Piagets theory of cog dev

A schema is a set of lined mental representations of the world we use to understand and respond to situations. Piaget suggested that we are all born with a small number of inate simple sensory or motor schemas. these neonatal schemas are cognitive representations that produce our inset reflexes. An example is the rooting reflex where a baby will touch its head towards something when it touches its cheek. According to Piaget who is a constructivist ,our schemas are building blocks that become more developed over time due to trial and error and he sees infant as lone scientists independently learning about the world.

Schema adaptation is the processs of changing a schema that doesn’t fit into a situation we find ourselves in.

There are 3 sub processes involved in adaptation: assimilation, equilibration, and accommodation. Assimilation is the processs of applying an existing schema to a new situation eg seeing a dog like one they have saw before can be assimilated into this schema.

Equilibration occurs when a child experiences something that cant be included within their existing schemas. When a child’s schema doesn’t fit a situation they become anxious, which is known as disequilibrium so this motivates the child to go through equilibrium to restore equilibrium (pleasure).

Accomodation is the processs of modifying a schema to fit with a new scenario more effectively. eg when seeing a cat instead of a dog a new schema is made or cats

Piaget believes children develop in stages with new key concepts to be overcome when biologically ready (bio maturation) with schema development heavily occurring in the sensorimotor stage of development.

Evaluation

Psychologists have contradicted Piaget view. For example the argument that children are lone scientists actively constructing their own understanding through independent trail and error is contradicted by Vygotky, who suggests the child is an apprentice earning through more knowledgable peer. This suggests Piaget underestimated the importance of social interaction in schema development.

Piaget may have overplayed the importance of equilibration. Piaget saw learning as a motivated process where children equilibration due to disequilibrium is an unpleasant experience. He may have overestimated how motivated children are to learn. Also the ample from his studies were from the nursery attached to his work containing middle class children who are intelligent. May lack internal validity as the findings shouldn’t be generalised to whole population as people from different classes may feel differently to eduction and be less motivated.

has been applied to education as it has implications for the way children should be taught. each era now provide opportunities for independent learning to promote self discovery ad ask challenging questions to create disequilibrium which allows for accommodation. Therefore, Piaget theory has been useful in education and has had positive implications for wider society.

If his theory is correct then cauldron should learn better through self discovery than tutorial learning. However other researchers concluded that although self discovery can produce learning it is less effective than tutorial learning. This suggests Piaget emphasis on schema development may have been misplaced and supports vygotskys view meaning Piaget doesn’t offer a full explanation of cog dev.