Piaget's stage of development and their role in education

Question 1

What is meant by cognitive development?

Answer 1

Going through each stage of intellectual development by experiences.

Question 2

What did Piaget suggested?

Answer 2

We go through distinct stages of development. Each stage is long and our thinking abilities do not change much.

Question 3

What is each stage about?

Answer 3

There is a process of developing abilities in preparation for the next stage.

Question 4

What is the name and what does the first stage relate to?

Answer 4

The way babies use their senses and movements.

Question 5

What does the other three stages relate to?

Answer 5

Idea of operations.

Question 6

What is mental operations?

Answer 6

How we reason and think about things e.g. building blocks into size order.

Question 7

What can a child do during the sensorimotor stage (age 0- 2 years)?

Answer 7

They learn to control their movements, and develop object permanence.

Question 8

What is meant by object permanence, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 8

Knowing something exists even if it is not there. It is associated with the sensorimotor stage.

Question 9

What are the two stages within the pre-operational stage (2-7 years)?

Answer 9

The symbolic function stage and the intuitive thought stage.

Question 10

What happens during the symbolic function stage (2- 4 years)?

Answer 10

Children start imitating others and can use objects as symbols.

Question 11

What is meant by egocentrism, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 11

unable to see the world from any other viewpoint but their own. It is associated with the symbolic function stage.

Question 12

What is meant by animism, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 12

thinking objects have feelings. It is associated with the symbolic function stage.

Question 13

What is meant by centration, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 13

Focusing one one thing on a situation and ignoring other relevant features. It is associated with the intuitive thought stage.

Question 14

What is meant by irreversibility, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 14

Not understanding that an action can be reversed to become its original. It is associated with the intuitive thought stage.

Question 15

What happens during the concrete operational stage (7- 12 years)?

Answer 15

Children begin to apply rules and strategies to help their thinking and use concrete objects to help their understanding. Abilities is that stage include seriation, classification, conservation, decentration, and reversibility.

Question 16

What is seriation, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 16

Sorting objects, such as into size. It is associated with the concrete operational stage.

Question 17

What is classification, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 17

Naming and identifying objects according to size or appearance. It is associated with the concrete operational stage.

Question 18

What is conservation, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 18

Know that length, quantity or numbers are not related to how things look. It is associated with the concrete operational stage.

Question 19

What is decentration, and what cognitive stage is it associated with?

Answer 19

The ability to take multiple views of a situation. It is associated with the concrete operational stage.

Question 20

What is meant by reversibility?

Answer 20

Knowing how to calculate.

Question 21

What happens during the formal operational stage (12+ years)?

Answer 21

Young people can think about more than two things, such as thinking about age, heights and gender when describing a person.

Question 22

What kinds of activities might be useful for children to help their sensorimotor development?

Answer 22

Puzzles, ball pit, blocks- anything that helps with motor skills, and with language development (e.g. nursery rhymes and songs)

Question 23

What kinds of activities might be useful for children to help their pre-operational development?

Answer 23

Drawings, objects. Children ought to ‘do’ things to learn (i.e. should not just be listening to the teacher talk). Maths skills develop through, for example, using counters or an abacus.

Question 24

What kinds of activities might be useful for children to help their concrete development?

Answer 24

Childrens can understand different viewpoints from their own and follow instructions accordingly. E.g. they might be asked to take on a particular point of view of a character in a story.

Question 25

What kinds of activities might be useful for children to help their formal operational development?

Answer 25

To present topics to others or to explain why they like that certain subject. Children can discuss abstract ideas, understand that different disciplines (e.g. Science and Literature) use different forms of reasoning, and they can understand that different people have different perspectives.

Question 26

What implications for teaching that come from Piaget’s ideas did Slavin (2005) suggest?

Answer 26

There should be a focus on the child’s thinking and not what they can do.
Discovery learning is required and children must be able to engage freely with their environment.
Teaching should accept and acknowledge that children do not think like adults.
Children are individuals and go through the stages in different ways.

Question 27

What is meant by discovery learning?

Answer 27

Children must be able to engage freely with their environment rather than being told facts. The idea is that freely engaging with the environment will enable them to learn for themselves.