Piaget

What did Jean Piaget suggest

• Children reason (think) differently to adults and see the world in different ways

• Cognitive development is a result of maturation (biological process of aging) and interaction with the environment

Define a Schema

• Schemas are mental structures which contain knowledge about the world

• Schemas can be behavioural (e.g. grasping an object), cognitive (e.g. classifying objects) and social

• Some Schemas may represent a group of related concepts (E.g schema for dogs=fur, wet nose, 4 legs)

According to Piaget which schemas are innate?

• grasping - triggered when someone touches palm of the babies hand

• Rooting - a baby will turn its head towards something when it touches it’s cheek

• Sucking - triggered by something touching baby’s lips

How to new schemas develop?

New experiences lead to new schemas being developed and becoming more complex, through the process of adaptation (accommodation and assimilation)

Assimilation

Applying an existing schema to a new scenario or object

Make sense of new info by referring to info already have

Try to fit new info in to schema

Accommodation

Forming a new schema distinct from the existing schema

Existing schema has to change because the incoming intro conflicts with what is already known (disequilibrium)

Equilibrium

Mental balance between what us already known and incoming information

Most new info is fitting in to existing schemas- child can deal with most new info through assimilation

Equilibration

equilibration refers to the process of restoring cognitive/mental equilibrium (balance)

•   it follows a state of disequilibrium or cognitive imbalance where incoming information is inconsistent with existing schema or understanding

•   involves striking a balance between existing schema (information already stored) and new incoming information

•   part of the process of adaptation to new experiences- driving force behind adaptation aim to restore mental balance by conquering challenge

•   equilibration results through the processes of accommodation – whereby existing schema changes to take account of new information and assimilation – whereby new information is incorporated into an existing schema.

Disequilibrium

When new info cannot be fitted in to existing schemas

The order of the process of adaptation

EXISTING SCHEMA → dogs have 4 legs, tail and are fluffy

ASSIMILATION - meet a car (4 legs, fully, tail) and may fit it in to existing schema for dogs

EQUILIBRATION

NEW SITUATION- hear cat meow

DISEQUILIBRIUM - bones information does not fit into existing schema of dogs. Creates an unpleasant state of information not fitting

ACCOMMODATION - seeks equilibrium by creating a new schema for cats

Piaget’s stages of intellectual development - outline

• Piaget identified 4 universal stages of intellectual develop

• Each stage represents the development of new ways of reasoning

• Stages are determined by biological maturation

• Although the exact ages vary from child to child all children go through the stages in the same order

4 stages of intellectual development

• Sensori-motor stage

• Pre-operational stage

• Concrete operational stage

• Formal operational stage

Sensori-motor stage age

0-2 years

What happens in sensori-motor stage

• infants gain knowledge through senses and movement- develop an understanding of the world through coordinating sensory exploration (seeing, hearing) with motor actions (reaching touching)

• Learn by trial and error that they can deliberately move their bodies in particular ways, and eventually that they can move other objects

• Understand that other people are separate objects

• Acquire some basic language

• At around 8 months develop object permanence

Development of gross and fine motor skills through trial and error sensory experiences

Example of a gross motor skill and when it develops

Lift head 0-3months

Example of fine motor skill and when it develops

0-3months reflexive grasp

Object permanence

An understanding that objects and people exist even when they are out of sight- develops at around 8 months

Piaget object permanence research

• Piaget hid a toy under a blanket while the child was watching and observed whether or not the child searched for the hidden toy.

• Searching for the hidden toy was evidence of object permanence- Piaget assumed that the child would only search for the hidden toy if he/she had a mental representation of it

• Infants searched for the hidden toy when they were around 8 months old

• Children around 8 months have object permanence as they are able to form a mental representation of the objects in their minds

Sensory motor stage AO3- research

P- Counter evidence to Piaget’s sensori-motor stage. Evidence that children as young as free months may have object permanence

E- Bower and Wishart - used a lab experiment to study infants between 1-4months old. Instead of using Piaget’s blanket technique they waited for the infant to reach for the object then turned out the lights so the object was no longer visible and observed the infants with an infrared camera.

E- they found that infants continued reaching for the object in the dark, suggesting that they realise it is there.

L- Piaget may have underestimated the age of object permanence, stages in general

Sensori-motor AO3- methodology

P- Piaget may have underestimated children’s cognitive ability in relation to object permanence

E- children may not have looked for the toy because they lacked the necessary motor skills to look for it, they were not interested by the toy, or the deliberate covering of the toy by the researcher led them to believe it was forbidden.

E- Piaget can be criticised for confusing a child’s lack of performance in a task with a lack of understanding- the child not searching for the toy does not necessarily mean that they did not understand that the toy existed

L- Piaget could have underestimated the age when children develop object permanence

How did Piaget use the word operational?

To describe logical mental rules

Pre-operational stage age

2-7yrs

Pre-operational stage features

• cannot use logic or transform, combine of separate ideas

• Children cannot perform logical mental operations, e.g. reversibility tasks (2×4=4×2)

• Children rely on what they see- their understanding is governed by outward appearances

• Struggle with conservation and class inclusion

• are egocentric

Class inclusion

The ability to understand that any object can at the same time be an example of a subordinate group/subcategory and also an example of a superordinate group/global category (e.g. fruits- apples and oranges)

Research into class inclusion

Piaget and Szeminska

• children showed 20 wooden beads, 18 brown, 2 white

• When asked are there more brown beads or wooden beads? Children in the pre-operational stage would answer incorrectly, with most children saying brown

• Suggests that children in pre-op stage do not have class inclusion - presume that brown beads belong to one class and as they are the majority, presume more brown beads than others

Conservation

The ability to understand that quantities/properties of something remain the same despite the appearance changing

Research into conservation

Piaget and Szeminska

• Did several conservation tasks on mass, volume, number and length

• Presented children with 2 objects of equal quantities (e.g. 2 beakers of liquid) and asked if the objects were the same or different

• He would then change the appearance/shape of the object (e.g pouring liquid into taller beaker) and ask again if the objects were the same or different

• Children in pre-operational stage incorrectly answered second question

Egocentrism

Children only see the world from their perspective and so are unable to see things from other peoples’ viewpoints

Research into egocentrism

Piaget and Inhelder

• A model of three mountains was placed in a table. The three mountains were different colours and topped by different features: snow, house, cross

• Children aged between 3-8 were encouraged to explore the model and see it from all sides

• A doll was placed at different points on the table and the children were asked to carry out various tasks to test their ability to ‘see’ from the dolls viewpoint

  • Given three cardboard shapes of the mountains and asked to arrange them to show what doll can see

  • Given 10 pictures and asked to select what doll can see

  • Asked to choose any picture and say where the doll needed to stand in order to see that view

• 4 yr olds nearly always chose a picture of what they could see and should no awareness that the doll’s pov would be different

• 6yr olds frequently chose a picture different to their own but rarely chose the correct picture

• Only 7-8yr olds consistently chose the correct picture

• At age 7 thinking is no longer egocentric- child can see more than their own point of view

Concrete operational stage age

7-11yrs

Concrete operational stage features

• Beginning of logical/operational thought

• Can work things out internally in their head

• Developed conservation and class inclusion abilities

• Less egocentric

• They can only apply this logic to physical (concrete) objects or events- have difficulty with abstract thoughts and hypothetical situations

Formal operational stage age

11+yrs

Formal operational stage features

• Develop logical reasoning and abstract thought

• Can deal with abstract ideas

• Can solve problems logically rather than trial and error

• Can deal with hypothetical problems with many possible solutions

• Higher order thinking

• Scientific reasoning

• Understand politics, ethics, science fiction etc.

Formal operational stage AO3- research

• Dasen- only 1/3 of adults ever reach their formal operational stage

• Some reach formal operational stage much earlier than Piaget suggests and some much later/never

AO3- research evidence

P- research to support Piaget’s belief that children are born with innate schemas

E- Fantz: studied 2 month old babies by putting a display board above them with 2 pictures attached (sketch of a human face and a bullseye)

E- babies spent twice as long looking at the human face

L- supports schema development- human babies have innate schemas for facial recognition

AO3- issues and debates

P- Piaget’s theory explains cognitive development through the combined interaction of nature and nurture

E- Piaget believed that cognitive development was a result of nature- biological maturation , as the child becomes older certain mental processes become possible

E- nurture- as a child interacts with the environment their understanding of the world becomes more complex

L- approach is holistic

AO3- methodological issues

P- biased sample/ethnocentric

E- Piaget studied his own children and children of his colleagues in Geneva in order to deduce general principles about intellectual development in all children- lacks population validity. Piaget believed his theory was universal but sample very small, only from European children from families of high socio-economic status- not really universal

E- Chen- Cross-cultural differences in the last 2 of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development and that the ages of all the stages can differ cross culturally

L- reduces population validity

AO3- alternatives

P- Piaget’s theory can be compared and contrasted against Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

E- similarities - both place cognition at the centre of the theory and see the learner as active instead of passive. Both highlight the role of experience (nurture) in cognitive development

E- differences- Piaget saw learners as mini-scientists learning through trial and error whereas Vygotsky suggested that learning is essentially a social process (mini-apprentices) and that children are capable of much more advanced learning if this is supported by peers or an expert adult. Higher mental functioning (formal reasoning) can only be acquired through interaction with more advanced others- explains why some children reach formal reasoning stage earlier than others

L- Vygotsky provides a useful counter point to Piaget’s theory, suggesting that development can be explained in terms of social rather than individual factors

AO3- application

P- many features from Piaget’s theory have been applied to education and have been very influential in developing educational policies and teaching practices

E- a review of primary education by the UK government in 1966 was strongly based in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and it lead to radical transformation in teaching

E- active discovery- being little scientists, exploring and discovering for yourself to retain information replaced old-fashioned practices such as sitting silently in rows copying from the board

L- useful applications