ED 4134 Assessment 1- Piaget

Jean Piaget’s Theory of Development

Piaget, born in Switzerland in1896, spent his life researching the growth of knowledge and cognitive development in children (Driscoll, 1994). He believed that knowledge is a progressive self construction that builds upon layers of prior knowledge and experience. Furthermore, Piaget believed that cognitive development consists of four main periods of cognitive growth: Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years), preoperational (2 to 6/7 years), concrete operations (6/7 to 11/12 years), and formal operation (11/12 to adult) (Silverthorn, 1999).

According to Piaget, Cognitive development refers to the changes that occur in an individual’s cognitive structures, abilities and processes (Driscoll, 1994). Piaget asserted that children’s logical mental structures, change with age and are initially action based (Sensorimotor) and later move to a mental (operational) level (Driscoll, 1994). Moreover, Piaget stated that the cognitive performance is directly associated with the cognitive development stage they are in. Hence, if a child were in the preoperational stage (Age 2 to 6/7), they would not successfully be able to master tasks of a concrete operational stage (ages 6/7 to 11/12). (Silverthorn, 1999). However, I believe that not every child will systematically go through each of the stages as Piaget suggests. Each student’s performance is unique and ultimately their cognitive development depends on their personal activity and overall interaction with ‘their’ environment.

Below are three general principles that outline Piaget’s theory. As a teacher, I strongly believe that there is great value in understanding and utilising these principles in the classroom environment to create an atmosphere of effective learning:
Principle 1: The learning environment should support the activity of the child (active, discovery-orientated environment)
Principle 2: Children’s interaction with peers is an important source of cognitive development (i.e., peer teaching and social negotiation)
Principle 3: Adopt instructional strategies that make children aware of conflicts and inconsistencies in their thinking (i.e. conflict teaching) (Driscoll, 1994).

Moreover, specific instructional strategies that Piaget recommends and which I would effectively engage into my teaching include: Modeling, coaching, scaffolding, cognitive flexibility, hypertexts, and object based learning.

References

Silverthorn, Pam (1999) Jean Piaget’s Theory of Development https://portal.nd.edu.au/http://ps.nd.edu.au/portal/dt?JSPTabContainer.setSelected=NDmyUnitsTabPanelContainer&last=false, accessed 7th April

Driscoll, Marcy Perkins (1994). Psychology of learning for instruction. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.