2. Piaget's Theory of Development Flashcards
How did Piaget begin his career?
What did this lead him to consider?
- working at Alfred Binet’s lab (french psychologist)
- this laboratory assessed intelligence in children
- lead him to consider that children may see the world in a different way
What was the impact of Piaget’s work on education?
- emphasised childrens distinctive ways of thinking at different ages
What theory did Piaget propose for cognitive development?
- constructivist theory
- he believed that children are active learners
- they construct their own knowledge through interacting with their environment
- likened to a scientist
How many stages of cognitive development do children move through according to Piaget?
four
What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development?
- sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete operational
- formal operational
What age is the sensorimotor stage of development?
0-2 years
What age is the preoperational stage of development?
2-7 years
What age is the concrete operational stage of development?
7-12 years
What age is the formal operational stage of development?
12+ years
What are the key milestones of the sensorimotor stage?
- increasingly able to explore the environment
- their dependance on the presence of objects reduces
- they begin to develop mental representation
- object permanence: understanding that objects still exist when they can’t be seen
- there is an awareness of being distinct from the environment (self-awareness)
What are the key milestones of the preoperational stage?
- develop symbolic thinking: idea that one object can represent something/an idea
- children are egocentric: just think about themselves
- conservation of numbers is mastered
- reduction in animism: thinking all objects have feelings etc
What are the key milestones of the concrete operational stage?
- logical mental operations are possible with visual aids
- conservation of mass, length, weight and volume is mastered
- metacognition develops
- understand cause and effect relationships
What are the key milestones of the formal operational stage?
- abstract reasoning develops: enables reasoning and speculation
- children begin to formulate and test their hypotheses in the world
What do children need to develop to go through the stages?
schemas
What are schemas?
- mental representations of a set of rules
- enable children to interact with their world through defining a particular category of behaviour
- develops through experience and become more complex with development
What dual processes leads to organisation and change of schemas?
Explain these
- assimilation: the integration of new information into existing schemas, leading to more consolidated knowledge
- accommodation: the adjustment of schemas to new information, leading to growing and changing knowledge
How does disequilibrium work in the changing of knowledge?
- a lack of balance
- promotes accommodation: when a child realises their current understanding is inadequate or incomplete
What are the limitations of the sensorimotor stage?
- through eye tracking it’s been seen that infants may have object permanence prior to 18 months
- infants may be able to form mental representations earlier
What are the limitations of the preoperational stage?
- kids can pass egocentrism tasks earlier when the material changes
- conservation can be achieved earlier when instructions are simplified
What are the limitations of the formal operation stage?
- abstract thinking may develop much after 12
What are overall limitations of Piaget’s work?
- some tasks were too complicated for young children
- methodological issues
- children may not pass through the same stages, in the same order and in the same period of time
