Piaget's Cognitive Report

PIAGET’S COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT THEORY
by :
C lo ie A l le a h D e v el leres
M oh a ime n D u ma mb a
Jean Piaget
◦
Swiss psychologist who was the
first to make a systematic study
of the acquisition of
understanding in children.
Jean Piaget
◦ Argued that children's cognitive development is influenced
by biological maturation and their interaction with the
environment.
◦ Children undergo stages of development.
Jean Piaget
◦ Schema
◦ Assimilation
◦ Accommodation
Schema
◦ a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing
component actions that are tightly interconnected and
governed by a core meaning.
◦ It is the person’s way of organizing knowledge.
◦ Assimilation
◦ The process of taking new information into the existing
schema.
o Accommodation
o Involves changing or altering existing schemas
owing to the new information provided or learned.
The balance between assimilation and accommodation is
achieved through a mechanism, which Piaget called
equilibration.
Adaptive processes of schema
development.
Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2) – Children at this stage think
through what they see, hear, move, touch and taste.
• Object Performance
• Goal-directed actions
Preoperational Stage(2-7) – at this stage, children have not yet
mastered operations because they use action schemes connected
to physical manipulation, not logical reasoning.
• Operations
• Semiotic function
Concrete Operational Stage (7-11) – ability to engage in
“hands-on thinking” characterized by organized and rational
thinking.
• Reversible thinking – thinking backward,

from the end to beginning.
• It also involves conservation and
decentration.
• Conservation- is the belief that, whatever the
arrangement or appearance of the object, as long as
there is nothing added or decreased.
• Decentration- the children’s ability to focus on one more
than one dimension of an object at a time.
Formal Operational Stage (12-UP)- adolescents can
engage in mental processes involving abstract thinking and
coordination of some variables (Woolfolk, 2016).
• Hypothetico-deductive reasoning- they are
capable of giving deductions as they systematically
evaluate their observations as well as their answers.
• Adolescent egocentrism- this is opposite to the
egocentric characteristic in the earlier stages, wherein
children think that what they and others think are similar
to theirs.
TEACHING IMPLICATIONS OF PIAGET’S
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY
1. A focus on the process of children’s thinking, not just its products. Instead
of simply checking for a correct answer, teachers should emphasize the
students’ understanding and the process they used to get the answer.
2. Recognition of the crucial role of children’s self-initiative, active

involvement in learning activities. In a Piagetian classroom, children are
encourage to discover themselves through spontaneous interaction with the
environment, rather than the presentation of ready-made knowledge.
3. A de-emphasis on practices aimed at making children adult- like in their
thinking. It refers to what Piaget referred to us the “American question,”
which is “How can we speed up development?
“ He believes that trying to speed up and accelerate children’s process
through the stages could be worse than no teaching at all.
4. Acceptance of individual differences in developmental progress. Piaget’s

theory asserts that children go through all the same developmental stages.
However, they do so at different rates. Because of this variation, teachers
must be exert a special effort to arrange classroom activities for individuals
and groups of children rather than for the whole class.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR TEACHERS TO PONDER
UPON THEIR TEACHING PRACTICES
Consider the stage characteristics rather of the student’s

thought processes in planning learning activities.
Use a wide variety of experiences rather than drill on

specific tasks to maximize cognitive development.
Do not assume that reaching adolescence or adulthood

guarantees the ability to perform formal operations.
Remember that each person structures each learning situation
in terms of his schemata; therefore no two persons will derive
the same meaning or benefit from a given experience.
Individualize learning experiences so that each student is

working at a level that is high enough to be challenging and
realistic enough to prevent excessive frustration.
Provide experience necessary for the development of
concepts before the use of these concepts in language.
Consider learning an active restructuring of thought rather

than an increase in content.
Make full use of wrong answers by helping the students

analyze his/her thinking to retain the correct elements and
revise the miscomprehensions.
Evaluate each student in terms of improving his/her
performance.
Avoid overuse of materials that are so highly structured that

creative thought is discouraged.
Use social interaction in learning experiences to promote

increase in both interest and comprehension

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PIAGET’S COGNITIVE

• Reversible thinking – thinking backward,

2. Recognition of the crucial role of children’s self-initiative, active

4. Acceptance of individual differences in developmental progress. Piaget’s

Consider the stage characteristics rather of the student’s

Use a wide variety of experiences rather than drill on

Do not assume that reaching adolescence or adulthood

Individualize learning experiences so that each student is

Consider learning an active restructuring of thought rather

Make full use of wrong answers by helping the students

Avoid overuse of materials that are so highly structured that

Use social interaction in learning experiences to promote

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