PIAGET‘S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT.

Piaget‘s theories of infant development were based on his observations of his own three children.  He believed the child‘s cognitive structure increased with development. Piaget‘s theory is based on the idea that the developing child builds cognitive structures (schemes used to understand and respond to physical environment).

The term cognition is derived from the Latin word “cognoscere” which means “to know” or “to recognise” or “to conceptualise”.o It refers to the mental processes an organism learns, remembers, understands, perceives, solves problems and thinks about a body of information.o Experts argue that cognition progresses in stages with increasing levels of complexity and hence the phrase ―cognitive development‖ which is the stages a child goes through conceptualising the world at different age levels

The equilibration is the symbol of a new stage of the cognitive development. Assimilation and accommodation are both processing of the ways of cognitive development. The essential development of cognition is the establishment of new schemes. Cognitive Development is gradual，orderly, changes by which mental process become more complex and sophisticated

There Are Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory:

1.  Building blocks of knowledge:  Schema

2.  Adaptation processes that enable the transition from one stage to another: equilibrium, assimilation and   accommodation).

3.  Stages of Cognitive development:

1.     Sensori motor,

2.     Preoperational,

3.     Concrete Operational,

4.     Formal Operational.

SCHEMA

A schema (plural schemata or schemas) describes an organized pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them. It can also be described as a mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system of organizing and perceiving new information. People use schemata to organize current knowledge and provide a framework for future understanding.In Piaget's theory of development, children construct a series of schemata to understand the world. Schema : an internal representation of the world.

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. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world

ASSIMILATION AND ACCOMMODATION : Jean Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through:

·   Assimilation : is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation. The process of taking in new information into our previously existing schema‘s is known as assimilation. A child sees a Zebra for the first time and immediately calls it a Donkey. Thus, the child has assimilated into his schema that this animal is a Donkey. Why do you think this happened? The child seeing the object (Zebra), sifted through his collection of schemas, until he found one that seemed appropriate. To the child, the object (Zebra) has all the characteristics of a Donkey– it fits in his Donkey schema – so the child concludes that the object is a Donkey. The child has integrated the object (Zebra) into his Donkey schema.

·   Accommodation – This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation. Another part of adaptation involves changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information, a process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves altering existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process. The boy who had assimilated the Zebra as a Donkey will eventually accommodate more information and thus realize the different characteristics between a Zebra and a Donkey. The child will learn that the Donkey is not a Donkey but a Zebra, an accommodated ability

·   Equilibration – This is the force which moves development along. Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.   Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).

·  Adaptation- In cognitive development, the process of changing a cognitive structure or the environment (or both) in order to understand the environment. Assimilation and accommodation are the two sides of adaptation, they are two sides and inseparable and exist in a dialectical relationship.

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·        Organization- The tendency to form increasingly coherent and integrated structures.

Adaptation and Equilibration

In the cycle of adaptation and equilibration, a new experience is first assimilated into an existing scheme. If it doesn’t fit properly, cognitive disequilibrium results. Accommodating (adjusting) the scheme brings the child to cognitive equilibrium, until a new assimilation challenges the scheme again.

Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation).Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema will continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it.

Schema : an internal representation of the world. 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. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world

Sensorimotor Stage

Initially equipped with a set of reflex movements and a set of perceptual systems, an infant quickly begins to build up direct knowledge of the world through trial and error learning. Through the processes of assimilation and accommodation actions become progressively adapted to the world.

Infancy is characterized by extreme egocentrism, where the child has no understanding of the world other than her own current point of view. The main development during this stage is the understanding that objects exist and events occur in the world independently of one's own actions ('the object concept', or 'object permanence').

Object permanence means knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e. a schema) of the object.

For example, if you place a toy under a blanket, the child who has achieved object permanence knows it is there and can actively seek it. At the beginning of this stage the child behaves as if the toy had simply disappeared. The attainment of object permanence generally signals the transition to the next stage of development (preoperational).

Substages

From careful observation of his own children (Jacqueline, Lucienne and Laurent) Piaget (1952) concluded that thought developed through 6 sub stages during the sensorimotor period.

1.     The first substage (first month of life) is the stage of reflex acts. The neonate responds to external stimulation with innate reflex actions. For example, if you brush a baby’s mouth or cheek with your finger it will suck reflexively.

2.     The second substage is the stage of primary circular reactions. The baby will repeat pleasurable actions centred on its own body. For example babies from 1 – 4 months old will wiggle their fingers, kick their legs and suck their thumbs. These are not reflex actions. They are done intentionally – for the sake of the pleasurable stimulation produced.

3.     Next comes the stage of secondary circular reactions. It typically lasts from about 4 – 8 months. Now babies repeat pleasurable actions that involve objects as well as actions involving their own bodies. An example of this is the infant who shakes the rattle for the pleasure of hearing the sound that it produces.

4.     The fourth substage (from 8 – 12 months) is the stage of co-ordinating secondary schemes. Instead of simply prolonging interesting events babies now show signs of an ability to use their acquired knowledge to reach a goal. For example the infant will not just shake the rattle but will reach out and knock to one side an object that stands in the way of it getting hold of the rattle.

Object permanence means knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e. a schema) of the object.

For example, if you place a toy under a blanket, the child who has achieved object permanence knows it is there and can actively seek it. At the beginning of this stage the child behaves as if the toy had simply disappeared. The attainment of object permanence generally signals the transition to the next stage of development (preoperational).

5.     Fifth comes the stage of tertiary circular reactions. These differ from secondary circular reactions in that they are intentional adaptations to specific situations. The infant who once explored an object by taking it apart now tries to put it back together. For example it stacks the bricks it took out of its wooden truck back again or it puts back the nesting cups – one inside the other.

6.     Finally, in substage six there is the beginning of symbolic thought. This is transitional to the pre operational stage of cognitive development. Babies can now form mental representations of objects. This means that they have developed the ability to visualise things that are not physically present. This is crucial to the acquisition of object permanence – the most fundamental achievement of the whole sensorimotor stage of development.

Preoperational Stage

The preoperational stage ranges from about ages 2 to 7 (Piaget, 1951, 1952). The child in this stage is pre (before) operations. This means the child cannot use logic or transform, combine or separate ideas.

The child's development consists of building experiences about the world through adaptation and working towards the (concrete) stage when it can use logical thought. During the end of this stage children can mentally represent events and objects (the semiotic function), and engage in symbolic play.

The key features of the preoperational stage include:

·         Centration: This is the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation at one time. When a child can focus on more than one aspect of a situation at the same time they have the ability to decenter.

During this stage children have difficulties thinking about more than one aspect of any situation at the same time; and they have trouble decentering in social situation just as they do in non-social contexts.

·         Egocentrism: Childrens' thoughts and communications are typically egocentric (i.e. about themselves). Egocentrism refers to the child's inability to see a situation from another person's point of view. According to Piaget, the egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as the child does.

·         Play: At the beginning of this stage you often find children engaging in parallel play. That is to say they often play in the same room as other children but they play next to others rather than with them. Each child is absorbed in its own private world and speech is egocentric. That is to say the main function of speech at this stage is to externalize the child’s thinking rather than to communicate with others. As yet the child has not grasped the social function of either language or rules.

·         Symbolic Representation: The is the ability to make one thing - a word or an object - stand for something other than itself. Language is perhaps the most obvious form of symbolism that young children display. However, Piaget (1951) argues that language does not facilitate cognitive development, but merely reflects what the child already knows and contributes little to new knowledge. He believed cognitive development promotes language development, not vice versa.

·         Pretend (or symbolic) play: Toddlers often pretend to be people they are not (e.g. superheroes, policeman), and may play these roles with props that symbolize real life objects. Children may also invent an imaginary playmate. 'In symbolic play, young children advance upon their cognitions about people, objects and actions and in this way construct increasingly sophisticated representations of the world' (Bornstein, 1996, p. 293).

As the pre-operational stage develops egocentrism declines and children begin to enjoy the participation of another child in their games and “lets pretend “ play becomes more important. For this to work there is going to be a need for some way of regulating each child’s relations with the other and out of this need we see the beginnings of an orientation to others in terms of rules.

·         Animism: This is the belief that inanimate objects (such as toys and teddy bears) have human feelings and intentions. By animism Piaget (1929) meant that for the pre-operational child the world of nature is alive, conscious and has a purpose. Piaget has identified four stages of animism:

Up to the ages 4 or 5 years, the child believes that almost everything is alive and has a purpose. During the second stage (5-7 years) only objects that move have a purpose. In the next stage (7-9 years), only objects that move spontaneously are thought to be alive. In the last stage (9-12 years), the child understands that only plants and animals are alive.

·         Artificialism: This is the belief that certain aspects of the environment are manufactured by people (e.g. clouds in the sky).

·         Irreversibility: This is the inability the reverse the direction of a sequence of events to their starting point.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget (1954a) considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child's cognitive development, because it marks the beginning of logical or operational thought. The child is now mature enough to use logical thought or operations (i.e. rules) but can only apply logic to physical objects (hence concrete operational).

Children in the concrete operational stage are typically ages 7 to 11. They gain the abilities of conservation (number, area, volume, orientation) and reversibility. Their thinking is more organized and rational. They can solve problems in a logical fashion, but are typically not able to think abstractly or hypothetically.

1.     Conservation: Concrete operational children recognize that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same even when their outward appearance changes.

After spilling 10 pennies stacked on her desk, Lizzie bent down to search for them. "I know there has to be ten," she said to herself, "because that's how many I put in that little pile on my desk yesterday."

2.     Decentration: Concrete operational children coordinate several important features of a task rather than centering on only the perceptually dominant one.

After getting two glasses of lemonade from the kitchen, one for her brother and one for herself, Lizzie remarked, "Don't worry, I gave you just as much. My glass is tall but thin. "Yours is short but wide."

3.     Reversibility: Concrete operational children can think through the steps in a problem and then go backward, returning to the starting point.

Lizzie understands that addition and subtraction are reversible operations. In other words, when you add 7 plus 8 to get 15, then this tells you that 15 minus 8 must be 7.

4.     Hierarchical classification: Concrete operational children can flexibly group and regroup objects into hierarchies of classes and subclasses.

Lizzie discussed how to display her rock collection with her friend Marina. Marina suggested, "You could divide them up by color. Or, you could use shape and color."

5.     Seriation: Concrete operational children are guided by an overall plan when arranging items in a series.

Lizzie decided to arrange her rocks by size. She quickly lined up all 20 rocks in a row, selecting the smallest and then the next smallest from the pile, until the arrangement was complete.

6.     Transitive inference: Concrete operational children can seriate mentally. After comparing A with B and B with C, they can infer the relationship between A and C.

"I saw Tina's new lunch box, and it's bigger than mine," Marina said while eating her sandwich with Lizzie one day. "Well, it must be bigger than mine too, because look - my box isn't even as big as yours," said Lizzie.

7.    Spatial operations: Concrete operational children conserve distance; understand the relations among distance, time, and speed; and create organized cognitive maps of familiar environments.

Lizzie realizes that a truck blocking the sidewalk does not change the distance to the end of her street. She also knows that if she runs faster than Marina for the same amount of time, she will travel farther. In addition, she can draw a map that depicts the route from her house to Marina's house with major landmarks along the way.

8.     Horizontal decalage: Logical concepts are mastered gradually over the course of middle childhood.

Conservation of number and liquid are mastered before conservation of area and weight.

Formal Operational Stage

The formal operational stage begins at about age 11. As adolescents enter this stage, they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner, the ability to combine and classify items in a more sophisticated way, and the capacity for higher-order reasoning.

At about age 11+ years, the child begins to manipulate ideas in its head, without any dependence on concrete manipulation; it has entered the formal operational stage. He/she can do mathematical calculations, think creatively, use abstract reasoning, and imagine the outcome of particular actions.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE

We can characterize the formal reasoning in terms of these basic and closely interrelated properties

1.     Form" in Formal Operations

Whereas the concrete operations child follows the content of an argument, the formal operations child can follow its form. For instance, contrast the content versus the form in the appreciation and interpretation of a parable, metaphor, of satire (e.g., Animal Farm, Gulliver's Travels)

2.     Abstract thinking:

According to Piaget, the capacity for abstract thinking begins with the formal operational stage. The formal operational stage Children reach formal operational stage when they are capable of abstract thoughts. They can think beyond reality (here and now) while concrete operational children can perform mental actions on objects, formal operational children can perform mental actions on ideas. While children tend to think very concretely and specifically in earlier stages, the ability to think about abstract concepts emerges during the formal operational stage. Instead of relying solely on previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions. This type of thinking is important in long-term planning

Concrete = realities

 formal= possibilities

Consequences of Abstract Thought Adolescents’ capacity to think abstractly, combined with the physical changes they are undergoing, means that they start to think more about themselves.

Piaget believed that they arrival of formal operations is accompanied by a new form of egocentrism: the inability to distinguish the abstract perspective of self from other.

Imaginary Audience :– Adolescents’ belief that they are the focus of everyone else’s attention and concern.

Personal Fable: – Adolescents’ belief that others cannot possibly understand their thoughts and feelings.

3.   Reasoning Ability Hypothetico-Deductive reasoning      

It is using a general law to make a situation-specific prediction.It means ability to formulate, consider, and test hypotheses) arises. The child is now able to systematically test hypotheses. Thus, for example, even a       concrete thinker would recognize the logic of the transitive inference, “If elephants are bigger than dogs, and dogs are bigger than mice, then elephants are bigger than mice.” Such a thinker would, however, be dubious of the argument “If mice are bigger than dogs, and dogs are bigger than elephants, then mice are bigger than elephants,” pointing out that mice are not bigger than dogs, dogs are not bigger than elephants, etc.  Only a formal thinker would recognize that although the premises in the second argument are false, and the conclusion thus cannot be counted on, the form of the second argument is identical to that of the first, and thus equally valid.

“ Second degree thinking ” emerges, which is “thinking about your own thinking.”Up to 1/3 of adolescents and adults never actually reach formal operational thought as it is defined by Piaget. Propositional Thought – a type of formal operational reasoning in which adolescents evaluate the logic of verbal statements without referencing to real-world circumstances.

4.     Logic:

Piaget believed that deductive logic becomes important during the formal operational stage. Deductive logic requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a specific outcome. This type of thinking involves hypothetical situations and is often required in science and mathematics.

5.     Real versus Possible

As the adolescent develops formal operations, his or her construction of reality becomes more precise and an awareness of gaps in understanding emerges. These gaps are filled with tentative hypotheses about what might be true. These hypotheses, once proposed, are then put into shape to test their validity. Based on the feedback from an observation or experiment, some hypotheses are confirmed, others are revised and put into shape for further testing, and others are rejected.

6.     Systematic Problem Solving

Concrete operations children use trial-and-error problem solving. Give them a problem with multiple combinations (e.g., a chemistry lab experiment) and they will test one combination after the other fishing for an answer.

With formal operations, the adolescent thinks through problems mentally and abstractly. He or she will envision (predict) a possible course of action, test it in some way, and then use logic to reason through what the likely, upcoming consequences of that predicted course of action will be. The thinking is systematic, and it is supported-once data are collected-by inference, deduction, and reflection. Systematic means the formal operations adolescent will make a prediction of what is likely to occur, test that prediction in some way, notice what actually happens (what the data, not the hypothesis, says), and then attempt to isolate the cause behind what actually occurs.

The approach is a bit like Sherlock Holmes-work to isolate all possible causes and test each one in a systematic fashion, starting with the most likely, preceding to the next most likely (given the evidence obtained so far), and continuing systematically.

7.     Operations on operations

Operation means actions that one performs in one’s mind (which previously required the person to perform the action physically).As operations become more complex; they approximate logic and can be applied to a wide variety of problems. Operational thought is reversible. This means the child knows that the operation can be cancelled (added2 reverse it, subtracting 2)

Operational thought is associative. This means that the child understands that there is more than one way to get to the solution (5+6= 11 and 2+9 also equals eleven). One additional characteristic of formal operations, closely related to both the preceding, is that operations they are on operations, or second-order operations. That is, whereas concrete operations act directly on representations of reality, formal operations involves a coordination of these direct, first-order operations into more abstract higher-order systems. 

Thus, for example, a concrete thinker could divide a set of books into fiction and nonfiction, or into hard bound and paper bound. 

Only at the formal level, however, is it possible to classify these classes themselves. Thus, for example, the formal thinker would understand that the first three of these four classes may be classified together as involving books that are hardbound and/or fiction. Similarly, it is a simple enough task to put a number of items in a series, but formal operations are required to engage in second-order seriation, that is, to seriate a number of series in such a way as to systematically and efficiently produce all the possible variation of the items involved.

Educational Implications of Piaget's Theory

1.     A focus on the process of children’s thinking, not just its products.

2.     Recognition of the crucial role of children’s self-initiated, active involvement in learning activities.

3.     A deemphasis on practices aimed at making children adult like in their thinking.

4.     Acceptance of individual differences in developmental progress.