Piaget's theory of cognitive development Flashcards
Piaget’s theory
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Contribution to child psychology was to realise that children don’t simply know less than adults but they think in a diff way
Divided childhood into stages, each representing development of new ways of reasoning
Looked at role of motivation and question of how knowledge develops in children’s learning
Schema
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
How world is represented in mind of the individual
As children develop schema become more complex
Children born w/ small amount of schema & new schema is constructed from start
Cog development involves construction of progessively more detailed schemas for people, objects, physical actions & abstract ideas like morality
Motivation to learn
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Pushed to learn when existing schema don’t let us make sense of something new
Leads to unpleasant disequilibrium & to escape this we have to adapt to new situation
By doing this we achieve equilibrium (preferred mental state)
Assimilation
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Takes place when we understand a new experience & equilibrate by adding new info to pre-existing schema
Accomodation
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Takes place in response to dramatically new experiences
Child has to adujst by either radically changing current schema or forming new ones
Evaluation - Research support
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Strength - existence of evidence for individual formation of mental reps
Howe et al (1992) - children aged 9-12 put in groups of 4 to investigate & discuss movement of objects down slope
After, all kids had increased their understanding but their understanding had not become more similar
Each child picked up on diff facts & reached diff conclusions
There4, each child has formed an individual mental rep - as Piaget would expect
Evaluation - Real-world application
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Strength - applied in teaching
Children learn by actively exploring their environment & forming own mental reps
Development of discovery learning
In early years classes, children may investigate physical properties of sand & water
At A level, ‘flipped’ lessons involve students reading up on context before lesson
There4, Piaget-inspired approaches may facilitate development of individual mental reps of world
Evaluation - Real-world application (Counterpoint)
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
No firm evidence children learn better this way
Lazonder & Harmsen (2016) concluded discovery learning w/ considerable input from teachers was most effective
Seems input from others is crucial element to effectiveness
There4, discovery learning is less effective than we would expect if Piaget’s theory was correct
Evaluation - Role of others in learning
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Limit - underestimated role of others in learning
Piaget saw others as useful in learning in sense that they are sources of into & learning experiences, however, he saw learning as individual
Vygotsky saw knowledge as existing first between learner & more experienced other & only then in mind or learner
Strong evidence to support idea that learning is enhanced by interaction w/ others
There4, Piaget’s theory may be incomplete explanation for learning as it doesn’t put enough emphasis on role of other people in learning
