The Wonderful Piaget

This week I want to focus on Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development. Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process. One could say that he believed children to engage with the learning process much like scientists engage with experiments, observing the world around them, constantly adding to their knowledge, building onto their existing knowledge and correcting misconceptions to make room for new information. Piaget’s theory says that children go through four stages of mental development. Piaget’s four stages are:

The sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years) During this stage infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and manipulation objects. This is a stage of dramatic growth and development. They are continually making discoveries about the world around them. Piaget notes that object permanence is an important element at this point of development.

The Preoperational stage (2 to7 years) The emergence of language is a major element in this stage. During this stage children learn through pretend play but still can’t grasp logic or the thoughts of others. They also struggle with understanding constancy.

The concrete Operational Stage ( 7 to 11 years) During this stage children start to get a better grasp on logic and understanding the thoughts of others. During this stage children still struggle with abstract and hypothetical concepts. Also, important to note during this stage children began to acknowledge how other people think and feel. They learn their thoughts are unique and not everyone thinks the same.

The Formal Operational Stage (11 and Up) During this stage children begin to use deductive reasoning and understanding of abstract ideas. At this stage one begins to find solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world around them.

One thing that is important to remember is that Piaget did not view children’c intellectual development as a quantitive process: there is no adding and adding to existing knowledge as they grow older. Instead as one grows there is a qualitative change in how they think. After reviewing Piaget’s theory I came to a conclusion that it is very important that when we are teaching that we allow our students time to explore with the information that is being presented to them. By doing this we are giving them the chance to create those thoughts about the world around them and build on their understanding of how the world works.