Piaget on Education

Instructions:

1 The student will go to the links provided and read and look at the information provided below.

2 The student will then take notes that will be used to craft their discussion posts, and replies. 

3 The student will then use a word processing program to draft their discussion post and replies. Keeping in mind proper net-etiquette and grammar. 

        4    Finally, the student will copy and paste their responses under the appropriate discussion topic. 

Week 1: Schemas

           If there was something that would help you understand the world better and construct new knowledge from previous knowledge and experiences, wouldn't you like to know about it? Well according to Piaget there is such a construct and it is called a schema. Piaget (1952) defined a schema as "a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning". In essence schemas are mental blocks that allow us to organize knowledge and create mental representations of the world. Think of schemas as index cards in your brain responsible for storing knowledge on each individual object or concept. For example: A basic schema of a dog includes an index card with the bullet points four legs, barks, and furry. A schemata is the index card organizing system within the brain that instructs and informs the individual on how they should process the incoming stimulus. Piaget believed that knowledge and development was measured by the number and level of complexity of a schemata that a person had learned. 

Please interact with the links provided below for week 1 in order to learn more about Piaget and his views on schemas. Make sure to take notes on the content you read/listen to/ watch in order to help you craft your discussion post response. 

Week 2: Equilibrium, Assimilation, and Accommodation

          In order to learn and construct new knowledge, Piaget believed that individuals had to undergo a process of adjustment to their environments, this was possible through equilibration, assimilation, and accommodation.

           Equilibration:Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation).

           Assimilation: using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation.

           Accommodation: happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation.

       Piaget believe that individuals enjoy being in a state of equilibrium as it causes the least amount of stress to the system. This can be achieved when an individual can manage the majority of the incoming stimuli through the process of assimilation by incorporating the information into existing schemas. However, when the individual is unable to reconcile the new information with the existing schemas, the individual is thrown into a state of disequilibrium in which they must acquire the new information and undergo the process of accommodation. Once the new information is acquired, the individual will continue to go through the assimilations process with the new schema until the system is thrown off equilibrium  again. 

Please interact with the links provided below for week 2 in order to learn more about Piaget and his views on schemas. Make sure to take notes on the content you read/listen to/ watch in order to help you craft your discussion post response. 

Week 3: Piaget's Four Stages of Development  

           Since Piaget was a genetic epistemologist he believed that development was based on biological factors and that it changed as the child continued to mature. He believed that all children underwent 4 universal stages of cognitive development, in which they were slowly constructing a mental model of the world. The four stages are traversed in order in a sequential fashion, with no step being omitted. However, some individuals can become stuck at a certain stage and never advance to the next stage. Even though Piaget never explicitly identified specific age ranges for each stage, the average age if often present with the description of the stage. 

Stages of development:

        Sensorimotor Stage: (Birth-2yrs) During this stage a child is able to form a schema of an object. They also acquire object permanence, which is the ability to know that an object still exists even if it hidden. This can be measure by playing peek-a-boo.

       Preoperational Stage: (2-7yrs) During this stage the child is able to think symbolically, which is the ability to make one thing represent another thing other than itself. At this stage the child still exhibits egocentric view points and is unable to take others' viewpoints into consideration.

      Concrete Operational Stage: (7-11yrs) During this stage the child able to think logically (operational thought) and knowledge becomes an internal (within) process rather than an external process which requires interaction with the world to test out theories. They are also able to understand conservation, which is the ability to understand that something can still remain the same in quantity even if it changes in appearance. Examples of this include age, mass, and number.

      Formal Operational Stage: (11 yrs +) This stage begins at age 11 and continues well into adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts, and logically test hypotheses. It is important to remember that some individuals never enter this stage of development and remain stuck in one of the lower stages, more often than not in the concrete operational stage.

Please interact with the links provided below for week 3 in order to learn more about Piaget and his views on schemas. Make sure to take notes on the content you read/listen to/ watch in order to help you craft your discussion post response. 

Week 4: Piaget's Educational Implications

          Even though Piaget never explicitly related his work to education, many  in education have used key concepts from his work to advance pedagogy. His work called for a child-centered approach in which the learner is encouraged to be a creator and an innovator because it is more efficient when compared to one in which the learner is taught to behave like a small adult. His theory of cognitive development called for the use of experiences and interactions as a foundation for learning because it would encourage learners to actively engage with their surroundings. This process of interaction was believed to be the key to gaining new knowledge, as the learner would act upon the environment and reflect on the experience, thus leading to a knowledge scaffolding process where the learner could engage in assimilation or accommodation to regain equilibrium. Furthermore, Piaget claimed that instructors would act as facilitators for this process by introducing experiences that would aid in the scaffolding process and would allow students to build on their previous knowledge with experiences that would disrupt their current ideological equilibrium (Crain, 2011).

Please interact with the links provided below for week 4 in order to learn more about Piaget and his views on schemas. Make sure to take notes on the content you read/listen to/ watch in order to help you craft your discussion post response. 

References: 

Beard, C. (2010). The experiential learning toolkit: Blending practice with concepts. London: Kogan Page.

Crain, W. C. (2011). Piaget's Cognitive-Development Theory. In Theories of development: Concepts and applications (6th ed., pp. 143-145).

Ripple, R. E., Rockcastle, V. N., & Piaget, J. (1984). Piaget rediscovered: A report of the conference on cognitive studies and curriculum development. Ithaca, N.Y.: School of Education, Cornell University.