JEAN PIAGET

1
JEAN PIAGET
2
PIAGET AND CONSTRUCTIVISM
An Organismic-Developmental approach

Genetic Epistemology
Epistemology The study of how we come to know
what we know (intelligence).
Genetic 1. Biology--genes 2. Beginnings--roots
3
TWO DIFFERENT VIEWS OF LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING
Developmental Approach to Knowledge
Learning Approach to Knowledge

• Reductionist view of knowledge. The whole (a
  task) can be broken down into its parts without
  losing meaning.
• Additive view of knowledge. The whole equals the
  sum of its parts.
• Thus, I can break a task down into its parts and
  teach each part separately until the whole is
  achieved.

• Holistic view of knowledge. Individual bits of
  knowledge have no meaning apart from their
  context.
• The whole (understanding of a task) equals the
  interaction and interrelation of its parts.
• Thus, breaking down a task into meaningless units
  does not enhance understanding. A person can
  learn all the parts and still not understand the
  task (whole). The task must be UNDERSTOOD by and
  make sense to the learner.

4
HUMANS ARE LIVING ORGANISMS HUMANS ARE ORGANIZED

5
INTELLIGENCE
Piagets theory is a theory of
INTELLIGENCE. For Piaget each stage represents
a different way of acting on (thinking about) the
environment. Intelligence is measured by
examining how we think, not by measuring how much
knowledge we have accumulated.
6
PROCESSES OF DEVELOPMENT
ADAPTATION (Interaction with the environment)
ORGANIZATION
STAGES --Each stage is a mental organization.
ASSIMILATION
ACCOMMODATION
Divided into Schemes sub-organizations of a stage

• Physical Environment
• Social Interaction
• Maturation
• Equilibration

• Time
• Space
• Causality
• Quantity
• Etc.

k
7
Mechanisms of Accommodation

• Environment (Interaction with the physical
  environment)
• Social Interaction (Interaction with the
  reasoning of others)
• Equilibration (Establishing a new intellectual
  equilibrium stage at a higher, more adaptive
  level)
• Maturation (brain)

8
CHARACTERISTICS OF STAGES

• Each stage
• represents a level of intelligence.
• is a QUALITATIVELY different, higher level, more
  intelligent way of thinking about the world.
• develops as a result of the individuals
  interacting with and adapting to the environment.
• Stages develop in a universal, invariant
  sequence.

9
THE STAGES
FORMAL OPERATIONAL CONCRETE OPERATIONAL PREOPERA
TIONAL (?) SENSORI-MOTOR
10
THEORETICAL ISSUES
11
PIAGETIAN ASSUMPTIONS

• 1. Are people active or passive?
• ACTIVE
• What is the relationship between learning and
• development?
• WE LEARN BY DEVELOPING. DEVELOPMENT EXPLAINS
  LEARNING.
• 3. How do people change?
• VIA ASSIMILATION AND ACCOMMODATION (ADAPTING TO
  THEIR ENVIRONMENT)
• 4. What motivates people?
• THE INNATE PROCESSES OF ORGANIZATION AND
  ADAPTATION.

12

• How important is behavior?
• WE KNOW LITTLE FROM BEHAVIOR. THE LOGIC THAT
  PRODUCES THE BEHAVIOR IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT.
• How important is thinking?
• IT IS ALL IMPORTANT. BEHAVIOR (SUCH AS ANSWERS
  TO QUESTIONS) TELLS US NOTHING UNLESS WE KNOW THE
  REASONING THAT PRODUCED IT.

13
7. How important are emotions? PIAGETS THEORY
PLACES A HEAVY EMPHASIS UPON THINKING. HOWEVER,
PIAGETIANS HAVE EMPHASIZED HOW CRUCIAL IT IS FOR
CHILDREN TO HAVE A SENSE OF COMPETENCE WHEN THEY
ARE TRYING TO LEARN NEW TASKS. A LACK OF
COMPETENCE LEADS TO AVOIDANCE AND FAILURE. THIS
CONTENTION IS SIMILAR TO BANDURAS STATEMENTS
ABOUT SELF-EFFICACY.
14
What Should Educators Be Trying to Achieve?

• What educational goals are most
  consistent with this theory?
• What educational methodologies are most
  consistent with this theory?
• According to this theory, what is the purpose of
  schools and education?

15
How Is Achievement and/or the Lack of Achievement
Explained?

• How does the theory define achievement?!!!
• Development of thinking
• What are the factors that contribute to
  achievement?
• A problem centered learning environment in which
  the learner is permitted to follow his/her own
  curiosity and to experiment with the materials
  presented

16
Learning Disabilities

• What are the factors that contribute to lack of
  achievement?

The normal reaction of normal children to being
given tasks for which they are not
developmentally ready.
MEANING The pupil doesnt understand
17
ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTION WITH THE PHYSICAL WORLD PROBLEM
SOLVING
For pre-operational children this includes many
hands on activities. Play is a childs work.
For concrete (and formal) operational individuals
this includes both hands on and Mind On
activities.
18
MATURATION OF THE BRAIN
Remember, this is only one of the mechanisms of
accommodation. Piagets stages are not only
maturational. Development through the stages
requires interaction with the environment.
19
PIAGETIAN SCHEMES
Schemes are NOT collections of knowledge. A
scheme is a way of thinking about a particular
aspect of the environment.
20
EQUILIBRATION
Equilibration serves as a driver mechanism that
causes the individual to reorganize at a higher,
more adaptive level.
Its the internal process that causes us to
establish a new equilibrium at that more adaptive
level (stage).
21
SOCIAL INTERACTION(SOCIAL TRANSMISSION)
Social transmission does NOT refer to passing on
cultural norms or community values. Rather It
refers to developing ones reasoning by
INTERACTING with the (more developed) REASONING
of others.
22
ASSIMILATION
Taking new information from the environment into
our existing structures (ways of thinking)--a
QUANTITATIVE accumulation of knowledge
LEARNING
Remember, learning (assimilation) takes place
within the context of each structure. We fit
what we learn into the way we think, i.e. we
understand new information in terms of the
reasoning of our current stage (mental structure)
.
23
For learning theorists change is only
quantitative. They maintain that we know more by
learning more information. They deal only with
the learning aspect of intelligence. For Piaget
change is both quantitative and QUALITATIVE. We
know more both by learning more and by thinking
better.
24
ACCOMMODATION
Changing ones structures (rules of thinking and
reasoning) in response to new information one
takes in--a QUALITATIVE change in thinking and
reasoning, i.e. the person advances to a new,
higher stage
The person constructs a new mental structure
(scheme/stage) in order to be better adapted to
the environment. S/he understands the world
differently, and this new understanding is
better than the understanding of the previous
stage.
25
Thus, unlike the learning theorists, Piaget
describes intelligence as having two components

ASSIMILATION
Learning More
ACCOMMODATION
Understanding better
26
Learning Theory We learn, and that is how our
thinking develops.
Piaget Our thinking develops , and that enables
us to learn.
27
SENSORI-MOTOR INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence is in the senses and in motor
activities. We know (learn, develop) by
PHYSICALLY acting on the environment.) The
infant learns, comes to understand, her/his
environment through the use of his/her senses
and body. There are NO mental images/symbols at
this stage.
I am an object in a world of objects. These
objects exist independent of my actions upon
them. I understand physical causal
relationships.
28
MENTAL OPERATIONS
What is an operation?
An operation is..
A MENTAL ACTION
For Piaget intelligence is ACTION. Operational
people learn and develop by MENTALLY acting on
the environment.
29
PRE-OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
There are mental images/symbols at this stage,
but there are no operations. The individual has
internal mental pictures but is unable to move
mentally (act) in her/his environment.

• egocentrism
• centration
• reasoning based on perceptions
• syncretic reasoning

30
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The individual is able to apply operations (to
reason logically about, mentally act upon) the
CONCRETE world

• The ability to move mentally in space
• The ability to move mentally up and down a
  hierarchy
• The ability to consider two aspects of a
  physical problem at the same time
• The ability to move mentally in time
• etc.

D
31
FORMAL OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
At this stage people are able to reason
logically about hypothetical possibilities and
about other than real situations. Their logical
reasoning is no longer confined to the actual,
concrete world.
32
FORMAL OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The individual is able to apply operations to
(reason logically about) HYPOTHETICAL/ABSTRACT
worlds, to use hypothetical, other than concrete
world, logic (i.e., to reason logically about
formal propositions, thus the name).

• isolate a variable
• generate combinations and permutations
• understand ratios
• consider hypothetical possibilities
• understand metaphors

33
UNIVERSAL, INVARIANT SEQUENCE?
The sequence of stages is NOT biologically wired
in. The sequence of stage development is
universal because...
We all have the same genetic inheritance (the
ability to Adapt to and Organize our
environment). We all have the same environment!
(???)
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The LAWS OF NATURE are the same everywhere in the
world.