Through the developmental study of the child, Jean Piaget composed the Theory of Cognitive Development to illustrate how a child constructs an understanding of the world around them. I aim to describe the key components of Piaget’s theory in order to comprehend how a child establishes their own world and also how the Theory of Cognitive Development might influence me when working with babies, children or adolescents in the future. The aim of Piaget’s theory was to demonstrate the constancy of cognitive structuring in children at different stages in their lives over a long period of time. Piaget based his studies on his interests in the qualitative characteristics of development and also the qualitative difference in children’s thinking. Piaget
This article aims to explore Piaget’s cognitive development theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory. Piaget explicated people fundamentally improve their thinking in stage at distinct periods. In terms of Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory, it is inevitable to investigate the correlation between social interaction and individual cognitive development, the role of cultural tools in mental process, and the zone of proximal development(ZPD). In light of Piaget’s theory, there are four elements proposed to elaborate people gradually endeavor to interpret and interact with the world. To be precise, biological maturation, activity, social experience, and equilibration impinge on the development of thinking (Piaget,1970).
Some theorists have criticised Piaget for underestimating the cognitive ability of young children (Wood, 2008). Others have criticised his theory for focusing only on children living in western society and culture (Edwards, Hopgood, Rosenberg & Rush, 2000)/ (Gray,
Jean Piaget used observations of his own children to develop the four stages that we know he created today. Piaget developed a stage theory of intellectual development that included four distinct stages: the sensorimotor stage, from birth to age 2; the preoperational stage, from age 2 to about age 7; the concrete operational stage, from age 7 to 11; and the formal operational stage, which begins in adolescence and spans into adulthood. He believed that there were four necessary ingredients for cognitive development which included: “maturation of the nervous system, experiences gained through interaction with physical world, social environment, and child’s active participation in adapting to environment & constructing knowledge from experience.” (Sullivan, 2014, Slide 3) The sensorimotor stage occurs between birth and age 2. Infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and handling objects. This is the stage of object permanence.
Our thought process is ever changing. Piaget believed that teachers should act as guides to children 's learning processes and that the curriculum should be adapted to individual needs and developmental
It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc. The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses. To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment. Both Piaget and Vygotsky provided highly influential theories which had impact on the way children are taught.
The second theorist introduced is Vygotsky and his theory was influenced by Karl Marx’s proposal “that historical changes in society have significant impact on how people think and behave” (215). Piaget used a clinical method, in order to seek his theory of cognitive development. This allowed Piaget to understand how children and adolescents learn. On the other hand, Vygotsky used tangible items like stories, paper, and writing utensils to determine how the society would move forward. An educational difference from Vygotsky is that parents, teachers, and other adults has having an impact on how children learn and grow.
He suggested that all children would pass through the stages in the same sequence, as each successive stage represents a more complex way of thinking, and is built on the solid foundation of the previous stage. He suggested that although generally children tend to pass through the same stage around the same age, this is a process which cannot be rushed, and each individual child has their own pace of development (Shaffer, 1999). The four stages Piaget outlined are representative of levels in the development of intelligence, and provide a list of schemas children employ at each level. " A schema is a representation in the mind of a set of ideas, perceptions, and actions, that provide a mental structure to help us organize our past experiences, and prepare us for future experiences." (Kindersley, 2012, p.266).
The second aspect is the cognitive development which related to Piaget’s theory. Piaget’s theory is all about the cognitive development of childhood. Piaget was interested in how the child learns things and in the way the child think, so he studied the child from infancy to the adolescence. Also, Piaget believed that all the stages are universal, and every child in the world will go through these stages. The third aspect is the social development which can be explained by Erickson's theory.
Bruner Piaget influenced Bruner on his research about Child development, he believed that learning is an active process and that learners need to develop their own knowledge and ideas using their current or previous knowledge. The effective instruction includes: • Personalized: instruction should relate to learner’s experiences that motivates the student to learn from within one’s self. • Content Structure: Content must be designed so it can be easily grasped by the student. He also called this aspect a “Spiral curriculum” building thinking and learning skills over time to make it deeper and more complex, builds on itself. • Sequencing: An important aspect of material presentation.