Jean Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory

Jean Piaget, known for his interest in the Epistemology in children is seen as the pioneer of Developmental Psychology. Piaget 's Cognitive development theory led to a great deal of research work in the field of educational philosophy . But in the discipline of Psychology, every theory has been faced with a counter theory or an alternative. So is the case with Piaget 's theory. Lev Vygotsky, a soviet psychologist came up with the socio-cultural theory, which is another strong theory emphasizing child development and is seen as a major counter theory to Piaget 's work (Saul McLeod, 2004). Theories of these two cognitive psychologists have been compared and contrasted on different levels. This essay will look into the differences and similarities between their theories.

MIDTERM HDFS 201 1. The overall idea surrounding Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory is that development is solely dependent upon maturation. Piaget believed that people simply developed as they got older, without environmental factors affecting development. The concrete operational stage explains cognitive development in children that are seven to twelve years old.

Cognition is the study of the mind works. When we study cognitive development, we are acknowledging the fact that changes occur in how we think and learn as we grow. There is a very big difference in the way that children and adults think about and understand their environment.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Cognition is a process where different aspects of the mind are working together that lead to knowledge. Piaget’s cognitive development theory is based on stages that children go through as they grow that lead them to actively learn new information. Cognitive change occurs with schemes that children and adults go through to make sense of what is happening around them. The change that occurs is activity based when the child is young and later in life correlates to mental thinking. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development start from birth to adulthood

One of the most well known theories in cognitive development is Piaget 's theory. The psychologist Jean Piaget theorized that as children 's minds development, they pass through distinct stages marked by transitions in understanding followed by stability. Piaget describes four different stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation, and formal operations. Each stage describes the thinking patterns of a child depending on his or her age. In order to compare the thinking processes of a three-year old and a nine-year old using Piaget 's theory, you must compare two sequential stages of cognitive development: preoperational and concrete operations.

Jean Piaget, is a psychologist who has influenced many teaching techniques through his research, his view based on how he believes children's minds work and develops. Piaget's main. Focus was on the process of a child's thinking and the active role of the learner, this particular study has been very influential particularly in education theory. Piaget gave a particular insight into the children simply growing up and looking at the children's capacity to understanding their world. Piaget believes children and their ways of thinking doesn't develop entirely and doesn't show a smooth pattern, Piaget believes there are points to each stage moving into new areas as they develop and investigate the world around them. he also believes these insights

• In addition to what you have already learned about Piaget, know that he is identified with having a guiding metaphor of human development with the child as an independent, curious scientist. Piaget thinks that his theory of cognitive development is clear and that it’s the only perspective that should viewed as correct. He explains how children go through the four stages based on advancement and background and their development occurs in stages.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development states four stages of cognitive development. During the first Sensorimotor Stage which Piaget

Brief History Jean Piaget was a Twentieth century Swiss psychologist and was the first psychologist to systematically study the cognitive development of children. Thomas (2005) wrote that early in Piaget’s career he worked with children and his observations and interactions with the students led him to the theory that a young person's cognitive processes are inherently different from those of adults (pp. 188-9). According to Ahmad, et al. (2005) , Piaget showed that when compared to adults, young children think in differently and he then came to the conclusion that cognitive development was an ongoing process which occurred due to maturation and interaction with the environment (p. 72).

There are two theorists associated with cognitive development; Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget believes that things children learn and do are organized as schemes, groups of similar actions and thoughts are repeated in response to the environment. Vygotsky believes that thoughts and language are separate functions for infants and toddlers. This is important for me to know because when teaching my first graders using Piaget’s belief that children curiosity to adapt to their environment, will help me in setting up my classroom so as to provide the friendliest environmental atmosphere. Another useful belief of Piaget that I intend to use, is by exploring and manipulating physical objects, children gain a relationship with their physical environment.

The famous Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget in his theory also become our main source of theory to study about child development and changed the way we think about how children develop. His theory was important because he saw children as an active participants in their own learning. Between the four stages that have been stated in this Piaget theory, it is important to know which are the main stage that playing a crucial role because from there we know which one is shaping the most of development of a child. 1.1 The influence of nature versus nurture on child development.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development Piaget asserts, children are born with inherited scripts, called schema, these schema are building blocks for cognitive development. As a child grows, he acquires more of these building blocks; moreover, these building blocks become more complex as the child progresses through different stages in development (Huitt, Hummel 2003). Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development are as follows. First, The sensorimotor stage where an infant has rudimentary motor skills, and can eventually

(refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1). All of them focus on the development of complex thinking skills. First at all, Piaget’s cognitive development theory is the most essential theory among others (Müller et al., 2009 and Scholnick et al., 1999 as cited in Lourenço, 2002, pp.281-295). This theory aims to explain the mechanisms and processes of children in understanding and discovering the world. There are 3 basic elements in theory of cognitive development which are schema, assimilation and accommodation.

n this essay I will be discussing the cognitive abilities of children during the period of middle childhood. Jean Piaget's views and findings will be the main focus of this essay as he is considered and rightly so, as one of the most influential figures in cognitive development. In order to gain a better understanding of the period of middle childhood (7-11 years) I will first give a brief outline of the stages, in Piaget's theory leading to the period of middle childhood which he called Concrete Operations stage and the abilities, in Piaget's view of a child in this period. I will also be discussing the disputes to Jean Piaget's theory made by Robbie Case's (1992, 1998)

As for Piaget, interaction with peers is more effective than those with people carrying higher skills and capabilities. The reason is that peers’ ability is almost equivalent with each other. So that it is not stressful for people to express different views. Consequently, cognitive development is promoted by interaction with peers through cognitive conflicts. On the contrary, cognitive development is motivated by interaction with people such as teachers and parents in Vygotsky’s theory (Vygotsky,1978).