THEORIES AND THEORISTS
Jean Piaget
Home: Switzerland
Born: 1896
Died: 1980
Jean Piaget had started his learning when he was very young. All throughout his
primary and high school years he collected and wrote papers about molluscs. Later
on in life his interests turned to philosophy and psychology, Piaget decided that he
wanted to do some research on how children learn, he wanted to explore how their
thinking (cogni ve development) skills developed.
What He Taught Us
That there is a pa#ern to the way children learn to think and this pa#ern goes in
stages. Children learn in different ways at different ages. Children are li#le researchers. They learn by
using their senses to explore how things work. Piaget says that telling children lots of facts about a
thing, without le&ng them find out about the thing for themselves, is not very helpful. They need to be
able to see, touch, taste, smell, move, and hear the things they are learning about. This is called
‘concrete learning’.
Theory to Pracce — What We DO.
We put Piaget’s theories into prac ce when we:
♦
see children as ac ve learners, listen to their ideas,
help them find their own answers.
♦
provide materials that are s mula ng, and are right
for the child’s age and stage of development.
♦
know that babies will use materials in a different way
to toddlers; toddlers differently to preschoolers.
♦
look for children’s interest and plan to build on
them.
♦
let children repeat an ac vity, some mes many
mes, when we can see that it is s ll interes ng to
them.
This Early Childhood Educator recognised that these
children are starng to want to learn to read. She
fosters this learning by sing with them and reading, but also listening to them tell the story.
This environment has
been put together with
the age of the children
in mind. The blocks are
large and there are
enough cars to go
around for everyone.
These children are using their thinking skills to sort
the cars out into different groups of colours.
©Yorganop Ass Inc The Yorganop Indigenous Professional Support Unit is an initiative of the Inclusion and
Professional Support Programme, funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations.