JEAN PIAGET'S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

JEAN PIAGET’S THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
TCP PRESENTO 2020
SUBMITTED TO
THIAGARAJAR COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS
(GOVT.AIDED)
Madurai-09,
Tamil Nadu.
SUBMITTED BY
V.KALAISELVI
I B.Ed. PHYSICAL SCIENCE
GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF
EDUCATION FOR WOMEN,
COIMBATORE-01.
TCP PRESENTO 2020, THIAGARAJAR COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS, MADURAI

HISTORY OF JEAN PIAGET
 Born: August 9, 1896
Neuchatel, Switzerland.
 Died: Sept. 16,1980(Age
84) Geneva, Switzerland.
 Education: Received
Ph.D., from University of
Neuchatel in 1918.
 Jean piaget (1896-1980)
was one of the 20th
century’s most influential
researchers in the area of
developmental
psychology.

COGNITIVE ABILITY
 The term cognition is derived
from the Latin word
“cognoscere” which means “to
know” or “to recognise” or “to
conceptualise”.
 According to Neysa, information
received through sense organs
while interacting with one’s
environment, are processed by
various mental abilities like
perceiving, storing, classifying,
expanding, recalling , etc.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
 Cognitive development describes how these
mental processes develop from birth until
adulthood. In other words, what kind of
cognitive skills is a 4 year old child capable of
compared to a 6 year old.
 The acquisition of the ability to think, reason,
and problem solve.
 Piaget studied cognitive development by
observing children in particular, to examine
how their thought processes change with age.

PROCESS OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
 Piaget considers that the process of cognitive
development consists of 4 components viz,
 (i) assimilation
 (ii) accommodation
 (iii) adaptation
 (iv) organisation
 4 stages
 (i) sensory-motor stage
 (ii) Pre-operational stage
 (iii) concrete operational stage
 (iv) formal operational stage.

SCHEMA
 A schema describes both the mental and physical
actions involved in understanding and knowing.
Schemas are mental or cognitive structures which
enables a person to adapt and to organise the
environment.
 According to Piaget, “to know an object one must act
upon it either physically or mentally” and these
activities that people perform on objects are
sequentially organised and represented in the mind.
This mental representation is called by Piaget as
‘schema’.
 In the process of developing schemas and subsequently
modifying them, four components are involved.

COMPONENTS OF
COGNITTIVE PROCESS
1.Assimilation
‘Assimilation’ means taking in or absorbing
experience/information from the
environment and fitting them into the
existing schema in the individual. As soon
as the schema is developed, the child tries to
apply it to every new object and in every
new situation he faces or the incoming
information he receives.

2.Accommodation
Accommodation means making room for, or
adjusting to incoming information by
modifying the existing schema in the
individual.

3. Adaptation
Assimilation helps in getting, experiences in
the existing schema, while accommodation
helps in combing/expanding/modifying the
schema based on his new experiences. Thus, the
individual is helped in adjusting to his new
environment. This adjustment to new
environment is known as adaptation. This
adaptation is also not the permanent one. He
develops many new or modified schemas as he
alters or extends his range of actions.

4. Organisation
whenever many schemas are developed,
they do not remain isolated but are well
connected among themselves and this
process of inter-connection schemas to form
into a unified structure is known as
‘organisation’.

Cognitive structure
cognitive structure
(undergoes continuous modification)
organisation adaptation
AccommodationAssimilation
TCP PRESENTO 2020, THIAGARAJAR COLLEGE
OF PRECEPTORS, MADURAI

1. Sensory motor stage
(0-2 years) (Infancy)
This stage is mainly based on immediate experience
through the ‘senses’ and the major intellectual
activity is the sensory interaction of the
environment. The child’s activities are physical
and without language to label experiences. This
stage is characterised by:
(i) Development of sensory, motor and perceptual skills.
(ii) Coordination of motor activities.
Example: If a small coloured ball is presented to a
six month old infant, it tries to hold if by using all the
limbs(as it does not know that hands and legs can be
moved separately);

but an eight month old infant will try to hold the ball only
with hands; a ten month old infant tries to hold a small
object like a lemon by a single hand and use both
hands for objects of big size.
(iii) At list, for a child an object ‘out of sight’ is ‘out of
mind’. But towards the close of the second year it learns
‘object permanence’ in space and time.
(vi) development of rudimentary memory;
(v) gradual progression from reflex behaviour to intentional
behaviour;
(vi) development of curiosity, and trial and error exploration
of immediate surroundings;
(vii) able to differentiate itself from near objects and this is
the basis of self-concept.

2. Pre-operational stage
(2-7years) (Toddler and Early Childhood)
The thinking of pre-operational child
is characterised by:
(i) eco-centrism: (use of words which
have unique meaning for the child,
which limits the child’s ability to
understand others’ point of view);
(ii) Animism: (treating inanimate objects
as living ones; e.g. children bathing,
dressing and feeding their dolls as if
they are alive)
(iii) Realism: (dreams are considered
real) (e.g. children at this stage
pretend stuffed toys are real, have
imaginary friends etc.

(iv) Centering : (the child can concentrate on
only one aspect of a thing at a time).
(v) Due to centering they can not understand
that objects are conserved even if they
change their positions or their shapes
altered.
(vii) Consider their patents as omnipresent and
omnipotent.
(vii) Inability to play any game, following the
rules.

3.Concrete operational stage
(7-12 years)(childhood and early adolescence)
The concrete operational stage is characterized by the
appropriate use of logic. Important processes during this stage
are:
1. Seriation: the ability to sort objects in an order according to
size, shape or any other characteristic. Eg: if given different
shaded objects, they may male a colour gradient.
2. 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, the A must be taller than C.
3. Classification: the ability to name and identify sets of
objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic,
including the idea that one set of objects can include another.
4. Decentering: where the child takes into account multiple
aspects of a problem to solve it. Eg: the child will no longer
perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to contain less
than a normally wide taller cup.

4. Formal operational stage
(from 12 years and up)(Adolescence and Adulthood)
This is the most complete stage of development.
In this stage, the individual’s
1. Thought becomes increasingly flexible and
abstract. i.e., cab carry only systematic
experiments.
2. ability to systematically solve a problem in a
logical and methodical way.
3. understand that nothing is absolute ; everything
is relative.
4. skills such as logical thought, deductive
reasoning, and systematic planning develop
inductive as well as deductive logic.
5. The child’s way of thinking is at its most
advanced, although the knowledge it has to
work with will change.

Educational implications of
Piaget’s Theory
1. True learning’ as discriminated from ‘verbal learning’
involves the acquisition of new structures of mental
operations that permit the child to assimilate new
experiences. Hence experiential curriculum is advocated.
2. Emphasis on discovery approach in learning.
3. Curriculum should provide specific educational experience
based on children’s developmental level.
4. Arrange classroom activities so that they assist and
encourage self-learning.
5. Do not treat children as miniature adults; they think and
learn differently from adults.
6. Moral and intellectual growth go together and only after
the age of 11, can the child evaluate actions in the light of
motives. Etc..,

SUMMARY OF PIAGET’S
THEORY
 Piaget’s theory is based on the idea that
development happens as a result of interaction
with the environment, and from this a child can
actively contribute to their own development
 Piaget split individual development into four
stages beginning at infanthood and continuing
until adolescence. Each stage builds on the
previous one, and with age the individuals level
of cognitive structure becomes more advanced
and organised in different ways.

Reference
 Prof. K. Nagarajan, M.Sc., (Phy), M.A.,
(Psy), M.Ed., Ph.D.
 Dr. S. Natarajan, M.A., M.Ed., Ph.D.
 https://www.slideshare.com
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org

JEAN PIAGET'S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

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