-Maria Rita D. Lucas, Ph.D.

“The principle goal of education is to create men

who are capable of doing new things, not simply
of repeating what other generations have done –
men who are creative, inventive, and discoverers”

- Jean Piaget
Introduction

Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory of

Development is truly a classic in the field of
education psychology. This Theory fueled other
researches and theories of development and
learning. It’s focus is on how individuals
construct knowledge.
Basic Cognitive Concept
Schema- Piaget used term “ schema” to refer to the
cognitive structures by which individuals intellectually
adapt to and organize their environment. It is an
individual’s way to understand or create meaning about a
thing or experience.

Assimilation – this is the process of fitting a new

experience into an existing or previously created cognitive
structure or schema.

Accommodation – this is the process of creating a

new schema.
Equilibration - is achieving proper balance between
‘assimilation and accommodation’. When or experiences
do not match our schemata( plural of schema) or cognitive
structures, we experience Cognitive Disequilibrium. This
means there is discrepancy between what is perceived and
what is understood.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development
Stage 1. Sensori-motor Stage- the first stage
corresponds from birth to infancy. This is the stage when
a child who is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking, and
reaching becomes more organized in his movement and
activity.
Object Permanence
- This is the ability of the child to know that an object
still exists even when out of sight .

Stage 2. Pre-operational Stage.

- The pre-operational stage covers from about two to
seven years old, roughly corresponding to the pre-school
years. Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in nature.
This stage is highlighted by the following:

Symbolic Function.
- This is the ability to represent objects and events. A symbol
is a thing that represents something else. A drawing, a
written word, or a spoken words comes to be understood as
representing a real object like a real MRT train. Symbolic
function gradually develops in the period between 2 to 7
Symbolic function gradually develops in the period between 2
to 7 years.

Egocentrism
- This
is the tendency of the child to only see his point of
view and to assume that everyone also has his same point of
view.
Centration
- thisrefers to the tendency of the child to only focus on one
aspect of a thing or event and exclude other aspects.

Irreversibility
- Pre-operational children still have the inability to reverse
their thinking, They can understand that 2+3 is 5 but cannot
understand 5-3 is 2.