Piaget Flashcards
Piages theory
as children’s thinking develops from one stage to the next, their behavior also changes, reflecting these cognitive developments.
Cognitive development
progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment.
Schema
A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world. In Piaget’s view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge.
Assimilation
using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation. The process of taking in new information into our previously existing schemas is called Assimilation.
Accomidation
involves changing and altering our existing schemas in light of new information, a process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves altering existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process.
Equalibration
As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation).
Equilibration helps explain how children can move from one stage of thought into the next.
Sensorimotor stage
-(0-2 years) sensorimotor – object permanence
-concerned with learning to coordinate purposeful movements with information from the senses by looking at, touching and mouthing objects in their immediate environment
-Object permanence: the understanding that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen or touched.
Pre operational stage
-(2-7 years) egocentrism, animism, symbolic thinking, centration, seriation
-Children are egocentric: unable to see things from another person’s point of view.
- able to think about things symbolically
-language use becomes more mature.
-develop memory and imagination, which allows them to understand the difference between past and future, and engage in make-believe.
Concrete operational stage
-(7-11 years) concrete operational – conservation
-If children have not had direct experience with the context or situation, or if the material is not tangible, they are not successful in using their mental operations.
-Understanding conservation: mass, weight and volume remain unchanged when the shape of objects changes.
The formal operational stage
-(11+ years and up) formal operational – abstract thinking
-It is during this stage that cognitive development reaches its fullest potential
-Children begin to break away from concrete objects and specific examples and thinking is based more on abstract principles
-Logical thinking: using reasoning consistently to come to a conclusion
Swiss mountain
Piaget conducted research in which a model of a mountain range consisting of three mountains was shown to a number of children under five. The mountains were different colours, one had snow on top, one had a house and one had a red cross. The child was shown 10 pictures of different views of the model and asked to choose the one that represented how the doll would view it. Results showed four-year-olds were completely unaware of viewpoints other than their own, and always chose a picture that matched their views of the model. Six-year-olds showed some awareness, but often the wrong picture. Only 7 and 8-year-olds consistently chose the picture that represented the doll’s view
