Piaget Development Theory

Piaget's
Theory of
Cognitive
Development
Prepared by :
Shazia Shahzadi
Introduction
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the 20th century's most influential
psychologist, researchers and Genetic Epistemologist".in the area of developmental
psychology.
• Piaget wanted to know how children learned through their development in the
study of knowledge.
• He administered Binet's IQ test in Paris and observed that children's answers

were qualitatively different.
• Piaget's theory is based on the idea that the developing child builds
cognitive structures. He believes that the child's cognitive structure
increases with the development.
• Piaget's Theory of infant development were based on his observations of his

own three children.
What is Cognition?
• The term cognition is
derived from the latin word
it means "to know" or "to
recognise" or "to
conceptualize".
• Cognition is "the mental
action or process of
acquiring knowledge
and understanding
through thought,
experience, and the
What is Cognitive Development?
• Cognitive Development is the ability to thinking ,
understanding , reasoning and problem solving.
• It is the process by which people's thinking changes across the

life span.
• Piaget studied Cognitive Development by observing children in

particular, to examine how their thought processes changed with
age.
• It is the growing apprehension and adaptation to the physical and

social environment.
How Cognitive Development occurs?
• Cognitive Development is gradual and orderly
changes by which mental process becomes more
complex and sophisticated.( Main concepts)
• The essential development of cognition is the

establishment of new schemes
• Assimilation and Accommodation are both the

processes of the ways of Cognitive Development
• The Equilibration is the symbol of a new stage of

the Cognitive Development
Key Concepts :
• Schema : Schema is an internal representation of
the world. It helps an individual understand the
world they inhabit. They are cognitive structures
that represent a certain aspect of the world, and can
be seen as categories which have certain pre-
conceived ideas in them. For example, my schema
for EID includes: new dress, special prayer,(Eid ke
namaz) presents, giving, money, visit family and
friends etc. Someone else may have an entirely
different schema, such as death, birth, holiday, etc
• Assimilation :It is
using an existing schema to
deal with a new object or
situation.Here, the learner
fits the new idea into what
he already knows. In
Assimilation, the schema is
not changed, it is only
modified. Example : 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”
• Accommodation : This happens when the
existing schema (knowledge) does not work and needs
to be changed to deal with a new object or situation. In
Accommodation, the schema is altered; a new schema
may be developed. Example : 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”.
• Equilibration : Piaget believed that cognitive
development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather
in leaps and bounds. Equilibrium occurs when a child's
schemas can deal with most new information through
assimilation. As a child progresses through the stages of
cognitive development, it is important to maintain a
balance between applying previous knowledge
( assimilation) and changing behavior to account for
new knowledge (accommodation). Equilibrium helps
explain how children are able to move from one stage
of thought to the next.
The Sensorimotor Stage
(Birth to 2 yrs)
- Infancy
• Infants construct an understanding of the world by
coordinating sensory experiences (seeing, hearing) with
motor actions (reaching, touching).
• Develop Object Permanence (memory) - Realize that
objects exist even if they are out of sight.
• Infants progress from reflexive, instinctual actions at
birth to the beginning of problem solving (intellectual)
and symbolic abilities (language) toward the end of this
stage.
Preoperational Stage
(2-7 yrs)
-Toddler and Early
• This stage beginsChildhood
when the child starts to use symbols and language.
This is a period of developing language and concepts. So, the child is
capable of more complex mental representations (i.e, words and images).
He is still unable to use 'operations', i.e,logical mental rules, such as
rules of arithmetic. This stage is further divided into 2 sub-stages :
• Preconceptual stage (2-4 yrs) : Increased use of verbal representation

but speech is egocentric. The child uses symbols to stand for actions;
a toy doll stands for a real baby or the child role plays mummy or
daddy.
• Intuitive stage (4-7 yrs) : Speech becomes more social, less egocentric.
Here the child base their knowledge on what they feel or sense to be
true, yet they cannot explain the underlying principles behind what
The following are the key features of this stage :
• Egocentrism: The child's thoughts and
communications are typically egocentric (i.e,
about themselves or their own point of view).
Eg.: "if i can't see you, you also can't see me". It
is the inability to see the world from anyone
else's eyes. It is well explained by Piaget as
Three Mountain Task.
• Animism: Treating inanimate objects as living

ones. Eg.: children dressing and feeding their
dolls as if they are alive.
• Concentration: The process of concentrating on

one limited aspect of a stimulus and ignoring
other aspects. It is noticed in Conservation.
Conservation on the other hand is the
knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the
arrangement and physical appearance of objects.
Children at this stage are unaware of
Concrete Operational Stage
(7-12 yrs)
-Childhood and Early
Adolescence
The concrete operational stage is characterized by the appropriate
use of logic. Important processes during this stage are :
• Seriation: The ability to sort objects in an order according to
size, shape or
any other characterstic. Eg.: if given different-sized objects, they may
place them accordingly.
• Transitivity: The ability to recognize logical relationships among

elements in a serial order. Eg.: if A is taller than B and B is taller than C,
then A must be taller than C.
• Classification: The ability to group objects together on the basis of

common features. The child also begins to get the idea that one set
can include another. Eg.: there is a class of objects called dogs. There is
also a class called animals. But all dogs are also animals, so the class of
• Decentring: The ability to take multiple adpects of a situation into
account. Eg.: the child will no longer perceive an exceptionally-
wide but short cup to contain less than a normally-wide, taller
cup.
• Reversibility: The child understands that numbers or objects can

be changed, then returned to their original state. Eg.: the child
will rapidly determine that if 4+4=8 then 8-4=4, the original
quantity.
• Conservation: Understanding that the quantity, length or number

of items is unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of the
object or item.
• Elimination of Egocentrism: The ability to view things

from another's perspective.
Formal Operational Stage
(12 yrs & above)
-Adolscence and
•
Adulthood
The thought becomes increasingly flexible and abstract, i.e, can carry out
systematic experiments.
• The ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and
methodological way.
• Understands that nothing is absolute; everything is relative.
• Develops skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning as well as
inductive reasoning and sytematic planning etc.
• Understands that the rules of any game or social system are developed by
a man by mutual agreement and hence could be changed or modified.
• The child's way of thinking is at its most advanced, although the
knowledge it has to work with, will change.
Educational Implications
• Emphasis on discovery approach in learning.
• Curriculum should provide specific educational experience based on children's

developmental level.
• Arrange classroom activities so that they assist and encourage self learning.
• Social interactions have a great educational value for Piaget. Positive social
actions, therefore should be encouraged.
• Instruction should be geared to the level of the child. As the level of the child
changes at each stage, the level of instruction or exploratory activities should
also change.
• Simple to Complex and Project method of teaching.
• Co-curricular activities have equal importance as that of curricular experiences

in the cognitive development of children.
• Major Goals of education according to Piaget are critical and creative thinking.
Contribution to Education
• Piaget's theory helped educators, parents and investigators
to comprehend the capacity of children in their different
stages.
• He made us conscious with the way children and adults

think.
• A lot of school programs have been redesigned taking as

base Piaget's discoveries.
• Piaget made a revolution with the developmental

psychology concentrating all his attention to the mental
process and his role with behavior.

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Piaget's

• He administered Binet's IQ test in Paris and observed that children's answers

• Piaget's Theory of infant development were based on his observations of his

• It is the process by which people's thinking changes across the

• Piaget studied Cognitive Development by observing children in

• It is the growing apprehension and adaptation to the physical and

• The essential development of cognition is the

• Assimilation and Accommodation are both the

• The Equilibration is the symbol of a new stage of

• With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change

• Preconceptual stage (2-4 yrs) : Increased use of verbal representation

• Animism: Treating inanimate objects as living

• Concentration: The process of concentrating on

• Transitivity: The ability to recognize logical relationships among

• Classification: The ability to group objects together on the basis of

• Reversibility: The child understands that numbers or objects can

• Conservation: Understanding that the quantity, length or number

• Elimination of Egocentrism: The ability to view things

• Curriculum should provide specific educational experience based on children's

• Simple to Complex and Project method of teaching.

• Co-curricular activities have equal importance as that of curricular experiences

• He made us conscious with the way children and adults

• A lot of school programs have been redesigned taking as

• Piaget made a revolution with the developmental

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