Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Assesment post 2: Piaget

Jean Piaget was one of the 1st theorists to comprehensibly describe children’s cognitive development. As a constructivist, Piaget believed that children construct their own their own knowledge by modifying their schemes and this modification is achieved through either assimilation or accommodation. Assimilation is the incorporation of new learning into existing ideas (scheme), whereas accommodation adjusts existing ideas in order to make it compatible with the new learning. [Tony Fetherston, Becoming an Effective Teacher, Thomson, Melbourne, 2006, p.156] Piaget believed that as humans develop and mature, they move through a series of four stages, according to Piaget, these stages are universal (apply to everyone) and invariant (the order in which children pass through them cannot be varied). [K Krause, S Bochner & S Duchesne, Educational Psychology, 2nd edn, Thomson, Melbourne, 2006, p.45] The four stages of development are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete and formal operational.

Stage 1- Sensorimotor (birth-2yrs): Children begin to experience the world through their senses and begin interacting with objects and people. The critical aspect of this stage is the development of object permanence that is if something falls out of sight, the infant still knows the object exists.

Stage 2- Preoperational (2-6yrs): This stage is characterised by the acquisition of language and the emergence of egocentrism. Egocentrism is the child’s belief that everyone sees the world exactly the same way as they do. Furthermore, egocentrism involves the student ignoring the rest of the class and remaining focused on solely on their own work. Piaget believes that egocentrism is necessary for a child’s development and that this is a phase they eventually grow out of.

Stage 3- Concrete (7-11/12yrs): children begin manipulating symbols both logically and systematically and are able to categorise objects.

Stage 4- Formal Operational (12-adulthood): Children develop the skills in information analysis and evaluation and are able to consider abstract concepts and hypothesize future outcomes.

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