Running Head: PLAYERS 1 Major Players Tania Rickey EDU: 324 History of American Education Instructor: Carl Beyer March 16, 2015 PLAYERS 2 Major Players Education reform is an important part of our education system. Techniques and theories always need to change because times change, and what students need to know change. One reformer who I think did a lot for education was Jean Piaget. While Piaget’s contributions were not directly related to education, he was a psychologist who was concerned with how people, specifically children, learned. Piaget started looking at how children learned because he was interested in why young children would give wrong answers to questions and be so adamant about defending their answers. He started studying children at different ages and came up with a theory about development. His theory is called Piaget’s Cognitive Theory. He believed that children’s minds develop through stages. Each stage corresponds with the child’s age. At each stage there are certain milestones that need to be met in order to move onto the next stage. Once they have moved to the next stage they use what they have learned to acquire new information, and form it into new ideas. “At each stage the child must reconstruct and integrate concepts formed at previous stages. According to Piaget's theory of readiness, children should not be introduced to new concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage of cognitive development” (Webb, 2014, sec 7.8, para 29). Each stage is vital for growth and learning. There are four different stages of Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory. The first stage is Sensorimotor from birth to age two, the primary goal is to gain object permanence. Before gaining object permanence a child will think that if they cannot see something that it does not exist. The second stage is Preoperational from two years to seven years old. The primary goal in this stage is egocentrism and to use the imagination. Children in this stage are working on developing empathy, and think that everyone else sees the world as they do, they also tend to PLAYERS 3 think of inanimate objects as being alive. The third stage is Concrete Operational from seven to eleven years old. In this stage the primary goal is conservation and thinking logically. Children will learn that “conservation is the ability to understand that redistributing material does not affect its mass, number or volume” (McLeod, 2010, para 5). The last stage is Formal Operational from eleven years and on. In this stage people can think abstractly and logically. Piaget’s theory is important to education because it revealed that children were unable to perform certain tasks until they were ready. Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and stages the notion of 'readiness' is important. Readiness concerns when certain information or concepts should ...

1. Running Head: PLAYERS 1
Major Players
Tania Rickey
EDU: 324 History of American Education
Instructor: Carl Beyer
March 16, 2015
PLAYERS 2

2. Major Players
Education reform is an important part of our education system.
Techniques and theories
always need to change because times change, and what students
need to know change. One
reformer who I think did a lot for education was Jean Piaget.
While Piaget’s contributions were
not directly related to education, he was a psychologist who was
concerned with how people,
specifically children, learned.
Piaget started looking at how children learned because he was
interested in why young
children would give wrong answers to questions and be so
adamant about defending their
answers. He started studying children at different ages and came
up with a theory about
development. His theory is called Piaget’s Cognitive Theory. He
believed that children’s minds
develop through stages. Each stage corresponds with the child’s
age. At each stage there are
certain milestones that need to be met in order to move onto the
next stage. Once they have
moved to the next stage they use what they have learned to
acquire new information, and form it

3. into new ideas. “At each stage the child must reconstruct and
integrate concepts formed at
previous stages. According to Piaget's theory of readiness,
children should not be introduced to
new concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage of
cognitive development” (Webb,
2014, sec 7.8, para 29). Each stage is vital for growth and
learning.
There are four different stages of Piaget’s Cognitive
Development Theory. The first stage
is Sensorimotor from birth to age two, the primary goal is to
gain object permanence. Before
gaining object permanence a child will think that if they cannot
see something that it does not
exist. The second stage is Preoperational from two years to
seven years old. The primary goal in
this stage is egocentrism and to use the imagination. Children in
this stage are working on
developing empathy, and think that everyone else sees the world
as they do, they also tend to
PLAYERS 3

4. think of inanimate objects as being alive. The third stage is
Concrete Operational from seven to
eleven years old. In this stage the primary goal is conservation
and thinking logically. Children
will learn that “conservation is the ability to understand that
redistributing material does not
affect its mass, number or volume” (McLeod, 2010, para 5). The
last stage is Formal Operational
from eleven years and on. In this stage people can think
abstractly and logically.
Piaget’s theory is important to education because it revealed
that children were unable to
perform certain tasks until they were ready.
Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and
stages the notion of
'readiness' is important. Readiness concerns when certain
information or concepts should
be taught. According to Piaget's theory children should not be
taught certain concepts
until they have reached the appropriate stage of cognitive
development (McLeod, 2012,
para 39).
It becomes important in education because children of a certain
age are either ready or

5. not ready to learn certain material. A child at the age of five
will not be able to grasp a concept
like psychology, it would not be until at least age eleven that
this would become understandable.
Children learn best by doing a task rather than being told about
it, so if a child is not in the
proper stage they are not going to learn the task. By knowing
how children of certain ages think,
it becomes easier to know what concepts are appropriate for
them.
Piaget was a psychologist and was concerned with why children
of different ages were
able to grasp certain concepts. He came up with Piaget’s
Cognitive theory. This theory says that
there are four stages in which children need to learn certain
things. These stages correspond to
PLAYERS 4
their ages. Piaget contributed to the education system by
showing that children are able to gain a
certain kind of knowledge based off of their stage and age.

6. PLAYERS 5
References
McLeod, S. (2010). Concrete Operational Stage. Simply
Psychology. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/concrete-operational.html
McLeod, S. (2012). Jean Piaget. Simply Psychology. Retrieved
from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
Webb, L.D. (2014). History of American Education: Voices and
Perspectives. Bridgepoint

7. Education, Inc.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/concrete-operational.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
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