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Jean Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development - (Postnatal Development)
Jean Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development - (Postnatal Development)
Lecture coverage General introduction. Piagets stages of growth Strategies to help children in information processing Evaluation of the theory.
Piagets Theory
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the 20th centuries most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology.
He is considered as the leading author in the field of cognitive development. Piaget was originally trained in the areas of biology and philosophy
He was mainly interested in the biological influences on how we come to know.
Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with schemes operating at birth that he called "reflexes.
Thus as the child receives new messages, information or terms , he/she organise it into schema (Brains activity)
cont.
Child as scientist Mental structures intrinsically active constantly being applied to experience Leads to curiosity and the desire to know Development proceeds as the child actively refines his/her knowledge of the world through many small experiments
Key Ideas in Piagets Theory Children adapt to other environments through the process of assimilation & accommodation.
Stage of Primary Circular Reactions. Infants behaviour, by chance, leads to an interesting result & is repeated. Circular: repetition. Primary: centre on infant's own body. Example: thumb-sucking. Passive expectation: if object disappears, infant will continue looking to the location where it disappeared, but will not search. In the infant mind, the existence of the object still very closely tied to schemes applied to experience Intentionality beginning to emerge: infant can now self-initiate certain schemes (e.g., thumb-sucking)
B A
Children tend to centre/focus upon one aspect of a situation and not take into account others. Pre-operational children tend to say there was more liquid in C as they focused on height
Propose a question and invite them to produce their views Present/suggest several ways to approach the problem Develop simple investigations for them to carry out Select information that is familiar to them and ask questions about it.
Strengths of Piaget
Active rather than passive view of the child. Revealed important invariants in cognitive development. Insists on child Tasks to foster cognitive development.