Piaget's Theory Of Development: The Definitive Guide
Piaget's Theory Of Development
The Definitive Guide
Have you ever wondered how different children develop differently and what is the main reason behind it? Truth be told, there isn’t one specific reason behind this developmental divergence. However, there are many viable theories that speculate this very efficiently.
One such theory is Piaget’s Theory of Development. This theory is very well thought-out, thus making it one of the most relevant theories in child development. In this article, I will:
- Deconstruct Piaget’s Theory of Development
- Discuss the four stages of Piaget’s Model
- Breakdown the strengths and weaknesses of the theory
- Unravel ways to use Piaget’s theory for coaching
And much more!
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get straight into it!
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Yes! Give me my PDFContents
Chapter 1
History of Piaget’s Theory of Development
Chapter 2
The Four stages of Piaget’s Model
Chapter 3
The Four Stages and Related Schemas
Chapter 4
Strengths and Weaknesses of Piaget’s Theory
Chapter 5
Using Piaget’s Theory for Coaching
Chapter 6
Comparing Piaget’s Model with Other Development Models
Chapter 1:
History of Piaget’s Theory of Development
First and foremost we need to understand who Piaget was and the basics of his theory. This is exactly what we will be doing in this chapter. We will look at Piaget and his theory’s origin.
This chapter should help set the fundamentals of this theory clearly for you to then build upon it as we progress through the article.
Origin of Piaget’s theory
Jean William Fritz Piaget, a Swiss psychologist best known for his studies of child development, lived from 9 August 1896 to 16 September 1980. Genetic epistemology refers to Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological perspective as a whole.
Piaget gave the education of children a lot of weight. He stated in 1934 that "only education is capable of saving our society from possible collapse, whether violent or slow” while serving as the Director of the International Bureau of Education.
In pre-service education programs, his theory of child development is covered in a detailed manner. In fact, educators are still using constructivist-based methods.
While serving as a professor at the University of Geneva, Piaget founded the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva in 1955. He served as its director until his passing in 1980.
The Center is sometimes referred to as ‘Piaget's factory’ in the academic literature due to the sheer volume of collaborations that its foundation made possible and their significance.
Piaget was "the outstanding pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing," according to Ernst von Glasersfeld. However, it wasn't until the 1960s that his ideas started to catch on.
As a result, psychology's primary subdiscipline of development research began to take shape. By the end of the 20th century, B. F. Skinner and Piaget were the two psychologists who had received the most citations.
How did Piaget come up with the theory?
Piaget "was struck by the fact that children of different ages made different sorts of mistakes when completing problems" in 1919 while working at the Alfred Binet Laboratory School in Paris.
His hypothesis of cognitive development was based on his experiences and findings at the Alfred Binet Laboratory. He thought that the "quality rather than amount" of children's intelligence caused them to make different mistakes depending on their age.
According to Piaget, children go through four phases of development: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. Every stage describes a particular age range.
He described the stages of cognitive development in children. He thought that children, for instance, experience the world through actions, describing things with words, thinking logically, and using reasoning.
According to Piaget, biological maturation and environmental experience led to a gradual rearrangement of the mind's workings.
He believed that kids develop an awareness of the world around them, encounter gaps between what they already know and what they learn from their surroundings, and then revise their views as necessary.
The human organism, in his opinion, is centered on cognitive development, and language development is dependent on the knowledge and understanding that are acquired through cognitive growth. The initial works of Piaget attracted the most attention.
Direct implementations of Piaget's ideas include "open education" and child-centered classrooms. Despite its enormous success, Piaget's theory has significant flaws that he himself acknowledged: for instance, it favors abrupt stages over continuous growth (horizontal and vertical décalage).
What does Piaget’s Theory of Child Development outline?
The stages of a child's cognitive development are described by Piaget. Changes to the cognitive process and abilities occur during cognitive growth.
According to Piaget, early cognitive development entails action-based processes that subsequently lead to modifications in mental processes.
Jean Piaget proposed four developmental stages for humans in his theory of cognitive development: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage.
What are the four stages of the theory?
Piaget's theory of cognitive development proposes 4 stages of development.
Stage 1: Sensorimotor stage - Birth to 2 years
Stage 2: Preoperational stage - 2 to 7 years
Stage 3: Concrete operational stage - 7 to 11 years
Stage 4: Formal operational stage - ages 11 and up
The sequence of the stages is universal across cultures and follow the same invariant (unchanging) order. All children go through the same stages in the same order (but not all at the same rate).
Piaget’s Observations that Led to the Theory
In the 1920s, Piaget worked at the Binet Institute where his responsibility was to translate English intelligence test questions into French. He got fascinated by the explanations kids provided for their incorrect responses to questions requiring logical thought.
He thought that these wrong responses demonstrated significant disparities between how adults and children think.
With a fresh set of presumptions regarding young children's intellect, Piaget struck out on his own:
- The quality rather than the quantity of a child's intelligence is different from an adult's.
- This implies that youngsters reason (think) and perceive the world differently from adults.
- Children actively increase their world knowledge. They are not mindless creatures who sit around waiting to be educated.
- It was better to consider things from a child's perspective in order to comprehend their rationale.
Piaget was not interested in evaluating children's I.Q. by how well they could spell, count, or solve problems. He was more intrigued by how essential ideas like the concept of a number, time, quantity, causation, justice, and so forth came into being.
Piaget used controlled observation and naturalistic observation of his own three infants to study children from infancy to adolescence. He derived these for his journal entries that tracked their growth.
Additionally, he conducted clinical interviews and made observations of older kids who could understand inquiries and carry on dialogues.
Super fascinating, right? Trust me it gets even more interesting as we learn more about this theory. Let us do just that in the following chapter where we will understand the nitty gritty of the four developmental stages outlined by Piaget.
