...Jean Piaget was a Swiss scientist, as well as one of the most significant researchers in developmental psychology. He is also “the central theorist in the constructivist approach to thinking” (Swartz et al, 2011). Piaget was mostly interested in how people “come to know” and believed that one of the most distinctive aspects between human and animal thought, is the face that humans are able to do “abstract symbolic reasoning” and animals are not (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). He worked in an IQ testing laboratory and this lead him to become interested in getting to know how children learn to think. Piaget then determined that younger children tended to answer questions asked more qualitatively than those older than them, not because they were “dumber”, but rather because they had a different way of thinking (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). Piaget had a...
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...Jean Piaget Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland on August 9th, 1896. He was the oldest of three children, and the only boy. His father was Arthur Piaget, a professor of medieval literature. His mother was Rebecca Jackson, and his godfather was the Swiss scholar Samuel Cornut. In 1923, he married Valentine Chatenay. The couple had three children, Jacqueline, Lucienne, and Laurent. Piaget died in Geneva on September 16, 1980, after a brilliant scientific career made of over sixty books and several hundred articles (Papert, 1999). Piaget’s greatest contribution was to found the field of cognitive development. He believed children are the biggest manufacturers of their own development, as man’s capacity for logical thought is not learned but embedded along with hair color and sex, in his genes. In other words, a child cannot be forced to develop understanding any faster than the rate at which his powers mature to their full potential, so there is a limit to what overeager parents and teachers can achieve. On the flip side, a child who does not get the chance to apply his developing abilities and test limitations may never reach his full intellectual capacity (Pramling, 2006). According to Jurczak (1997), Piaget believed in four stages of cognitive development: • Stage 1: Sensorimotor – Newborn to Age 2 The child’s primary concern is mastering his own innate physical reflexes and extending them into interesting or pleasurable actions. During this time, the child becomes...
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...Learning from B.F Skinner and Jean Piaget The psychological studies of B.F Skinner and Jean Piaget in the field of learning revolutionized the understanding of learning processes, and undoubtedly paved the way for future psychologists. The findings of B.F Skinner and his theory on operant learning expanded the horizons of his generation. Jean Piaget also constructed the basis by which we evaluate the logical capabilities of youth, and he developed a theory of schemas. Both of these eminent psychologists have left a mark on the field of learning, and while both are dissimilar, they have common themes and continuities that cannot be overlooked. Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904, to William Arthur Skinner (a lawyer) and Grace Madge Burrhus, born with an aptitude for mechanical toys and gadgets. In his adolescence he showed interest in works by Charles Darwin and Francis Bacon. In his early adult life he attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York where he studied English language and Literature, during his time at University he was heavily engaged in the campus magazine, and was known for his hand in pranks. After graduation he was exposed to Behaviorism by the literary magazine Dial, and read further into Conditioned Reflexes by Ivan Pavlov, he soon realized that he was interested in human behavior and was convinced by a close friend that science was the next big thing, he decided to engage in work in psychology. He enrolled at Harvard in 1928, and began...
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...Philosophers’ Matrix and Analysis Philosophers | Classroom Engagement | Teaching and Learning | Parent or Community Involvement | Student social or emotional support | Confucius(551-479 BCE) | Cultivation of character, through observation, study and reflective thought. | Rote learning and memorization. | Parents working with child in the home setting continuing the skills of rote learning at home. | Students work asa group, think as a group therefore gaining social and emotional support from one another. | John Locke(1632-1704) | Skills and knowledge are gained by examples and practicing. | Learning by example through motivation simulated by the teacher. Not learning just reading, writing and math, but also virtue and wisdom. | Parents and community leading by example through showing respect and values to all students. | Social and emotional support incorporated through parent and teacher involvement with students. | John Dewey(1859-1952) | Content must be presented in a way that allows the student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening the connection with this new knowledge. | Focus on learning by implementing “hands-on” activities. Strongly emphasizes the teacher’s role as being a “facilitator or guide”. | Encouraged parents to be an active part in their children’s education. | Felt strongly that school itself was a social organization. | Maria Montessori(1870-1952) | Adapt the environment, to link the child through well-thought-out lessons...
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...Cognitive Development Richard Clark PSYC1000 Lifespan Development Paper Capella University May 2014 Abstract According to dictionary.com cognitive development. The process of acquiring intelligence and increasingly advanced thought and problem-solving ability from infancy to adulthood. The purpose o f this research paper is to determine if all infants follow the same development process from infant to adulthood. There are many questions about the development stages of a child. I am sure many people would like to know if a child is born with cognitive skills or is that develop over time David F. Bjorklund explains “One issue central to all of psychology is that of nature versus nurture. Traditionally, this has been posed as a dichotomy: Is human thought and behavior genetically/biologically determined or is it shaped by learning/experience/culture? This is dealt with in a more sophisticated way today, in that everyone is an interactionist, with the issue being better expressed as “how do biological/endogenous factors interact with environmental/exogenous factors to produce the adult phenotype?” From this perspective, cognitive development does not simply mature, or bloom, over time, nor is it solely a product of a child’s culture; rather, it emerges over the course of ontogeny as a result of the dynamic and reciprocal transaction between a child’s biological constitution, including genetics, and his or her physical and social...
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...Piaget’s Theory of Child Psychological Development There currently exists a great deal of literature based on child developmental psychology from a variety of great psychologists, notably Freud, Erikson, Bowlby, Bandura, Vygotsky, and many others. However, this paper will focus on the theories of Jean Piaget. Jean Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher, was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland on August 9, 1896. After working with Alfred Binet in his children’s intelligence tests, Piaget developed an interest in the development of children He is widely known for his epistemological studies regarding children and formulating the Cognitive Theory of Development. Piaget self-identifies as a genetic epistemologist; “What the genetic epistemology proposes is discovering the roots of the different varieties of knowledge, since its elementary forms, following to the next levels, including also the scientific knowledge”. Jean Piaget was the first to believe that children were no less smarter than adults, they just think differently. Piaget refers to children as “little scientists” because they actively try to explore and make sense of the world around them The model Piaget designed was a model that sought to explain how humans made sense of the world around them through collecting and organizing information from experiences with people, applied to children specifically. The model itself has four main stages in children: the sensorimotor stage (birth to two years)...
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...Piaget’s contribution from birth to age 7 Birth and Death: * Born August 9, 1896 * Died September 16, 1980 Jean Piaget's Early Life: Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland in 1896 and began showing an interest in the natural sciences at a very early age. By age 11, he had already started his career as a researcher by writing a short paper on an albino sparrow. He continued to study the natural sciences and received his Ph.D. in Zoology from University of Neuchâtel in 1918. Career: Piaget later developed an interest in psychoanalysis, and spent a year working at a boys' institution created by Alfred Binet. Binet is known as the developer of the world's first intelligence test and Piaget took part in scoring these assessments. While his early career consisted of work in the natural sciences, it was during the 1920s that he began to move toward work as a psychologist. He married Valentine Châtenay in 1923 and the couple went on to have three children. Piaget's observations of his own children served as the basis for many of his later theories. Theory: Piaget identified himself as a genetic epistemologist. "What the genetic epistemology proposes is discovering the roots of the different varieties of knowledge, since its elementary forms, following to the next levels, including also the scientific knowledge," he explained in his book Genetic Epistemology. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the origin, nature, extent, and limits of human...
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... pp 97). Those words were quoted, studied, and believed by Jean Piaget. I am going into my fifth year of teaching and I can agree with Piaget. David Elkind was a follower of Jean Piaget and believed these very same words as well. Elkind is instrumental in explaining the implications of Piaget’s theory for early childhood education both through his writings and films (Bergen, 2008). This paper will explore David Elkind’s beliefs and the affects of his mentor’s theories. David Elkind’s Biography David Elkind was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Peter and Bessie Elkind. His family moved to California when he was an adolescent. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1952, and his Doctorate in Philosophy (Ph.D.) from UCLA in 1955 (Doorey, 2010). He also received an honorary Doctorate in Science from Rhode Island College in 1987. Elkind's father operated machinery in a factory that built parts for the automotive industry. Elkind remembered his father complaining about how the engineers who designed the parts did not understand the machinery his father was working with and thus sometimes designed things the machines could not create. This memory stuck with Elkind so he always tried to consider the relationship between theory and practice and how theory could and would be applied (Doorey, 2010). Influence of Jean Piaget After receiving his Ph.D., Elkind was a research assistant to David Rappaport at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge...
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...Jean Piaget (year 1896 to 1980) was working at the “Binet Institute” (1920s), where his task was to expand French descriptions of questions on English aptitude papers. Piaget became stratagem with the explanations/ causes children gave for their incorrect solutions to the questions that needed logical thoughts/ opinion. He thought that these wrong answers exposed significant differences between the thoughts of children and adults. (YouTube, 2015) Piaget (1936) explained his task as “genetic epistemology” (that is, the origins of thoughts). Genetics is the systematic study of where stuff comes from (their beginning). “Epistemology” is alarmed with the fundamental categories of thoughts, which are to state, the structural or framework elements of intelligence. Piaget required to do was not to calculate how fine children could spell, count, or solve issues as a way of ranking their Intelligence Quotient. He was more engrossed in was the method in which basic concepts like the very thought of justice, causality, quantity, time, number and so on appeared. (YouTube, 2015) Piaget (1936) was the 1st psychologist to make a methodical study of “cognitive development”. His assistance involve a theory of child cognitive growth, comprehensive observational studies of cognition in kids, as well as a sequence of easy but inventive tests to disclose various cognitive capabilities. Previous to Piaget’s task, the ordinary supposition in psychology was that kids are just less knowledgeable thinkers...
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...Life Span Perspective Paper Kyla Rash University of Phoenix Life Span Human Development Psychology 375 Professor Kathleen Phelps March 05, 2012 Life Span Perspective Paper No one brought evolution to light like Charles Darwin. His book, titled On the Origin of Species, offered compelling evidence for evolution within species and drew in large amounts of controversy. This controversy led to more and more field work and observations of nature. Eventually, Darwin’s research and studies turned to people and the study of the human life span (Beddall, 1968). The study of the human life span gained momentum in the years that followed the publishing of Darwin’s famous book as psychologists around the world developed different perspectives and theories regarding life span. The following examination focuses on explaining the life span perspective of development, summarizing two different theories of life span development, and offering an explanation to how heredity and the environment produce differences in overall development. The study of human development centers on how a person changes over a lifetime. A person starts life with the birth stage, and then moves through infancy, adolescence and puberty, adulthood, and finishes with death (Berger, 2008). Berger (2008) describes these changes as being linear, gradual, predictable, and sometimes steady. During their life spans, humans learn to communicate, work together, experience emotions...
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...(PSY 404) ------------------------------------------------- Lecturer: Mr. Mtemeri J. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Assignment: Compare and contrast the concept formation according to Piaget and Vygotsky. How applicable are their theories to the African context. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Due Date: 15 March 2012 Concept formation according to Muthivhi, (2009) refers to the development of ideas based on the common properties of objects, events or qualities using the process of abstraction. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) proposed the classical constructivist theories of concept formation or cognitive development. Their contributions to developmental psychology, albeit different, are similarly remarkable and unique. These two theories have some noted resemblances and differences. This essay will give an overview of these two theories, outlining their similarities and differences and their applicability to the African context with special reference to the Zimbabwean context. In Jean Piaget’s research, the main goal was to answer the question,...
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...Foundations of Cognitive Theory Elizabeth Caldwell Excelsior College Abstract Cognitive-learning theories explore the complexity of the mind from the perspective of how the mind processes information. The paper will discuss the history of cognitive-learning theories and how they shaped the way one perceives, organizes, stores, and retrieves information. The main focus will be on Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, however, it will include theorists such as Wilhelm Wundt, William James, Edward Tolman and Frederic Bartlett. It will start off with the definition of cognitive theory and move on to the history of psychological theorists, ending with the conclusion. Keywords: Defining Cognitive Theory Cognitive theory is an approach to psychology that attempts to explain human behavior by understanding the thought processes (Fritscher, 2014). The main facet of cognitive theory involves the communications between mental components and the information that is processed through this intricate system. As individuals learn, they vigorously generate cognitive arraignments which determine their perceptions of environment and self. Concepts of Cognitive Theorists Cognitive theorists think that learning consists of the incorporation of events into an operating storage system contained within the organizational structures called schemata. This concept of schemata was introduced by Frederic C. Bartlett in the early 1930’s. We will discuss more about Frederic C. Bartlett...
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...understand social values, customs, and norms” (Logston, YYYY). Although the different psychologist had different points of views about how to measure intelligence, they all made an impact on intelligence testing in their time period. In this paper we will discuss the men that discovered what kind of test could be used in testing intelligence, who they are, and more about what intelligence is. We will discuss the history of intellectual assessment. We will also discuss how intellectual functioning can have an impact on your personal success. Some of the key figures in intellectual assessment will be discussed in this such as Jene Piaget, David Wechsler, Lewis Terman, and Alfred Binet. Key People in Intellectual Assessments As we begin speaking about the key people in intellectual assessments we ask that you take note in the combination of them all! With the study of only one of these men and their research we wouldn’t fully understand what intelligence is or how it works and builds throughout the stages of our lives. I will start first with Jean Piaget. “Jean Piaget was born in Neuchâtel (Switzerland) on August 9, 1896. He died in Geneva on September 16, 1980” (Ginn, YYYY). Jean Piaget had a lot to do with the intellectual assessment because Piaget discovered that children think and...
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...Main Ideas of Piaget and Vygotsky Valerie Smith Cognitive Development: Comparing the Main Ideas of Piaget and Vygotsky The benefits of understanding cognitive development are many and varied, and yet there is still much that we do not know. Understanding the main theories that already exist can help in furthering our knowledge, and will spark new ideas for furthering the study of cognitive development. In this paper, I will compare the sociocultural view of Lev Vygotsky with Jean Piaget’s cognitive developmental view. Before discussing how these theorists differ, it is helpful to understand the main points of their theories. Sigelman & Rider (2011) state that Vygotsky believed that the cognitive growth of a child occurs strictly in a sociocultural context and would change and grow based on the child’s social interactions. He believed that cultural and social experiences affected not only what we think, but how we think. Piaget, on the other hand, would have said that children are actively creating their own knowledge through both their experiences and “inborn intellectual functions, which he called the organization and adaptation.” (Sigelman & Rider, 2011) One of the main questions of any discussion on development would revolve around whether or not development is universally experienced in the same way by all persons, or if development is context-specific (in other words, does our environment affect how we develop, grow and learn?). While Piaget said that cognitive...
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...Human Development Mindy Donaldson PSY 280 April 26, 2015 There are quite a few different theories about human growth and development, and why people do the things that they do. In this paper I will discuss and summarize three theories and how each is related to human growth and development, identifying one influential theorist for each. In addition this paper will include many views of the lifespan perspective followed by an explanation of how nature and nurture effect human development. Developmental theory can be defined as a conglomeration of ideas about achieving a good change in one’s society. Such theories draw on a variety of science disciplines and approaches that can provide a framework to understand how and why people evolve throughout their lifespan. Theorists in an attempt to make sense out of their observations try and design concepts that can outline a person’s development throughout life from one’s start as an infant all the way through adulthood (Berger, 2010). The influential theorists in this paper that I will discuss are: Sigmund Freud, John Watson, and Jean Piaget. Psychoanalytic theory is a theory of personality organization and the dynamics of human development that holds that irrational, unconscious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior (Berger, 2010 p. 17). (Berger, 2010) According to Freud, development occurs over three stages during the first six years of life, each stage being characterized by sexual...
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