Jean Piaget
Born at 9 August 1896, Switzerland. He was Pioneer of Swiss philosopher and
child psychologist. Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) was employed at the Binet Institute in the
1920s, where his job was to develop French versions of questions on English intelligence
tests. He became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers on the
questions that required logical thinking.
Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive
development. His contributions include a theory of cognitive child development, detailed
observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to
reveal different cognitive abilities (Olivier et al., 2011).
General idea
• Children’s thinking is qualitatively different from that of adults.
• Children actively build knowledge
“little scientists who are constantly creating and testing their own theories of the world”
“not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge” (Michael, 2011).
Piaget's theories
The first “cognitive” theory, developed by Jean Piaget beginning about1920.Piaget
observed and described children at different ages. His theory is very broad, from birth
through adolescence, and includes concepts of language, scientific reasoning, moral
development, and memory (Zabalia, 2005).
Piaget's theories are known as Individual Constructivism, as it deals with how an
individual constructs his/her knowledge.
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Piaget's theory components
(1) Stages of child development
(2) Cognitive Development Theory
(1) Stages
of child development:
Students construct knowledge by transforming, organizing and re-organizing previous
knowledge and information depending on the age or the stage of development the
child is in (Michael, 2011).
Piaget’s Assumptions about Children
• Children construct their own knowledge in response to their experiences.
• Children learn many things on their own without the intervention of older children
or adults.
• Children are intrinsically motivated to learn and do not need rewards from adults to
motivate learning (Pass, 2007).
Nature vs. Nurture
Nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development (Wadsworth, 2004).
• Nature: maturation of brain and body; ability to perceive, learn, act; motivation
• Nurture:
Adaptation: Children respond to the demands of the Environment in ways that meet their own
goals.
Organization: Children integrate particular observations into a body of coherent knowledge.
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Continuous vs. Discontinuous
• Sources of continuity:
Assimilation: People translate incoming information into a form they can understand.
Accommodation: People adapt current knowledge structures in response to new
experience.
Equilibration: People balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding
• Sources of discontinuity:
There are distinct stages of cognitive development, with the following properties
(Wadsworth, 2004).
Qualitative change: Children of different ages (and at different stages) think in different
ways.
Broad applicability: The type of thinking at each stage pervades topic and content
areas.
Brief transitions: Transitions to higher stages of thinking are not necessarily continuous.
Invariant sequence: The sequences of stages are stable for all people through all time.
Stages are not skipped.
Piaget’s Stages
 Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years).
 Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)
 Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)
 Formal operational stage (12 years and up)
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 Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)
Knowledge develops through sensory and motor abilities (Goncu & Abel, 2011).
Sub stage1(birth to 1 month): Building knowledge through reflexes(grasping, sucking).
Sub stage 2 (1 to 4 months): Reflexes are organized into larger, integrated behaviors
(Grasping a rattle and bringing it to the mouth to suck).
Sub stage 3 (4 to 8 months): Repetition of actions on the environment that bring out
Pleasing or interesting results (banging a rattle).
Sub stage 4 (8 to 12 months): Mentally representing objects when objects can no
longer be seen, thus achieving “object permanence (Boddington, 2009).
Sub stage 5 (12 to 18 months): Actively and avidly exploring the possible uses to
which objects can be put: Banging a spoon or cup on high chair to make different sounds,
get attention.
Sub stage 6 (18 to 24 months): Able to form enduring mental representations, as
Demonstrated by “deferred imitation,” the repetition of others’ behaviors minutes, hours,
or days after it has occurred.
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 Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)
Knowledge is represented by language, mental imagery, and symbolic thought (Goncu &
Abel, 2011).
Symbolic representations: the use of one object to stand for another.
Egocentrism: Looking at the world only from one’s own point of view.
Centration: Focusing on one dimension of objects or events and on static states rather
than transformations
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 Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)
Children can reason logically about concrete objects and events (Wadsworth, 2004).
Conservation concept: changing the appearance or arrangement of objects does not
change their key properties.
Highly abstract thinking and reasoning about hypothetical situations still remains very
difficult.
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 Formal operational stage (12 years and up)
– Children can think deeply about concrete events and can reason abstractly and
hypothetically (Boddington, 2009).
Ability to think abstractly and reason hypothetically.
Ability to reason systematically about all different outcomes.
Ability to engage in scientific thinking.
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(2) Cognitive Development Theory:
It proposes that humans cannot be "given" information which they immediately understand and
use.
Instead, humans must "construct" their own knowledge and build it knowledge through
experience (Michael, 2011).
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Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
• Children’s thinking is not as consistent as the stages suggest.
• Infants and young children are more competent than Piaget recognized.
• Piaget understates the social components of cognitive development.
• Piaget was better at describing processes than explaining how they operate (Truhon,
2012).
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References
Boddington, E. N. (2009). Cognitive Process of Development in Children: Online Submission.
Goncu, A., & Abel, B. (2011). The child's conception of the world: A 20th-century classic of child
psychology, Second Edition. Edited by Jean Piaget, Forward by Jacques Voneche. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc, Lanham, MD, 2007. pp. 432. Price: £19.99, €31.48. [Article]. Infant & Child Development,
20(2), 246-248. doi: 10.1002/icd.719
Michael, J. P. (2011). Opinion: Cognitive development of learners in pharmacy education. [Article].
Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 3, 224-229. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2011.04.002
Olivier, H., Arlette, P., Gaëlle, L., Nicolas, P., Guy, P., Céline, L., . . . Bernard, M. (2011). Functional
magnetic resonance imaging study of Piaget’s conservation-of-number task in preschool and
school-age children: A neo-Piagetian approach. [Article]. Journal of Experimental Child
Psychology, 110, 332-346. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.04.008
Pass, S. (2007). When Constructivists Jean Piaget And Lev Vygotsky Were Pedagogical Collaborators: A
Viewpoint From A Study Of Their Communications. [Article]. Journal of Constructivist
Psychology, 20(3), 277-282. doi: 10.1080/10720530701347944
Truhon, S. A. (2012). Do we still need stage theories of development? PsycCRITIQUES, 57(15). doi:
10.1037/a0027516
Wadsworth, B. J. (2004). Piaget's theory of cognitive and affective development / Barry J. Wadsworth ;
with new foreword by William M. Gray: Boston : Pearson/A and B, c2004.
Classic ed., 5th ed.
Zabalia, M. (2005). Article original: Autoévaluation de la douleur : la théorie de Jean Piaget comme cadre
interprétatif de l'expression de la douleur chez l'enfant : mise au point et perspectives. [Article].
Self-assessment of pain: the Jean Piaget's theory as an interpretative framework of the
expression of pain in children: statement and prospects (English), 18, 176-181. doi:
10.1016/j.jpp.2005.03.002
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