PIAGETS

THEORY
Developed by Swiss
Psychologist
Jean Piaget

 The most outstanding work of mental

development was done by Swiss
Psychologist
Jean
Piaget.
Piaget
suggested that cognitive development in
children proceed through a series of four
stages in a fixed order. Piaget emphasized
orderly progression and cumulative
change. Development is not a passive
process; Children are active agents in
their own development.

Some Basic Concepts

Cognitive Structures (Schemes)

Cognitive structures are the patterns of

behaviour that is used in dealing with
objects in their environment. As the
development proceeds, each pattern
enlarges and changes. It is coordinated
with other patterns to form more complex
patterns. Schemas are the mental
representations of the world around him.

In Piagets view, the development of knowledge

is a form of adaptation and it involves two
processes
Assimilation: Assimilation implies incorporating
something from the environment. New ideas and
concepts are taken in and incorporated into
ones existing set of scheme. He does not
change the existing scheme. He tries to modify
his environment so that it fits into ones already
developed ways of thought and action.
Assimilation is a kind of absorption without
resistance. It is an attempt to fit new information
into an existing cognitive structure.
Eg: When breast fed babies begin to suck
on a rubber nipple, they are using an old
schema to deal with a new object. This is
assimilating a new experience in the existing
schema.

STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Sensory-motor stage (birth to 2 years)
Mental activity in this stage is mainly based
on experiences through senses. This stage
is limited to direct sensory and motor
interactions with the environment. During
infancy, the child is in the sensory motor
stage. Piaget viewed sensory motor stage
consists of six sub stages.

Accomodation: This involves modification or change of

some elements of an old scheme or learning a new
scheme which is more appropriate for the new object.
Accomodation refers to a change in an existing cognitive
structure (schema) to cope with new information or
situation. The individual tries to modify himself so as to
fit in with existing characteristics of the environment. He
adjust his thinking to fit the new information, instead of
adjusting the information to fit his thinking.
Eg: The babies will modify their schema of sucking,
while sucking on a nipple; their mouth movements will
be slightly different from their way of sucking on
breasts.
Eg: A child adjusting his mouth to a banana.

Equilibration: According to Piaget, when

by the existing scheme, the new situation
is not fully handled, and then there is
created a state of disequilibrium or an
imbalance between what is understood
and what is encountered. He is in the
Out-of-balance state. In such a case, the
individual
tries
to
reduce
such
imbalances. The process of assimilation
or accomodation helps the organism to
adjust
or
maintain
a
harmonious
relationship between himself and his
environment. This process of restoring
balance is called equilibration.

Exercising reflexes (Birth to 1 month)

The infant exercises native reflexes

Eg: Sucking reflex

Preliminary circular reaction ( 1-4 months)

In preliminary circular reactions, the

infant performs repetitive actions
focused on the infants own body.

Eg: Thumb sucking

Secondary Circular reaction (4-8 months)

Actions are repeated but

repetition involves events or objects in
the external world secondary to the
infants own body.

Eg: Shaking a rattle but behaviour is

not fully intentional.

Coordination of secondary reactions (8-12

months)
The infant intentionally coordinates sensory
inputs and motor actions, anticipating
outcomes, and repeating strategies that have
previously been successful.
Eg: Infant is able to remove an obstacle that
blocks some desired result.
Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)
Repeated actions are more varied and infant
experiments with new actions. He varies his
actions to seek novelty.
Invention of new means (18-24 months)
The infant no longer relies on trial and error,
being able to think through problems and
mentally finds solutions.

 Some other developments in sensory motor stages

are object permanence, objectified causality,
representational thought etc. At the age of six
months child thinks that object exist only if it is
physically present. As soon as the object is moved
out of his range they do not exist for the child. (Out of
sight, out of mind). Gradually the child develops
permanence of objects.
He gains the concept of objectified causality when he
relates cause with effect.
Eg: kicking of the ball and rolling of the ball.

Representational thought child becomes

capable of representing things mentally. Eg: when
we say dog, he thinks of bow-bow.

Pre-operational Period (2-7 years)

This is the pre-logical period, as the

operations of logical thinking are not yet
developed.

Major developments are,

Rapid development of spoken language.

The child accepts the concepts like size,

weight, volume etc.

This is the period of deferred imitation ie:

imitation of actions observed earlier.

This is the period of symbolic play

Eg: playing with a toy gun as a real gun, a

round ring as a steering, a stick as a gun
etc.

This period is marked by Ego-centricism and

Animism.
Ego centricism means the inability of a child
to look at a problem from the point of view of
others.
Animism implies that things are alive
because they move and not alive if it doesnt
move.
This period is marked by lack of conservation
Conservation means ability to see an object
as permanent even though its length, width
or shape is changed.
Eg: Inability to conserve in terms of numbers
The child is likely to say that bottom row has
more beads.

To Piaget, Pre school children cannot place

objects in increasing order of size, weight or
volume ie: seriation.
This stage is characterized by transductive
reasoning reasoning from particular to
particular.
Childs behaviour is characterized by
centration focusing on only one dimension
(eg: length)
This period is characterized by irreversibility
the lack of the ability to reverse the
experimenters action. Eg: If A is larger than
B, child is not able to think B is smaller than
A.

Concrete Operational Period (7-11 years)

The major change in this period is that

development proceeds from logical thought to
logical solution of concrete problems. Here the
primary task is to organize and order what is
immediately present.

Characteristics during this period are:

Logical thinking using concrete objects develop.

Childs ego centricism disappears and is able to

take others view point. Animism also disappears.

He can classify group and arrange objects

serially.

He now believes that mass and volume remain

constant even if superficial changes are made in
their external appearance. ie: Ability to conserve
in terms of mass, number, volume etc develops.

This period is characterized by decentration

process of focusing on more than one dimension
such as length, height simultaneously.

Child is able to reverse his thought (ie: irreversibility

disappears) Eg: child realize that not only he has a
brother but his brother also has a brother in him.
Formal Operation Period (11-16 years)

This stage more or less coincides with

adolescence stage. Characteristics during this
stage are as follows,

He can develop full formed pattern of thinking and

able to think in symbolic terms.

He is now able to attain logical, rational and

abstract strategies.

His thought is flexible and effective.

He is able to apply logical thought to all classes of

problem.
He discovers the solution of problem through
inductive and deductive reasoning. He also uses
Hypothetico-deductive
reasoning-forming
hypotheses about the consequences of an action,
and then testing those hypotheses.
Now his thoughts direct his observations rather
than the observations directing thought as in the
case of young children.
Reflective thinking is maximized in contrast to
impulsive style. Impulsive style is a cognitive style
of responding quickly but often inaccurately. An
impulsive student works very quickly but makes
may mistakes. The more reflective student, on the
other hand, works slowly and makes fewer errors. It
is a cognitive style of responding slowly, carefully
and accurately.

Educational Implications of Piagets Theory

Piaget gives more importance to activity, ie:
Learning by doing.
Teacher should give importance to the training of
senses.
Perceptions and concept formations are the basis
of mental development and therefore they should
be guided to form concepts or generalizations on
the basis of their observations and experiences.
Real events and concrete objects play an important
role in learning.
Appropriate audio-visual aids should be used to
give concrete experience to children.
The environment provided in the class room should
be suitable to the childs mental development,
because mental development occurs mainly
through interaction with the environment.

Teacher should arouse curiosity of child through

planned activities.
The description of developmental stages and
qualitative aspects of intellectual development is
very useful in providing suitable educational
practices. It provides a broad development
perspective to the educator for building a
curriculum for the children.
Criticism of Piagets Theory
Piaget under estimated the age at which infants
and children are able to understand specific
concepts and principles.
Piagets theory has not touched an important
aspect of childs life the emotional aspect.
The samples of children used for his study were
small and unrepresentative.