JEAN PIAGETS STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: ITS IMPLICATION TO HUMAN LEARNING

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A RESEARCH PAPER PRESENTED TO THE TEACHERS COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF BOHOL

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In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course in Facilitating Learning

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By ROLAND L. APARECE November 17, 2012

JEAN PIAGETS COGNITIVE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT1: ITS IMPLICATION TO HUMAN LEARNING

This research paper aims to present the revolutionary works Jean Piaget in the field of human cognitive development and its impact in the field of education. For this reason, this research paper will divided into two major sections: Jean Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development and its implications to human learning. After a thorough discussion on each stage of cognitive development, an extensive discussion of its corresponding implications to human learning will follow.

I. STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

A young childs way of knowing and understanding reality follows consistent stages of development. In the same way as the human body grows and develops over time until it reaches maturity, the human mind also grows and develops towards maturity.

Major Assumptions, Terms and Concepts of Piagets Theory

Jean Piaget believed that human beings are all born with an innate drive toward knowledge as part of our overall need for survival. He claimed that human cognition has an adaptive ability that facilitates our survival as a species in this world. It is quite notable that our human body structures allow us to adopt the different situations that occur in the external world. In the same manner, our mental structures are also actively involved in understanding the external world that helps us to adapt to and survive in this world. Our human cognitive
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Condensed and revised by Mr. Roland L. Aparece, MA from General Psychology for Filipino College Students edited by Lolita Teh and Ma. Elizabeth Macapagal (Quezon City: Ateneo De Manila University Press, 2007.)pp. 63-70. However, the discussion on the theorys implications to human learning in this paper is based largely upon the philosophical reflections of the researcher.

processes help us adapt to the environment. Thus, intelligence is that ability to make adaptive choices. It is claimed that Piagets most significant contributions is his optimistic assessment on childrens thinking. First, he asserted that children are not incomplete and lesser in intelligence, rather, their mental structures and ways of knowing are qualitatively different from adults. Second, Piaget viewed the child as an active constructor of knowledge. He further claimed that humans are have an innate drive for knowledge, and possessed the mental structures necessary for learning from experience and from the environment. To comprehend clearly the perspective of intelligence as a process and as adaptation, we need to consider the key Piagetian concepts namely: schemas, or mental structures that develop, assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.

I. Schemata. Mental schemes or schemas are the basic units of the intellect. They are cognitive factors by which we make sense of our experiences, organize our interactions with the environment, and interpret the external world. Our mental schemes change and become more complex with age and experience. Take the schemes of an infant as an example. In the first weeks of life, an infants schemes such as sucking and grasping, among others are mainly reflexive. These reflex schemes are needed for the infants survival as she interacts with the environment. It is interesting to note that infants knowledge of the world is completely seized by these reflexes. These reflexes are built-in through a long process of evolution. No learning takes place here since these are more basic instinctive mechanisms designed by evolution for human survival. For example, the infants instinctive reaction of sucking relatively anything that touches ones lips is needed for her survival. One does not need to learn it since it is an automatic response. Overtime, however, the infant develops more complex schemas that are better attuned to the

demands of the environment, such as those for eating solid food, using spoon and fork, crawling and the development of linguistic concepts like mother, father, and so on.

II. Assimilation and Accommodation, and Equilibration

Assimilation and Accommodation are two major processes that allow schemas to grow and change over time. Assimilation is the process of taking new information and experiences according to ones existing schemes. In assimilation, the person changes the environment so as to fit the existing structures in the mind instead of changing ones mental structures to meet the demands of the environment. A good example, as illustrated by the book, is the infants use their sucking schema not only in sucking nipples but also in sucking fingers, blankets and so on. But, if we keep on assimilating only, then growth and learning new things are not possible. Indeed, if we continue to spontaneously exercise and apply existing schemes to our experiences and environments, we are bound to encounter new and discrepant stimuli that may not fit with our current schemes. The latter brings about disequilibrium, or a cognitive imbalance which prompts us to engage in the complimentary process known as accommodation. Otherwise, if we continue to assimilate, then our explanation about the present events and our predictions about the future will not hold as valid since these are not grounded on reality.

Accommodation is the process of modifying or differentiating existing schemes to better fit the new stimulus or information. In other words, it enables us to deal with new knowledge from the environment by changing our own structures or behaviors. Accommodation occurs when new information or stimuli cannot be assimilated and old schemas are changed to adapt new situations. For example, the infant changes her existing sucking schema to adjust to the new situation of eating with a spoon and fork. In

accommodation, our mental schemes become more complex and reflect the external world more accurately, thereby allowing us to adapt more effectively. Equilibrium, or cognitive balance, will have been attained, when schemes that emerge are in accordance with the demands and information from the external world. In this case, ones explanations about the present events and predictions about future events are valid since these are grounded upon reality. As a consequence of the complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation, the childs cognitive abilities undergo an orderly series of increasing complexity. When enough changes have occurred, the individual undergoes a large developmental shift in his or her point of view. Piaget called these developmental shifts stages in development. According to Piaget, all children go through at approximately the same age, regardless of the culture in which they live. No stage can be skipped, since the skills acquired at the earlier stages are essential to the mastery of the later stages.

The Stages of Cognitive Development

I. Sensorimotor Stage (from birth - 2 years)

During the Sensorimotor stage, which last from birth until the time of significant language acquisition (at about age 2) children explore the world and develop their schemas primarily through their senses and motor activitieshence the term sensorimotor. This is precisely because babies at this stage do not have the capacity to mentally represent information and experiences. They could not represent the external world into mental concepts. At this point, all they know is based on direct manipulation and exploration of the environment. Interestingly, in observing infants, one could notice that they put everything into their mouth and

sometimes bangs pots and pans together for what may seem like hours. As Piaget explains, they do this because they are little scientists, eagerly exploring the world. As they gradually apply their sensory motor schemes in their environment, infants gradually develop an understanding that they are separate from the external world, a process called decentration. They also realized that they can purposively act on objects in the world, a process known as intentionality. A third ability that gradually develops in this stage is objective permanence, the awareness that objects and other stimuli continue to exist even outside of the infants perception (8-12 months: partial objective permanence, 12-18 months: full objective permanence. Implications of this stage to human Learning: Since infants/babies during this stage learn through their sensory and motor activities, their parents and guardians must carefully watch over them. It must be stressed here that Piagets theory of Cognitive Development will be understood better when we shall relate it with other theories of development. For instance, the infants psycho-sexual stage is Oral according to Sigmund Freud; while their psycho-social crisis is Trust versus Mistrust according to Eric Erickson. This is the reason why whatever objects the infants/babies grabbed, they usually put them inside their mouths without knowing that some of these objects could harm them. This common behavior of putting almost everything inside their mouths simply affirms the mouth as the chief source of pleasure-giving sensation which facilitates human survival. Somehow, I think also that infants/babies at this stage have a dilemma whether or not they are still inside their mothers womb wherein everything is safe. Now, this dilemma will be dismissed as the infants and babies develop as sense of Trust whenever all their needs are addressed accordingly. So, parents and care givers must exercise extra-ordinary diligence in addressing all the needs of their infants/babies accordingly. In this way, they will develop a sense of trust upon their parents and care givers.

Now, upon trial and error, the babies acquired three abilities namely: decentration, intentionality and objective permanence. These abilities will be developed even more with the key contributions of their parents and care givers or guardians. This is possible by providing a healthy and safe environment. Consequently, the infants and babies can safely conduct experiments inside their rooms as little scientists.

II. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)

At this stage children have acquired object permanence and can now understand that sound can be used as symbols for objects (knowledge of objects must precede the use of languageyou have to acknowledge an object before you label it). This ability for symbolic thinking, i.e., the ability to make something stands for something, expands the cognitive world of the child. The child is now able to engage in symbolic play (e.g., putting a box over ones head and calling it a hat) and to use language to represent objects and persons.

Implications of this stage to human Learning: In preoperational stage, we can identify what the child knows by talking to the child, i.e., through language. Moreover, we also identify how the child knows by looking at how the child plays. Indeed, a lot of the childs knowledge is manifested in or evidenced by symbolic play. What are the implications of this on selecting proper toys for children in this age bracket? It is better to give children unstructured materials instead of toys which are exact replicas of objects around us. This is because unstructured materials like water, sand, mud, clay, blocks and others facilitate the childs imagination and symbolic activities. However, the use of these unstructured materials must be strictly supervised by childrens parents and guardians since these materials can cause harm when swallowed or abused.

Lastly, Piaget describes this stage as preoperational because the thinking ability of the child is still rigid and illogical because of the childs inability to perform mental operation. Operations are mental representations of actions that obey logical rules. Operational thinking is present only when actions can be transformed, manipulated and reorganized mentally. Because of the preoperational thinking of the child at this point, several limitations exist at this stage as well.

Important Limitations of this stage:

i) Egocentrism refers to the preoperational childs inability to consider anothers point of view. They assume that others see, hear, feel and think exactly what they do. They feel that people and objects in the world exist only for their use and benefit. Implications of this stage to human Learning: This egocentrism of the child is due to limitations on her cognitive structure. Unfortunately, we tend to judge this intellectual deficit as a moral deficit. We punish the child for a moral standard she cannot simply fulfill because she cannot understand yet. In this regard, I can relate this to the story of one of my colleagues. Her husband is currently working abroad and somehow she feels so tired doing all the family obligations alone. At the point of frustrations, she told her eldest daughter, who was then five (5) years old, to stop playing and spreading dirt because she felt so tired already of cleaning the house. The girl replied, Mommy, bahala ka sa buhay mo! Because of this reaction, she really tortured her daughter using belt (iyang gikulata ug gilatigo) and her daughter suffered bruises. I think the said reaction of her daughter was without malice since it is a product of egocentrism. I just imagine myself in the same situation. My mom, who is 74 years old, will complain, my son, please stop surfing the internet, doing facebook, and help me is cleaning the house. Then I, who

is now 36 years old would say, Mommy, bahala ka sa buhay mo! This is not a product of sheer egocentrism but pure malice which deserves punishment. ii) Animism refers to the preoperational childs belief that all things are living or animated and capable of intentions, consciousness, and feelings. Implications of this stage to human Learning: Again, it is best to use unstructured materials as toys because this will facilitate the development of their imagination since they are living in a symbolic world. The use concrete objects, on the other hand, will not reinforce the development of the childs symbolic thinking. iii) Inability to decenter or Centration. This refers to the childs tendency to focus attention on only one part of a whole or one aspect of a stimulus at a time. They cannot think simultaneous thoughts at the same time. Moreover, the attention of young children is often perception bound, or tends to focus on the most perceptually salient features of a stimulus, or what the object looks like. For this reason, children at this age are often fooled by an objects appearance. They ascribe the real nature of the object to it. To illustrate, clowns and costume mascots in birthday parties may inspire real joy or fear in children because these children think that the characters truly are Jollibee, McDonald, and the like. It is difficult to convince them otherwise! In the same way, whenever they witness their parents will going out of the house, the child will cry so hard because they might thought that they will be lost forever. This is the common experience that we observed which we call in Binisaya as ming ayaw. If this is the case, then I think it is advisable that parents must bring their children to play with their playmates so that, upon enjoying the game they play, the parents can now secretly leave without being noticed.

iv) Inability to conserve. This refers to the childs inability to follow transformation mentally. The child tends to make judgments based only on what she sees and not on what actually is. Some conservation principles which children have not yet mastered at this

stage are: conservation of liquid, conservation of number, conservation of mass, conservation of length.

III. Concrete Operational stage (7-11 years)

Concrete operational children have the ability to understand principles of conservation, can consider several features of objects simultaneously, perceive others view points, and most importantly, think in a reversible and operational fashion.

The child now has the ability to perform operations. Specifically, the older child is capable of seriation, or the ability to order objects according to some quantitative dimension (smallest to biggest; shortest to longest). She/he is able to solve transitive reasoning problems (If Anna is taller than Jenny, and Jenny is taller than Mina, then who is the tallest?) A third qualification is that of classification, or recognizing the hierarchical relations between sets and subsets. A child can identify, for example, that roses, santan and gumamela all belong to the category of flowers, and that flowers, in turn, fall under the classification of plants.

The skills of seriation, transitive reasoning, and reasoning all require decentered, reversible and flexible thinking- the ability to understand that an object can be described according to two or more dimensions simultaneously. However, children at this stage can think in this way with regard to what is observable and tangible or concrete reality but not on an abstract/conceptual level yet. Implications of this stage to human Learning: At this stage, it is better to use and develop only one concrete concept in teaching the child. Above all, this concept must be accompanied by drawings and concrete illustrations. I remember when I was still in grade one, our book develops only one concept all throughout. It

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talks about Henipine, like: Henipine is a hen; Henipine is a big hen, and so on. These statements are accompanied by big drawings of a hen. Moreover, the teacher must give concrete examples like drawings to stress seriation, transitive reasoning and classification. I think, the goal of learning at this stage is best done by using ones native language as the medium of instruction. More so, the examples must be taken from the common experience eof the children so that they could associate well with the lesson discussed. I can vividly recall in grade 1 when I was called by my teacher to classify the following: manga, makupa at ubas which I really failed to answer because I dont know what is makupa and ubas. So, I could not answer and classify that all these are prutas even if I was then one of the best pupils in class. Moreover, teaching at this stage must avoid if possible the use of abstract concepts and realities. This is because the childrens stage of learning is concrete operational. Concepts that requires abstractions like justice, transcendental equality of human dignity should be avoided.

III. Formal Operational

This is the highest stage of cognitive development. The child, who is now in the stage of adolescence, reasons logically, starting from premises and drawing conclusions; entertains hypotheses, deduces consequences, and uses these deductions to test hypotheses; and solves problems by tackling all possibilities systematically. Mental acts at this stage are unlimited by time and space: the range is infinity and eternity. The ability for hypothetical-deductive reasoning develops. This refers to the ability of the person to consider all variables and possibilities simultaneously, to see relationships, and to be able to tackle them systematically no matter what the content is (an abstract or concrete reality). Piaget also calls this logico-mathematical intelligence. The hypothetical deductive thinking becomes a very powerful tool in planning as well as in looking ahead the possible consequences of ones actions.

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 Implications of this stage to human Learning: Logical thinking must be given primary importance at this stage. The use of hypothetical-deductive thinking must be glorified by use of actual and hypothetical cases wherein students are called to decide and exercise their judgment. Here, formal operational thinking must be used as a powerful tool in planning as well as in looking ahead the possible consequences of ones actions. In this case, if one student asks that teacher about the solution of a moral dilemma or advise about a possible life-changing decision, the teacher must not offer any solution or advise. Rather, that teacher must lead the student to the future consequences of ones decision and ask the student, Do you like these consequences to happen in your life? If in conscience they answered yes, then, go for it! Here, the professor is teaching the students the value of philosophizing in order to search the truth knowing the that the truth will search one free. This stage of learning is more holistic in its orientation. In the order of knowledge, it means searching the truth; in the order of action, it means serving justice to all; and, in the order passion, it means universal love, a love whose object is the whole universe and not only the lovable.

Evaluating Piagets theory

Piaget was the forerunner of todays cognitive revolution in psychology, with its emphasis on internal cognitive processes. His theory has inspired more research on childrens cognitive development than any other theorist. Piagets theory also revolutionized teaching method for children. Understanding how children think has help many teachers know what topics are more appropriate for children at given ages.

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Criticism of Piagets method and theory: 1. Piagets theory focuses mainly on the average childs cognitive development. His theory does not take into account individual differences, or the ways in which other factors like culture and personality affect intellectual development. I think this criticism could not dismiss the strong inductive probability of Jean Piagets theory. Primarily, its because it is a product of more the 25 years of study upon average individuals. Indeed, it is very difficult to find gifted individuals and they are very few in numbers. Upon the other hand, criticism dealing with individual differences in terms of cultures and personality can be dismissed by asserting that in cognitive development, the focus is the growth in mental ability and not on personal preference, values and cultural practices.

2. Many of Piagets ideas emerged from his personal observations of his own three
children, and not from scientific research. This criticism is invalid. Personal observation is the first step of the scientific method. So, the ideas of Jean Piaget are products of scientific research. More so, studying his own children is more reliable since he can observe them every day. In effect, the said study was a product of a diligent scientific study.

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