Piaget believed that we all gain cognitive growth through stages, with thinking developing through the four stages from birth to adulthood. The first of these was Sensorimotor (Birth – 2yrs) when objects become permanent and a child ‘uses their senses to explore their environment’. http://web.ebscohost.com.ipacez.nd.edu.au/ehost/pdf?vid=24&hid=111&sid=92f4674b-04db-401c-b448-b212962ee224%40sessionmgr103
The Second stage is the Preoperational stage ( 2-7yrs) this stage involves the acquisition of language and is dominated by egocentrism. The child still has little or no logical thought.
The Third stage is the Concrete operations stage (7-12 yrs) it is in this stage when the child learns some logical thought and can classify objects mentally, yet they still cannot hypothesise about things.
The Fourth and final stage is called Formal Operations stage (from 12- Adulthood) here children learn to have abstract thought and put hypothetical reasoning to problems.
It is important to realise that the age children go through these stages can vary and that only ‘around 25-75 percent of adults actually reach the formal operations stage’.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ipacez.nd.edu.au/ehost/pdf?vid=24&hid=111&sid=92f4674b-04db-401c-b448-b212962ee224%40sessionmgr103
http://web.ebscohost.com.ipacez.nd.edu.au/ehost/pdf?vid=26&hid=111&sid=92f4674b-04db-401c-b448-b212962ee224%40sessionmgr103
Knowing this information is extremely important for my teaching because it tells me the signs to look out for of the stages students may be in. I could, for example, have a student in year 9 still in the concrete operations stage or the preoperational stage in which case I would have to accommodate into my lesson plans.Knowing the characteristics of each of the stages is also important for my practicum because I am able to recognise which stage of cognitive development each child is in and prepare accordingly. I think that this theory is quite accurate, particularly when comparing boys to girls in their development. I have seen examples of the various stages that Piaget has documented and so think that this theory is good for my philosophy on education and my teaching.
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