Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Mnemonics: SPCF [Space Puppies Can Fly] or [Silly People Catch Fish]
Stage Approximate Age Sensorimotor
0-2 Infancy Stage One: Object Permanence: The understanding that objects have a distinct and permanent existence. Begins to understand that objects, when hidden, do not cease to exist.

Preoperational
2-7 Early Childhood- Early Elementary Operations Actions: mentally thinking an action through instead of physically performing it. Semiotic function: The use of symbols to represent actions or ideas. Have trouble with decentring or focusing on more than one characteristic at a time. Egocentric: Assuming that everyone experiences the world the same Can think logically one way through, can not do reverse thinking patterns

Concrete Operational
7-11 Later Elementary to Middle School 3 Basic Aspects of Reasoning: Identity: Thinking that a person or object remains the same. Compensation: Is able to identify if one characteristic has not changed then a different aspect has changed.. Reversibility: the ability to think through a series of steps and then reverse these steps. Classification: being able to identify a characteristic and classify it into its appropriate grouping Seriation: Arranging objects in sequential order Can achieve Conservation Principle, that some aspects of an object remain the same despite changes

Formal Operational
11-Adult High School to University Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: A formal-operations problem-solving strategy in which an individual begins by identifying all he factors that might affect a problem and then deduces and systematica Adolescent egocentrism: Assumption that everyone else is interested in ones thoughts, feelings, and concerns. Only 30-40% of High School students can reach this level. Most adults can only do this in specific areas of interest or specialty.

Characteristics

Stage Two: Goal Directed Actions: Movements are based off of deliberate actions toward a goal, instead of reflex.

Teaching Strategies

1. Use props and visual aids 2. Short Instructions with few steps 3. Develop world from someone elses view 4. Be aware of different understanding of words 5. Lots of hands on activities 6. Wide Range of experiences

1. Use concrete probs and visual aids 2. Opportunities to manipulate and experiment 3. Lectures are brief and well organized 4. Use familiar examples to explain complex ideas 5.Opportunities to classify 6. Problems that include logical and analytical thinking

1. Use visual aids 2. Opportunities to explore hypotheticals 3. Opportunities to solve problems 4. Try to teach broad concepts instead of specific facts

Jean Piaget [1896-1980]

Swiss psychologist

Influences on Thinking
1. 2. 3.

4.

Mnemonics: MASE [Morning Apples Supply Excitement] or [Molly Always Sees Evan] Maturation: biological changes that are genetically programmed in Activity: increasing ability to act on the environment and learn from it Social Transmission: ability to learn from others Equilibrium: search for balance between cognitive information and environment a. Disequilibrium: When equilibrium is off balance and a person strives to solve the problem or understand the event

Thinking Tendencies:
Organization: the ability to compartmentalize information and ideas into categories Schemes: the basic building blocks of thinking Adaptation: Assimilation: Use an existing scheme to make sense of an event Accommodation: Changing a scheme to accommodate for a new event

Limitations to Theory:
1. Issues with stages: can be abrupt or more continuous than they seem. ** Not black and white 2. Underestimating children's abilities: May have underestimated the abilities of younger children by asking too difficult of tasks 3. Development Cross Culturally: That children develop different skills and knowledge according to the culture they have been raised in
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Woolfolk A., Winne P. and Perry N. (2012). Educational Psychology, Fifth Canadian Edition. Toronto, Ontario:Pearson Education Canada.