Piaget’ s Constructivist View of Cognitive Development

Piaget’ s Constructivist View of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget - the most influential theorist in the study of cognitive development

• 1896-1980 (Neuchatel - Switzerland)

• omnipresent impact on psychology (like a Shakespeare on English literature)

Multiple Choice

Jean Piaget, where are you?

Child Prodigy

• tremendous intellectual talent

• early interest in nature

• 1st article published at the age of 10

• 15-18 years: series of articles with research on adaptation among mollusks

• curator in the museum of natural history in Geneva

Psychiatric clinic in Zurich

• learn about Freudian Psychoanalysis, (age-related patterns in thinking!)

• Children are active in thinking, they should give a reason for their answers in research

• EVERY child attempt to understand and answer questions (even if the process of thinking is far from adults' logic

• to adopt to the situation and succeed in regularity and consistency

OK, hold on!

Is it really that groundbreaking insight today?!

He challenged these well-established views

Constructivism and Interaction with the Environment

Poll

What does come to your mind when you hear constructivism?

• building knowledge on experiences

• referring information to scheme in our brains

• modifying individual schemes to form more complex cognitive structures

Constructivism - main thesis

Interpreting environment and experiences in light of the knowledge and experience we already have.

We are building on our own comprehension.

Schemes are essential building blocks and they are modified while interacting with environment.

Many schemes might be developed simultaneously.

Cognitive structures serve a filter to new experiences.

Is it possible to have the same cognitive structure?

How do we interact with the environment?

=>Through 3 common processes<=

Organization

tendency of all species to FORM increasingly coherent and integrated entities.

People try to organize their knowledge into systems.

Can you think of a time when you found yourself wondering about something that you didn’t quite understand, and you didn’t intend to think about it?

Organization

What are the:

• Advantages?

• Disadvantages?

Adaptation

refers to every species’ tendency to make modifications in order to survive and succeed in the environment.

Assimilation

The process of bringing new

objects or information into a

scheme that already exists.

Accommodation

The process of modifying old schemes or creating new ones to better fit assimilated information.

Think back over your day so far. Can you identify an example of assimilation in your daily activities?

Can you think of an example of accommodation?

Multiple Select

Lily sees her first cow.

"Look Mommy, doggies."

• acommodation

• adaptation

• assimilation

Multiple Choice

Change "dog scheme": Dogs are smaller and don't give milk.

Add new "cow scheme": Cows are larger and give milk.

• accomodation

• assimilation

Equilibration

The dynamic process of moving between states of cognitive disequilibrium and equilibrium.

• cognitive equilibrium - we are constantly seeking to understand!
• we never attain perfect, complete, and permanent understanding of everything
• the normal state of mind is one of disequilibrium—or rather a state of ‘moving equilibrium’

Reflective abstraction

• we notice something in the environment, then we reflect on it
• relate it to our current cognitive structures
• As a result of reflection, we modify our current cognitive structures.