Question

Who was Piaget? Who played a major influence on Piaget’s theory? Describe his stages and what the child is learning to deal with in each stage. Why are teachers and educators interested in Piaget’s theory?

Who were some of the scholars associated with learning theory? What aspect of development does this approach help psychologist understand?

Answer 1

1. Piaget was a psychologist who was born on 9 August 1896. He worked on cognitive development of a child.

2. Immanuel Kant, Theodore Simon, Henri bergson were some of them who played a major influence on Piaget's theory.

3. The stages of Piaget's theory and learning of the child as per the stages are:

i) Sensorimotor: The stage is for the child who ranges from his or her birth upto 18 months - 24 months year old. The learning of the child happens through his experiences or trial and error. In this stage the child learns object permanence.

ii) Preoperational: The stage is for the child who ranges from 2 years to 7 years old. In this stage memory stability and imagination power are in developmental process. The child here is also seen having development in language. Here the children also learns about giving meaning to the symbols and enhances symbolic thought.

iii) Concrete operational: The stage is for the child who ranges from 7 years to 11 years old. In this stage the child is not much egocentric and they can manipulate the symbols with logics and methods. In stage the child develops operational thought.

iv) The stage is for the child who ranges from 11 years old and above where he or she learns the ways to use the symbols to know the abstract concepts. In this stages the child starts working on his knowledge.

4. With the help of this model the teacher and the educators can know about the cognitive process of the child of their institution. And after knowing their cognitive process or the stage in which the child is, the teacher and educator use different strategies according to the cognitive stage of the children or the student.