Cognitive TheoryPiaget & Gagnes

Piaget

Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development.

The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant and then the child develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses.

There are three basic components to Piaget’s Cognitive Theory:

1. Schema (building blocks of knowledge)

2. Adaptation processes that enable the transition from one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation)

3. Stages of Development Sensorimotor Preoperational Concrete operational Formal operation

SchemaPiaget (1952) defined schema as a cohesive,

repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and govern by a core meaning.

It is a mental representation of the world, which is used to understand and respond to situation.

It is the building block of intelligent behaviour, a way of organizing knowledge.

Schema cont’dWhen a child is capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium. (Meaning a state of cognitive balance)

It is believed that we stored those mental processes and use them when we need.

For e.g. A person might have a schema about buying KFC. The schema is a stored form of pattern of behaviour which includes looking at the menu, ordering food, paying the bill and eating it.

NB: Whenever the person goes to KFC they retrieve this schema from memory and apply it to the situation

However, Piaget believed that newborn babies have a small number of innate schema. These schema are structured with reflexes.

For example: Babies have sucking reflexes which is structured by something that triggers the lips• Grasping reflex is structured by touching the palm of

the baby’s hand.• Rooting reflex involves the situation in which the

baby will turn its head towards someone which touches its cheek

• Shaking a rattle would be a combination of two schema, grasping and shaking.

Adaptation Processes

This happens through:

assimilation

accommodation

equilibrium.

AssimilationThis is using an existing schema to deal with a

new object or situation.

For e.g. A 2 years old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head and has long, frizzy hair on the sides. To his father horror, the toddler shouts ‘clown, clown’.

Accommodation This happens when the existing schema does not work and needs

to be changed to deal with new object or situation.

For e.g. In the clown incident, the boy’s father explained to his son that the man was not a clown and that even though his hair was like a clown’s, he wasn’t wearing a funny costume and wasn’t doing silly things to make people laugh.

With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of clown and make the idea fit better to a standard concept of clown.

Equilibrium

The force that drives the learning process.

According to Piaget (1958), assimilation and accommodation require an active learner, not a passive one because problem-solving skills cannot be taught they must be discovered.

Within the classroom learning should be student centered and accomplished through active discovery learning in which the teacher should facilitate learning rather than direct tuition.

Ways Teachers can encourage this learning within the classroom

Focus on the process of learning rather than the end product. Using active methods that require rediscovering or

reconstructing truth. Using collaborative as well as individual activities. Devising situations that present useful problems and create

disequilibrium in the child Evaluate the level of the child’s development, so suitable task

can be set.