Jean+Piaget

Key Players - Tom

Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) - self-described "genetic epistemologist"

 * Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge
 * What is knowledge
 * How is it acquired
 * How do we know what we know???

> Moreover, in 1967, [|Peter L. Berger] and [|Thomas Luckmann] published //[|The Social Construction of Reality]//, which has initiated [|social constructionism].
 * The expression "Constructivist epistemology" was first used by [|Jean Piaget], 1967, with plural form in the famous article from the "Encyclopédie de la Pléiade" //Logique et Connaissance scientifique// or "Logic and Scientific knowledge", an important text for [|epistemology]. He refers directly to the mathematician [|Brouwer] and his //radical constructivism//.

>> In this stage, Piaget described intelligence as having two closely interrelated parts. The first part, which is from the first stage, was the content of children's thinking. The second part was the process of intellectual activity. He believed this process of thinking could be regarded as an extension of the biological process of adaptation. Adaptation has two pieces: assimilation and accommodation. >> In the model Piaget developed in stage three, he argued the idea that intelligence develops in a series of stages that are related to age and are progressive because one stage must be accomplished before the next can occur. For each stage of development the child forms a view of reality for that age period. At the next stage, the child must keep up with earlier level of mental abilities to reconstruct concepts. Piaget concluded intellectual development as an upward expanding spiral in which children must constantly reconstruct the ideas formed at earlier levels with new, higher order concepts acquired at the next level. >> It is primarily the Third Piaget that was incorporated into American psychology when Piaget's ideas were "rediscovered" in the 1960s.[|[][|9][|]] >> Piaget studied areas of intelligence like [|perception] and [|memory] that aren’t entirely logical. Logical concepts are described as being completely reversible because they can always get back to the starting point. The perceptual concepts Piaget studied could not be manipulated. To describe the figurative process, Piaget uses pictures as examples. Pictures can’t be separated because contours cannot be separated from the forms they outline. Memory is the same way. It is never completely reversible. During this last period of work, Piaget and his colleague Inhelder also published books on perception, memory, and other figurative processes such as learning during this last period.[|[][|10][|]][|[][|11][|]][|[][|12][|]] >> The four development stages are described in Piaget's theory as:
 * Stages of human development
 * === First Piaget: The Sociological Model of Development - During interviews, children's responses to questions evolve from intuitive to scientific and socially acceptable answers. He theorized this was due to feedback from more advanced children.===
 * === Second Piaget: The Sensorimotor/Adaptive Model of Intellectual Development - ===
 * === Third Piaget: The Elaboration of the Logical Model of Intellectual Development -===
 * === Fourth Piaget: The Study of Figurative thought ===
 * === Stages ===
 * //[|Sensorimotor stage]//: from birth to age 2. Children experience the world through movement and senses (use five senses to explore the world). During the sensorimotor stage children are extremely egocentric, meaning they cannot perceive the world from others' viewpoints. The sensorimotor stage is divided into six substages: "(1) simple reflexes; (2) first habits and primary circular reactions; (3) secondary circular reactions; (4) coordination of secondary circular reactions; (5) tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity; and (6) internalization of schemes." [|[][|13][|]]
 * //[|Preoperational stage]//: from ages 2 to 7 ([|magical thinking] predominates. Acquisition of [|motor skills]). [|Egocentrism] begins strongly and then weakens. Children cannot conserve or use logical thinking.
 * //[|Concrete operational stage]//: from ages 7 to 11 (children begin to think logically but are very concrete in their thinking). Children can now conserve and think logically but only with practical aids. They are no longer egocentric.
 * //[|Formal operational stage]//: from age 11-16 and onwards (development of abstract reasoning). Children develop abstract thought and can easily conserve and think logically in their mind.