Piaget's Theory of Cog Dev

• What are schemas - How do they help + Types - Piaget

  • Piaget argues schemas are mental structures that contain info on a specific aspect of the world
  • Help us interact with the world around us.
  • They can be behavioural (help us cross a road)
  • Cognitive (multiply numbers mentally)
• Growth of schemas in children

  • As a child progresses through life, their interaction with the environment and new experiences allow their schemas to develop further (Discovery learning)
  • e.g. a child who spends more time with diff dogs - cognitively developing their knowledge of diff types of dogs
• Disequilibrium

  • Piaget argues - driving force behind modification and development of schemas is the motivation to learn from situations we don't understand
  • Motivation to learn comes when existing schemas don't allow us to make sense of something new (cognitive conflict)
  • Leads to an unpleasant feeling (disequilibrium)
• Equilibration

  • To return to equilibrium - schemas need to change to make sense of the new info
  • Through assimilation or accomodation, achieve equilibration
  • Enter the prefered state of equilibrium
  • Facilitates cognitive development
• Assimilation

  • Change our schemas by adding new info to existing schemas to understand a new exp and reach equilibration
  • e.g. child sees a parrot for the first time - add it to their existing schema for birds
• Accomodation

  • Change our schemas as a response to dramatically new exps, requiring the formation of new schemas to make sense of the situation
  • e.g. child who has never seen a monkey but sees one for the first time will create an entirely new schema for it
• The process of equilibration comes from assimilation or accomodation and takes place throughout our life as we come across new exps
• EVAL points for Piaget - cog dev

  • S - supporting evidence for exps improving schemas (Howe et al)
  • S - Piagetian concepts like discovery learning have been applied to the education system
  • W - over focus on independent learning and disregarding the role of others within our cog dev (Vygotsky)
  • W - Piagetian concepts like equilibration are hard to objectively measure and demonstrate under controlled conditions (Bryant)
• S - supporting evidence for exps improving schemas. Howe et al - kids aged 9-12, groups of 4 to study + discuss movement of objects down a slope. Their understanding was assessed before and after the discussion. Found - after a discussion - increased level of knowledge and understanding. Even though they didn't all arrive at the same conc about movement of objects (showing individual understanding), they all improved in their understanding. Shows as Piaget predicted, that children do learn from exp which allows them to develop more sophisticated schemas. /V
• S - Piagetian concepts like discovery learning have been applied to the education system. Instead of rote learning - dominant form of learning decades ago, today, children engage in exps which lead to discovery learning. e.g. primary skl, learn colour theory, instead of rote learning, they practically explore how diff colours are created via mixing. secondary skl, students can learn states of matter by practically experimenting with ice cubes and heat. S bc - shows piaget's theory isn't purely theoretical but in reality improves students lives as they can better access learning. /U
• W - Piagetian concepts like equilibration are hard to objectively measure and demonstrate under controlled conditions. Bryant - unclear regarding the level of 'cognitive conflict' that a schema has to go through to reach a state of disequilibrium as it's not measurable. Some Rs argue that concepts like assimilation/accommodation aren't testable and are difficult to operationalise and study. e.g. one way it's difficult to study is the fact that we can't tell whether someone went through assimilation or accomodation. Concepts within the theory are unscientific - less V, the theory itself has Q V