Term Papers on Piaget’s Theory Of Cognitive Development

Term Paper Title	Piaget’s Theory Of Cognitive Development
# of Words	2377
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	9.51

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

            During the past half-century, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget devised a model

describing how humans go about making sense of their world by gathering and

organizing information (Piaget, 1954, 1963, 1970a, b). Piaget’s

ideas provided an explanation of the development of

thinking from infancy to adulthood.

According to Piaget (1954), certain ways of thinking that are quite simple

for an adult are not so simple for a child. Sometimes all you need to do to teach

a new concept is to give a student a few basic facts as background. At other

times, however, all the background facts in the world are useless. The student

simply is not ready to learn the concept. With some students, you can discuss

the general causes of civil wars and then ask why they think the American Civil

War broke out in 1861. But suppose the students respond with “When is 1861?”

Obviously their concepts of time are different from your own. They may think,

for example, that they will some day catch up to a sibling in age, or they may

confuse the past and the future.

Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget hypothesized for children as

they grow. Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development are called sensorimotor,

pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Piaget believed

that all people pass through the same four stages in exactly the same

order. These stages are generally associated with specific ages, When you see ages linked to stages,  these are only general guidelines, not labels for all children of a certain age. Piaget was interested

in the kinds of thinking abilities people are able to use, not in labeling.

Often, people can use one level of thinking to solve one kind of problem

and a different level to solve another. Piaget noted that individuals may go

through long periods of transition between stages and that a person may show

characteristics of one stage in one situation but characteristics of a higher or

lower stage in other situations. Therefore, knowing a student’s age is never a

guarantee that you know how the child will think (Ginsburg & Opper, 1988).

Infancy: The Sensorimotor Stage.

             The earliest period is called the sensorimotor

stage, because the child’s thinking involves seeing, hearing, moving,

touching, tasting, and so on. During this period, the infant develops object permanence,

the understanding that objects in the environment exist whether the

baby perceives them or not. As most parents discover, before infants develop

object permanence, it is relatively easy to take something away from them. The

trick is to distract them and remove the object while they are not looking;

“out of sight, out of mind.” The older infant who searches for the ball that has

rolled out of sight is indicating an understanding that the objects still exist even

though they can’t be seen. A second major accomplishment in the sensorimotor period is the beginning

of logical, goal-directed actions. Think of the familiar container toy for

babies. It is usually plastic, has a lid, and contains several colorful items that

can be dumped out and replaced. A 6-month-old baby is likely to become frustrated

trying to get to the toys inside. An older child who has mastered the basics

of the sensorimotor stage will probably be able to deal with the toy better .

Through trial and error the child will slowly build a “container

toy” scheme: (1) get the lid off; (2) turn the container upside down;

(3) shake if the items jam; (4) watch the items fall.(Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood & Adolescence. Gale Research, 1998.)

The Preoperational Stage.

            By the end of the sensorimotor stage, the child can use many action

schemes. As long as these schemes remain tied to physical actions, however,

they are of no use in rec...

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