Jean Piaget’s TheoryJeanne Gerena-CruzComu 2019

Dr. Enoc Díaz Santana

Jean Piaget (August 9, 1896 – September 16, 1980)

• Born in Neuchâtel in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

• Natural scientist and developmental psychologist well known for his work studying children and his theory of cognitive development.

Jean Piaget

• His career of scientific research began when he was just eleven, with the 1907 publication of a short paper on the albino sparrow.

• Wrote more than sixty books and several hundred articles.

Jean Piaget

• In 1923, he married Valentine Châtenay, the couple had three children, whom Piaget studied from infancy.

• Began to explore children in Alfred’s Binet Laboratory. This is where the Modern Test of Intelligence was created.

Theory

• Piaget proposed the theory of childhood cognitive development in 1969.

• Cognitive Development is the combine result between the maturity of the brain and nervous system with the environment adjustments.

Theory

• Children’s logic and modes of thinking are initially entirely different from those of adults.

• Piaget’s view is constructivist.

Theory

• Terms that describe the dynamic of development:

• Schemes• Adaptation• Assimilation• Accommodation• Equilibrium

Theoretical Implications

• Piaget believed children’s schemes, or logical mental structures, change with age and are initially action-based (sensorimotor) and later move to a mental (operational)

level.

• Children’s cognitive performance is directly related to the stage they are in, he proposed four major stages of development.

Theoretical ImplicationsCognitive Development Stages

• The Sensorimotor Period (birth to 2 years)

• Preoperational Thought (2 to 6/7 years)

• Concrete Operations (6/7 to 11/12 years)

• Formal Operations Formal Operations (11/12 to adult)

Cognitive Development StagesThe Sensorimotor Period (0-2 yrs.)

• Infants and toddlers "think" with their eyes, ears, hands, and other sensorimotor equipment.

• They learn to generalize their activities to a wider range of situations and coordinate them into increasingly lengthy chains of behavior.

Cognitive Development StagesPreoperational Thought (2-7 yrs.)

• Children acquire representational skills in the area of mental imagery, and especially in language.

• They are very self-oriented, and have an egocentric view; that is, preoperational children can use these representational skills only to view the world from their own perspective.

Cognitive Development StagesConcrete Operations (7-11 yrs.)

• Children are able to take into account another person’s point of view.

• They can represent transformations as well as static situations.

• Children at this stage would have the ability to pass conservation (numerical), classification, serration, and spatial reasoning tasks.

Cognitive Development StagesFormal Operations (11- adult)

• Capable of thinking logically and abstractly.

• They can reason theoretically.

• The ultimate stage of development, and stated that although the children would still have to revise their knowledge base, their way of thinking was as powerful as it would get.

Contributions:

• Piaget made a revolution with the developmental psychology concentrating all his attention to the mental process and his roll with behavior.

• He made us conscious with the way children and adults think.

Contributions:

• Helped educators, parents, and investigators to comprehend the capacity of children in their different stages.

• A lot of school programs have been redesigned taking as base Piaget’s discoveries.

Any Questions?