensations.
– Children learn about the world through basic actions
such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening.
– Infants learn that things continue to exist even though
they cannot be seen (object permanence).
– They are separate beings from the people and objects
around them.
– They realize that their actions can cause things to
happen in the world around them.
 Pre-operational Stage (Age 2-7)

During this stage, the child begins to develop:

Ability to represent objects with images and words
Language skills
Imagination
• Children learn through imitation and play during
this stage. They begin to use reasoning, however it
is mainly intuitive, instead of logical.
 Pre-operational Stage (Age 2-7)
This stage begins when the child starts to use
symbols and language.
This is a period of developing language and
concepts.
The child is capable of more complex mental
representations (i.e. words and images).
He is still unable to use operations’ i.e. logical
mental rules, such as the rules of arithmetic.

• It is divided into two sub-stages:

1. Pre-conceptual stage (2 to 4 years):
 Here, cognitive development becomes
increasingly dominated by symbolic
activity.
 The child can use symbols to stand for
actions; a toy doll stands for a real baby
or the child role-plays mummy or daddy.
 Language also develops during this
stage.
2. Intuitive stage (5 to 7 years):
 This stage is characterized by the way in
which children base their knowledge on
what they feel or sense to be true, yet
they cannot explain the underlying
principles behind what they feel or sense.
• Centration is noticed in conservation: the awareness that altering a
substance's appearance does not change its basic properties.
• Children at this stage are unaware of conservation. They are unable
to grasp the concept that a certain liquid be the same volume
regardless of the container shape.
• For example, equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical
containers. The liquid in one container is then poured into a different
shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup, or a short and wide cup. Then
the child is asked, Which one has more water, the tall glass or the
short glass.
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
– Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use
words and pictures to represent objects.
– Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and
struggle to see things from the perspective of others.
– While they are getting better with language and
thinking, they still tend to think about things in very
concrete terms.
 Concrete Operational Stage- Age 7-12

• During this stage, the child begins to develop:

• The fundamentals of logic
– Ability to sort objects
– Ability to classify the objects.
• Understanding of conservation (physical quantities
donot change based on the arrangement and/or
appearance of the object)
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes
– During this stage, children begin to thinking logically
about concrete events.
– They begin to understand the concept of conservation;
that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to
that in a tall, skinny glass, for example.
– Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, but
still very concrete.
– Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from
specific information to a general principle.
 Formal Operational Stage (Age 11-15)
• During this stage, the child begins to develop:
• Ability to hypothesize, test and re-
evaluate hypotheses
• Children begin thinking in a formal
systematic way.
• Ability to think logically about abstract principles
and hypothetical situations
– Hypothetic-deductive reasoning (What if….
problems)
– Inductive thinking
– Reflective thinking
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
• At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins
to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical
problems.
• Abstract thought emerges.
• Teens begin to think more about moral,
philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues
that require theoretical and abstract reasoning.
• Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a
general principle to specific information.
 Educational Implications
1. Emphasis on discovery approach in learning.
2. Curriculum should provide specific educational
experience based on children‘s developmental level.
3. Arrange classroom activities so that they assist and
encourage self-learning.
4. Do not treat children as miniature adults; they think
and learn differently from adults.
5. Practical learning situations.
6. Simple to Complex and Project method of teaching.
7. Co-curricular activities have equal importance as that
of curricular experiences in the cognitive development
of children.
8. Major goals of education are equal to the creative and
critical thinking.
 Applications of Theory in the Classroom
• Jean Piaget’s theories are imbedded into the school
system in the sense that the curriculum is based on
his stage theory.
• The curriculum is designed to teach students at the
first stage and progressively teach new learning to
change the schemas in order to move students
through each stage.
• The teacher starts at the basics introducing a new
subject and once the knowledge of that subject is
mastered, they would create a schema.
• To transition to the next stage, or a new learning
method, the teacher would demonstrate how the
student will change, modify or adapt their schema
to the new method in order for new learning to take
place.
• When children enter the school they are generally
at the preoperational stage. Teachers must
recognize that they cannot learn concrete-
operational strategies until the students have
mastered the preoperational schemas
• In other words, students must start at the basic first
stage and master it before they can progress well to
higher stages.