Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Entry # 5 - Piaget

January 17,2012


Today we started discussing the educational theorist Jean Piaget. His theory includes three cognitive processes. The first of which is the SCHEMA. A schema is a framework of sorts for organizing what we know. A representation in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas, and/or actions which go together. A cognitive structure that contains pre-existing ideas of the world with information that agrees with what we already know is known as ASSIMILATION. When information does not agree with what we know, or rather it contradicts it, this is known as ACCOMMODATION. You cannot have one without the other. Piaget's stages are and structured and in predictable sequences. 

Jean Piaget (Ages & Stages Theorist) Cognitive Development

Cognitive Process:  involves changes in thinking, intelligence, and language.
1. Schema - a framework for organizing what we know
Processes to adapt and use the schema:
1. Assimilation - new information agrees with what we already now. When individuals incorporate new knowledge into existing knowledge. ( Add information about the environment)
2. Accommodation - new information doesn't match what we know (contradicts it.) This occurs when adjusting to new information. 

Four stages (structured and predictable sequences)
1. Sensorimotor - birth - 2. Infants don't think the way we think, they feel and move their way around the world through uses of sense and the ability to move. understand the world by coordinating sensory (seeing/hearing) with motor (reaching/touching). knows self from objects *object permance* understands objects and events still exist even when they cannot be heard, touched, seen.
2. Pre-Operational - 2-7. symbolic and intuitive. first starts to developing thinking. egocentrism - inability to distinguish between own perspective and someone else's. realizes she is an "I" but not separate from others. NO CONSERVATION. 
3. Concrete Operational - 7-11.operational thinking. it is logical and reasonable not abstract. **CONSERVATION - knows different containers contain same amount of substance.Classifying - group objects on basis of common feature. Seriation - can arrange from shortest stick to longest. Transituity - A.B.C sticks. If A>B and B>C then A>C
4. Formal operational - 11-15+. Logical and reasonable thinking/ abstract reasoning. Does not need any sticks or marbles. *Hypothetical deductive reasoning*  - if I do this what will happen? complex problem solving. Adolescent  egocentrism - having your own ideas. 


Issues and concerns

1. Kids may develop at different rates. The stages are not quite so neat and tidy.
2. There is a firewall, you cant go to bed in stage and wake up in another just because of age.
3. Training and cultural experiences can have an impact on the child development. Environment has an impact. 


Blogging Activity
Please imagine an example of each of the stages in action.

Sensorimotor - an infant will grab a rattle and shake it to hear a noise. 
Pre-Operational - make-believe play
Concrete - pouring water from a tall, slender glass and knowing that the substance will equally fill the the shorter, wider glass
Formal - solving a mathematics problem with thoughts alone.