Piaget's Stages

An Overview of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages
of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire
knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.
Stage Age Characteristics Developmental Changes
Sensorimotor Stage Birth The infant knows the world
to 2 through their movements and Infants learn that things
Years sensations. continue to exist even though
they cannot be seen (object
permanence).

They are separate beings from

the people and objects around
them.

They realize that their actions

can cause things to happen in
the world around them.

Learning occurs through

assimilation and
accommodation.

Preoperational Stage 2 to 7 Children begin to think

Years symbolically and learn to use Children at this stage tend to be
words and pictures to represent egocentric and struggle to see
objects. They also tend to be very things from the perspective of
egocentric, and see things only others.
from their point of view.

While they are getting better

with language and thinking, they
still tend to think about things in
very conrete terms.

Concrete Operational Stage 7 to During this stage, children begin

11 to thinking logically about concrete They begin to understand the
Years events. concept of conservation; the the
amount of liquid in a short, wide
cup is equal to that in a tall,
 skinny glass.

Thinking becomes more logical

and organized, but still very
concrete.

Begin using inductive logic, or

reasoning from specific
information to a general
principle.

Formal Operational Stage 12 At this stage, the adolescent or

and young adult begins to think
Up abstractly and reason about
hypothetical problems.
Abstract thought emerges.
Teens begin to think more about
moral, philosophical, ethical,
social, and political issues that
require theoretical and abstract
reasoning.

Begin to use deductive logic, or

reasoning from a general
principle to specific
information.

Jean Piaget
by Saul McLeod published 2009, updated 2012
Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) was employed at the Binet Institute in the 1920s, where his
job was to develop French versions of questions on English intelligence tests.

He became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers on the
questions that required logical thinking. He believed that these incorrect answers
revealed important differences between the thinking of adults and children.

Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive

development. His contributions include a theory of cognitive child development,
detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but
ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.

Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are
merely less competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think
in strikingly different ways compared to adults.

According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically
inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.

Piaget's Theory Differs From Others In Several Ways:

o It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.

o It focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does not address
learning of information or specific behaviors.

o It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather

than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc.

The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the
infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using
hypotheses.

To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental

processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children
construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies
between what they already know and what they discover in their environment.

There Are Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory:

1. Schemas
(building blocks of knowledge)
2. Processes that enable the transition from one stage to another (equilibrium,
assimilation and accommodation)

3. Stages of Development:
 sensorimotor,

 preoperational,

 concrete operational,

 formal operational

Schemas
Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior – a way of
organizing knowledge. Indeed, it is useful to think of schemas as “units” of
knowledge, each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions and
abstract (i.e. theoretical) concepts.

When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around
it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium, i.e. a state of cognitive (i.e. mental) balance.

Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive development, and

described how they were developed or acquired.

A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which
we use both to understand and to respond to situations. The assumption is that we
store these mental representations and apply them when needed.

For example, a person might have a schema about buying a meal in a restaurant. The
schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior which includes looking at a menu,
ordering food, eating it and paying the bill. This is an example of a type of schema
called a 'script'.

Whenever they are in a restaurant, they retrieve this schema from memory and apply
it to the situation. The schemas Piaget described tend to be simpler than this -
especially those used by infants. He described how - as a child gets older - his or her
schemas become more numerous and elaborate.

The illustration (above) demonstrates a child developing a schema for a dog by

assimilating information about the dog. The child then sees a cat, using
accommodation compares existing knowledge of a dog to form a schema of a
cat. Animation created by Daurice Grossniklaus and Bob Rodes (03/2002).
Piaget believed that newborn babies have some innate schemas - even before they
have had much opportunity to experience the world. These neonatal schemas are the
cognitive structures underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are genetically
programmed into us.

For example babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by something touching
the baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter (dummy), or a person's
finger. Piaget therefore assumed that the baby has a 'sucking schema'.

Similarly the grasping reflex which is elicited when something touches the palm of a
baby's hand, or the rooting reflex, in which a baby will turn its head towards
something which touches its cheek, were assumed to result operations: for example
shaking a rattle would be the combination of two schemas, grasping and shaking.

Assimilation and Accommodation

Jean Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process ofadaptation (adjustment) to the
world. This happens through:

 Assimilation
– Which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation.

 Accommodation
– This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to
be changed to deal with a new object or situation.

 Equilibration
–This is the force, which moves development along. Piaget believed that cognitive
development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.

Equilibrium is occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information
through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when
new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).

Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be
frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge
(accommodation).

Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new
schema will continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it.
Example of Assimilation
A 2 year old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head and has long frizzy hair
on the sides. To his father’s horror, the toddler shouts “Clown, clown” (Sigler et al.,
2003).
Example of Accommodation
In the “clown” incident, the boy’s father explained to his son that the man was not a
clown and that even though his hair was like a clown’s, he wasn’t wearing a funny
costume and wasn’t doing silly things to make people laugh

With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of “clown” and
make this idea fit better to a standard concept of “clown”.

Stages of Development
A child's cognitive development is about a child developing or constructing a mental
model of the world.

Imagine what it would be like if you did not have a mental model of your world. It
would mean that you would not be able to make so much use of information from
your past experience, or to plan future actions.

Jean Piaget was interested both in how children learnt and in how they thought.

Piaget studied children from infancy to adolescence, and carried out many of his own
investigations using his three children. He used the following research methods:

Naturalistic observation: Piaget made careful, detailed observations of children.

These were mainly his own children and the children of friends. From these he wrote
diary descriptions charting their development.

Clinical interviews and observations of older children who were able to understand
questions and hold conversations.

Piaget believed that children think differently than adults and stated they go through 4
universal stages of cognitive development. Development is therefore biologically
based and changes as the child matures. Cognition therefore develops in all children
in the same sequence of stages.
Each child goes through the stages in the same order, and no stage can be missed out -
although some individuals may never attain the later stages. There are individual
differences in the rate at which children progress through stages.

Piaget did not claim that a particular stage was reached at a certain age - although
descriptions of the stages often include an indication of the age at which the average
child would reach each stage.

Piaget believed that these stages are universal - i.e. that the same sequence of
development occurs in children all over the world, whatever their culture.

Stage of Research
Key Feature
Development Study

Sensorimotor Object Blanket &

0 - 2 yrs. Permanence Ball Study

Preoperational Three
Egocentrism
2 - 7 yrs. Mountains

Concrete
Conservation
Operational Conservation
of Number
7 – 11 yrs.

Manipulate
Formal Operational ideas in head, Pendulum
11yrs + e.g. Abstract Task
Reasoning

Educational Implications
Piaget did not explicitly relate his theory to education, although later researchers have
explained how features of Piaget's theory can be applied to teaching and learning.
Piaget has been extremely influential in developing educational policy and teaching.
For example, a review of primary education by the UK government in 1966 was based
strongly on Piaget’s theory. The result of this review led to the publication of
the Plowden report (1967).
Discovery learning – the idea that children learn best through doing and actively
exploring - was seen as central to the transformation of primary school curriculum.

'The report's recurring themes are individual learning, flexibility in the curriculum,
the centrality of play in children's learning, the use of the environment, learning by
discovery and the importance of the evaluation of children's progress - teachers should
'not assume that only what is measurable is valuable.'

Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and stages the notion of
'readiness' important. Readiness concerns when certain information or concepts
should be taught. According to Piaget's theory children should not be taught certain
concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage cognitive development.

Within the classroom learning should be student centred a accomplished through

active discovery learning. The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, rather than
direct tuition. Therefore teachers should encourage the following within the
classroom:

o Focus on the process of learning, rather than the end product of it.

o Using active methods that require rediscovering or reconstructing "truths".

o Using collaborative, as well as individual activities (so children can learn from
each other).

o Devising situations that present useful problems, and create disequilibrium in the
child.

o Evaluate the level of the child's development, so suitable tasks can be set.

Evaluation of Piaget's Theory

Strengths
 The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental psychology has been enormous.
He changed how people viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying
children. He was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas.
Piaget's ideas have generated a huge amount of research which has increased our
understanding of cognitive development.

 His ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating with
children, particularly in the field of education (re: Discovery Learning).
Weaknesses
 Are the stages real? Vygotsky and Bruner would rather not talk about stages at all,
preferring to see development as continuous. Others have queried the age ranges of
the stages. Some studies have shown that progress to the formal operational stage
is not guaranteed. For example, Keating (1979) reported that 40-60% of college
students fail at formal operation tasks, and Dasen (1994) states that only one-third
of adults ever reach the formal operational stage.

 Because Piaget concentrated on the universal stages of cognitive development and

biological maturation, he failed to consider the effect that the social setting and
culture may have on cognitive development (re: Vygotsky).

 Piaget’s methods (observation and clinical interviews) are more open to biased
interpretation than other methods. Because Piaget conducted the observations
alone data collect are based on his own subjective interpretation of events. It would
have been more reliable if Piaget conducted the observations with another
researcher can compared results afterwards to check if they are similar.

 As several studies have shown Piaget underestimated the abilities of children

because his tests were sometimes confusing or difficult to understand (e.g. Martin
Hughes, 1975).
  The concept of schema is incompatible with the theories of Bruner and
Vygotsky. Behaviorism would also refute Piaget’s schema theory because is
cannot be directly observed as it is an internal process. Therefore, they would
claim it cannot be objectively measured.

 Piaget carried out his studies with a handful of participants (i.e. small sample size)
– and in the early studies he generally used his own children (from Switzerland).
This sample is biased, and accordingly the results of these studies cannot be
generalized to children from different cultures.

Jean Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

 Main Elements,

 Description,

 Main Elements,

 References

Jean Piaget’s prominent work is his theory on the four stages of cognitive development. He was one of the
most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology in the 20th century whose primary
interest was in biological influences on how we come to know, and the developmental stages we move
through as we acquire this ability (Singer & Revenson, 1997, p. 13).

Piaget (1973) believed that the child plays an active role in the growth of intelligence and learns by doing. He
regarded the child as a philosopher who perceives the world only as he has experienced it. Therefore, most of
Piaget’s inspiration in cognitive and intellectual development came from observations of children. In fact,
Piaget observed and studied his own three children through each stage of their cognitive development.

The theory of cognitive development focuses on mental processes such as perceiving, remembering,
believing, and reasoning. Reasoning is the essence of intelligence, and reasoning is what Piaget studied in
order to discover “how we come to know” (Singer & Revenson, 1997, p. 13). Piaget believed that cognitive
development is cumulative; that is, understanding a new experience grows out of a previous learning
experience.

Description of Piaget’s Theory on the Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget (1973) developed a systematic study of cognitive development in children. His work included a theory
on cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of tests to
reveal differing cognitive abilities.

Through his work, Piaget (1973) showed that children think in considerably different ways than adults do.
This did not mean that children thought at a less intelligent degree, or at a slower pace, they just thought
differently when compared to adults. Piaget’s work showed that children are born with a very basic genetically
inherited mental structure that evolves and is the foundation for all subsequent learning and knowledge. He
saw cognitive development as a progressive reorganization of mental processes resulting from maturation
and experience.

Piaget (1973) believed children will construct an understanding of the world around them, and will then
experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment.

To explain his theory, Piaget used the concept of stages to describe development as a sequence of the four
following stages:

1. Sensory-Motor Stage
2. Preoperational stage
3. Stage of Concrete Operations
4. Stage of Formal Operations

Singer and Revenson (1997) explain that these stages unfold over time, and all children will pass through
them all in order to achieve an adult level of intellectual functioning. The later stages evolve from and are
built on earlier ones. They point out that the sequence of stages is fixed and unchangeable and children
cannot skip a stage. They all proceed through the stages in the same order, even though they may progress
through them at different rates (p. 18).

At each stage, the child will acquire more complex motor skills and cognitive abilities. Although different
behaviours characterize different stages, the transition between stages is gradual, and a child moves between
stages so subtly that he may not be aware of new perspectives gained. However, at each stage there are
definite accompanying developmental changes in the areas of play, language, morality, space, time, and
number (Singer & Revenson, 1997).

Main Elements of Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

There are three elements to Piaget’s theory:
 1. Schema
2. The four processes that enable the transition from one stage to another
3. The four stages of cognitive development

Schema

A schema is the basic building block of intelligent behaviour, a form of organizing information that a person
uses to interpret the things he or she sees, hears, smell, and touches (Singer & Revenson, 1997). A schema
can be thought of as a unit of knowledge, relating to one aspect of the world including objects, actions, and
abstract (theoretical) concepts. We use schemas to understand and to respond to situations. We store them
and apply them when needed.

A child is considered to be in a state of equilibrium or in a state of cognitive balance when she or he is

capable of explaining what he or she is perceiving (schema) at the time.

The dual processes of assimilation and accommodation (described below) are the building blocks to forming a
schema.

The Four Processes:

The four processes that enable the transition from one cognitive stage to another
are assimilation,accommodation, disequilibrium, and equilibration.Educators generally view these processes
as an explanation of cognitive learning processes, not just those that lead to major shifts in cognitive ability
(Piaget, 1973, p. 36).

Together, assimilation and accommodation are processes of adjustment to changes in the environment and
are defined as adaptation, the continuous process of using the environment to learn. And, according to
Piaget, adaptation is the most important principle of human functioning.

The Four Stages of Cognitive Development:

Piaget identified the following four stages in development of cognition:

 Sensory-Motor (Ages Birth Through Two)

 Preoperational (Ages Two Through Seven)
 Concrete Operations (Ages Seven Through Eleven)
 Formal Operations (Ages Eleven Through Sixteen)

Piaget (1973) describes the four stages as follows:

Sensory-Motor Stage: Ages Birth through Two

The following information of the sensory-motor stage is a summary from Piaget (1973, p. 36).

The Sensory-Motor Stage extends from birth until approximately the age of two. During this stage senses,
reflexes, and motor abilities develop rapidly. Intelligence is first displayed when reflex movements become
more refined, such as when an infant will reach for a preferred toy, and will suck on a nipple and not a
pacifier when hungry. Understanding of the world involves only perceptions and objects with which the infant
has directly experienced. Actions discovered first by accident are repeated and applied to new situations to
obtain the same results.

Toward the end of the sensory-motor stage, the ability to form primitive mental images develops as the
infant acquires object permanence. Until then, an infant doesn’t realize that objects can exist apart from him
or herself.

Preoperational Stage: Ages Two through Seven

The following information of the preoperational stage is a summary from Piaget (1973, p. 36).

The child in the preoperational stage is not yet able to think logically. With the acquisition of language, the
child is able to represent the world through mental images and symbols, but in this stage, these symbols
depend on his own perception and his intuition. The preoperational child is completely egocentric. Although
he is beginning to take greater interest in objects and people around him, he sees them from only one point
of view: his own. This stage may be the age of curiosity; preschoolers are always questioning and
investigating new things. Since they know the world only from their limited experience, they make up
explanations when they don’t have one.

It is during the preoperational stage that children’s’ thought differs the most from adult thoughts.

Stage of Concrete Operations: Ages Seven through Eleven

The following information of the stage of concrete operations is a summary from Piaget (1973, p. 36).

The stage of concrete operations begins when the child is able to perform mental operations. Piaget defines a
mental operation as an interiorized action, an action performed in the mind. Mental operations permit the
child to think about physical actions that he or she previously performed. The preoperational child could
count from one to ten, but the actual understanding that one stands for one object only appears in the stage
of concrete operations.

The primary characteristic of concrete operational thought is its reversibility. The child can mentally reverse
the direction of his or her thought. A child knows that something that he can add, he can also subtract. He or
she can trace her route to school and then follow it back home, or picture where she has left a toy without a
haphazard exploration of the entire house. A child at this stage is able to do simple mathematical operations.
Operations are labeled “concrete” because they apply only to those objects that are physically present.

Conservation is the major acquisition of the concrete operational stage. Piaget defines conservation as the
ability to see that objects or quantities remain the same despite a change in their physical appearance.
Children learn to conserve such quantities as number, substance (mass), area, weight, and volume; though
they may not achieve all concepts at the same time.

Stage of Formal Operations: Ages Eleven through Sixteen

The following information of the stage of formal operations is a summary from Piaget (1973, p. 36).

The child in the concrete operational stage deals with the present, the here and now; the child who can use
formal operational thought can think about the future, the abstract, the hypothetical.

Piaget’s final stage coincides with the beginning of adolescence, and marks the start of abstract thought and
deductive reasoning. Thought is more flexible, rational, and systematic. The individual can now conceive all
the possible ways they can solve a problem, and can approach a problem from several points of view.

The adolescent can think about thoughts and “operate on operations, not just concrete objects. He or she can
think about such abstract concepts as space and time. The adolescent develops an inner value system and a
sense of moral judgment. He or she now has the necessary “mental tools” for living his life.

Did You Know…

This lesson is part of a free course that leads to real college credit accepted by 2,900 colleges.
Learn how simple it is.
Taught by
Melissa Hurst
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development focuses on how learners interact with their environment to develop
complex reasoning and knowledge. This lesson will focus on the six basic assumptions of that theory, including the
key terms: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.
Introduction
If you have ever been around a toddler, it's amazing to witness the growth and development of knowledge over the
course of weeks and months. As children interact with their environment and new objects, they learn and develop
ideas. Take any child to a zoo, and you will witness this process. Perhaps they have seen a typical bird before,
maybe a blue jay or robin, and they associate that animal as a bird. But at the zoo they see new exotic animals with
wings and feathers that fly and they know, without being told, that those animals are birds, too. Let's discuss how
this process occurs according to Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Overview And Assumptions

The
Swiss
psych
ologis
t, Jean
Piaget
,
introd
uced a
The Theory of Cognitive Development focuses on the growth of intelligence from infancy to adulthood develo
pment
al
epistemology that focused on the growth of intelligence from infancy to adulthood. Piaget's theory is influenced by
the following ideas. These ideas helped Piaget to develop his basic assumptions, which form the foundation of his
theory.
The first is that intelligence, like a biological system, constructs the structures it needs to function. Second,
knowledge is the interaction between the individual and the environment. Third, the growth of intelligence is
influenced by four factors:

1. Physical environment
2. Social environment
3. Maturation
4. Equilibration
Let's talk about these ideas a bit more in terms of assumptions. Piaget's theory of cognitive development has six
basic assumptions, which we will focus the majority of our attention on during this lesson.

The first is that children are active and motivated learners. Children will seek out information to help them make
sense of their world. For example, a child may encounter a new toy. Instead of passively observing the toy, the
child will engage with it - possibly dropping it, touching it or even tasting it to learn more about what it does.

The second assumption is

that children construct
knowledge from their
experiences. Children
don't have isolated bits of
information. Instead, they
build and construct
knowledge based on their
experiences and
observations. For One assumption of the theory is that children build knowledge from their experiences
example, a child
constructs knowledge
about animals by interacting with them, observing them, learning how they walk and learning what sounds they
make. They continually add to their knowledge in order to create understanding and beliefs about animals.

The knowledge children acquire is organized into a scheme or groupings of similar actions or thoughts. Over
time, these schemes may change, but they provide an important base level of information about particular events,
objects and information.

Our third assumption is that children learn through two processes: assimilation and accommodation. These are
important terms in understanding the cognitive development theory, and they typically operate hand-in-hand.

Assimilation is defined as dealing with a new event in a way that is consistent with an existing scheme. For
example, a toddler may assimilate a new ball into the scheme of 'toys that can be thrown'. Or a second grader may
assimilate a new furry animal seen at the zoo into their 'animals that are mammals' scheme. Accommodation is the
process of dealing with new information or events by either modifying an existing scheme or forming a new one.
For example, the toddler may realize that the new ball is too heavy to be thrown, so he may have to roll it, thereby
modifying his existing scheme of all-toy-balls-can-be-thrown. Or the child at the zoo may note that the furry
animal is flying and create a new scheme of animals.

The fourth assumption of Piaget's cognitive

development theory is interaction with one's physical
and social environments is essential for cognitive
development. According to Piaget, experimenting
and manipulating physical objects is the main way
children learn. For example, playing with new
objects and toys and experimenting in a lab are ways
to develop a child's knowledge. The social
environment is also critical for cognitive
development. Social interactions allow for multiple
perspectives, opinions and introduction of new ways to approach a task or event.

Our fifth assumption deals with equilibrium. The process of equilibration promotes progression towards
increasingly complex thought. Equilibrium is the state when leaners can explain new events with existing
schemes. The term disequilibrium refers to the discomfort or cognitive conflict experienced by a child or
adolescent when s/he realizes that two views they holds about a situation can't possibly be both true. The
individual's recognition of the contradiction between the opposing beliefs promotes discomfort. This feeling sets
the stage for the reorganization of his or her thinking on a higher level.

Equilibration is the movement back and forth between equilibrium and disequilibrium that promotes
development of more complex thought and understanding. For example, a preschooler has a pile of fuzzy, stuffed
animals - eight are pink and two white. If we asked the child, 'Are there more pink animals or more fuzzy
animals?' And she replies more pink and is perfectly comfortable with that answer - she's in equilibrium.
Obviously, she is having trouble thinking of the pink animals as belonging to two categories: pink and fuzzy.
However, if we then count out the pink vs. the fuzzy animals and she recognizes the inconsistency in her
reasoning, she will experience disequilibrium. At this point, the child may reorganize her thinking to accommodate
the idea that stuffed animals can be both pink and fuzzy.
Piaget believed that cognitive development is stage-like, with changes most noted at two and then six to seven years
of age

We come to our final assumption: cognitive development is stage-like in nature. According to Piaget, children do
not reason like adults do. They have to have developed sufficiently to allow more complex cognitive reasoning.
These changes are speculated to occur when children are around two years of age and then, again, around six to
seven years of age. These stages are discussed in more detail in another lesson.

Implementing Piaget's Principles

Educators can implement Piaget's principles in several ways at all levels. Let's discuss some examples briefly.

In preschool, objects should be available that the child can act on directly, different actions by the child should
produce different effects, and the effects of the child's actions are both immediate and observable. The classroom
may have an area with wooden blocks, cardboard blocks, soft foam blocks and nesting cubes. It may have an area
where children can paint and sculpt. There might be crayons, modeling clay and a water table. The various actions
generated by children with these materials help them identify similarities and differences among shapes, colors,
sizes, textures and other characteristics of objects. Also, the children's strategies in determining what can be done
with various objects contribute to the foundation for subsequent logical thinking.

In elementary and secondary school, when possible, groups of students should be formed on the basis of mutual
interests. For example, in one second grade science class, some children were interested in crystals. They made a
crystal museum of examples they collected, they grew crystals, examined them under a microscope and read books
about them. The key is to preserve students' identification of cause-and-effect situations and social interactions
about the accuracy of their proposed solutions.

Lesson Summary
 To summarize, Piaget developed a theory of
cognitive development based on multiple
assumptions of how learners interact with their
environment and how they interact with new
information and knowledge. He proposed that
children are active learners that construct knowledge
from their environments. Children learn through
assimilation and accommodation, and complex
cognitive development occurs through equilibration.
Interaction with physical and social environments is
key for cognitive development, and development occurs in stages. The awareness of these principles are useful in
the understanding of learners' development in their reasoning and knowledge. The principles should be
incorporated in the classroom by educators.