What Is Jean Piaget Theory

Piaget’s theory was introduced by Jean Piaget who established four periods of cognitive development. The four stages are; Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, and Formal operational. The sensorimotor is the first stage and begins when the child is born and proceeds until the age of two years. The second stage is the preoperational stage and begins with the child is two years old and continues until the child reaches six years of age. The concrete stage is the third stage and begins when the child is six years old and proceeds until the age of 11 years old. The formal operational stage is the fourth stage and

At the centre of Piaget's theory is the principle that cognitive development occurs in a series of four distinct, universal stages, each characterized by increasingly sophisticated and

Piaget investigated children’s cognitive development by administering sets of experimental tasks and that typically children achieve these stages at certain ages. Children’s performance on these tasks reflected their stage of development and these tasks have come to be seen as classic experiments in developmental psychology. He was carrying out a set of controlled tests. Children's understanding varies according to the different areas..

Children who are in the formal operation stage of developmenthave the ability to think logically and abstractly meaning then can tackle higher level problems. They can also reason in the theoretical sense letting them comprehend matters from an outside environment. According toPiaget this the ultimate stage of development, it enables them to grasp foreign concepts as long although they will still need to revise their knowledge base from previously learnt material. Piaget claims that this way of thinking was as powerful as it would get and can be improved via practicing and continuing the

Piaget had 4 different stages to his Cognitive-Development theory. His ideas included the stages sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The main idea of Piaget’s theory was to explain that a childs reasoning develops in four different stages. His theory helped explain how children of different ages start to think and view the world for themselves.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) had a stage theory about cognitive development and how it works with children. There are 4 stages to this theory; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Piaget emphasised that they occur in this order. (Smith, Cowie, & Blades, 2015, p. 446). He considered the fact that the way child’s mind develops, intellectually, is a continuous process of Assimilation and Accommodation (Smith, Cowie, & Blades, 2015, p. 448). This essay will aim to explain and evaluate this theory and how well it accounts for children’s cognitive development.

The aim of this essay is to briefly explain Piaget’s Stage Theory and evaluate its appropriateness for explaining how children develop mentally. His theory states that children develop in four different stages from the ages 0-12. There are varying sub-stages for these and each has its own description with experiments to test which stage an infant is in. Although Piaget is a credited theorist this particular theory is often criticised and this essay will explore the reasons for this as well as providing experimental evidence for the criticisms and for Piaget’s theory.

Formal operation is the time where adolescence tends to identify as stage 4. This stage is the proof theory by great scientists Jean Piaget. He studied different stages of children to better understand the behavior. In stage 4 of Piaget’s theory, it implicates appearances level of creativity, thinking more broadly, reasoning with problems and grasping of peripheral concepts. One of the major root causes of formal operation stage is the criticism of Piaget theory seen as it lacks in the flexibility in the child that undergoes the theory. In addition, children can accomplish these characteristics at earlier or late then determined age range (Moshman, D. (1977).). This stage is unique found in the adolescence. For example, this stage tends

Although in the next decades since Piaget’s theory of cognitive development became widely known, other researchers have contested some of his principles, claiming that children’s progress through the four stages of development is more irregular and less constant than Piaget believed. They found that children do not always reach the different stages at the age levels he specified, and that their entry into some of the stages is more gradual than was first though, for example, infants

Piaget believed that children should only be given new information when they have understood what they have previously learnt and constructed through the use of schemes and knowledge. Piaget’s theory is linked to current Early Years Practice as school settings praise children when they have done something positive, so they will repeat the action and succeed. As a child’s attention span is short it is therefore important that staff produce stimulating environments, exciting and appropriate materials and resources, as well as age appropriate activities so that the child can progress to their highest potential. It is important to hold a child’s attention so they take in information and allow them to construct their own knowledge while also giving

Piaget’s stage theory is that children learn in stages (Lefrancois, 2012). Piaget states that children’s learning and growth are gradual. In the pre-school age children have moved pasted the infancy stage and are in beginning the middle part of the preoperational stage (Lefrancois,

Next is the preoperational stage which is the most important stage in cognitive development process. In this stage, the children learn everything from the natural phenomena such as language and behavior. This stage is allowed them to start the symbolic thinking. For example, when a box is pushed in front the children, they imagine the box as a moving car. Then, they make the car sound when they think that is a car. Besides, children in this stage start to work with the problem solving tasks just like the ways to get the thing at cupboard and ways to wear shirt. Ojose (2008) mentioned that “children’s perceptions in this stage are generally restricted to one aspect or dimension of an object at the expense of the other aspects” (p. 27). For instance, when one 500ml bottle is filled with water fully and one 1500ml bottle is filled with ¼ of water, the children think that the 500ml bottle is more water than the 1500ml bottle. That is because the children can only differentiate the dimension and the height as they do not know the amount of the water inside the bottle. When teaching the child in this stage, the adults act intelligently. They give an effective question about the characteristic object for developing their cognitive. For example, mother, who teaches

With any mental illness there are no clear cut, “perfect” textbook cases. When observing and diagnosing bipolar disorder in an adult, there are no definitive tests a doctor can give such as blood work or even in vivo testing during pregnancy to predict whether or not a child will be mentally predisposed to a disease such as bipolar disorder. To make such a diagnosis in a child, no matter how educated is instilling a prophecy onto them that labels and predicts how difficult the rest of their lives will be, how many roadblocks they have to overcome, and how much medication they could face taking .

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) developed a theory that the mind of a child evolves through a series of pre-determined stages of adulthood (Pound, 2005, p.37). Piaget saw the child as constantly constructing and revising reality – achieving an increased understanding by incorporating simple concepts into more complex ones at each stage of development (Mooney, 2013, p.96). The four identified stages in his theory are the sensorimotor stage; pre-operational stage; concrete operational stage and formal operations stage (Piaget, 2013, p.32).

Piaget’s theory of development is based on four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stage. Piaget believed development was autonomous and individuals went through all stages, albeit some at different rates (Blake and Pope, 2008). Piaget believed children developed knowledge from within (Lourenco, 2012).