piagets theory

• Schema


  Framework for things / situations, based on past experiences
• Piaget's theory of cognitive development


  • Schema
  • Disequilibrium
  • Assimilation
  • Accommodation
• strength

  • vygotskys theory
  • Emphasises the role of the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)
  • Piaget minimises the role of others
• weakness


  Piaget's sample was unrepresentative, consisting of only upper-class children of Swiss university lecturers
• strength


  Howe et al research supports the idea that everyone has their own unique representation of the world
• strength


  application to teaching - 1960s

  discovery based learning

  child is a scientist - experiments
• equilibrium


  explore our environment to improve our understanding of a scenario
• accommodation

  • change and create
  • new and radical info that we have to form a new schema for
• assimilation

  • same schema
  • new and not radical info that we incorporate into our schema
• disequilibrium

  • motivation to learn
  • when our current understanding doesn't match the info presented to us