Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who constructed the theory of cognitive development after observing children for many years. He believed that children think very differently than adults and learn through active experimentation rather than passive instruction. Piaget's theory describes four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Each stage is characterized by developments in logical thinking and understanding of the world. Piaget's theory supports integrating technology into education because it provides opportunities to engage diverse learners according to their development levels.

2. About Piaget
Jean Piaget
August 1896 – 16 September 1980
-Swiss developmental psychologist
-Constructed the cognitive learning theory after observing
children for many years
-Perceived that children think very differently that adults
-Felt that children were active learners and didn't need
motivation from adults to learn
-Theories support the use and integration of technology because
of the opportunities technology supplies to reach a diverse
population of learners with different learning styles
-Believed there are four invariant stages of development

3. Piaget’s 4 Stages

4. Sensorimotor (birth through age 1 ½ 2 years old)
 Trial-and-error experimentation: exploration
of objects to determine their properties.
 Goal-directed behavior: intentional behavior
to cause a specific result.
 Object permanence: understanding that object
continue to exist, even when removed from
view.

5. Preoperational (age 2 through age 5-7)
 Language: development
and expansion of
vocabulary and grammar.
 Pretend play: performance
of real-life or fanciful
scenarios with specific
roles and storylines.

6. Concrete Operations
(age 5-7 through age 11-12)
 Distinction between one’s own and other’s
perspectives: understanding that one’s personal
thoughts and feelings can differ from someone
else’s.
 Class inclusion: ability to categorize objects into
two or more groups simultaneously.
 Conservation: understanding that an amount
stays the same if nothing is added or taken away,
regardless of changes in shape or composition.

7. Formal Operations
(age 11-12 through adulthood)
 Reasoning: ability to draw logical conclusions
about abstract and hypothetical ideas and
situations.
 Proportional Reasoning: conceptual
understanding of fractions, percentages, and
ratios.
 Idealism: the capacity to imagine alternatives
to current social and political practices.

8. Teacher Implications
 Using Web Quests, scavenger and treasure
hunts, curriculum pages, and many other
educational technologies, teachers can actively
engage students in the learning process

9. Student Implications
 Students not only can use multimedia to learn, but
they can also use it to communicate their
understanding of the subject to those around them.
 Virtual reality has the potential to move education
from its reliance on books to experiential learning in
naturalistic settings. For example, rather than reading
about an event, the children can participate in the
event with simulated persons and/or objects. These
technologies supply the students with a learning
environment that encourages children to initiate and
complete their own activities.

10. Our Future Classrooms
 This theory could be very useful for our future
teaching. It is incredibly useful to have these 4
stages in the back of one’s mind when planning
lessons for a class and ensuring everything is
“stage appropriate”. This will help to make sure
we are not teaching something that is
unreasonable in our classrooms. We can use
Piaget’s ideas about child development to
supplement our own existing ideas and to help us
create environments that promote active and
engaged learning for our students.

11. Resources Used
 Websites Used:
http://eburke87.wordpress.com/technology-in-the-classroom/
http://www.sk.com.br/sk-piage.html
http://onno95.blogspot.com/2009/04/development-of-cognitive-functions-and.html
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tF0WbdCD9cHf1U0lnQrEVQ
 Other Sources:
Integrating Technology and Digital Media In The Classroom 6th Ed.:
Teachers Discovering Computers, Shelly, Cashman, Gunter, and
Gunter (2009).