Jean Piaget was a pioneering psychologist who studied child development without any formal training in psychology. Through observing and experimenting with children, he developed a theory of cognitive development consisting of 4 stages - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Piaget believed that children progress through these stages based on processes of organization and adaptation, involving assimilation of new experiences into existing understanding and accommodation through modifying understanding. His theory emphasized that children learn through active exploration rather than passive learning, and that instruction should be tailored to children's cognitive levels at different stages. Piaget's work profoundly influenced theories of child development and early education.

1. PAPER : Principal of methods of teaching
TOPIC : Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive
Development
SUBMITTED TO : Mr Khati
SUBMITTED BY: Purva Sah

2. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was
one of the pioneers in
psychological investigation of
children although he neither
undertook formal study nor
passed any examination in
psychology. He was a Biologist
by training. At an early age of
22, he obtained his Doctorate
Degree in Zoology on Mollusks
of Valias . He Worked on child
development for more than 50
years and produced enormous
literature on Development
Psychology.

3. He read Philosophy, Psychology and
Sociology etc. He pursued clinical
research at Alfred Binet Laboratory
at Paris. By observing, dissecting
and experimenting with children, he
developed his educational theory
regarding cognitive development or
learning by children. His work as a
Professor of Child Psychology at the
University of Geneva (Switzerland)
made him famous throughout the
world.
With the observation of his own
three children, Piaget began his
study of child development. His
investigations were gradually
extended to other children. This
resulted in' the publication of a large
number of papers and books often
quoted by eminent thinkers on
education.

4. • Publications of Piaget Psychology
 The Language of Thought of the Child (1923)
 Judgement and Reasoning in the Child (1924).
 The Child's Conception of the Physical World 11926).
 The Moral Judgement of the Child (1932)
 The Origin of Intelligence in the Child (1937).
 The Child's Conception of Number (1941).
 The Child's Construction of Physical Quantities (1942).
 Play Dreams and Imitations in Childhood (1945).
 The Child's Conception of Time (1946).
 The Child's Conception of Geometry (1962).
 The Early Growth of Logic in the Child (1964).
 Mental Imagery in the Child 1969).
 The Mechanism Perception (1969).
 The Psychology of the Child (1969).
 Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child (1969).
 The Origin or the Idea of Chance in Children (1975).
 The Grasp of Consciousness (1976).

5. Jean Piaget divides cognitive development into 4 stages or
major periods -
l. Sensorimotor
2. Pre-operational
3. Concrete Operational and
4. Formal Operational
Piaget asserts that all children progress through all these
stages in a fixed order.

6. In Piaget's system, two processes : Organization and
adaptation actively operate during each of the four
stages.
1.Organization : It is the process by which different
elements within a System maintain communication e.g.
, we have tendency to organize basic sensory
information (such as images and other experiences) in
order to form more complex ideas and thought.
2. Adaptation : It consists of complementary processes
of assimilation and accommodation. These two
processes are the basic for Cognitive Growth.
 Assimilation :- ‘Assimilation’ implies incorporation of
something from environment. New ideas, concepts and
stimuli are taken in and incorporated into one's
‘existing set of schemes’. A scheme is the organized
pattern of behaviour which the child develops when he
is engaged in any activity.

7. For example, when a child is engaged in sucking, there
is a certain of movements of the cheeks, lips and
hands. When child is confronted with a new object, he
will try to understand the new object by applying his
scheme to it. He grasps it and adapts himself to a new
object by assimilating it. His old scheme does not
change in the process.
 Accommodation- Accommodation involves change of
some elements of an old scheme or modification or
learning a new scheme which is more appropriate for
the new object. A baby who has already got a scheme
of sucking mother's breast, accommodates to the
object placed in the mouth-finger, nipple, pencil, a toy—
depending on its shape, form and the size. The baby
develops a new scheme or a modified scheme. This
process is called accomodation.

8. A baby assimilates when he understands and perceives
the new in the light of his old perceptions. A baby forms
a new scheme when he modifies or changes his old
perception to suit the new. This implies adjusting
accomodating. In this way, a baby forms new structures
or new schemes and consequently develops cognivity.
Stages of Cognitive Development
1. Sensori Motor Scope
This is from birth to two years.
Step I During the first month : The babies are unaware of
themselves and of the objects around them, e.g., they do
not realize that the bottle they suck and the bottle they
grasp are one and the same thing. The infant has a lack
of what Piaget calls Object permanence.
Step Il : First four months : Motor activities become
more co-ordinated .

9. Step III : 4 to 8 months: The infants attempt to control
and manipulate the objects which are often conical.
They may hear an interesting noise but since they do
not know what caused it, they try to make the noise
recur by repeating whatever they were doing when they
heard the noise. The baby at this Stage also realizes
that objects exist when they are out of sight.
Step IV : 8 to 12 months: Thinking gives way to more
instrumental activity. The child has achieved object
permanence. He has developed some interval image of
the object to help him recall it and its location, he
displays sense of space and time, but the child is limited
intellectually.
Step V : 12 to 14 months : The child is able to locate the
hidden toys. Piaget sees much of the cognitive growth
as the formulation increasingly complex hypotheses in
the light of the experiences.

10. Step VI: 18 to 24 months: This last stage is important
because it represents the beginning of the child’s ability
to represent mentally objects that are no longer
physically present. In essence, it is the start of abstract
thought.
2. Pre-operational period
This is from two to seven years.
The ability to represent the external world mentally by
means of arbitary symbols that stand for objects are the
major advance made during this period. It is transitional
period and perspective of the child on the world expands
rapidly. During this period the child makes appropriate
generalizations and attribute his feelings to inanimate
objects—assuming, for example, that clouds 'cry' to
make rain. It is also known as the stage of proportional
thought.

11. 3. Operational Stages
This is during 7 to 11 years,
This period called Concrete operational stage is
characterized by the emergence of operations such as
conservation. Conservation means that a property or
attribute of an object remains the same despite some
transformation that changes the appearance of the
object. Piaget found that when a child at pre-
operational stage is shown two identical balls of clay
and then sees one rolled into a saucer, he may claim
that the saucer contains less clay because it is thinner
than the ball. The child is taking only one aspect
(shape) into account. The child does not know that this
saucer has taken shape from the same ball.
Ball Saucer

12. At about age 7, the child grasps the solution to
conservation problems developing three concepts that
characterize concrete operations. The first is :-
1.Compensation : Sausage is thinner but that change is
balanced by its increase in length.
2.Reversibility : If you role the sausage back, you get
the same ball you started with.
3.Identity : Nothing has been added to or subtracted
from the clay so the sausage and the ball contain the
same amount of clay.
At the level of concrete operations, children are able
to consider two aspects of a problem simultaneously.
In their social interpretations, they consider not only
what they are saying but also listen to others.

13. 4. Formal operations stage
This is from 11 to 15 years or Adulthood.
This is from here the youth begins and the nature of
thought undergoes a change. The complex abstract and
mature logic of adult begins manifest itself during
adolescence with the systematic analysis, exploration
and solution of problems.
During this period, thinking is purely abstract and
hypothetical. Piaget has been most concerned with the
capacity to reason problems, concepts of geometry,
language, space, time, number, order, etc.
During the teenage years, young people realize that
thoughts are private and that no one else knows what
they are thinking. They value friendship and sincerity
and spend much time trying to discern real motives. The
adult is more sensitive to the discrepancy between
reality and ideals. Teenager has knowledge of the rules
and his knowledge is different from that of small
children.

14. During this period (Formal Operations), the
crystallization of personality development takes place.
Forming of social and ideational position is closely
linked with the acquisition of moral values. At this
stage, the individual has reached his intellectual
maturity.

16. l. The child is learning by himself, the teacher occupies
a secondary position. The child discovers things
actively. Infants explore the world. Knowledge should
not be imposed.
2. It is the duty of the school, teachers and parents to
provide materials to children to sharpen their interests.
Let the child explore and solve the problems. The
class-room in early grades might be arranged in a
series of counters stocked with intriguing materials to
arouse children’s curiosity. Children should be allowed
to manipulate things and see results.
3. Instruction should be geared to the level of the child.
As the level of child changes at each stage, the level of
instruction or exploratory activities should also
change.

17. 4. The knowledge of cognitive stages of growth of a
child does help the teacher in more than one way. The
teacher should be sensitive to understand the child's
actions and be guided by his spontaneous interests.
5• Social interactions have a great educational value for
Piaget. Positive social actions, therefore, should be
encouraged.
Hinderances in Cognitive Development
1. Poor environmental stimulations.
2. Poor heriditary environment.
3. Lack of proper attention, assmilation, etc on the part
of learners.
4. Defective teaching learning material.
5. Low level of learners intelligence.