Piaget`S Theory Essay, Research Paper

Barbara MasonHuman Growth and DevelopmentAnne BrooksLesson 2: TheoriesCognition Development: Piaget`s TheoryInsight on Piaget:Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel (Switzerland) on august [August] 9, 1896. At age eleven, while he was a pupil at Neuchatel Latin High School, Piaget wrote a short notice on an albino sparrow. This short paper is generally considered as the start of a brilliant scientific career made of over sixty books and several hundred articles. After Piaget graduated from high school he studied natural sciences at the University of Neuchatel where he obtained a Ph.D. During this period, Piaget published two philosophical essays; which he considered “adolescence work” but they were important for the general orientation of his thinking. After spending a semester at the University of Zurich [,] Piaget developed an interest for psychoanalysis, he left Switzerland for France. Piaget spent one year working at the Ecole de la rue de la Grange-aux-Belles boys` institution created by Alfred Binet and then directed by De Simon who had developed with Binet a test for the measurement of intelligence [please reread this sentence - I think that it's a bit awkward]. There, Piaget standardized Burt`s [Burt?] test of intelligence and did his first experimental studies of the growing mind (4).Cognitive Development (In Children)Cognitive development is usually referred to the changes, which occur to a person’s cognitive structures, abilities, and processes. Jean Piaget proposed the most widely used known theory of childhood cognitive development in 1969. Piaget proposed the idea that cognitive development consisted of the development of logical competence, and that the development of this competence consists of four major stages: 1. Sensorimotor stage (birth- 2 years)-The child, through physical interaction with his or environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works.2. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7)-The child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. For instance, a child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight.3. Concrete operations (ages 7-11)-As physical experience accumulates, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage. For example, arithmetic equations can be solved with numbers, not just with objects.4. Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15)-By this point, the child’s cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning. Piaget outlined several principles for building cognitive structures. During all development stages, the child experiences his or her environment using whatever mental maps he or she has constructed so far. If the experience is a repeated one, it fits easily-or is assimilated-into the child’s cognitive structure so that he or she maintains “equilibrium” (1).Criticisms and Alternative TheoriesAs in many other areas of developmental psychology, Piaget`s theory of spatial cognition has been extensively criticized by more recent researchers. In particular, variations in methodology have revealed greater potential for spatial thought in young children. One way in which young children’s spatial understanding, which has been investigated, has been to turn the Piagetian paradigm around and see whether children can understand maps as representations of an environment. Blades (1991) [Try to be consistent - either cite your references with the numbering system like you've done before or use years like you've done here. Don't use two different systems of referencing in your paper.] argued that children could use a very simple map, which is aligned with the environment, in a perceptual way. In other words, if children simply have to read off a series of directions from a map, then this would not necessarily involve any understanding of how the map represents the environment. A number of studies have been carried out in which young children are asked to use a map or model to find an object hidden in a room. DeLoache (1989) showed children a toy being hidden under an item of furniture in one room and asked them to find a similar toy, which had already been hidden in another identical room. This suggests that even toddlers can use a kind of map to find their way around when the task is relatively simple (2). [I think that I see what you've done. This whole section was "taken" from your second reference? And within that material they had already cited the other sources? You simply need to incorporate that citation into your writing. For example, you could have said something like, "According to So and so (whoever is the author of the lecture notes at this website), in 1989 DeLoache did an experiment where children were shown a . . ." . And then all of that is cited as you have done with a "(2)". Make a little bit of sense?]

Piaget and Genetic EpistemologyOver a period of six decades, Jean Piaget conducted a program of naturalistic research that has profoundly affected our understanding of child development. Piaget called his general theoretical framework “genetic epistemology” because he was primarily interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms. Piaget had a background in both Biology and Philosophy and concepts from both these disciplines influenced his theories and research of child development. Cognitive structures change through the processes of adaptation: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation involves the interpretation of events in terms of existing cognitive structure whereas accommodation refers to changing the cognitive structure to make sense of the environment. Cognitive development consists of constant effort to adapt to the environment in terms of assimilation and accommodation. In this sense, Piaget`s theory is similar in nature to other constructivist perspectives of learning. While the stages of cognitive development identified by Piaget are associated with characteristic age spans, they vary for every individual. Furthermore, each stage has many-detailed structural forma. For example, the concrete operational period has more than forty distinct structures covering classification and relations, spatial relationships, time, movement, chance, number, conservation, and measurement. Similar detailed analysis of intellectual functions is provided by theories of intelligence such as Guilford, Gardner, and Sternberg. Applying Piaget`s theory results in specific recommendations for a given stage of cognitive development (3). References:”About Learning/Theories” Online http://www.funderstanding.com/learning_theory_how3.html Accessed 01-16-99 “Development of Cognitive Maps-2″ Online http://fhis.gcal.ac.uk/PSY/sun/LectureNotes/Env4_EnvCog/environmental3.html Accessed 01-13-99 “Genetic Epistemology” Online http://www.uqac.uquebec.ca/dse/3psy206/auteurs/piaget.html Accessed 01-16-99 “Jean Piaget” Online http://www.unige.ch/piaget/biog.html Accessed 01-12-99

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