Piaget - AO3

Howe - 1992

• Children aged 9-12, observed objects rolling down a slope

• In groups of 4, discussed movement of objects and understanding of the motion

• All children found to have an increased understanding, but each child picked up different facts and conclusions.

• Suggested despite having similar learning experiences, children build their own individual representations of the world (Schemas)

Real World Application of Learning By Discovery

• In 1960’s, children in classrooms learned in silence and didn’t engage in any activities.

• Piaget suggested that children should explore their environment like little scientists.

• Since then, learning has been replaced with activity oriented learning.

• Piaget encouraged nursery children to explore their environment physical properties of sand and water, to form their own schemas.

Role of others in learning - Limitation

• Piaget believed other people were sources of info & created situations for learning. He saw learning as an individual process; we create our own mental representations.

• Other theorists, like Vygotsky, placed socialisation at the heart of the formation of schemas, supported by more knowledgeable others

Unrepresentative Sample - Limitation

• Piaget suggested all children acquire new knowledge to escape disequilibrium & it’s innate.

• However, Piaget’s sample in majority of his experiments were Swiss, middle class, children of university staff and highly intelligent.

• The sample is unrepresentative of the whole population of all children, which decreases the generalisability of his theory.