ABOUT ME

My name is Fathimath Shafia. I was born in Laam Dhanbidhoo in August 18, 1987. I completed my O’ Level exam in 2003. After that I completed my Diploma in counseling psychology from the American College at Sri Lanka, 2007. Furthermore, I worked as a community level worker. However, I am currently working at Ministry of Health as a Data processing officer. Moreover, I am a student at Villa College since 2012. Currently I am completing my first degree in teaching English as a second language. This is my second year of my career. However, teaching was my second career, the first was psychology. I am a very energetic person. In fact, I am a person who has interest on playing volley ball and soccer. Furthermore, I am a very ambitious person.

WHO IS JEAN PIAGET

Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel (Switzerland) in August 09, 1896. He started showing the interest in the natural sciences at a very early stage. In fact, he started his career as a researcher by the age of eleven. His career was started by writing short papers on an albino sparrow. He continued his study and received his Ph.D. in Biology from the university of Neuchatel in 1981 (cherry, n.d.). After that he developed his interest towards the psychoanalysis. In addition, he worked for one year at a boy’s institution created by Alfred Binet. His early career consisted of working in the natural science. However, in 1920s he started to move toward working as a psychologist. He started his life in 1923 with Valentine Chateny and was blessed with three children. He observed his own children for many of his later theories. Piaget identified himself as a genetic epistemologist (cherry, n.d.). His early works with Binet’s intelligence tests had let him conclude that children think different compare to the adults. He was inspired in understanding how knowledge grows throughout childhood. In fact, he suggested that children acquire knowledge from their experience and interactions between others. He is best known as human cognitive development researcher. He studied the intellectual development of his own three children. In addition, he studied his own children’s development. Piaget was died in September 16, 1980, at Geneva, Switzerland.

WHAT IS COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY

According to Piaget, active children tend to develop their understanding about their environment through four stages of cognitive development (Jantan, Razali, Yunus, 2011). Organization and adaptation is the most important process in building this understanding of world around them. This means our ability of differentiating between the main idea and the less important ones and ability of comparing between one ideas to the other. Furthermore, Piaget also further elaborated this theory that we not only able to organize our observations and experiences, but we also adapt our thinking by taking new ideas or thinking more critically and creatively in order to improve our understanding something. He suggested that children sort the knowledge they acquires through their experiences and interactions into groupings known as schemas. When new information is acquired, it can either be assimilated into existing schemas or accommodated through revising and existing schema or crating an entirely new category of information (Cherry, N.D.). Assimilation is defined as addition of new information. For example, if a child sees a “cat” and tell what she saw was a “cat”. When the child sees a “rabbit” next time, the child would say “it’s a cat”. It is because the information is understood without any modification. Whereas, accommodation is defined as the modification of the existing schemata in the understanding of new information. For instance as I mentioned before, the child who saw cat might see a “rabbit” on another day. The child might call it same as “cat”, and if someone, a father or a mother corrects after hearing the child calling a “rabbit” as a “cat”. The parent might tell the child it is a rabbit because it hops, and it does not meow and it eats leaves, the child would understand it. In addition, the child has received new information. Piaget explored both why and how mental abilities change over time (Slavin, 2000). Piaget believed that all children are born with an innate tendency interact with and make sense of their environment (Slavin, 2000).

STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY

There are four stages of cognitive development. They are 0 to 2 years (sensorimotor) 2 to 7 years (preoperational) 7 to 11 years (concrete operational) and 12 years and above (formal operational). In the sensorimotor stage children tend to understand through moment senses and other senses. For example, the child might understand the mother through smell. It is how they understand their world or environment. Whereas, in preoperational stage, the children tend to use their symbolic thinking ability to solve problems. However, their level of thinking does not follow the conventions of logic. Therefore, they easily deceived by different perceptions. Furthermore, in the concrete operational stage they start the schooling. At this stage they start to think logically and correctly. In addition they solve problems by trial and error at this stage of development. Whereas, in the formal operational stage we become adolescents. At this stage people are able to think critically and creatively. In fact, they are able to think more advance and about long term effects of an action. Sensorimotor Stage: birth to two years. During the initial part of the sensorimotor stage children have relatively little competence in representing the environment using images or other kinds of symbols, infants have no awareness of objects or people that are not immediately present at a given moment, lacking what Piaget calls object performance (Feldman, 1999). Object performance is the awareness that objects and people continue to exist even if they are out of sight. We can observe the lack of object performance of the children. Furthermore, we cannot ask the infants, but we can observe their reaction when a toy that they are playing with is hidden under a blanket. Until the age of 9 months the child will not make any attempt to locate the toy. However, after 9 months the children will begin to reach actively for the object when it is hidden. It indicates that the child’s development. It is also called the critical development during the sensorimotor stage. Preoperational stage: Two to Seven years. The most development during the preoperational stage is the use of language (Feldman, 1999). Children develop internal representational system that allows them to describe people, events, and feelings. In addition, they use symbols in play. Although children’s thinking is more advanced in this stage than it was in the sensorimotor stage. Furthermore, in this stage the children’s view the world entirely from his / her own perspective. For example a preoperational child may start a story with “he would not let me go”, neglecting to mention who “he” is or where the story teller wanted to go. In this stage of development the children use egocentric thought. This thinking is also seen when this stage children play hiding games (Feldman, 1999). For instance. Most of the three years old hide their faces with against a wall, covering their eyes, although they are still in plain of view. It is because they think that if they cannot see, no one else will be able to see them. Another fact in this stage is the inability to understand the principle of conservations (Feldman, 1999). Children who have not mastered this concept do not know the amount of length, volume of an object when the shape and configuration is changed. Concrete operational stage: Seven to eleven years: The beginning of the concrete operational stage is marked by the mastery of the principle of conservations. However, they will have some problems. For instance, the child would have difficulty in understanding about the size of volume and weight. Furthermore, the child are able to grasp during this stage is reversibility. For instance the children can understand that when a ball of clay is rolled into a long sausage shape it is also possible to recreate it to a ball (Feldman, 1999). You had two drinking glasses of different shapes. One short and broad, and one tall and thin. Imagine both of the glasses are filled, but the short and broad one is filled with water about halfway and poured the water from that glass into the tall one. The water appears to fill about three-fourths of the second glass. If someone asked whether there was more water in the second glass than there had been in the first, what would you say? You might think that such a simple question hardly deserves an answer. Of course there is no difference in the amount of water in the two glasses. However, most four or five year olds would be likely to say that there is more water in the second glass. If you then poured the water back into the short glass, they would say there is now less water than there was in the taller glass. Why are young children confused by this problem? The reason is not immediately obvious. Any preschool teacher who observed the preschoolers must be impressed how far they have progressed from the early stages of development. They speak with ease, learn alphabet, count, and play different games, read stories, and communicate quite effectively. Formal operational stage: Eleven years to Adulthood. The formal operations stage produces a new kind of thinking which is abstract formal and logical (Feldman, 1999). Thinking is no longer tied to events that are observed in the environment but makes use of logical techniques to resolve problems. People in the forma operational stage approach the problem systematically. However, 40 to 60 % of the people reach the level of formal operational stage. Therefore, in each stage the children tend to develop their mind at the optimum level of their understanding. Piaget suggests that there is a different between the problem of development and problem of learning. According to Piaget (2006), the development of knowledge is a spontaneous progress tied to the whole process of embryogenesis. Embryogenesis is the development of the body, but it also concerns the development of nervous system as well as the mental functions. However, the development of knowledge in the children, embryogenesis ends only in adulthoods (Piaget, 2006). On the other hand the learning presents the opposite. According to Piaget (2006) learning is provided by situation and it is also provided by teachers. However, it is a limited process. May be it is a single problem or a single structure. Therefore, he concludes that the development explains the learning.

TEACHER'S ROLE

Yes, there are gaps in children’s understanding. In addition, some theories suggests that children are incapable of understanding certain things unless they reach a particular stage of cognitive development. There are different theories done for human development. One of the famous theory is Piaget’s theory.

The children’s second parents are the teachers. Teachers have different approaches and methods used in a classroom. Each individual are different. Cognitive level of each student are different. There may be the students who need the special care / need as well. Teachers need to arrange the classroom according to the level of their development. As Piaget explored the level and developments of the children at different stages. In the very first stage, children deal with the parents. They learn from parents and the world around them. However, when they move towards the second stage, they start to deal with outsiders. They starts their preschooling and tend to share their behavior with others as well as with the teacher. That is the very first time where the teacher observes the student. According to the observation, teacher manages to deal with the child. Furthermore, the teacher concerns about the child. In addition, the teacher helps the student with their cognitive development at further stages. Therefore, when they complete the final stage they become more aware about their cognitive development. In fact, most of the students develops their cognitive developments fully.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, the cognitive development theory of Jean Piaget explains the main four stages of the child’s development. They are the sensorimotor stage, preoperational stages, concrete operational stage and formal operational stage. In each stage the child have different level of cognitive development. Piaget is one of the most famous behaviorist and the psychoanalysis.

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