piaget's theory of cognitive devevelopment Flashcards

1
Q

what did Piaget realise about children

A

Piaget realised that children do not simply know less than adults
Instead, children work in entirely different ways than adults do

Based on this understanding, Piaget divided childhood into stages, each of which represents the development of new ways of reasoning

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2
Q

what are the two aspects of children learning

A
  • the role of motivation in the development

- the question of how knowledge develops

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3
Q

why are schemas important for a child’s development

A

the world is represented in the mind - where knowledge is stored

As children develop they construct more and more detailed and complex mental representations of the world
These representations ate stores in the form of schemas

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4
Q

what are schemas

A

a schema is a mental structure containing all the information we have about one aspect of the world

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5
Q

what are adult schemas

A

adult schema are for people, physical actions and also for more ABSTRACT ideas like justice and morality

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6
Q

what are children’s schema’s according to Piaget

A

according to Piaget, children are born with a small number of schema just enough to allow them to interact with other people

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7
Q

what is the schema like in infancy

A

Infants construct new schemas.

One of these is the “me - schema” in which all the child’s knowledge about themself is stored

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8
Q

why is motivation important in development

A

the key element of Piaget’s theory is the motivation to learn

According to Piaget, we are motivated to learn when our existing schemas do not allow us to make sense of something new - this leads to an unpleasant sensation of disequilibrium

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9
Q

how do we escape the feeling of disequilibrium

A

to escape disequilibrium, we have to adapt to the new situation by exploring and learning what we need to know

By doing this, we achieve equilibrium- the preferred mental state

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10
Q

how does learning take place

A

via assimilation and accommodation

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11
Q

How did Piaget view learning

A

Piaget saw learning as adapting to the new situation so that we understand it

he identified two processes that this occurs:

  • assimilation
  • accomodation
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12
Q

what is assimilation

A

it takes place when we understand a new experience and equilibrate by adding new info to our existing schemas
e.g. a child in a family with dogs can adapt to the existence of different dog breeds by assimilating them into the dog schema

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13
Q

what is accommodation

A

this process takes place in response to dramatically new experiences

the child has to adjust to these by either radically changing the current schema or forming new ones

e.g. So a child with a pet dog may at first think of cats as dogs (Because they have four legs, fur, and a tail) but then accommodate to the existence of a separate species called cats

This will involve altering the animal/pet schemas to include cats and forming a new “cat schema”

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