Piaget’s conceptions of Learning

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss epistemologist and also the most influential name in the sphere of Education during the last half of the 20th century. He was the leading figure in the study of cognitive development. However, Piaget was a biologist by training (he studied at the University of Neuchâtel) and dedicated himself to observing, in a scientific and rigorous way, the process of acquiring knowledge by children.

The development of his research allowed him to found Genetic Epistemology – a theory of knowledge based on the study of the psychological genesis of human thought. This text is divided into two parts: the first part consists of a short biography of the author while the second part addresses the 4 stages of cognitive development.

Piaget was invited by Simon to work in Binet’s laboratory in order to help standardize some tests of reasoning. However, the Swiss was interested in the reasons that led the student to fail in the answers to the logical tests. At this time, therefore, he began his research on children’s thinking and dedicated his life to developing a general theory of the development of logical intelligence.

Piaget’s extensive work caused interest among educators by problematizing the development of intelligence and the construction of thought. His theory was named Constructivism. “The Piagetian object of study is, therefore, the construction of knowledge from its genesis in the knowing subject” (DESLANDES, 2006, p.36). This epistemology became known as genetic epistemology, as it refers to the study of the genesis of knowledge. Piaget’s focus is the epistemic subject and this, in turn, is defined as the one who builds scientific knowledge of the world. It is evident that the central problem of Piaget’s work surrounds the question of how men construct knowledge.

In order to solve this problem, the epistemologist took advantage of a clinical methodology and through this created problem-situations and interactively observed how the children resolved these situations. This method was characterized as the deep study of individual cases, and takes place through the interaction between examiner and examinee. In this way, Piaget let the child direct the interview, but without losing its purpose. The researcher was considered revolutionary for showing that children have their own way of thinking.

The 4 stages of cognitive development

The four-stage classification of cognitive development points to the fact that all individuals undergo a variety of predictable and orderly changes. This means that all individuals experience all stages of cognitive development, in the same sequence, however the beginning and end of stages vary from individual to individual – due to individual peculiarities of a biological or environmental nature. Piaget separates the intelligent cognitive process into two important concepts: “learning” and “development”. “Learning” refers to a particular response, learned through experience and which is acquired in a systematic way or not.

“Development” is considered a learning in fact and, therefore, the responsibility of the formation of knowledge is of the development. For Piaget, learning occurs through assimilation and accommodation processes, and also through schemas. In the process of assimilation, the cognitive subject seeks to encompass the information coming from the environment in order to increase his knowledge. During this process, there is a natural selection of the main contents. The process is controlled by mental structures that previously exist in the subject. In the accommodation process, the retention of information that constitutes their cognitive repertoire occurs: “Accommodation occurs when the mental organization changes to accommodate the information assimilated by the subject” (Deslandes, 2006, p. 41). As can be seen, the concepts of assimilation and accommodation are complementary.

We will therefore begin the approach on the Stages of Cognitive Development proposed by Piaget. The Sensory-Motor Stage occurs from 0 years to approximately 2 years. When the baby is born, it has innate patterns of behavior and, as an example, there is the act of grabbing, sucking, etc. During this stage, the child develops his motor skills and sensory mechanisms. The child’s contact with the world and the beginning of the exploration of the world are established in this stage. The child develops a working knowledge of the world around him. Changes and development of behavior occur as a product of the interaction between innate patterns and the environment. The baby begins to build schemes to assimilate the environment. It is worth explaining a little better the concept of scheme, so important in the theory addressed.

“Schema” was a concept seen by Piaget as a set of internalized actions which can be repeated and generalized. In order to adapt to the challenging situations found in the environment, these actions are used by the subject. The schema is maintained only as long as it succeeds. During this stage, the baby’s intelligence is practical and pre-verbal. The baby has himself, his movements, his body as the object of his interest. The Russian scholar named this self-interest general egocentrism. Upon reaching the end of this stage, the child is already situated in a universe that is external to him.

The second stage is Pre-Operations and extends from approximately two years to approximately 7 years. This period is divided into two subperiods: the Symbolic Intelligence period (ranging from 2 to 4 years) and the intuitive period (ranging from 4 to 7 years). Characteristics of this stage include: the development of symbolic activity, language development, the use of symbolic games, egocentric thinking, intuitive logic, animism, finalism, artificialism and, finally, affective life. With the development of symbolic activity, the child begins to differentiate the signifier from the signified. Language is developed, it is strongly linked to the symbolic function and also allows for the development of crucial social relations. The use of symbolic games is also inherent to this phase, as it is through games that the child recreates his own life in order to correct it and in a way that he transforms reality according to his desires. Thus, the child relives its pleasures and resolves its conflicts. According to Piaget, “the symbolic game would be a deforming assimilation of the real to the subject” (DESLANDES, 2006, p. 45).

Egocentrism consists of the difficulty that the child has to put himself in the place of the other. The child in the preoperative stage always asserts something without demonstrating the foundations of his proposition; his arguments are not consistent and he has great difficulty defining the concepts used. Animism would be the child’s tendency to attribute life and intentions to inanimate objects. The child still confuses his inner subjective world with the outer, physical and objective world. Human elements are used by children in ways that explain all phenomena. Finalism occurs when the child asks why everything. Artificialism would be the child’s belief that everything was created by man or by a divine being who works like man. Finally, there is the development of affective life, that is, the child develops feelings such as sympathies and antipathies. Intuitive moral feelings and the regulation of interests and values ​​linked to the elaboration of knowledge also appear.

The operational stage is subdivided into concrete (ranging from 7 years to approximately 12 years) and formal (from 11 or 12 years). In this period, “the internalized action becomes reversible” (Deslandes, 2006, p. 46). The operative child is capable of imagining the action and also its annulment. He returns to the starting point of his reasoning without contradicting himself. Thus, he is already able to support his answers. Another example of internalized behavior would be the child’s reflection on the results of his action.

During the concrete operational stage, children begin to attend school and become literate. According to Piaget, there is a great evolution (during this stage) with regard to the concentration of children when carrying out individual work and the collaboration given in group work. As the child becomes more decentered from himself, that is, the egocentric speech is almost completely abandoned, he can participate in games that have more rules. It is also perceived that reflection is beginning to take place and “still characterizes the beginning of the construction of dialectical logic that allows the coordination of different points of view on the same subject or theme” (Deslandes, 2006, p. 47).

Due to the reduction of egocentrism, morality develops, given that the moral subject exists with the condition that it is in a relationship. Respect for laws takes on another meaning, no longer that of coercion: there is respect for the principles of autonomous morality. With regard to mental operations, concrete objects are used in order to establish logical relationships.

The formal operational stage has its beginning coinciding with the period of adolescence. At this moment, there are several changes regarding social behavior and affectivity – which are related to changes linked to the imbalances faced in puberty and sexual maturation. At this stage, the ability to think of hypotheses through logical and abstract deduction is developed.

Piaget shows that these stages are possible logics of human thought, and can be separated by means of ruptures in the logical chain of thought. However, all individuals go through all these stages of cognitive development.

Bibliographic references:

DESLANDES, Keila. Psychology: an introduction to psychology Cuiabá: EdUFMT, 2006.

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