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Jean Piaget's Stages Of Cognitive Development

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Teaching has been significantly enhanced overtime due to studies conducted by psychologists such as Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner in relation to cognitive development. The conclusions derived from these studies inform teachers of what to expect from children at particular ages and how to best comprehend the mental operations of the child who they are teaching, resulting in an effective form of learning for the individual being taught. This knowledge relating to cognitive development is extremely valuable for the teachers, as adults can’t recall how they thought or processed information as children. First I will focus on Jean Piaget, a pivotal figure in the establishment of ‘Cognitive Development’. Piaget is considered a ‘constructivist’, empowering …show more content…

The characteristics noted by Piaget of these children informs their ‘teachers’, perhaps parents or guardians at this age, that the child is beginning to make sense of the world encompassing him/her by interacting with it using their senses. The more knowledgeable other may aid the infant to recognize the existence of a world separate to themselves by playing games such as ‘peek-a-boo’, allowing the infant to comprehend that the temporary absence of an individual from their sight does not mean that the individual has ceased to exist. This practice aids the establishment of object permanence due to the infants teaching considering the relative characteristics informed by Piaget at this …show more content…

‘Egocentrism’ is a characteristic Piaget also informs us of relative to this stage, which teachers can tackle by introducing the child to new perspectives different from their own point of view. Piaget’s note that children between the ages of two and six may have trouble with ‘irreversibility’ enhances teaching with intellectual empathy due to teachers realizing that although a child may understand that 1+1=2, they may not grasp why 2-1=1. The use of solid materials to portray and allow the child to manipulate this mathematical problem enhances teaching further. This idea relates to encouragement of “discovery”. Bruner also believed that children could best grasp difficult concepts through personal

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