Piaget

o Jean Piaget 1896 - 1980 o Published prolifically throughout his life o Swiss born Biologist who changed his focus to Psychology in 1918 o Moved to Paris to work as a research associate under Theodore Simon 1919 trying out new intelligence test questions with children. More interested in wrong answers children gave than the correct answers ** Piaget’s work: ** o 1920’s- Piaget’s focus was on the use of language by children and on children’s reasoning. Egocentrism was the most important concept to come out of his research. During this period he believed that young children were egocentric, they failed to understand how someone else’s point of view may be different than their own but that they got rid of egocentrism by age 6-7. He later revised his views on egocentrism, egocentrism exists at all stages of development o 1930-1965- Piaget’s focus was on cognitive structures. He opened the Center for Genetic Epistemology in 1955. o In the 1950’s Behaviourism was falling out of favour and Piaget’s research/writings became part of the “cognitive Revolution” in educational reform. o 1965 onward – Piaget’s research focus turned to the processes of development o Genetic Epistemology is a general theoretical framework used by Piaget to study how knowledge is acquired through psychological and historical investigations. It also explains how humans develop cognitively from birth throughout their lives as they progress through the four major developmental stages, proposed by Piaget. o Piaget’s developmental stages are; Sensorimotor period, birth to 2 years, 2. Preoperational period, 2 years to 6 or 7, 3. Concrete operations period, 7 years to 12 years, and 4. Formal operations, 12 years and onward. o Knowledge is operative and is essentially about change and transformation. Piaget was interested in knowing how to change things and /or how things change. He believed that the study of static things, Figurative knowledge (perception, imagery and language) was not important to development. o Knowledge consists of cognitive structures; - mental maps or schemes that help us make sense of and respond to experiences in our environment. Cognitive structures change, as they are used, through assimilation, accommodation, equilibration, and reflecting abstraction. Marcy Driscoll states that, there are three basic instructional principles on which Piagetian theorists generally agree. (as cited in Silverthorn, 1999, p. 3.) ** Principle 1: ** The learning environment should support the activity of the child (i.e., an active, discovery-oriented environment) ** Principle 2: ** Children’s interactions with their peers are an important source of cognitive development (i.e., peer teaching and social negotiation) ** Principle 3: ** Adopt instructional strategies that make children aware of conflicts and inconsistencies in their thinking (i.e., conflict teaching and Socratic dialog) According to Silverthorn (1999, p. 3.), Some specific instructional strategies that might be used by the teacher are; modeling, scaffolding of information, problem based learning, authentic learning and object based learning. ** Discussion Questions: **
 * Biography: **
 * Piaget’s Key ideas: **
 * Applying Piaget to the classroom: **

1. Piaget’s technique for collecting data was to present a concrete task, observe their solutions and then ask follow-up questions. Explain how this method would work as an assessment strategy for determining a student’s level of understanding of topics taught in the areas of math or science in your classroom? 2. Equilibration is when a learner cannot assimilate the concept into their present cognitive structures and must accommodate the new perspective by creating a new understanding. Teachers can take advantage of equilibration by setting up activities in the classroom that set up disequilibration. This promotes students curiosity and interest and motivates them to accommodate the new perspective and grow in understanding. Give an example of this concept in your teaching practice or think of an example that would demonstrate this practice. 3. Do you agree with Piaget’s views of Figurative knowledge (perception, imagery and language), and its impact on development? Why or why not?

Not sure about these questions........ Feedback would be appreciated