Jean Piaget's Theory of Learning, main ideas

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David Holt
Jean Piaget's Theory of Learning, main ideas

Contents

  • Bases of Jean Piaget's Theory
  • The construction of knowledge and Piaget's Schemes
  • The construction of Cognitive structures
  • Piaget's Development factors
  • Piaget's concepts of Assimilation and Accommodation
    • The asimilation
    • Accommodation
    • References

Bases of Jean Piaget's Theory

Jean Piaget elaborates a development proposal based on the biological model of adaptation. All organisms maintain interactions with the environment, tending to adapt, to maintain a state of balance with it. Intelligence (or knowledge; intelligence = knowledge in Piaget's theory) is a complex form of adaptation of a complex organism to a complex environment. Adaptation consists of a double process of assimilation (integration of information into the organism's cognitive schematics) and accommodation (reorganization of the organism's cognitive schematics). Assimilation and accommodation are simultaneous and complementary processes.

Subscribing the biological model of adaptation does not imply innateness. Piaget denies the existence of innate knowledge. The organism builds knowledge from interaction with the environment. The organism that tries to know reality does not copy it, but selects information, interprets it, organizes it ... based on its cognitive schematics. The construction of knowledge is not carried out from the mechanism of association, but from the mechanisms of assimilation and accommodation. The information is integrated into the knowledge schemes that the subject has already built and, at the same time, these schemes are "mobilized", modified, undergo a process of accommodation or readjustment. (The information is assimilated, not accommodated. It is the schemes that undergo accommodation, which means readjustments.)

The construction of knowledge and Piaget's Schemas

For the construction of knowledge the action of the organism is essential. But not just any type of action leads to the construction of knowledge. The actions that are related to knowledge are actions that have a regularity and an internal organization. Piaget calls these actions "schemas.".

At the moment of birth, the baby has reflex schemes, which are the first assimilating units of reality. They are schemes of reflex or involuntary action. The exercise of reflex schemes (sucking, picking up objects that come into contact with the hand ...) leads to action schemes (voluntary or intentional). Examples of action schemes are "picking up objects", "sucking objects" ... When the symbolic function appears, action schemes give rise to representative schemes, which are also action schemes, but mental or internal. consequences of dropping an object on the ground, without throwing it, you are applying a representative action scheme. At certain stages of development, representative schemes organize to give rise to operations (eg classification, serialization ...). Operations are organized into a set structure or operative structure.

The construction of Cognitive structures

Piaget understands development as a process of gradual construction of structures that allow maintaining higher levels of balance with the environment. Structures (organized set of operations and, ultimately, organizations of internal action schemes) are general cognitive structures, that is, applicable to any field of knowledge..

For Piaget, what changes throughout development is the cognitive structure, that is, the general characteristics of the individual's internal or mental action possibilities. For example, a sensorimotor child is not capable of carrying out internal actions, but rather interacts with the environment through physical or direct action. The child who has built the concrete operative structure is already capable of performing operations related to reality that have the property of reversibility by inversion (eg, the child may think that the liquid that has passed from a glass to (higher and narrow) in a vessel B (lower and wider) can go back from B to aa) and reversibility by compensation (eg the child may think that the height of the vessel a compensates for its smaller width). These "internal action possibilities" are not specific to a field of knowledge, but are applicable to any content.

According to Piaget, structural cognitive changes end in adolescence, when the formal operative structure is consolidated. Later, knowledge will continue to be acquired, but the general properties of cognition will no longer be modified.

Piaget's Development factors

Piaget proposes four factors to explain development:

  1. Maturation (organic evolution).
  2. Interaction with the physical environment.
  3. Interaction with the social environment.
  4. Equilibrium (self-regulatory capacity of the body that tends to maintain a balance with the environment).

It should be noted that they are not organized in order of importance. In principle Piaget considers that the four factors interact and are equally important, but in his works he gives special attention and a predominant place in the interaction with the physical environment and balance.

For Piaget, development (the process of construction of operative structures) is an internal process of the organism, which follows a universal course and is based on the mechanisms of balance, assimilation and accommodation. Learning, on the other hand, understands it as an external process, of acquiring what is outside the body. Development is an independent process of learning and, at the same time, a prerequisite for learning. The developmental level of the child determines what can and cannot be learned. The learning of specific content (mathematics, biology, history ...) does not alter the course of development (of cognitive structuring).

Regarding the relationships between thought and language, Piaget understands that language is subordinate to thought. The general cognitive characteristics of each stage also apply to language and, therefore, determine the type of language specific to each stage. For example, the preoperative child will have language that reflects the egocentricity of his thinking; the adolescent who has reached formal thinking will be able to use expressions that have to do with probabilities, combinations, hypotheses, etc..

Piaget's concepts of Assimilation and Accommodation

Assimilation and accommodation are the two complementary adaptation processes described by Piaget, through which knowledge of the external world is internalized. Although one of the two may predominate at a given moment, they are inseparable and exist in a dialectical relationship..

The asimilation

In this phase, what is perceived in the external world is incorporated into the internal world, without changing the structure of that internal world. This is achieved at the cost of incorporating these external perceptions into childhood stereotypes, to achieve somehow that they fit their mentality.

Accommodation

In this phase, the internal world has to accommodate itself to the external evidence with which it is faced and, therefore, adapt to it, which can be a more difficult and painful process.

In reality, both processes go at the same time, and although most of the time we are assimilating what we perceive of the world around us, our minds are also working to adjust it and accommodate it to our schemes..

Piaget was primarily focused on developing children's understanding of the world, so for him (and for children) accommodation is no more problematic than assimilation. But that doesn't necessarily happen as we age. We have ways of understanding our world, which work for us with more or less success during adulthood. And we have no problem assimilating new information and ideas as long as they fit with this vision of the world, but we find it increasingly difficult to accommodate new conceptions..

Do not miss our videos about Piaget with everything you need to know about his theory of learning in an easy and dynamic way.

Piaget I, comparison with biology:

Piaget II, assimilation and accommodation:

Piaget III, reflections and schematics:

Piaget IV, the notion of object:

Piaget V, adaptation and learning:

References

Bruner, JS (1966). Towards a theory of instruction. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belkapp Press.

Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of intelligence in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Piaget, J. (1945). Play, dreams and imitations in childhood. London: Heinemann.

Piaget, J. (1957). Construction of reality in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Piaget, J. (1958). The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence.

Vygotsky, LS (1978). The mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wadsworth, BJ (2004). Theory of cognitive and affective development of Piaget: Foundations of constructivism. Longman Post.

https://www.verywellmind.com/child-development-theories-2795068

https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/piagetstheory/


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