Piaget

1. Piaget Stages of Development

2. Stages of Cognitive Development • Children learn through their senses, exploration, & trial & error • Sensorimotor stage - Birth to age 2 • Preoperational stage – age 2 through age 6 • Concrete operational stage – age 7 through 11 • Formal operational stage – age 12 through adulthood

3. Sensorimotor Stage Ages birth to 2 • Learning is limited through senses, trying to make sense of their world • Eyes - Sight – looking • Ears - Sound – Listening • Nose - smell • Mouth –Sucking – taste, shape, feel of object • Hands – grasping, touching • Babies – hand to mouth - They learn about objects and things through their senses and their mouth is the first body part with which they explore

4. Preoperational Stage Age 2 to 6 Pre concrete stage K – 1st grade Experiments • Language Development • Symbolism i.e. a broom becomes a horse, a stick becomes a sword • Playing, Pretending & Role Playing (doctor, mommy) • Liquid in a cup • Money – which is more? - Children will select nickel over dime when asked which is more, because the nickel is larger in size

5. Concrete Operational Stage Age 7 to 11 Elementary school age Grade 2 through 5 Hands-on learning is CRITICAL • Children see things in concrete ways • They do not have abstract thought, thus can’t understand hypothesis and things they cannot see; i.e. inflation, sportsmanship • Implications for teaching • Demonstrations & Pinpointing are hugely important! • Use concrete boundary markers (cones to mark corners, use lines to help children line up, polyspots for personal space, show me with your fingers how many; point to your next station; stand beside your partner, face your partner, etc.) • Line up shoulder to shoulder (be direct & specific) • Teachers must be specific!

6. Formal Operational Stage • Age 12 to adulthood – 6th grade & up • Some never reach this stage, thus important for teachers to use concrete examples frequently • Begins to think abstractly • Can think hypothetically • Can think inside one’s head

7. Formal Operational Stage • Can think about things one can’t see or touch; such as: - Sportsmanship, offense, defense • Inflation, Social Justice, Capitalism, democracy • This is when we see children at this stage of thinking getting involved with solving problems (using Styrofoam in cafeterias); volunteerism, etc.

8. Formal Operational Stage • Can generalize i.e. to have good friends I must be a good friend • Can begin to use a general principle to solve a specific problem - important for math and science; strategy in game play, can imagine how an offensive play will work… • Begins to think about outcomes & consequences – if I do this – that will happen

9. Formal Operational Stage • Can problem solve, likes to think about world issues (poverty, gender roles, democracy) likes puzzles, word problems, etc. • Can begin to see gray areas – not just black & white

10. Deductive Reasoning Strong logic Weak Logic • All men are mortal • Socrates is a man • Therefore, Socrates is mortal • All monkeys like bananas • Fido is a monkey • Therefore, Fido likes bananas • All monkeys like bananas • I like bananas • Therefore, I am a monkey

11. Inductive Reasoning • There are 20 balls in an urn, either black or white. To estimate their respective numbers you draw a sample of 4 balls and find that 3 are black, one is white. A good inductive generalization would be: there are 15 black and 5 white balls in the urn.