DOES JEAN PIAGETS THEORY CAN BE APPLIED IN MALAYSIA?

As stated before, Jean Piagets theory touched about cognitive development of human starting baby phase up till adolescent. Therefore, we as the future teacher, we must equip ourselves with the good moral behaviour because we will be pupils role model. Hence, with the help of this theory, we will be able to identify pupils development based on the stages which had been divided according to their age and other factors as well. The teacher-student relationship is one of the most important factors in teaching, as it directly related to order in classroom, one of the most common areas in education for both beginning and experienced teachers (Veenman, 1984) Compared to other philosophers theories, we think that Piagets theories are the most applicable theory that should be used in Malaysia school education system. According to Piagets theory, children learn through stages and this is similar to our education system which separates students into different level according to their age group. Children who are 4 years of age in one class, 5 years of age in the other class, etc. Preschool children are in their preoperational stage (between two to seven years old) and they tend to be egocentric. Childrens mental operations at this age are not fully developed, they need to gain their knowledge through their own personal experiences, playing is important in this stage. Preoperational stage is the second stage in Piagets cognitive development theory. Children at this stage learn to use and represent objects by images, words and by drawing. The child is still not able to perform operations at this level, but the child can do it mentally rather than physically. In our education system, children aged 4-6 years of age are in preschool level. Children at this age are taught through pictures to recognise words (using flash cards), singing songs (childrens rhymes), colouring or simple art projects such as origami. There are two stages formed from Piagets preoperational thought The Symbolic Function and The Intuitive Thought sub-stage. Children aged 2-4 years old cannot manipulate and transform information in a logical way, but they can think in symbols and images. They are able to formulate the designs or shapes of the objects that are not present. Their mental abilities are in language and pretend play.

Our school curriculum programme is similar to Piagets symbolic function substage. In preschool, we use Circle Time to carry out storytelling or group activities such as drama and singing. Through this symbolic play in drama, children learn to cooperate, listen to instruction and respect peers. It is important to have symbolic play in the early childhood curriculum programme. With the implemented of the new Standard Curriculum for Primary School, pupils will be able to learn in fun and exciting ways.