cognitive theory

1. Cognitive Theory
Piaget & Gagnes

2. 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.

3. 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

4. Schema
 Piaget (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.

5. Schema cont’d
When 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

6.  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.

7. Adaptation Processes
This happens through:
 assimilation
 accommodation
 equilibrium.

8. Assimilation
This 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’.

9. 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.

10. Equilibrium
The force that drives the learning
process.

11.  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.

12. 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.