Genetic Epistemology
Cognitive Constructivism
Biography
Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland in 1896. He earned his Ph.D in biology. While working at the Alfred Binet Testing Laboratory in Paris, he became interested in the development of intellectual abilities in children. He began publishing work on childhood psychology and learning as early as 1926. His theory was based in part on the work of James M. Baldwin, who worked with him in Paris. Baldwin, as a neo-Darwinist, held the view that individual development recapitulates the biological evolution of the human species. He was extremely productive, publishing 30 books and more than 200 articles, and worked until his death in 1980.
Theory
Piaget stressed that the development of knowledge representation and manipulation is not genetically programmed into the brain. He viewed children as young scientists who are driven to understand their world, and to change their understanding in the face of mistaken predictions about the world. Changes in knowledge structures drive changes in fundamental cognitive capabilities. The seemingly natural progression of cognitive capabilities emerge in an orderly way because certain ways of thinking must be mastered, and for the foundation for subsequent ones. The later ones cannot emerge until the early ones have been mastered.
Stages of Cognitive Development:
| Stage
|
Age
|
Features
|
|
|
|
|
| Sensorimotor
stage
|
Birth
to 2 years
|
Rudimentary
perceptual abilities
Reflexive movements Inability to mentally represent unseen objects Non-random movements in response to sensations |
|
|
|
|
| Pre-
Operational stage
|
2
to 5 years
|
Representational
thought
Can make mental transformations on ideas/images Unstructured flow of thought Egocentric thinking * Cannot solve conservational problems ** Difficulty with transitive relationships *** |
|
|
|
|
| Concrete
Operations stage
|
5
to 11 years
|
Has
mastered the concept of conservation
Can take other's perceptual perspectives Can perform operations on concrete ideas and objects Cannot perform mental operations on abstract or hypothetical elements Difficulty understanding relationships among relationships |
|
|
|
|
| Formal
Operations stage
|
11
years to adult
|
Can
perform all the cognitive abilities described.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beyond
age 18
|
Accumulation
of knowledge and skills and not the acquisition
of new cognitive abilities |
|
|
|
|
* Egocentric thinking - cannot take another person's perceptual perspective.
** Conservational problems - an element which moves in spaces does not change it's fundamental properties. For example a quantity of water is the same regardless of the shape of the container. Depends upon the mental operation of reversibility.
*** Transitive relationships- Bill is taller than Bob, and John is taller than Bill. Deduce that John is the tallest
Piaget postulated that cognitive abilities are acquired by an Assimilation - Accommodation mechanism, a claim originally put forth by his mentor, Baldwin. Assimilation refers to to making associations between new information and what is already known. For example, when a child learns that a lion he sees at the zoo is a cat, like the pet cat at home. Accommodation refers to changing what is known when the current knowledge is inadequate for solving a problem. When information cannot be easily assimilated, the knowledge structure must change to "make sense." These knowledge structures he called "Schemas" and schemas could be endlessly linked and woven as new learning was created. This mechanism is what makes Piaget a constructionist. External input may cause learning to increase, and also, an individual can manipulate the existing schemas to learn of new relationships among them.
Piaget argued that cognitive structures are not innate.
Acquisition of language: Piaget's position was between the behaviorist view that language was learned by reinforcement (empiricist view) and the rationalist view of researchers such as Chomsky, who argued for an innate language-acquisition component.
According to Piaget, language is a cognitive and perceptual process and follows the stages of development. Adult language has been socialized whereas children's language is egocentric. Piaget distinguished three types of egocentric speech:
1. Echolalia- repetition of their own or others' utterances 2. Monologue - talking to themselves, apparently speaking their thoughts aloud 3. Collective monologue - two or more children appear to be engaged in conversation, taking turns speaking appropriately, but careful listening produces the observation that each is actually just producing monologues. There is no exchange of meaning evident.
The application of Piaget's theory in the classroom entails providing a rich environment for the learner to explore. Like Vygotsky, Piaget was a proponent of whole, authentic, applicable learning. Activities like operating a classroom "store", or "post office" would be examples of relating to real-world situations.
Criticisms of Piaget's Theory
1. Piaget underestimated the competence of infants and children
2. The theory seems to imply an evenness in cognitive development. A child may learn different mental processes at different times
3. It is controversial whether many adults ever actually reach the formal operations stage. There may even be entire cultures where people do not reach this stage.
Learning Theory Bibliography
Campbell, R. L. (2002). Jean Piaget's Genetic Epistemology: Appreciation and Critique. Retrieved from the World Wide Web September 21, 2003 from http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/piaget.html
Harley, 1995
Guenther, 1998
Merriam & Caffarella, 1991
http://pdts.uh.edu/~ichen/ebook/ET-IT/cognitiv.htm
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