Jean Piaget

(1896 – 1980)

A world renowned psychologist whose

insightful descriptions of children’s thinking
changed the way we understand cognitive
development.

A Presentation by:
Patrice Sharpe, Nardia Stultz and Stacy-Ann Waul
HIS LIFE

Piaget was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland

on August 9, 1896.
His earliest scholarly interest was in
Zoology.
Published his first paper scientific on an
albino sparrow paper at age 10.
HIS LIFE

At age 15 his articles earned him a favourable

reputation among Zoologists.
Studied Zoology and Philosophy at the
University of Neuchâtel (Class of 1918).
In Philosophy he studied Epistemology. He
decided to combine this field with his
background in biology and took up psychology
HIS LIFE

He went to Zurich to study under Carl Jung and

Eugen Bleuler.
Two years later while working in Paris he
devised and administered tests for school
children.
He became fascinated with the errors they
made which led him to explore their reasoning
process.
INTRODUCTION TO HIS WORK

Piaget defined development as the active

construction of knowledge and learning as the
passive formation of association.
He was interested in knowledge construction
and believed that cognitive development has
to come before learning.
HIS WORK

Piaget viewed children as people who

continually make and remake their own
reality.
Through his research he described four stages
of development through which all individuals
pass.
His theory of child development (genetic
epistemology) has had a worldwide impact .
GENETIC EPISTEMOLOGY

The study of how a child acquires and modifies

abstract ideas, such as the concepts of
causality, space, time, force, and morality.
Piaget’s methods involved questioning children
as well as observing their behaviour.
His so-called conservation tasks have been
highly influencial and are now used by
investigators all over the world.
PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

In his early work Piaget asked children

questions and was interested to discover that
when they gave the wrong answers they were
often the same kind of wrong answers.
He proposed that the way children think is
different from adults, and that thinking
develops in stages from infant to adulthood.
PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

He believes that changes in thinking are

biologically based.
Educators can use the developmental theories
behind each stage to create age appropriate
strategies for teaching mathematics.
STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

1st 3rd
SENSORIMOTOR Concrete
(0-2 years) Operational
(7-12 years)

Preoperational Formal Operational

2nd (2-6 years) 4th (12 years – adult)
 SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
0-2 years

Involving the senses and motor ability.

In the sensorimotor stage, an infant’s mental
and cognitive attributes develop from birth until
the appearance of language at about age 2.
At this point in development, children know the
world primarily through sensation and motor
skills such as hear, sight, feel, taste, move,
manipulate, bite, chew and so on.
 SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
0-2 years

The infant constructs an understanding of

the world by coordinating sensory
experiences with physical actions.

Progresses from reflexive, instinctual action

from birth to the beginning of symbolic
thought toward the end of the stage.
 SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
0-2 years

At this stage

they have the
ability to link
numbers to
objects (e.g.,
one dog, two
cats, three pigs,
four hippos).
 SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
0-2 years

Educators of children in this stage of

development should lay a solid
mathematical foundation by providing
activities that incorporate counting and
thus enhance children’s conceptual
development of number.
 SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
0-2 years

For example, pre-school teachers, parents

and caregivers can help children count
their fingers, toes and toys through
demonstration.
 PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
2-7 years

Early childhood to early primary years.

Gradually develops use of language and

demonstrates an increase in symbolic
thought, egocentric perspective and
displays limited logic.
 PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
2-7 years

Logical reasoning are not yet organized or

developed and as a result are only able to
think operations through logically in one
direction.
A child at this stage who understands that
adding three to five yields eight cannot yet
perform the reverse operation of taking
three from eight.
 PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
2-7 years

Children should engage with problem-solving tasks

that incorporate building blocks, sticks, stones and
3D shapes and other 3D objects.
In the classroom instructions are to be made clear,
simple and short while using actions to
demonstrate what is to be done.
Give opportunity for children to do hands on
practice and adequate time to manipulate the
objects being investigated by them.
 PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
2-7 years

While the child is working with a problem, the

teacher should elicit conversation from the child.
Feedback from the child, as well as observing his
actions on the materials, gives a basis that permits
the teacher to deduce the mechanisms of the
child’s thought processes.
 PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
2-7 years

Egocentric thinking –The child understands

the world only from their viewpoint, thinking
others have the same views and
experiences as they do. Therefore base
activities on relatable issues such as things
that they eat, how many siblings they have
and their interactions with each other.
 EGOCENTRISM – THE THREE MOUNTAIN TASK
2-7 years
 PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
2-7 years

Children’s perceptions in this stage of

development are generally restricted to
one aspect or dimension of an object at
the expense of the other aspects.
 PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
2-7 years

At this stage students should be guided to

effectively question the characteristics of
objects.
Example: Geometric Shapes - Students could
be asked to group the shapes according to
similar characteristics. After which they
should explain their decision and asked if
they could be grouped another way.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

Later primary school years.

Mental tasks tied to concrete objects and

situations. Able to solve hands-on problems
in logical fashion rather than intuitive
thought.
Understands laws of conservation and is
able to classify and put objects in to order.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

Understands reversibility.
Recognition of the logical stability of the
physical world. Elements can be changed
and transform and still conserve many of
their original characteristics, and
understanding that these changes can be
reversed.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

Examples of
the different
tasks given to
children to
assess
conservation.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

According to Piaget, a student’s ability to

solve conservation problems depends on
an understanding of three basic aspects of
reasoning:
Identity
Compensation
Reversibility
.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

Students can now consider two or three

dimensions simultaneously instead of
successively.
For example, in the liquids experiment, if
the child notices the lowered level of the
liquid, he also notices the glass is taller,
seeing both dimensions at the same time.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

The ability to put things in order (from

largest to smallest or from smallest to
largest) and to classify things are the two
logical operations that develop during this
stage and according to Piaget both are
essential for understanding number
concepts.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

A suitable activity would be to place

students in a line and ask them to place
themselves in order or height from tallest to
shortest.
The teacher could go on to ask the
student to separate his/her classmates
classifying them by gender and arranging
each category by height.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

 It is important to help students make

connections between the mathematics
concepts and the activity. Teachers should
incorporate materials that the student can
manipulate (eg. paper and scissors) thus
building their confidence and engaging their
minds even after the lesson is over.
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years

Hands-on activities are important. It allows

the students the opportunity to make
abstract ideas concrete, allowing them to
get their hands on mathematical ideas
and concepts as useful tools for solving
problems and understand abstract
relationships such as the connection
between symbols and quantity.
 FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
12-Adult

High school, college and adulthood.

Mental tasks involving abstract thinking and

coordination of a number of variables.
They become more adept at abstract thought
and deductive reasoning allowing the child to
construct his/her own mathematics.
 FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
12-Adult

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: Situations do

not have to be experienced to be imagined.
Inductive reasoning: Using specific observations
to identify general principles.
Abstract formal-operational thinking: scientific
thinking of formal operations which is necessary
for success in many advanced high school and
college courses.
 FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
12-Adult

Most math problems are based on hypothetical

situations, assumptions and givens.
Example: “Let a=15” or “Assumed a2 + b2 = z2” or
“Given side a = 15cm and side b = 19 cm”
The formal operational learner can now solve
questions based on the above without having to
refer to a concrete situation presented by the
teacher
 FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
12-Adult

Stop & Think: You are packing for a long

trip, but want to pack light. How many
different 3-piece outfits (pants, jacket,
shirt) will you have if you include 3 shirts,
3 pants, and 3 jackets (assuming all go
together fashionably)

At this stage a mental system for controlling sets of

variables and working through a set of possibilities is
needed.
 FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
12-Adult

In the classroom setting the teacher should

continue using the teaching strategies and
materials utilized in the concrete operational
stage.
Engage the use of visual and audio aids such as
power points, YouTube and other videos, charts,
graphs and diagrams.
 FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
12-Adult

The student should now be able to identify and

analyze elements in a math problem. Decipher
the information needed to solve the problem as
well as evaluate using criteria to judge the
adequacy of the solution arrived at and apply
solution by connecting the mathematical
concepts.
 FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
12-Adult

The ability to think hypothetically, consider

alternatives, identify all possible alternatives are
key features of this stage but not everyone
develops onto this. Some students remain at the
concrete operational stage throughout their
school years, even throughout life.

Answer for Stop & Think Question is 27 possible

combinations.
CONCLUSION

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is

based on the assumption that people try to
make sense of the world and actively create
knowledge through direct experiences with
objects, people, an ideas.
Maturation, activity, social transmission, and the
need for equilibrium all influence the way thinking
processes and knowledge develop.
CONCLUSION

Teachers, in interpreting Piaget’s work, must not

assume that their students can always think logically
in the abstract as abstract directions and
requirements may cause some students to fail at
tasks. Therefore constant reflection needs to be
undertaken by the teacher in order for a more
student oriented learning experience to develop. If
this is not done then there will be implications for both
learners and teachers.
REFERENCE

Woolfolk, Anita. Educational Psychology, Eleventh Edition, 2010

Woods, Barbara. Understanding Psychology, Second Edition, 2002

Encyclopedia America, Vol 19, 2006

The Mathematics Educator 2008, Vol. 18, No. 1, 26–30 from

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ841568.pdf

The Classroom 2018 from https://www.theclassroom.com/apply-

piagets-theory-classroom-7741298.html
THE END

GOOD BYE