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FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGES

HBEF2103

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Degree: Bachelor in Education (TESL)

Name: Nirukshi Perera

UGS00068643

Rg NO: BED07009

Email : Nirukshiperera1205@gmail.com

0702154541

Tutor: Ms. Vanessa

Learning Centre: IIHS,Welisara,Srilanka

May 2021
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………… 3
2. The significance of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development................... 4
3. How Piaget’s Theory contributes to the learning and teaching process….… 6
4. Problems faced by teachers when applying Piaget’s Theory…..…………... 8
5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………….10
6. References………………………………………………………………….11
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1. Introduction

No two students are alike in a classroom setting. Everyone is unique and we all have different
ways of learning. Because of this, psychologists have studied and come up with learning
theories. Therefore, teachers need to be educated and follow these learning theory guidelines to
understand every student and their different ways of learning. With this type of understanding
teachers will be able to use different techniques in the classrooms for a more effective learning
process.

During the second half of the 20th century, Psychologists – dissatisfied with the behaviorism
learning theory – claimed that prior knowledge and mental processes not only play a bigger role
than stimuli in orienting behavior or response but also intervene between a stimulus and
response. These cognitive psychologists investigated mental structures and processes to explain
learning and change in behavior. The primary emphasis is placed on how knowledge is acquired,
processed, stored, retrieved, and activated by the learner during the different phases of the
learning process. Cognitive psychologists place more emphasis on what learners know and how
they come to acquire it than what they do. For this reason, the cognitive approach focuses on
making knowledge meaningful and helping learners organize and relate new information to prior
knowledge in memory. (Yilmaz, 2011).

The Cognitive learning theories are used to explain how internal and external factors both can
influence an individual’s mental process in learning. It’s about how the human mind works when
people learn. Jean Piaget is credited as an important figure in the field of Cognitive psychology
with his theories of cognitive development. He believed that not only are we able to organize our
observations and experiences, but also able to take in new ideas and enhance our understanding
about something. He further stated that knowledge is something that is constructed by learners
based on their already existing cognitive knowledge.

Therefore, teachers can help by applying cognitive learning theories, giving opportunities to
students to ask questions and think out loud. These learning strategies can help give insight to
students on understanding how their own thought process works, and utilize this knowledge for
better learning opportunities.
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This assignment aims to discuss the significance of the Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
and how it contributes to the teaching and learning process in school. Further, problems faced by
teachers when applying this theory will be discussed along with suggestions to solve these
issues.

2. The significance of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget was originally trained as a biologist, and later developed an interest on how we
human beings come to know – how we adapt to our environment. According to Piaget, the
process of intellectual and cognitive development resembles a biological act, which requires
adaptation to environmental demands (Gillani, 2003). “Behaviour (adaptation to the
environment) is controlled through mental organizations called schemes that the individual uses
to represent the world and designate actions. This adaptation is driven by a biological drive to
obtain balance between schemes and the environment (equilibration).” (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).
At the time his theory was considered controversial as it challenged behaviourist approaches.

A large number of experiments were done by Piaget to explore the way children think.
Sometimes experiments were done on his own three children. “Piaget's principles are based on
the results of 60 years of research with children and adolescents (as opposed to research with rats
or pigeons) that focused on the development of knowledge (as opposed to ranges of test scores).”

(De Lisi, 1979). He believed that humans began to adapt to their physical and social
environments since the beginning of birth. These adaptations are divided into two processes.
“Assimilation is the process of transforming the environment so that it can be placed in
preexisting cognitive structures. Accommodation is the process of changing cognitive structures
in order to accept something from the environment. Both processes are used simultaneously and
alternately throughout life. An example of assimilation would be when an infant uses a sucking
schema that was developed by sucking on a small bottle when attempting to suck on a larger
bottle. An example of accommodation would be when the child needs to modify a sucking
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schema developed by sucking on a pacifier to one that would be successful by sucking on a

bottle.” (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

Piaget had identified that cognitive development occurs in four progressive stages. Each stage is
closely linked to a child’s age. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage which begins at birth and
lasts till around 2 years. “This stage marks a transitional stage for a person from a biological to a
psychological being. In the first few weeks of life the baby’s behaviour consists simply of reflex
responses, such as sucking, stepping and grasping. Later the reflex disappears and the baby
chooses what and when to grasp.” (Ruhee, n.d.). “In the preoperational stage (ages 2-6), the child
begins to create relationships between his or her experiences and mental actions. The world is
represented through the use of basic, generalized symbols and language. In concrete operations
(ages 6-10), cognitive processes are used to manipulate symbols and language that directly relate
to concrete objects. Within these operations, the person organizes information for problem-
solving tasks in the immediate present. During the formal operations stage (ages 10-14), the child
can delve into abstract thinking. Mental operations involve a number of variables including
scientific reasoning and introspection.” (Bruner, 1960).

“Out of the spectrum of cognitive theories, the individual cognitive trend deriving from Piaget’s
studies and the sociocultural trend based on Vygotsky’s works constitute the backbone of
cognitivism.” (Yilmaz, 2011). Piaget’s research methods were mainly based on descriptive case
studies. “Piaget's developmental theory would ultimately become distinct from cognitive
psychology. Still, his thoughts contributed to cognitive mental models which are based on the
concept that the mind constructs models for use in problem-solving, in complex thought, and in
the anticipation of situations. Many cognitive theorists would continually build upon Piaget's
ideas in their studies.” (Grider, 1993). “Many preschool and primary programs are modeled on
Piaget’s theory, which, …, provides part of the foundation for constructivist learning.” (Huitt &
Hummel, 2003).
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3. How Piaget’s Theory contributes to the learning and teaching

process

“Cognitive psychologists place more emphasis on what learners know and how they come to
acquire it than what they do. For this reason, the cognitive approach focuses on making
knowledge meaningful and helping learners organize and relate new information to prior
knowledge in memory.” (Yilmaz, 2011). Piaget has been extremely influential in developing
teaching and learning practice. The idea that children learn best through exploring was a
difference made on the primary school curriculums.

Although Piaget’s theory wasn’t made initially to apply to education, through later research done
by researches it was made applicable to teaching and learning practices. According to Jean
Piaget, children should be taught the appropriate concepts according to the timeline of their
development stage. Classroom learning should be student centered. The most important function
of the teacher and the school should be to facilitate learning by providing a good stimulating
learning environment within the school. Learning from listening to peers also provides benefits –
specifically for children between 2 to 7 years of age (preoperational stage). Piaget also believed
that children develop their knowledge through mistakes and learning from them. Students should
be given the opportunity to develop their mental abilities as well as creative abilities. Planning a
variety of classroom activities for different learning styles should develop each child
individually. At the end of the day teachers should take their students seriously and respect each
and everyone’s ideas and opinions.

The concept called schema has a special place in Piaget’s theory. “Schema refers to a
hypothetical mental structure for organizing and representing generic events and abstract
concepts stored in the mind in terms of their common patterns.” (Yilmaz, 2011). According to
Yilmaz (2011), implications of schema theory for instruction can be summarized as follows:

• Provide unifying themes for content, because information that lacks a theme can be difficult to
comprehend, or, worse, the learner may “accrete” the information to the wrong schema.
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• Provide a relevant context for learning in order to activate an existing schema.

• Develop and apply techniques for students to use to impose structure on what they learn and
thus make it more memorable, such as the use of information mapping or advance organizer.

• Represent what the experts know in order to facilitate the learning process and use case-based
reasoning for knowledge representation.

• Make instructional material meaningful by identifying the learner’s mental model and
providing conceptual models invented by teachers, designers, scientists, or engineers to help
make some target system understandable.

• Choose texts with “standard” arrangement so that they conform to student expectations.

• Encourage students to read titles and headings.

• Point out the structure of particular kinds of texts; for example, what are the common features
of published research articles?

• Ask questions to determine what students’ current schemata might be.

• Pay attention to student answers and remarks that may give clues about how they are
organizing information; that is, what schemata are they using?

From the above implications it can be seen that the teachers role involve providing the needed
learning materials and experiences in a classroom to enhance their thinking. Particularly,
assessment methods can help in finding students prior experiences and understanding, and
important in knowing each students current capacity. This way teachers develop a better
understanding of their students thinking. However, although in his theories Piaget requires
students to discover some things on their own, the development depends on the connections they
make as they continue learning new knowledge. “Active engagement and exploration-inheritance
and maturation as well as experience alone cannot explain the cognitive development. Cognitive
development is based on learner’s active engagement with exploration of their physical and
social world. Teaching and learning need to be active, exploratory processes if the teacher
optimizes things out, to experiment and discover things, to question, discuss and to reflect and
solve problems themselves.” (Lefa, 2014). “Thus, we return to the fact that Piaget's
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recommendations for educational practice center on teacher training to produce researchers who
understand not only their subject matter but also their-pupils.” (De Lisi, 1979).

4. Problems faced by teachers when applying Piaget’s Theory

A few of the issues raised regarding Piaget’s theory of cognitive development with respect to
classroom practices is a matter for discussion. The highlighted areas of criticism falls against his
research methods. “First is his approach to methodology. He rarely reported anything about how
he selected his participants, how many children he examined to arrive at his conclusions, or
anything even remotely statistical beyond the age (in years and months) of individual children
who gave answers to his queries. One of his most influential books, The Origins of Intelligence
in Children (Piaget, 1952), had only three participants; his own three children.” (Hopkins, 2011).
“The stage approach is viewed as problematic as well. Stage theories have fallen out of
popularity in modern-day psychology for a number of reasons. One of these is that they often fail
to accurately capture the many individual variations that exist in development.” (Cherry, 2019).
“Furthermore, studies have found that children may be able to learn concepts and capability of
complex reasoning that supposedly represented in more advanced stages with relative ease.”
(Lourenço & Machado, 1996).

Moreover, the theory underestimated the ability of children. “For example, children of this age
have some ability to take the perspective of another person, meaning they are far less egocentric
than Piaget believed. Some research has shown that even children as young as age 3 have some
ability to understand that other people will have different views of the same scene.” (Cherry,
2019). Another criticism, when applying with teaching and learning practice at schools, has got
theorists arguing. They have observed that children born with physical disabilities are still
capable or normal cognitive development. Also Piaget’s theory fails to explain how children
come to understand abstract words that doesn’t relate to a physical object. With such
shortcomings in Piaget’s theory it might be difficult to accurately apply these into classroom
learning practices without surrounding doubt about the initial researches done.
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Another weak point in Piaget’s theory – “Piaget has recognized that there are other areas that
have been developed by adults that are not spontaneously constructed by children. Psychologists
still do not know the mechanisms that give rise to understanding in these areas (such as foreign
language, spelling, and historical facts). Hence, for the present, these areas may still need to be
transmitted from teacher to child (with better or worse information techniques) since they are not
universal constructions to settle the matter of teaching methods for the latter subject matters,
Piaget has again called for more research. It is still an open question as to whether solutions for
teaching methods in these areas will resemble solutions in other areas.” (De Lisi, 1979).
“Piaget’s theory is “domain general,” predicting that cognitive maturation occurs concurrently
across different domains of knowledge (such as mathematics, logic, and understanding
of physics or language). Piaget did not take into account variability in a child’s performance
notably how a child can differ in sophistication across several domains.” (Lautrey & Grigorenko,
2002). Therefore teachers might not be able to apply Piaget’s theories to subjects other than
science and mathematics in the school as Piaget’s statements are meant for these areas.

According to Callaghan (2004), Piaget’s theory has been said to undervalue the influence that
culture has on cognitive development. Piaget demonstrates that a child goes through several
stages of cognitive development and come to conclusions on their own but in reality, a child’s
sociocultural environment plays an important part in their cognitive development. Social
interaction teaches the child about the world and helps them develop through the cognitive
stages, which Piaget neglected to consider. Also, psychologists like Lev Vygotsky and Jerome
Bruner, had different ideas from Piaget’s, stating that language was more important for cognition
development than Piaget had suggested in his work. These can be seen as a problem in schools if
teachers focus only on developing the cognitive aspects of a child according to Piaget’s theories
and ignore the development of the sociocultural environment around a child. This lack of social
interactions within children might cause future consequences when children reach adolescence.
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5. Conclusion

In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development he supports the idea that students need a curriculum
with learning concepts that contribute to their cognitive development. He further emphasizes that
teachers should play the role to make sure that students have active engagement in learning
whatever cognitive developing work is being taught. As children are developing they pass
through so many stages of understanding the world. The teaching methods teachers use should
be done according to these different stages of a child’s intellect as stated by Piaget. Although
there are quite a few limitations of Piaget’s studies, teachers can incorporate additional theories
to focus on what is lacking. In conclusion, it is quite possible to use Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development in the classroom.
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6. References

Yilmaz, K. (2011). The Cognitive Perspective on Learning: Its Theoretical Underpinnings and
Implications for Classroom Practices.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241741103_The_Cognitive_Perspective_on_Learning_
Its_Theoretical_Underpinnings_and_Implications_for_Classroom_Practices

Gillani, B. B. 2003. Learning theories and the design of e-learning environments. Lanham, MD:
University Press of America.

Huitt, W & Hummel, J. (2003). Piagets theory of cognitive development.

https://intranet.newriver.edu/images/stories/library/stennett_psychology_articles/Piagets
%20Theory%20of%20Cognitive%20Development.pdf

Ruhee, N. (n.d.). COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY (Jean Piaget).

http://ddeku.edu.in/Files/2cfa4584-5afe-43ce-aa4b-ad936cc9d3be/Custom/Major%20Aspects
%20of%20CD.pdf

Bruner, J. S. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard.

Grider, C. (1993). Foundations of Cognitive Theory: A Concise Review.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED372324.pdf

Lefa, B. (2014). THE PIAGET THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: AN

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265916960_THE_PIAGET_THEORY_OF_COGNITI
VE_DEVELOPMENT_AN_EDUCATIONAL_IMPLICATIONS

De Lisi, R. (1979). The Educational Implications of Piaget's Theory and Assessment Techniques.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED182349.pdf

Hopkins, J. R. (2011). The Enduring Influence of Jean Piaget.

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/jean-piaget

Cherry, K. (2019). Support and Criticism of Piaget's Stage Theory.

https://www.verywellmind.com/support-and-criticism-of-piagets-stage-theory-2795460

Lautrey, J. (2002). Is there a general factor of cognitive development? & Grigorenko, E.L.
(Eds.), The general factor of intelligence: How general is it?

Lourenço, O. & Machado, A. (1996). "In defense of Piaget's theory: A reply to 10 common
criticisms"

Callaghan, Tara C. (2004). "Cognitive Development Beyond Infancy"