Jean Piaget

1. Jean Piaget Intellectual Development 1896-1980 EDUC 4103 10/14/2008 By: Yupin Wong, Rachel Cooper, Julia Welsh, and Breanna Carnes

2. Biography • Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896. • He was the oldest child of Arthur Piaget, professor of medieval literature at the University, and of Rebecca Jackson. • In his early years, he studied about mollusks and he love sciences • Eventually, Piaget changed his study from mollusks to the study of philosophy.

3. Biography Continued… • After high school, he attended the University of Neuchatel, where he eventually obtained his Doctorate in Science in 1918. • During university, he had two philosophical essays published, which were important to the general orientation of his thinking • He worked for a year at psychology labs in Zurich and at Bleuler’s famous psychiatric clinic. • After a semester at the University of Zurich where he developed an interest for psychoanalysis, he left Switzerland for France.

4. In 1919, he taught psychology and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. Here he did research intelligence testing. • In 1921, he became director of studies at the J.J. Rousseau Institute in Geneva. • In 1923, he married Valentine Chatenay and had three children, whose intellectual development from infancy to language as studied by Piaget. • He died in Geneva on September 16, 1980

5. Piaget’s Key Concepts • Schema/Scheme: A representation in the mind of a set of ideas or actions which go together • Assimilation: The process of taking in information into our previously existing schemas. • Accommodation: Involves altering existing ideas or schemas as a result of new information or new experiences. • Equilibration: A mechanism that assists children in achieving a balance between assimilation and accommodation

6. Central Tenets of Theory • Piaget proposed that children’s thinking does not develop completely smoothly • Instead there are certain points at which it takes off and progresses into completely new areas and abilities. • In his view, early cognitive development involves processes based upon actions which later progress into changes in mental operations.

7. 1. 2. 3. 4. SENSORIMOTORSTAGE PRE-OPERATIONALSTAGE CONCRETEOPERATIONALSTAGE FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE • Piaget’s theory is based on the idea that the developing child builds cognitive structures (networked concepts for understanding and responding to physical experiences within his or her environment) • Jean Piaget formulated four stages of intellectual-cognitive development and the process by which children progress through them. • During all development stages, the child experiences his or her environment using what ever mental maps he or she has consulted so far.

8. Sensorimotor Stage (Infancy): • In this periods intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity, without the use of symbols. • Knowledge of the world is developing but limited because of how it is based on physical interactions and experiences. Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood): • Intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed in this period. Egocentric thinking predominates.

9. Concrete operational stage (Elementary and early adolescence): • In this stage intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. • Operational thinking develops and egocentric thought diminishes Formal operational stage (Adolescence and adulthood): • Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts (conceptual reasoning). Early in the period egocentric thought revisits.

10. Stages of Cognitive Development Continued • These stages form what Piaget called an invariant developmental sequence. • He believed that children progress through the stages in exactly the order in which they are listed. • They cannot skip any of these stages because each succeeding stage builds on the previous one and correspond to a more intricate way of thinking.

11. Applications of Theory in the Classroom • Jean Piaget’s theories are imbedded into the school system in the sense that the curriculum is based on his stage theory. • The curriculum is designed to teach students at the first stage and progressively teach new learning to change the schemas in order to move students through each stage. • The teacher starts at the basics introducing a new sublet and once the knowledge of that subject is mastered, they would create a schema.

12. To transition to the next stage, or a new learning method, the teacher would demonstrate how the student will change, modify or adapt their schema to the new method in order for new learning to take place. • When children enter the school they are generally at the preoperational stage. Teachers must recognize that they cannot learn concrete-operational strategies until the students have mastered the preoperational schemas • In other words, students must start at the basic first stage and master it before they can progress well to higher stages.

13. Students with exceptionalities • Students with exceptional needs do not move through these stages as fast as or much faster than other students. • The expatiation for this is the students with special needs do not develop the same as other students, they do not adapt to their environment in the same way. • Teachers and parents should always s challenge the child's ablates with out presenting information that is too far advanced for the student.

14. Students with exceptionalities Continued • Some students with special needs need to have the same processes and information repeated several times and some fly through it and are left bored. • These different methods are perfectly fine according to Piaget’s theories since they are still moving through the same stages. • Teachers can cause manipulatives, have this students work in groups. With educational assistants, take them on field trips, and other activates to help with the students learning.

15. Questions: • Jane has learned to feed herself with a spoon. When her mother gives her a fork, she immediately begins to feed herself. Jane has __________ the fork into her schema for utensils a) accommodated b)appropriated c)assimilated

16. 2. A schema is a...a) Category of knowledge that allows us to interpret and understand the world. b)Process of taking in new information. c)Process of balancing old knowledge and new information. d)None of the above

17. 3. Jean Piaget was a _____________.a) Child psychologist b)Developmental psychologist c)Biologist d) Genetic epistemologist

18. 4. The ability to think abstractly and systematically solve problems emerges during the ___________. a) concrete operational stage b)sensorimotor stage c) formal operational stage d)preoperational stage

19. Work Cited • ATHERTON J S (2005) Learning and Teaching: Piaget’s developmental theory [http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget/ht] Accessed: 3 Oct. 2008. • Citation: Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Educational Psychology interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University, Retrieved 3 Oct. 2008 from [http://chiron.valdosta.edu/huitt/col/cogsys/piatet.html] • A Brief Biography of Jean Piaget. 26 Nov. 2007. Jean Piaget Society. Accessed 3 Oct. 2008. [http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html] • Shaffer, David R, et al. Developmental Psychology Children and Adolescence. Canada: Thomas Nelson, 2002.