Jean Piaget

1. Jean Piaget 1896-1980

2. Young Piaget: • Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896 • first scientific paper at age 10 • became a zoologist with publication on Mollusks at age 15 • 1918, at the age of 21 he received his Doctorate in Science from the University of Neuchâtel.

3. Starting His Career: • 1921, his first article on the psychology of intelligence was published in the Journal of Psychology • In the same year, he accepted a position at the Institute J. J. Rousseau in Geneva. • Here he began with his students to research the reasoning of elementary school children.  This research became his first five books on child psychology.

4. Starting a Family: • In 1923, he married one of his student coworkers, Valentine Châtenay • In 1925, their first daughter was born • In 1927, their second daughter was born • In 1931, their only son was born. • Their children immediately became the focus of intense observation by Piaget and his wife.  This research became three more books.

5. Various Jobs: • 1929, Piaget began work as the director of the Bureau International Office of Education, in collaboration with UNESCO. • In 1940, He became chair of Experimental Psychology, the Director of the psychology laboratory, and the president of the Swiss Society of Psychology. • In 1955, he created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology, of which he served as director the rest of his life • in 1956, he created the School of Sciences at the University of Geneva.

6. Publications: • 1917--- Published a philosophic novel, Recherché • 1924--- Published The Language and Thought of the Child • 1926--- Published The Child's Conception of the World • 1927--- Published The Child's Conception of Causality • 1928--- Published Judgment and Reasoning in the Child • 1932--- Published The Moral Judgment of the Child • 1936--- Published The Origins of Intelligence in Children • 1951--- Published Play, Dreams, and Imitation in Children • 1958--- Published The Growth of Logical Thinking From Childhood to Adolescence • 1970--- Published Carmichael's Manual of Child Psychology • 1971--- Published Biology and Knowledge • 1974--- Published The Grasp of Consciousness

7. Piaget’s Final Days: • He continued working on a general theory of structures and tying his psychological work to biology for many more years.  Likewise, he continued his public service through UNESCO as a Swiss delegate.  By the end of his career, he had written over 60 books and many hundreds of articles.  He died in Geneva, September 16, 1980, one of the most significant psychologists of the twentieth century. • Piaget's oeuvre is known all over the world and is still an inspiration in fields like psychology, sociology, education, epistemology, economics and law as witnessed in the annual catalogues of the Jean Piaget Archives. He was awarded numerous prizes and honorary degrees all over the world.

8. Piaget’s Theories • He tried to understand and label learning stages that children go through. • He based his approach on organized schemata. • At any point in a child’s development the use of language can only reflect the characteristics and quality of its existing knowledge system.

9. Assimilation in Piaget’s theory is described when children use the acts of incorporating objects or aspects of objects into previously learned activities. Accommodation in Piaget’s theory described children taking new information and saving it because it was similar to old information or they disregarded the information because it had no previous relation. Assimilation and Accommodation

10. Piaget’s 4 Stages of Learning • Sensory motor(birth-2 years) • Preoperational (2-4 years) • Concrete (7-12 years) • Formal operational(12-15 years) • All 4 stages have specific characteristics in which the child will progress through.

11. Sensory Motor • The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight (object permanence).

12. Preoperational • In the preoperational stage of Piaget’s theory, children us initiative thinking and preconceptual thinking. For example, if a child posses a toy and then goes somewhere else and sees the same toy, the child will recognize the association.

13. Concrete Operational • As physical experience accumulates, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is also possible at this stage. For example, arithmetic equations can be solved with numbers, not just with objects.

14. Formal Operations • In this stage they become increasingly competent at adult-style thinking.  This involves using logical operations, and using them in the abstract, rather than the concrete.  This is often called hypothetical thinking.

15. Piaget’s Impact on Human Learning • Piaget had a major impact on developmental psychology. Today, he is still an inspiration to many different fields outside of psychology. Piaget developed the theory to help us explain how our minds grow over time. • The results of Piaget's work changed the way that teachers, parents and all those who work with and around children observe the children's behavior and response to their environment.

16. References: • Piaget, Jean, Encyclopedia Britannica, Retrieved October, 10, 2003, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online Edition • Lefrancios, G.R. (2000) Theories of human learning: What the old man said (4th ed.). Australia: Wadsworth Thomson Learning. • http://www.unige.ch/piaget/ • http://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/mscitedu/mite/lectures/term1/101/l2/rich.shtml • http://www.fmarion.edu/psych/bio/piaget.htm • http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/piaget.html