Jean Piaget

Muna Nasser
H00329515
EDU 1003
Mrs. Antoinette Wiseman

The great theorist Jean Piaget was born on August 9th, 1896 in Switzerland. He
distinguished four stages of cognitive development and called them the schemas. He also
constructed new fields of scientific study, including cognitive theory and developmental
psychology. He summed up his passion for the ongoing pursuit of scientific knowledge with
these words: "The current state of knowledge is a moment in history, changing just as rapidly
as the state of knowledge in the past has ever changed and, in many instances, more
rapidly." He received the Erasmus Prize as well as the Balzan prize. Piaget died of unknown
causes in 1980 in Switzerland
Piaget developed an interest in the way people think. More specifically, he was curious about
the lack of logic in the kid's thoughts. He did not get any official training in psychology until
after he got his degree. Piaget studied what he liked to call it 'genetic epistemology' in which
he focused on the origin of thinking and the fundamental categories of it.
Piaget studied the process of adaptation and what revolves around it. The schema is how
we understand ourselves and the world around us. Multiple schemas are often related to one
another. Equilibrium is the stable stage where there are no changes in the understanding or
the condition. One the other hand, disequilibrium is the lack of stability because of an issue.
Adaptation is made of 2 main stages: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is fitting
new information into the already-known schemas. Accommodation is changing the schemas
to fit new information.
According to Piaget, children go through 4 main stages of development, the first one being
the Sensorimotor stage, and the last being the Formal Operational. The sensorimotor stage
begins at birth and ends when the child is around two years old. Children at this age develop
what is called 'Object Permanence' which is an understanding that even if the children did
not see objects, they do not cease to exist to them.
The second stage is the preoperational stage. It occurs for children who are 2 to 7 years.
During this time, the children's imagination begins to blossom. Children engage themselves
at pretend-play and make-believes. Moreover, children are very egocentric at this age.
The third stage is the Concrete operational stage. Children ages 7 to 11 go through this.
They become more conservative and less ego-centered than they used to be. They also
begin to ripen the ability to solve simple problems such as math.
The last stage is the Formal Operational stage. Children who are in this phase are often 12
years or older. They get to learn about abstract ideas and moral reasoning. Furthermore,
they start to think more logically and more scientifically.
Piaget believed that children's brains did develop while they physically grow. He also
supposed that, at each stage they go through, they grow in a clear pattern, in which was
later called 'Piaget's Cognitive development Theory.'
There are four main stages of this theory. They are categorized into many substages each.
The first one is sensorimotor. Babies going through this phase get the knowledge the need
through their senses and exploration. They try to use all their senses to get to know the
object in their hand. This stage is divided into the following six subgroups.

The first subgroup is the reflexes. Children at this age begin to explore the world around
through their reflexes, such as sucking and grasping.
The second subgroup, which is the primary circular reaction, revolves around the display of
coordination sensation and satisfaction such as sucking thumbs because they are found.
The third one is the secondary circular reaction. Infants, in this stage, grow more aware and
focused on the world around them. They begin to, intentionally, repeat actions to get a
respond that they need. An example for that is the infant sucking a toy to get the mother's
attention.
The fourth stage is the coordination of secondary circular reaction. Children start to show
intentional actions to achieve their desired effect like imitating the observed behavior of
others, such as their parents.
The fifth phase is the Tertiary circular reaction, in which the child begins to experience with
different sounds and actions through a trial-and-error pattern. The child does this to be
exhibited to the parents' attention more and more.
The last stage is the beginning of the symbolic presentation. Children's imagination roams
free, and they begin to understand the world through mental imagery and free play rather
than the pure action of cause-and-effect.
I have tried out a task from Piaget's experiments. I brought a white sheet of paper and laid
ten coins in two rows on top of it. I experimented on two of my siblings, Fatima, who is 7, and
Khalid, who is 3. I brought Khalid to a room where we sat alone on the floor with the sheet of
paper with the coins in between us two.
I experimented Khalid first. I laid the paper on the carpet and counted the coins as I put them
down on the page. The two coin rows were at the same length. I asked him if the two rows
had the same amount of coins or if one had more than the other. Khalid said that they both
had the same amount.
Next, I spaced out one of the rows. I asked him if they both had the same amount of coins or
if one had more. Khalid pointed at the shorter row and said that it had more coins than the
longer row. When asked why, he said that the shorter row looked more "crowded,", so that
meant that it had more coins.
After that, I took Khalid out of the room and brought Fatima in. I laid down the sheet and put
down the coins, counting each coin as I laid I on it. Both rows had the same length again. I
asked her if both rows had the same length or not. She began counting the coins and
concluded that both of them had the same amount of coins in them.
Next, I spaced out on of the rows again. I asked her if both of the rows still had the same
amount of coins in them. Fatima counted the coins in each row again and told me that they
both have the same amount. I asked her why do she think so, and she answered with "It is
because this row has five coins, and the other row has five coins. This means they both
have the same amount of coins."
I have concluded that there were many similarities between my two siblings. First, they both
had solid reasoning behind their choices. Both Khalid and Fatima gave reasons that they
believed in deeply. They tried to explain their reasons to me, and I felt like they understood
what they talked about. Second, they counted coins as I laid them down and when both rows

were at the same length. They checked if my counting was correct, and they tried to count
with me up to five, twice.
On the other hand, there were many differences between the two children. First, Khalid did
not try to count the coins afterI spaced out one row, whereas Fatima did. Khalid tried
counting in the first time to make sure that his idea was correct, but he did not do it again
after the coins were spaced out. Maybe it seemed logical to him that one row had more
coins than the other. Moreover, the way they thought was different. They both had different
answers even though that the both went through the same process.
Therefore, I concluded that the older the child gets, the more complicated but understanding
their minds get. Furthermore, in my opinion, children growth affects their mentality
significantly because even though both of the children I experimented on have gone through
the same experiment, they both had different outcomes. Khalid was not able to give out the
correct answer, even though he had a reason for what he said while Fatima did it without any
problems.
Eventually, I think that, even though I did not exactly get the expected results, my research
did prove that Piaget's theory is correct. I do believe that it is important, especially for the
teachers because it tells them what to expect from young children's way of thinking.

Resources
http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
http://study.com/academy/lesson/piagets-sensorimotor-stage-of-development-definitionexamples-quiz.html

http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.htm
http://www.biography.com/people/jean-piaget-9439915
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/schema.htm
http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/assimilation