Piaget

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

The cognitive development theory is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory, it deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to acquire, construct, and use it. Piaget felt, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. “For that reason, children construct an understanding of the world around them, and then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment.”(McLeod 2014) Additionally, Piaget claimed the idea that cognitive development is at the center of the human organism, and language is contingent on cognitive development.

Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensori-motor: (Birth-2 yrs) Differentiates self from objects. Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise. Achieves object permanence: realizes that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense.

• Pre-operational :( 2-7 years) Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words. Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others .Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color.

• Concrete operational: (7-11 years) Can think logically about objects and events. Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9). Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size.

• Formal operational: (11 years and up) Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically. Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems...