Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget
Postscript
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The body of work generated by Piaget (1896 - 1980) is considerable, most of which concerns the cognitive development of children (0 - 18 years). His theory that a child's cognitive development passes through four stages, where later stages are founded upon earlier stages, forms the foundation of his (and others) research. These periods (or stages) of cognitive development are:

Sensori-Motor stage (age 0-2)

This period of behaviour is primarily motor. The child perceives and manipulates but does not reason.

Preoperational stage (age 2-7)

During this period symbolic thought develops (uses language and mental representations). Also children are seen to remember, imagine and pretend.

Concrete operational stage (7-11)

Whilst in this stage children begin to learn how to handle the basics of logical thought but still rely on concrete objects. That is, they can perform mental operations with concrete materials but not with abstract ideas.

Formal operations stage (11 plus)

at this stage abstract problems can be solved and the ability to formulate hypotheses is reached.

It should be noted that the transition from one stage to the next is not discontinuous. Moreover the quoted ages are for guidance only, individual children will develop at different rates. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that every child/adult will attain the full faculties of the formal operations stage.

More importantly, for tertiary education, is the underlying processes that facilitate the cognitive development through these stages. Piaget uses four concepts to explain how and why mental development occurs. These are:

Schema

These are an individual's self-constructed mental structures. When a child is born, it has few schema which, as cognitive development progresses, broaden and differentiate. That is, schema are not destroyed, but instead are qualitatively and quantitatively refined. This is achieved through assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation

is the ``fitting'' of a new stimulus into an existing mental structure (schema) - qualitative development.

Accommodation

is the creation of new schemata (from old schemata) or the modification of old schemata - quantitative development.

Equilibrium

is a balance between assimilation and accommodation.

That is, on encountering a new stimulus, one attempts to assimilate the stimulus into an existing schema. If successful, equilibrium is maintained. If assimilation is not possible, accommodation is attempted by modifying or creating a new schema. When this is achieved, assimilation of the stimulus can occur and equilibrium is reached. Cognitive growth proceeds in this manner through all periods of development, the schema of the adult being built upon those of the child. This view of cognitive development is known as constructivism (See Section 14.4, this place 14.4).