PIAGET'S THEORY ON EDUCATION

Piaget's Theory on Education

Piaget's Theory on Education

Jean Piaget (1896-1980), whose work in cognitive and developmental psychology caused many significant changes in elementary education, was one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century. He proposed that the cognitive development of children occurred in sequential developmental stages called the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Each stage represented a specific type of cognitive functioning that was caused by the individual's level of biological maturation. Piaget believed that all individuals pass through these stages, and within each stage organize the information that they learn into stage-specific structures called schemes. Piaget theorized that as individuals matured and their environment changed, they would adapt to the changes either by assimilating the changes into their current schemes or by accommodating the changes by reorganizing their schemes. The function of assimilation and accommodation is to maintain a balance, through the process of equilibration, between one's scheme and changes within the environment.

Piaget significantly influenced elementary education with the idea that individuals construct their own understanding of reality. His understanding that individuals are active learners who modify and transform information through their engagement with that knowledge provides the foundation for the pervasive constructivist movement in contemporary education. In Piagetian theory, children are not passive recipients of information but active participants in the learning process who construct their own meaning.

Piaget influenced elementary education in a number of ways. First, the children's stage of development limits what they can learn. For instance, children cannot solve an abstract problem until the last stage, formal operational, that begins around the age of 11. Second, what children learn in later stages is affected by what they learned and the cognitive structures that they developed in the earlier stages. Therefore, opportunities must be provided that facilitate the full cognitive development of the child in each stage. Third, the important part of a child's learning is the child's ability to apply or transfer what was already learned to the new information. Fourth, children cannot apply what they learned in a previous stage until they have developed the physical brain structures that will allow the next level of learning to take place. Finally, requiring students to learn information that is beyond their stage of cognitive development is a futile learning experience. For instance, no amount of practice in learning algebra will help middle school students who are not in the formal operational ...