Piaget's Psychological Development

Flashcards based on Piaget's Psychological Development lecture notes.

Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980)

Swiss Psychologist, worked for several decades on understanding children’s cognitive development

Constructivism

Assumption that learning is an active process of construction rather than a passive assimilation of information or rote memorization.

Piaget and Constructivism

Individuals construct their understanding, learning is a constructive process. The child is seen as a ‘little scientist’ constructing understandings of the world largely alone

Equilibrium & Disequilibrium

Two main states of learning according to Piaget.

Assimilation

Process of matching external reality to an existing cognitive structure.

Accommodation

When there’s an inconsistency between the learner’s cognitive structure & the thing being learned the child will reorganize her thoughts

Constructivist Educators

Educators create an environment which encourages children to construct their own knowledge.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

A child’s capacity to understand certain concepts is based on the child’s developmental stage

Sensorimotor Stage (birth –2 years)

Explore the world through senses & motor activity; Early on, baby can’t tell difference between themselves & the environment.

Preoperational Stage (~2-7)

Better speech communication; Can imagine the future & reflect on the past; Develop basic numerical abilities; Still pretty egocentric

Conservation of matter

Understanding that something doesn’t change even though it looks different, shape is not related to quantity

Concrete Operational Stage (~7-11)

Abstract reasoning ability & ability to generalize from the concrete increases; Understands conservation of matter

Formal Operations (~12-15)

Be able to think about hypothetical situations; Form & test hypotheses; Organize information; Reason scientifically

Piaget’s Development

Changes from stage to stage may occur abruptly and kids will differ in how long they are in each stage. Development can only happen after genetically controlled biological growth occurs.

Development leads to learning

Drive for development is internal; The child can only learn certain things when she is at the right developmental stage