C&D - Piaget's theory of cognitive development

Question 1

Piaget (____, ____) produced an influential theory of cognitive development.
Piaget’s contribution was to realise that…
Piaget divided childhood into _ stages, each one representing a different level of _________ and ___.

Answer 1

Piaget (1926,1950)
His contribution was to realise that children think entirely differently to adults.
4 stages.
reasoning and age

Question 2

Schema?
Piaget says we are born with just enough schema to interact with others.
In Infancy, we develop new schema, including the Me-Schema.
The Me-Schema is…

Answer 2

mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. Developed from experience.
Me-Schema is a Schema which stores all of our knowledge ourselves.

Question 3

Motivation to Learn
According to Piaget, we are pushed to learn when…
Results in the feeling of…
To get rid of this feeling, we have to

Answer 3

when our current schema doesn’t allow us to understand something new.
Feeling of Disequilibrium.
adapt to the situation and explore our understanding. Then we can reach balance, Equilibration.

Question 4

Process of learning is essentially -‘adapting to the new situation’
Piaget identified 2 forms of adaptation, these are…

Answer 4

Assimilation - Refers to when we acquire new information on a topic which changes our understanding of it slightly. We assimilate it into an existing Schema. (e.g. seeing yellow cat for the first time having only seen black cats before)

Accommodation - Refers to when a drastic change in our understanding of a topic occurs from the experience. It causes us to form new Schema. (e.g. A child with a pet dog might see cat and at first think its a dog, but then eventually recognize cats are a separate category. This accommodation will result in new schema.

Question 5

AO3 +
Research support for Piaget’s research

Howe

Answer 5

Howe (1992) did study 4 groups (kids aged 9-12) discuss movement of objects down a slope.
Found that Understanding increased after discussion.
But all had different understandings.
Support Piaget idea that children form individual mental representations.

Question 6

AO3 +-
Real World Application for Piaget’s research

Piaget applied to teaching

Answer 6

Piaget applied to teaching
Idea that children learn through exploring and forming mental representations.
Class changed from copying off board to creative room they can explore.
However, there no concrete evidence that discovery learning helped.
E.g. Lazonder and Hamsden (2016) said discovery learning, when there is great input from teachers, is most effective way to learn. Was found the teacher input was the greater factor.
This suggest if Piaget theory correct then discovery learning less effective than we would’ve thought.

Question 7

AO3 -
Role of others in learning

Piaget underestimated role of others in learning

Answer 7

Piaget underestimated role of others in learning
saw learning as an individual process. This contrast other theories suggesting its more social process.
E.g. Lev Vygotsky says knowledge starts with learner and teacher, and then only in the learner.
Strong evidence to support learning isn’t enhanced by interaction w people.
Incomplete explanation of learning, not enough emphasis on role of others.

Question 8

AO3 -
Role of motivation

Piaget overestimated role of motivation in learning

Answer 8

Piaget overestimated role of motivation in learning
He says we learn to escape disequilibrium, meaning the motivation to learn is innate.
However he used highly intelligent sample of children. many psychologists disagree including me

its suggested he overstated role of motivation cuz
This reduces the validity of the results of the study.