Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Dr. Munawar Hussain
INTRODUCTION
Jean Piaget’s (1896-1980)was one of the 20th century most influential
researcher in the area of development psychology.
He was originally trained in the area of biology and philosophy. He
considered himself a “Genetic Epistemologist”.
Piaget wanted to know how children learned through their development in
the study of knowledge.
Piaget theory is based on the idea that the developing child build cognitive
structure.
He believed that the child cognitive structure increased with the
development.
Piaget theory of infant development were based as his observation of his
own three children.
He administered Binet’s IQ test in paris and observed that children’s
answer were qualitatively different.
Activity No. 1
What is the Binet’s Scale.
What is formula to measure the IQ level.
Binets iq scale
IQ Range (deviation IQ) IQ Classification
145-160 Very Gifted or Highly advanced
130-144 Gifted or very advanced
120-129 Superior
110-119 High Average
90-109 Average
80-89 Low average
70-79 Borderline impaired or delayed
55-69 Mildly Impaired or Delayed
40-54 Moderately Impaired or Delayed
Binets IQ formula
Mental Age in a numerical scale unit derived by dividing an individual's results in
an intelligence test by the average score for other people of the same age.
MA= Individual Result in IQ test/Average score x Age
Example: A 4-year-old child who scored 150 on an IQ test would have a mental
age of 6 (the age-appropriate average score is 100; therefore, MA = (150/100) ×
4 = 6).
The IQ score was calculated by dividing the test taker's mental age by their
chronological age, then multiplying this number by 100. For example, a child
with a mental age of 12 and a chronological age of 10 would have an IQ of 120:
(12÷10) x 100 = 120
IQ= Mental Age/Chronological age x 100
What Is Cognition
The term cognition is derived from the Latin word “cognoscere”
which means “to know” or “to recognize” or “to conceptualized”.
Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring
knowledge and understanding through thought, experience
and the sense.
What is Cognitive Development
Cognitive development is the rise of the ability to think and
understand.
The acquisition of the ability to think, reason and problem
solved.
It is the process by which people thinking changes across the
life span.
Piaget studied cognitive development by observing children in
particular, to examine how their thought processes changed
with age.
It is the growing apprehension and adaptation to the physical
and social environment.
How cognitive development occurs
Cognitive development is gradually and orderly changes by
which mental process becomes more complex and
sophisticated.
The essential development of cognition is the establishment
of the new “Schemas”.
Assimilation and accommodation of both the process of the
ways of the cognitive development.
The equilibration is the symbol of a new stage of the cognitive
development.
Activity No. 2
Schema
Assimilation
Accommodation
Equilibration
Key Concepts
Schema: Schema is an internal representation of the world. It
helps an individual understand the world they inhabit. They are
cognitive structures that represents a certain aspects of a
world and can be seen as categories which have certain pre-
conceived ideas in them.
For example: A child may have a schema about a type of
animal, such as a dog. If the child's sole experience has been
with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small,
furry, and have four legs.
Assimilation
Itis using an existing schemas to deal with a new object
situation. Here the learner fits the new ideas into what he
already knows.
In assimilation the schema is not changed it is only modified
For example: two year old child see a man who is bald on top
of his head and has long frizzy hair on the sides. To his fathers
horror, the toddler shouts “clown clown”
Accommodation
This happen when the existing Schema (Knowledge) does not work
and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation. in
Accommodation, the schema is altered; a new schema may be
developed.
Example: in the “Clown” incident, the boy’s father explained to
his son that the man was not a clown and even though his hair
was like a clown’s he was not wearing a funny costume and
was not doing silly things to make people laugh.
with the new knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of
“Clown” and make this idea fit better to a standard concept of “Clown”
Equilibration
Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at
a steady rate but rather in leaps and bounds. Equilibration
occurs when a child’s schemas can deal with most new
information through assimilation. As a child progress through
the stages of cognitive development. It is important to maintain
a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation)
and change behavior to account for new knowledge
(accommodation). Equilibration helps explain how children are
able to move from one stage of thought to the next.
Activity no. 3
1. Sensorimotor Stage
2. Pre-operational Stage
3. Concrete operational Stage
4. Formal operational Stage
Four stages of development
1. Sensorimotor Stage (0 to 02 Years)
2. Pre-operational Stage (02-07 Years)
3. Concreate operational Stage (07 to 12 Years)
4. Formal operational Stage ( 12 Years and above)
Sensorimotor stage (0-2 Years)
Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating
sensory experience (seeing, hearing) with motor actions
(reading, touching)
Develop object stability (Memory) realize that objects exist
even if they are out of sight.
Infants progress from reflexive, instinctual actions at birth to
the beginning of problem solving (intellectual) and symbolic
abilities (Language) towards the end of this stage.
Pre-operational stage (2 to 7 years)
Thisstage begins when the child starts to use symbols and
language. This is a period of development language and
concepts. The child is capable of more complex mental
representations. (i.e. words and images). He is still unable to
use “operations” i.e. logical mental rules such as rules of
arithmetic. This stage is further divided into 2 sub-stages.
Key features of this stage ( 2 to 4 yrs)
Egocentrism
Animism
Concentration
Pre-conceptual stage (2 to 4 and 4 to 7 Years)
Increase use of verbal representation but speech is egocentric.
The child uses symbols to stand for action; a toy doll stands for
a real baby or the child role plays mummy or daddy.
Intuitive stage ( 4 to 7 Years): speech becomes more social,
less egocentric. Here the child base their knowledge on what
they feel or sense to be true. Yet they cannot explain the
underlying principle behind what they feel or sense.
Concrete operational stage ( 7 to 12 Yrs)
The Concrete operational stage is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Important
processes during this stage are:-
1. Seriation: Sort the object by size, shapes, color etc.
2. Transitivity: The ability to recognize the logical relationship in a social order.
3. Classification: The ability to group object together on the basis of common features. Animal,
Woods, cloths.
4. Decentering: The ability to take multiple aspects of a situation into account.
5. Reversibility: The child understand that number or object can be changed. Then returned to their
original shape.
6. Conservation: Understanding the quantity, length or number of items.
7. Elimination of egocentrism: the ability to view things from another's perspective the child
performing operations. Combining, separating, multiplying, repeating and dividing etc.
Formal operational stages (12 & above)
The thoughts becomes increasingly flexible and abstract. i.e. can carry
out systematically experiments.
The ability systematically solve a problem in a logic and methodological
way.
Understands that nothing is absolute; every thing is relative.
Develop skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning as well as
inductive reasoning and systematic planning etc.
Understanding that the rules of any game or social system developed by
a man by mutual agreement and hence could be changed or modified.
The child way of thinking is at its most advanced although the
knowledge, it has to work with, will change.
Educational implication
Emphasis on discovery approach in learning
Curriculum should provide specific educational experience
based on children development level.
Arrange classroom activities. So that they assist and
encourage self learning.
Instruction should be geared to the level of the child.
Simple to complex and project method of teaching.
Co-curricular activities have been arranged as per learner
level.
Major goals of education to provide critical and creative
thinking.
Contribution to education
This theory helps parents, educators and investigators.
He made as conscious with the way children and adults thinks.
A lotof school programs have been redesigned because of this
theory.
Made a revolution with the developmental psychology
concentrating all his attention to the mental process and his
role with behavior.
MA Total Marks=100
Aslam has a score=55
Average= 54.3
Age
55/54.3x25
25.3
20
35
55
67
43
29
75
63
90
66
543/10
