Jean Piaget's Cognitive Theory

Jean piaget's cognitive theory has made a big influence to childhood development. Psychologist believed children were just mini adults but Piaget thought differently, he believed they had their own way of thinking and seeing the world. Jean Piaget, who was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, earned a doctorate in Biology. When he looked at humans, he looked at us as Biological organisms, who need to adapt to the environment. He also saw us unique with many characteristic. Piaget had a similar theory to Sigmund Freud, however Piaget focused more on children's logical thinking, and how different ages have different thinking process. One of Jean Piaget's famous theories was the cognitive development theory of genetic epistemology. Piaget became …show more content…
One of the critical activities is play, either it being make believe, pretending, dramatic play, or fantasy play. This helps them form a concept on the world. The child starts to form some logic and start to question the world by becoming very curious. They also find it hard to view anyone else's viewpoint since they believe everything revolves around them. A child who undergoes this can only think about themselves which is the only concept they have, Piaget called this Egocentrism. Another of Piaget's test was how children understood that the amount of anything remain the same if places or shape differently, he called it conservation. At this stage they do get some logic but it won't fully develop until the next stage where they understand …show more content…
In my own experience, working with kids, brought me to the conclusion that I agree and disagree with Piaget's ideas. For instance, I have a student who is in his preoperational stage,according to Piaget. Piaget's point of view coincides with this specific child, I have to constantly remind and talk to him about sharing my time with everyone. This student can't seem to understand why i can not play with him every time or attend to his needs very quickly because i have to distribute my time with all of my other students. Of course I have a conversations with him and try to get him to understand why i can not just be with him and after the talk he does listen to me but in an hour he would of forgotten and clings onto me again .That follows Piaget's Egocentrism Point. Since the idea he had at that time really made a difference to the world's outlooks on children and how they think and consequently, children do generally go through these