Sarah Stevens Stevens 1

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a 20th-century psychologist, and what he is most remembered

for is his theory of cognitive development “Which looked at how children develop

intellectually throughout the course of childhood” (Cherry, K., 2019). I chose to use Jean

Piaget as the subject for my research paper because I am currently working in a high

scope environment (GSRP) which is influenced by him. Learning more about Piaget’s

views on children will help to further enhance understanding of his theory of cognitive

development and how it fits into a high scope environment. Piaget put the development

into stages I plan to use this to answer the developmental stages appropriately.

Jean Piaget born in Neuchatel, Switzerland on August 9, 1896. Piaget was the

eldest child to Arthur Piaget and Rebecca Jackson. Piaget was greatly influenced by his

upbringing, because his mother “...attributed his intense early interest in the sciences to

his own neurotic tendencies. Yet his father, a medieval literature professor named

Arthur, modeled a passionate dedication to his studies-a trait that Piaget began to

emulate from an early age.” (Biography.com, 2019).

Even as a child, Jean Piaget had an inquisitive mind, particularly in the area of

science “By age 11, he had already started his career as a researcher by writing a short

paper on an albino sparrow” (Cherry, K., 2019). When he was a teenager, Piaget’s

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papers about mollusks were being published, and “...readers were unaware of his age

and considered him and expert on the topic” (Biography.com, 2019). Not often do we
come across a child at the age of 11 being so devoted to a field of work to be

considered an expert.

After High School Piaget went on to study zoology at the University of Neuchatel.

“Piaget continued to study the natural sciences and received his Ph.D in Zoology from

the University of Neuchatel in 1918” (Cherry, K., 2019). In that same year Piaget spent

a semester studying psychology under Carl Jung and Paul Eugen Bleuler at the

University of Zurich, where Piaget developed a deeper interest in psychoanalysis. Over

the course of the next year, he studied abnormal psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris.”

(Biography.com, 2019).

In 1923 Piaget married Valentine Chatenay and the couple went on to have three

children: Jacqueline, Lucianne, and Laurent “whose intellectual development from

infancy to language was studied by Piaget.” (Piaget.org 2009). Closely observing his

own children became the basis for many of Piaget’s later theories. Observation is

something I am very familiar with in high scope as we use COR (Child Observation

Records) to plan and prepare to scaffold the children in our program. When using

observation we are able to reach children’s needs at their level of interest.

“Piaget studied the intellectual development of his own three children and

created a theory that described the stages that children pass through in the

development of intelligence and formal thought processes. (Cherry, K ., 2019)

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“The theory identifies four stages: (1) The sensorimotor stage: first stage of

development lasts from birth to approximately age two. At this point in development,

children know the world primarily through their senses and motor movements. (2) The
preoperational stage: The second stage of development lasts from ages of two to seven

and is characterized by the development of language and the emergence of symbolic

play. (3) the concrete operational stage: The third stage of cognitive development lasts

from the ages of seven to approximately age 11. At this point, logical thought emerges

children still struggle with abstract and theoretical thinking. (4) The formal operational

stage: In The fourth and final stage of cognitive development, lasting from age 12 and

into adulthood, children become much more adept and abstract thought and deductive

reasoning” (Cherry,K.,2019)

The textbook describes cognitive theory as “...generally, the term intelligence

suggest intelligence quotient, or IQ - that which is measured on an intelligence test. But

this is not what Piaget means by intelligence. Instead, intelligence is the cognitive, or

mental, process by which children acquire knowledge: hence intelligence is “to know”.

Active involvement is basic to Piaget's cognitive theory: Through direct experiences with

the physical world, children develop intelligence” (Morrison, G.S.,2012) I took that to

mean by the children having the chance to experiment with materials the learning

process will grow.

In Piaget's own words “The principle goal of education in the schools should be

creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating

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what other generations have done” Cherry, K.,2019) When you look at education in the

present day, Piaget’s views are still relevant. It feels as though we are teaching to the

test with all the standardized testing that occurs, and not focused on fully educating

children. Tests are not the only way to find a person's knowledge in a field.
 This quote spoke right to my heart with high scope children, because it reminded

me of “typical” small group experiences. As an educator I have seen how children are

not learning their letters by having them draw the letter A a bunch of times, or give them

an A on a paper and have them glue small a’s on the paper because the activity does

not relate to the child on a personal level. We do not want our students just repeating

things. We want the things that the children learn to be meaningful because those are

the things that will stick with them throughout their lives.

In my experience, parents get frustrated that their four year old child does not

know the alphabet ,because they are too busy “playing” to learn their letters. I try and

explain to the parents that children first learn the letters that are most meaningful to

them. For example, we start by introducing the letters in their name, then the letters in

their friend’s names. When a concept has meaning to the child, they begin to learn their

letters; dittos will not help if the child does not want to do them.

“Children can conserve number (age 6), mass (age 7) and weight (age 9).

Conservation is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even

though it appearance changes” (McLeod, S., 2018) We see children experiment with

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weight and measurements a lot in my program, and it is always started with size

comparison (i.e. You are taller than me, she is smaller, or my tower is 145 inches long).

“Piaget called his collective theories on child development a “genetic

epistemology.” Which will show how childrens’ experiences will give them a better

understanding for what things are. He also relied on the concept of schemas, defined as
the cognitive structures and framework through which we understand the world, to help

further explain his developmental theories” (biography.com 2019)

On September 16th, 1980, Jean Piaget died of unknown causes in Geneva,

Switzerland; he was 84 years old. His body rest at the Cimetiere des Plainpalais. Piaget

was the recipient of many honorary degrees and accolades including the prestigious

Erasmus (1972) and Balzan (1979) prizes. Piaget was author of more than 50 books

and hundreds of papers in his lifetime. Piaget summed up his passion for the ongoing

pursuit of scientific knowledge with these words “The current state of knowledge is a

moment in history, changing just as rapidly as the state of knowledge in the past has

ever changed and in many instances more rapidly” (biography.com 2019)

Piaget believed children thought differently than adults. These days his idea does

not seem so radical, but in Piaget’s own time, the idea was groundbreaking in child

development. Because of the ideas set forth by Jean Piaget, we understand the

importance of not setting children in a box of repetitive lifestyles. We no longer look at

children as though they are little adults.

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Piaget once stated “Education, for most people, means trying to make children

look like the typical adult of their society. But for me, education means making creators.

You have to make them inventors, innovators and non-conformist”

(Exploringyourmind.com 2018)

We often look at children like they should be more than what they are, forgetting

that their time on this world has only been a few short weeks, months or even just a few
years. We expect children to do adult tasks like being quiet or sitting still for long periods

of time. We sometimes expect children to have the same behavior as adults, which is

unrealistic.

I was excited to see the back story on Piaget. He was a very intelligent man who

was not only thinking but closely observing children (starting with his own). I have been

in a high scope classroom for about ten years now. The power of observation and note

taking is incredibly helpful. Jean Piaget’s work will live on and as we continue to

observe and support children's learning new theories will come in his honor.

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Bibliography

Jean Piaget. (2019, May 8). Retrieved from http//www.biography.com/scientist/jean-

piaget

JPS 2019-Portland, Oregon, June 6-8, 2019 (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.piaget.org

Mcleod, S (2019, June 06). Jean Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development. Retrieved

from http://www.simplysychology.org/piaget.html
Morrison, G.S. ( 2018) . Early Childhood Education Today. 12th Edition (p.129)

Piaget. (2018) Retrieved from http://exploringyourmind.com