Piaget's Preoperational Stage And Modern Learning Theory example essay topic

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget was born on August 9, 1896, in the French speaking part of Switzerland. Atan early age he developed an interest in biology, and by the time he had graduated from high school he had already published a number of papers. After marrying in 1923, he had three children, whom he studied from infancy. Piaget is best known for organizing cognitive development into a series of stages- the levels of development corresponding too infancy, childhood, and adolescence. These four stages are labeled the Sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to age two, (children experience through their senses), the Preoperational stage, which occurs from ages two to six, (motor skills are acquired), the Concrete Operational stage, which occurs from ages six to eleven, (children think logically about concrete events), and the Formal Operational stage, which occurs after age eleven, (abstract reasoning is developed here). (web). (Bee and Boyd 149).

The focus of this paper will be on thePreoporational stage and how the child's cognitive abilities develop according to Piaget. The Preoperational stage is Piaget's term for the second major stage of cognitive development. It is in this stage that Piaget states that children acquire symbolic schemes, such as language and fantasy, that they use in thinking and communicating. Piaget saw evidence of symbol use in many aspects of children aged two to six.

As a Pre-School teacher myself, I have witnessed many of the same behaviors that Piaget himself observed while developing his theory of cognitive development. Children this age begin to pretend in their play. The dramatic play area in my classroom is always one of the most busy areas of the room. The children love to role-play and create imaginary games. According to Piaget, such symbol use is also evident in the emergence of language and in the preschoolers primitive ability to understand scale models or simple maps. Dramatic play gives the children the chance to role-play.

If they work through situations in their classroom, they " ll be better prepared for real-life scenarios. Through role-playing, children not only express emotions, but also exercise creativity and develop skills like cooperation and problem solving. During the Preoperational stage, do begin to think symbolically and use language, but the child's thinking is still very intuitive, and makes little use of reasoning and logic. I remember asa child thinking that the sun and moon followed me as I took a walk. In addition, the child's use of language is not as sophisticated as it might seem. Children have a tendency to confuse words with the objects they represent.

If a child calls a toy block a "car" and I use it to make a"house", the child may become upset. To children, the name of an object is as much a part of the object as it's size, shape, and color. To the Preoperational child, insulting words may really hurt. (Coon 107). Consider my preschooler calling each other "baby". To the adult it is an innocent word, but to the preschooler it is the worst thing they can think of.

Piaget's description of the Preoperational stage also focused on all the other things the preschool-aged child still cannot do. According to Piaget, egocentrism is a cognitive state in which the child sees the world only from his own perspective, without awareness that there are other perspectives. (Bee and Boyd 155). The child is not being selfish; rather, she simply assumes that everyone sees the world as she does. I see many examples of ego egocentrism on a daily basis in the preschool environment and at home. For example, my daughter, Meryl, who is almost five years old, gets a phone call from her aunt.

She begins asking Meryl questions. Instead of saying "yes" or "no", Meryl simply nods her head. What Meryl fails to appreciate is that her aunt is unable to see her nodding. Meryl can only take her own perspective- "I am nodding my head yes, why do you keep asking me this question?" As a young child it is difficult to understand that some one on the opposite end of the telephone cannot see you. Young children seem to abide by the old saying, "Out of sight, out of mind". In Piaget's view, for a child to be able to shift from using herself as the only frame of reference to seeing things from another perspective, the child must de center, which may not occur until the child is about six years old.

As a child enters the Concrete Operational stage, they will gain the skills that will allow them to think logically. As Meryl approaches age five, her cognitive skills are developing, and she is beginning to take into account the views of people other than herself. There has been recent research on examining how children understand the thought and feelings of others. There is a theoretical notion known as theory of mind, which means a set of ideas that explain other people's ideas, beliefs, desires, and behavior. (Bee and Boyd 159).

Research indicates that adolescents and adults have a much more fully developed theory of mind than children do. Understanding the thoughts and feelings of others is a complicated matter, that continues to develop possibly over a lifetime. In my preschool classroom, there are often arguments over possessions. For example: Child A builds a tower with the wooden blocks.

Child B walks over and takes the top block off of Child A's tower. Child A becomes upset saying, "He took my block!" Child B responds with, "But I need it". It is difficult for Child B to consider the feelings of Child A, and to recognize that even though he feels he needs the block, its not okay to just take the block from Child A. At this point, I would step in and attempt to explain to Child B why he cannot take the block, and perhaps think of some alternative solutions to the problem, but chances are, Child B will not be willing to negotiate! Children in the Preoperational stage have a simplified theory of mind.

They have a limited understanding of mental states, such as desires, beliefs, thoughts, intentions, and feelings. The following example is based on the theory of mind research. Imagine that you show five-year-old Nicky a candy box. "What do you think is inside?" you ask.

"Candy", Nicky replies. Then you let Nicky look inside, where he finds surprise: The box contains crayons, not candy. "Nicky", you ask, "What will your friend Max think is inside the box if I show it to him?" Nicky replies, "Candy!" , amused at the thought that Max is going to get fooled, too. Now imagine that we try the procedure again, this time with Shelia, who is only three years old. Like Nicky, Shelia thinks she will find candy in the box. She opens the box and sees the crayons.

Now we ask Shelia what she thinks Max will expect to find in the box. "Crayons", she replies. Because Shelia knows that there are crayons in the box, she assumes that everyone else does too. It's as if only one reality exists for Shelia.

She doesn't seem to understand that the minds of other people contain different information, beliefs, thought, and so forth. (Coon 108). Between the ages of three and four, children normally gain a richer understanding of mental life. As their "Theory of Mind" becomes more accurate, they are able to participate more fully in the complex psychological world in which we all live. Piaget viewed children as little philosophers and scientists building their own individual theories of knowledge. By focusing on what children con do as well as what they cannot do, he was able to understand and explain their cognitive growth and development.

His theory is a valuable "road map" for understanding how children think. However, many psychologists are convinced that Piaget gave too little credit to the effects of learning. For example; Children of pottery-making parents can correctly answer questions about the conservation of clay at an earlier age than Piaget would have predicted. According to learning theorists, children continuously gain specific knowledge; they do not undergo stage-like leaps in general mental ability. (Coon 109). Thus, the truth may lie somewhere between Piaget's stage theory and modern learning theory.

Bibliography

1. Coon, Dennis. Essentials of Psychology. 9th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth / Thomson Learning, 20032.
Bee, Helen and Boyd, Dennis. The Developing Child. 10th Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc., 20043.