Educational Implications & Critical Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

(Summarized by Dr. Charu Sharma)

References:
Crain, William. (2010), Theories of Development. New York: Psychology Press.
Berk, Laura E. (2013). Child Development. New Delhi: Pearson HI.
Santock, John W. (2013, 2010). Child Development & A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New Delhi Tata McGraw Hills.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS & CRITICAL EVALUATION

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Cognition refers to the inner processes and products of mind that lead to “knowing”. It includes
all mental activity- remembering, symbolizing, categorizing, problem solving, creating,
fantasizing and so on. Piaget’s theory is the most widely known theory of cognitive
development. Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) was a Swiss psychologist who believes that children Are
born with the potential to develop intellectually. He believed that child’s interaction with the
environment leads to the development of cognitive structures and abilities. Increasing complexity
of children’s thinking is due in part to the unfolding of internal structures, as a child interacts
with the physical world and engages in social experiences. Moreover, Piaget was Genetic
Epistemologist (i.e. the one who deals with the developmental changes in the process of
knowing and knowledge). His theory is of Ontogenetic development and logical constructivism.
He viewed child as organismic and active.

Thus, according to Piaget children actively build psychological structures or schemes (schemes
are building blocks of knowledge or thinking. The action or an event is mentally represented is
schemes). Two processes, adaptation (which combines assimilation and accommodation) and
organization, account for changes in schemes. Through equilibration, schemes develop a more
effective match with external reality.

Piaget divided his theory in four stages of cognitive development. According to him, children
develop through a series of four invariant, universal cognitive stages. Piaget’s theory has a major
impact on education, especially at the preschool and early elementary school levels. We, as
teachers, can relate Piaget’s concept in our teaching strategies to make it more effective.

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development describes cognitive development of children and adolescents.
Cognition refers to inner process of the mind that leads to "knowing". It includes all mental abilities like
remembering, symbolizing and so on.
Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980), was a Swiss psychologist who believed that children were born with the
potential to develop intellectually. His systematic observations of children (including his own 3 children)
from birth to adolescence suggested that increasing complexity of children's thinking is due to the
unfolding of internal structures, as the child interacts with the physical world and engages in social
experiences.

Key Piagetian Ideas and Assumptions

1. Genetic Epistemology
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the study of knowledge, and genetic (or
genesis) refers to development. Piaget studied the developmental changes in the process of knowledge
construction by children.

2. Organismic and Active Child

A person constructs knowledge. He has an active part in the process of knowing and even contributes to
the form that knowledge takes. He selects and interprets information in the environment. There is always
an interaction between an individual and external world.

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Educational Implications & Critical Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(Summarized by Dr. Charu Sharma)
References:
Crain, William. (2010), Theories of Development. New York: Psychology Press.
Berk, Laura E. (2013). Child Development. New Delhi: Pearson HI.
Santock, John W. (2013, 2010). Child Development & A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New Delhi Tata McGraw Hills.

3. Discontinuous Development
According to Piaget, development takes place through a series of stages. New and different ways of
interpreting and responding to the environment emerge at different time periods in the form of stages.

4. Ontogenetic Development
Onto means single and genetic means development. Piaget's theory co-traces the development of an
individual and not of a whole group of society.

5. Structuralism
Structuralists look at the organizational properties of whatever they are studying and how parts are
organised into a whole. According to Piaget, the nature of mental structures change as they develop.
Schemes are the cognitive structures and an organized pattern of behaviours.

6. Interactionism
Piaget's approach looks at how the child's interaction with the environment leads to the development of
cognitive abilities. Also, interaction is bidirectional or dialectial.

7. Developmental Processes
Piaget identified two important intellectual functions – Adaptation and Organization.
Adaptation involves building schemes through direct interaction with the environment. It has two further
sub-processes.
a). Assimilation - external world is interpreted in terms of current schemes.
b). Accommodation - old schemes are adjusted and new are created to produce a better fit.
Equilibration - Back and forth movement between equilibrium and disequilibrium which leads to more
effective schemes.
Organization - the internal rearrangements and linking together of schemes so that they form a strongly
inter connected cognitive system.

Piagetian Notion of Stages

Piaget divided his theory into 4 stages of Cognitive Development – sensori-motor, pre- operational,
concrete operational and formal operational. The stage sequence has 3 major characteristics.
1). Stages are Universal
They describe the cognitive development of children everywhere.
2) Stages follow an Invariant Sequence
Stages always emerge in fixed order and no stage can be skipped.
3) Stages provide General theory of development of children at different age-groups

Educational Principles that emerged from Piaget’s theory:

1) Constructivism/ Constructivist Approach to Learning
2) Emphasis on Discovery Learning
3) Acceptance of Individual Differences
4) Sensitivity to Children’s Readiness to Learn

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Educational Implications & Critical Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(Summarized by Dr. Charu Sharma)
References:
Crain, William. (2010), Theories of Development. New York: Psychology Press.
Berk, Laura E. (2013). Child Development. New Delhi: Pearson HI.
Santock, John W. (2013, 2010). Child Development & A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New Delhi Tata McGraw Hills.

Age-groups Stages Main Characteristics/ Traits

Birth – 2 Years Sensori-motor Stage - Moves from Reflex Actions to Intentional Goal-directed
6 Sub-stages: activity
(i) Reflexive Schemes - Object Permanence
(ii) Primary Circular Reactions - Imitation: Deferred and Inferred Imitation
(iii) Secondary Circular - Anticipation of Events
Reactions - A-not B Search Error
(iv) Coordination of Secondary - Accurate A-B search
Circular Reactions - Beginnings of Mental Representations
(v) Tertiary Circular Reactions
(vi) Mental Representations
2 – 7 years Pre-Operational Stage - Advances in Mental Representations
2 sub-stages - Make-believe Play
- Symbol Real World Relations
- Language and Symbolic thought
- Stages of Drawings
- Ego-centricism
- Animistic Thinking
- Inability to do Conservation
- Irreversibility, Centration, Focus on Perceptual
Appearance
- Lack of Hierarchical Classification

7 -– 11 years Concrete Operational Stage - Able to solve Concrete problems in logical manner
- Conservation Abilities
- Development of Reversibility, Decentration, moving
beyond Perceptual Appearances
- Hierarchical Classification (logic of classes and
relations)
- Seriation & Transitive Inference
- Spatial Reasoning
11 years & Formal Operational Stage - Abstract and Scientific Thinking
onwards - Hypothetico- Deductive Reasoning
- Propositional Thought
- Adolescent Egocentricism, Personal Fable, Imaginary
Audience, Self-consciousness
- Critical and Idealistic Thinking

Educational Implications of Piaget’s Theory for Schools and Teachers:

1. Emphasis on Discovery Learning: Children should be encouraged to discover for themselves
through spontaneous interaction with the environment. Instead of presenting ready-made
knowledge verbally, teachers should provide a rich variety of activities, like providing
opportunities for children to manipulate things and symbols, to promote exploration.

2. Sensitivity to Children’s Readiness to Learn: A teacher should not try to speed up

development. Appropriate learning experiences build on children’s current level of thinking.
Teachers should introduce experiences that permit children to practice new schemes and that are
likely to challenge incorrect way of viewing the world.

3
Educational Implications & Critical Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(Summarized by Dr. Charu Sharma)
References:
Crain, William. (2010), Theories of Development. New York: Psychology Press.
Berk, Laura E. (2013). Child Development. New Delhi: Pearson HI.
Santock, John W. (2013, 2010). Child Development & A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New Delhi Tata McGraw Hills.
3. Acceptance of Individual Differences: Piaget’s theory assumes that all children go through
the same sequence of development but they do so at different rates. Therefore, teachers must
make a special effort to arrange activities for individuals and small groups rather than for total
class.

4. Instructional Theory: Case in 1975 combined Gagne’s learning model (learning involves
hierarchal processes) with Piagetian theory. Case argues that careful task analysis can reveal why
certain tasks are too difficult. For example- conservation task for preoperational children. That
task can be structured to be more compatible with student’s developmental level.

5. Can Development be Accelerated?

According to Piagetian psychologists’ cognitive development should not be forcefully
accelerated. The function of teacher is not to speed up the rate of movement from stage to stage,
the function of teacher is to ensure that development with each stage is thoroughly integrated
and complete.
According to Piaget, cognitive development is based on the self-selected actions and thoughts
of the student, not on teacher’s action. If we would try to teach them something, they are not
ready to learn, he or she may give “correct” answer, but this will not affect the way the student
think of that problem.

But we should always give them opportunities to think and explore the environment by taking
the environment a step further.

6. Instructional Principles:
Beard (1969) derives 4 main areas of educational implications from Piaget’s work.
(i) The functions of language- children should be given opportunities to interact verbally not
only with teachers but also with one another.
(ii) The formation of concepts – children should be involved in numerous real and relevant
activities.
(iii) The translation of concrete experiences into symbolic forms.
(iv) Development of logical thinking – for the progression of logical thought provide activities
that are appropriate to the child’s developmental level, but occasionally challenging enough that
child make some accommodations.

7. Matching Teaching-Learning Strategies to Abilities:

Students must neither be bored by work that is too simple nor be left behind by teaching they
cannot understand. This is called the ‘problem of match’. Tasks must be mildly challenging so
that the dual processes of assimilation and accommodation occur. Disequilibrium must be kept
“just right” to encourage growth. When students experience some conflict between what they
think should happen and what actually happens, they may rethink and new knowledge may
develop. Moreover, to create that kind of experience, the teacher must understand children’s
thinking & their level of cognitive structures.

4
Educational Implications & Critical Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(Summarized by Dr. Charu Sharma)
References:
Crain, William. (2010), Theories of Development. New York: Psychology Press.
Berk, Laura E. (2013). Child Development. New Delhi: Pearson HI.
Santock, John W. (2013, 2010). Child Development & A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New Delhi Tata McGraw Hills.

The Active Classroom is one in which there is a great deal of operative, connotative as well as –
figurative learning takes place. These modes of learning can be facilitative through:

1) Provisioning: It deals with arranging and outfitting a classroom. Child- sized tables and chairs
are preferred to rows of desks. These provide facilitation of small group interaction. They also
facilitate teachers mobility and flexible grouping. The material used in learning should be
selected to encourage these three models of learning. Moreover, a quiet corner can be provided
which allows children to be alone when they need to be or simply to take a break from an
ongoing activity, as children are like adult in their nodes of functioning. They also get tired or
bored. Moreover, children’s own work should be displayed. This helps in fostering children’s
aesthetic sense. Also, classroom should be a continuation to the natural environment and of the
home environment.

2) Flexible Grouping
Grouping can be done in two ways – vertical declage (children having qualitative difference in
mental ability) and horizontal declage (different levels of cognitive attainments). According to
Piaget vertical declage is more crucial. In vertical declage recombine the children of different
age group in one class. This facilitate the attachment of children with the teacher and they
consider classroom as ‘their room. Also, the young children can model the behavior of older
children. The older children in turn can take pride in their accomplishments. It also helps in
continuity within the group. Children remain familiar with the classroom and classmates every
year. Also, the group should be small so that graduation becomes less distinct. The group
composition should change in response to individual patterns of growth and learning.

3) The Teacher’s Role: Flexibility and Mobility

Flexibility is important because the proportions of teachers directions should change according to
the task children are involved in mobility is important because to observe children and to be
available for assistant, the must be moving among them and not sitting at the head of room. The
teacher should move to the children rather than children moving to the teacher. The teacher
should know to direct the child and when to allow him / her to construct & experiment with the
environment. Also, the readiness to shifts curriculum priorities as situation demands is important.

4) Rhythms of the Day

Teacher should also take account of biological rhythms such as hunger and thirst. Some sort of
schedule is important because it correspond to rhythmicity which is part of our organisms nature.
Most children are brightest in morning so, we can use those hours for productive work. Also,
routines and schedules should be flexible to bend for special events.
Thus, we have come across some of the educational implications of Piaget’s theory. Now, we
shall see how to implement them in our classroom teaching of different cognitive stages:

5) Discipline

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Educational Implications & Critical Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(Summarized by Dr. Charu Sharma)
References:
Crain, William. (2010), Theories of Development. New York: Psychology Press.
Berk, Laura E. (2013). Child Development. New Delhi: Pearson HI.
Santock, John W. (2013, 2010). Child Development & A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New Delhi Tata McGraw Hills.

CRITICAL EVALUATION
Critique of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Overall Support
 Piaget has made the first attempt to integrate varied aspects of development in children
 His contributions to the field of child development are gigantic- greater than those of any other
theorist in this field.
 He awakened psychologists and educators to view children as curious learners, who contribute
actively to their own development.
 His pioneering efforts inspired the contemporary focus on mechanisms of cognitive change-
biological, psychological and environmental factors lead to changes in children’s thinking.
 He was a great inspiration to subsequent researches, including Neo-Piagetians constantly updated
his theory.
 His theory is the monument of cognitive theory and has a profound impact on educational
practices.

Overall Criticism
Piaget's influence on developmental psychology and education has been enormous, even though
recent research has not supported all his ideas. Some of the major criticisms of Piaget's theory
are as follows:

1. Methodological and Reporting Inadequacies

The most common criticisms of Piaget is in the way he conducted his research and how he
reported it. In his infancy research, Piaget observed his own three children at the beginning
followed by few more infants. The small number of subjects, possible biases in interpreting the
behaviour of his own children and lack of control over children's immediate environment were
some of the shortcomings. With older children, Piaget used clinical method. In this method, the
researcher may be too leading or less leading in his questions and that different children may be
asked slightly different questions.

Also, it is possible that children may have not understood the instructions or may not be able to
express in words their ideas like about quantity. Also, Piaget's methods may be too complex and
thus underestimated the child's knowledge. His reports do not allow the reader to evaluate the
research. He does not report the number of subjects, exact ages and their socio-economic levels
and other details of testing procedures.

2. Discontinuity (Stage-wise) Assumption in the theory (Does cognitive development takes

place in stages?)
Today many experts agree that children's cognition is not as broadly stage-like, as Piaget
believed. They reject the existence of stages and believed that thought processes are alike at all
stages and uneven performance is due to variations in children's knowledge.

6
Educational Implications & Critical Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(Summarized by Dr. Charu Sharma)
References:
Crain, William. (2010), Theories of Development. New York: Psychology Press.
Berk, Laura E. (2013). Child Development. New Delhi: Pearson HI.
Santock, John W. (2013, 2010). Child Development & A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New Delhi Tata McGraw Hills.

3. Inaccurate Estimations – Underestimating and Overestimating Children's Abilities

The problems that Piaget gave to children may have been too difficult or too easy and the
directions too confusing. For example- pre school children know much more about the concept
of number than Piaget thought. Also, his theory does not explain how even young children can
perform at an advanced level in areas where they have highly developed knowledge. Like a 9
year old chess player may think more abstractly about chess moves than a 20 yrs old.

4. Challenging the Individualistic Learning by Children (Do children learn on their own?)
Piaget's belief that infants and young children must act on the environment to revise their
thinking is too narrow a notion of how learning takes place. Cognitive Development is not
always self generating. Left to their own devices, children may not notice all aspects of a
situation that are needed for an improved understanding of the environment.

5. Lack of Consistency in Children's Thinking

A child may demonstrate one level of thinking in one situation and another level in thinking in
another. Pupils may also experience a lag between stage of development in one area and another,
particularly when not receiving stimulation in a particular area of study. For example- once you
can conserve, you ought to know conservation of number and conservation of weight at the same
time. But it does not happen this way in all children.

6. Challenging the Accuracy and Clarity of Piaget’s Theory (Is Piaget's account of cognitive
changes clear and accurate?)
Piaget's theory lack formal completeness. He did not give us the final and tightly knit theory.
Crucial terms such as assimilation, accommodation, equilibration strike us as vague and
imprecise. Piaget is not very explicit about how the achievements at each stage are bound
together by a single form of thought.

7. Questioning the Universality Assumption in his Theory (Are developmental stages

universal?)
Piaget's theory does not account for the effects of individual differences such as gender,
personality, intelligence or culture on cognitive processes. There is evidence that formal
operations is attained by few adolescents, college students, or adults. How quickly children move
through the different stages also varies by culture, depending on environmental conditions.

8. Slight Attention to Social and Emotional development

Piaget gave less emphasis to social and emotional development. He claimed that development of
cognitive structures can be seen in realm of social as well as physical objects, he dd not work out

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Educational Implications & Critical Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(Summarized by Dr. Charu Sharma)
References:
Crain, William. (2010), Theories of Development. New York: Psychology Press.
Berk, Laura E. (2013). Child Development. New Delhi: Pearson HI.
Santock, John W. (2013, 2010). Child Development & A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New Delhi Tata McGraw Hills.
implications of the theory for social and emotional development. His biological interests led him
towards cognition.