A work in progress edited by
Daniel Schugurensky
Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology,
The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
This year, Jean Piaget (1896-1980) publishes
'La naissance de l'intelligence chez l'enfant', which would be later translated
in English as 'The Origins of Intelligence in Children'. This book was the first
of a three-part volume on the beginnings of intelligence, that is to say, in the
words of Piaget (1952: ix), "to the various manifestations of sensorimotor
intelligence and to the most elementary forms of expression." The other two
volumes were 'La Construction du reel chez l'enfant' (published in French in
1937 and translated into English as 'The construction of reality in the child')
and ' La formation du symbole chez l'enfant' (published in French in 1946 and
translated as 'Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood'). This three-volume
work, which was part of his comprehensive and sophisticated theory of how
intelligence developed, opened new lines of research about the development of
cognitive functions in children.
Jean Piaget, a psychologist and pioneer in the study of child intelligence, was
born in Neuchatel, Switzerland in 1896. At age 10 he managed his first
publication, a description of a partly albino sparrow he observed in a public
park. At age 15, he set out to devote his life to developing a biological
explanation of knowledge.
He began his career as a zoologist, studying mollusks and their adaptations to
their environment. By age 21, he had already published 25 professional papers on
that topic. Later, after working with Alfred Binet in Paris, he became
interested in levels of logic used by children taking standardized tests on
intelligence. Following Rousseau and Pestalozzi, Piaget sought to establish a
body of psychology, supporting techniques for mental development. His
publications were all written originally in French, and took many years to be
translated into English.
In North America, Piaget is usually regarded primarily as a child psychologist
and educator. However, as B. Wadsworth (1989) points out, in the strict sense he
was neither. On the one hand, unlike most psychological research, his work was
not directly concerned with predicting behavior. On the other hand, he was not
directly concerned with how to teach children. His main research agenda was to
describe and explain in a systematic way the growth and development of
intellectual structures. He preferred to be labelled as a genetic
epistemologist.
Piaget worked for many years (1929-1954) as a professor of psychology at Geneva
University; he was a member and co-director of the Rousseau Institute, and in
155 founded the International Center of Genetic Epistemology in Geneva, which
attracted scholars from all over the world. His research and writing focused on
children's conceptions of morality, number, space, logic, geometry, and physical
reality. Piaget is often referred to as the founding father of developmental and
cognitive child psychology. Furthermore, Piaget's world-renowned research has
impacted fields including psychology, sociology, law, epistemology, economics
and education.
His research in developmental psychology and genetic epistemology centered
around the question: how does knowledge grow? He found that children's logic and
modes of thinking are initially entirely different from adults' ways of knowing
since children perceive reality differently. According to Piaget, children shape
their own conceptions of reality by continuous interactions with their
environment. Cognitive development occurs as children adapt to that environment,
thus building their sense of reality. So, he theorized that knowledge is a
continual, sequential progress, consisting of logically embedded structures
succeeding one another throughout one's lifetime. That is, children move from
one stage to the next by maturation and exploration. Piaget found that this
movement is not a merely a passage of time, but that it is a qualitative,
exploratory experience that entails understanding the world in more complex
ways. His four developmental stages are:
1. Sensorimotor, form eighteen months to two years
2. Preoperational, from two to seven years
3. Concrete operations, from seven to eleven years
4. Formal operations, from eleven to fifteen years
In the sensorimotor stage, Piaget found that infants are mostly governed by
reflexes, but also explore their environment by use of their mouths, eyes, and
hands. Through this activity, infants construct an organized view of the world
through trial and error. In the preoperational stage, children continue to
gather perceptions of their environment. They begin to organize and classify as
adults do. This stage is especially characterized as a growth in language. In
the concrete operations stage, children isolate the general characteristics of
objects and begin to think more abstractly. They comprehend numbers and
mathematical relationships, as well a sense of time. Finally, in formal
operations, they formulate abstract conclusions. They use the scientific method
and are capable of more complex mathematical, linguistic, mathematical, and
scientific processes.
Though most schools do not practice Piaget's psychology of learning completely,
his stages have been extrapolated for educational guidelines. According to
Piaget, the teacher's function is to assist children in their learning. It can
not be forced, but should be facilitated by creating situations where children
can naturally develop their mental abilities. In the Piagetian school
environment, three things must occur:
1. Teachers should encourage children to explore and experiment.
2. Instruction should be individualized so that children can learn in accordance
with their own readiness.
3. Children should be provided with concrete materials to touch, manipulate, and
use. (Ornstein et al, 1987).
Although Piaget's theories have been criticized at several levels, his work is
widely respected as original, systematic, rigourous and insightful. Piaget died
in Geneva in September 1980. He was 84 years old.
For more information:
http://www.piaget.org/index.html
Jean Piaget Society
http://www.oikos.org/Piagethom.htm
Homage to Jean Piaget
http://www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html
A Short Biography of Jean Piaget
Sources:
Ornstein A.C. & Levine D.U. (1987). Foundations of education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of Intelligence in Children. New York: International University Press.
Pullman, J.D. (1982). History of education in America. Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company.
Wadsworth, B. (1989). Piaget's theory of cognitive and affective development. NY: Longman.Prepared by DS and Jenny J. Lee (UCLA), 2000
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