Piaget’s cognitive development theory

Constructivism

The theory of cognitive development belongs to the Constructivism School of Thought.

Constructivism is the theory that says learners construct knowledge rather than just passively

take in information. As people experience the world and reflect upon those experiences, they

build their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing

knowledge (schemas). Piaget belongs to the constructivists school of thought.

Cognitive Development Theory by Piaget

● Piaget was born in Neuchatel, a small college town in Switzerland.

● He was born in 1896 and he died in 1980

● His father was a careful and systematic thinker.

● His mother in contrast was highly emotional and her behavior created tensions within the

family.

● Piaget was interested in psychoanalysis - the study of the unconscious mind.

● He had three children whom he studied their intellectual development from infancy.

● Piaget showed promise as a scientist from the start.

● At the age of 10 he published an article on an albino rare sparrow he had seen in the park

● He received his doctorate in biology at the age of 22

● He developed keen interest in child and cognitive psychology basing his earliest theories

on careful observation of his own three children.

 ● He wanted to find out their process of making sense of the world around.

● Through his observation he noted that children were not less intelligent than adults but

they simply think and see the world differently.

Cognitive development

● Cognitive development/ intellectual development is the development of a person’s mental

capacity.

● It refers to the process used to gain knowledge. It is gradual, orderly changes by which

mental processes become more complex and sophisticated. it includes reasoning, problem
solving, memory, interpretation, judgement, perception, language, imagination etc.
Overview of the theory

● Piaget theorised that a child’s intellectual or cognitive abilities progresses through four

distinctive stages.

● Each stage is characterized by the emergency of new abilities and ways of processing

information.

● Each stage is age related and consists of distinctive ways of thinking (characteristics)

● Piaget recognised that children pass through the stages of development at different rates

● Piaget theorised that children move through the stages in an invariant sequence - in the

same order, same sequence in all societies however, children progress through the stages
at different rates and not all stages may be reached.

● Each stage represents new and more comprehensive system of mental organization.

● The rate at which children move from one stage to the next/ the other is influenced by the

environment and culture but governed by biological and determined by maturation

 process however, maturation alone cannot play a dominant role because rates of
development depend on environment.

● For Piaget, development depends on child’s manipulation and active interaction with the

environment
N.B Piaget views the child as an active individual and information seeking organism who
construct knowledge through interacting with the environment.

● Piaget believes that all children are born with an innate tendency to interact with and

make sense of their environment.

● The child is born with reflex actions eg sucking, rooting, grasping, swallowing etc hence

they adapt to the environment through these actions.

Definition of key terms

Schemas - these are building blocks of knowledge.

Schemas are mental representations or ideas about what things are and we deal with them.

● -schemas are categories of knowledge that help us interpret and understand the world e.g.

if a child knows a small dog, he may come to the conclusion that all dogs are small.

● -when finally, the child sees a bigger dog, the new experience is used to modify, add or

change previously existing schema.

● Assimilation- is the process of taking in new information into our previously existing

schema e.g. seeing a dog and labeling it a dog.

● Accommodation- is a process of adaption/ changing/ altering existing schemas in line of

new information.

● Equilibration- Piaget believe that all children try to strike a balance between

assimilation and accommodation which is achieved through a mechanism Piaget called it

equilibration.
 ● -as pupils progress through stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a

balance between applying a previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to

accommodate new knowledge.

● -equilibration helps an organism to maintain a harmonious relationship with himself and

his environment.

● -equilibration helps explain how children can move from one stage of thought to the next.

● -equilibration can be defined as innate tendency or continuous drive on the part of an

organism to organize its experiences for obtaining optional adaptation.

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

Piaget divided the cognitive development of children and adolescents into four stages
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational.

Piaget believed that all children pass through these stages in this order and that no child can skip
a stage although different children pass through the stages at somewhat different rates

Stages of cognitive Development Features

Sensorimotor (0-2yrs) Object permanence

Pre-operational (2-7yrs) Egocentrism

Concrete operational (7-11yrs) Conservation

Formal Operational (11yrs plus) Manipulate ideas, abstract reasoning

Sensory motor stage 0-2years

● During this stage, babies and young children explore the world using their senses and

motor skills

● -at this stage the child has an inherent tendency to organize its world as it develops.
 ● -the child co-ordinates ideas and actions making them systematic

● Children have inborn behaviours called reflexes

● Piaget identified 3 primary reflexes which are sucking, grasping and object pursuance

● sucking of objects in the mouth

● grasping closing of hand when an object makes contact with the palm

● object pursuance-moving of interesting objects with the eye.

Characteristic of this stage

● it is characterized by the absence of language

● the child is limited to direct sensory and motor interactions.

● child adopts to the environment through assimilation

● child operates on reflex behavior

● initially actions are directed to one`s body.

● actions which provide pleasure are usually repeated.

● play and manipulation of objects takes centre stage.

● use of senses is of paramount importance, development of object pursuance.

Pre-operational stage 2 - 7 years

● at this stage the child acquires language.

● child begins to replace the use of sensory motor exploration with symbols (words)
 ● Use symbols to mentally represent objects

● language acquisition provides him with a good thinking tool, he is at liberty to utter

words and ask for things other than just reaching for them.

● this stage is further divided into two:

● Pre-conceptual phase (before concept formation)

● Intuitive phase

● Pre-conceptual phase

● + or 2 to 4 years.

● Another way of thinking at pre operational stage is animism. It is a tendency to attribute

life to objects that are not alive. they are unable to distinguish between living and non-
living organisms. -to them a doll is a living thing, if you ask young children whether the
wind and the clouds are alive they would agree

● Egocentrism – they are egocentric; they see things from their own point of view. They

believe that everyone sees the world as they do. It is not selfishness but self-centeredness.

● their thinking is too imaginative and too removed from reality.

● they fail to decenter, i.e. they centre on one striking dimension of an object.

● their reasoning is transductive.

Intuitive phase

+or 4 to 7 years.

● formation of concepts is at a more advanced level, they can now reason that apples,

oranges and bananas are all fruits despite their color, shape and taste. -thinking is not
logical and it is full of contradiction.
 ● pupils have difficulties with concepts of classification, variation, reversibility and

conservation e.g. of numbers, liquids.

● Conservation is the concept that certain properties of an object such as weight remain the

same regardless of changes in other properties such as length eg if you pour water from a
tall narrow container into a shallow wide one in the presence of preoperational child, the
child will firmly believe that the tall glass has more water

● They lack reversibility. Reversibility is the ability to change direction in one’s thinking

to return to a starting point e.g. 7 + 5 =12 then 12-5=7

Concrete operational stage 7 – 11 years

● Primary school going age

● There is logical thinking, but on the basis of concrete evidence

● as physical experiences accumulate accommodation is increased, child learn to deal with

concepts on mental terms.

● at this stage children can conserve both in terms of quantity and number,

● they are no long ridged and no longer egocentric, they can now take other people’s

opinions

● They can reverse actions

● Can seriate

● they can classify objects and carryout rather complex operations.

● according to Piaget this is the best time to introduce Maths because pupils can perceive

situations from more than one point to another of view.

Formal operational stage 11+ years
 ● at this stage cognition reaches its final form.

● the child no longer requires concrete objects to make rational judgments.

● the child can reason scientifically.

● the child has high quality language and is quiet creative.

● Mode of thinking is abstract

● Reasoning is no longer restricted to concrete objects

● According to Piaget not many people will reach this stage

Implications to the teacher

● Piaget believes that knowledge comes from action therefore children need to be afforded

the opportunity to explore the environment in order to gain knowledge

● children at the stage of sensory motor stage use senses and emerging motor skills to

explore their environment, so an object reaches setting and the freedom to explore is of
paramount importance.

● at pre-operational stage, children use language and imagination so interaction with other

people and objects in the environment is very important.

● for children at operational stage, the use of concrete object is very important.

● education should be child centered, let the children explore, manipulate and experiment.

● when planning for activities, consider the stages, characteristics of children and the age of

the pupils through process.

● individualize the learning experience so that each student is working at a level that is high

enough to the challenging and realistic enough to prevent frustration

 ● make full use of wrong answers when teaching by helping the child to analyse his/her

thinking so as to revise his work.

● the role of the teacher should be that of the mentor.

Critique of Piaget`s theory

● Thinking is not as constant as Piaget`s stages suggest.

● Infants and children are more competent than Piaget recognize.

● Piaget understates the social components of cognitive development.

● Piaget was better at describing process than explaining how they operate.

● Piaget`s theory was biased. He studied his own 3 children.

References
Mwamwenda (2004)

Mangal (2005)

Adam and Kruger (2000)

Giles, T. W. (March 1995). A Piagetian View of Learning Styles. 1-4.

Huitt, W. (1997). Cognitive development: Applications. Retrieved November 15, 2008, from
Educational Psychology Interactive:
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piagtuse.html
Miller, S. A. (2007). Developmental Research Methods. In S. A. Miller, Developmental
Research Methods (p. 405). SAGE. Nderu-Boddington, D. E. (May 2008).