Jean Piaget's Theory And Development

Body Jean Piaget was a biologist and psychologist who was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on 9th August 1896. He is also known as a clinical psychologist known for his pioneering work in child development. Jean Piaget gave an abundant importance on children’s education. Numerous people were influenced by Piaget’s theory and research. The systematic study of cognitive development was first made by Piaget. Piaget’s theory observes and describes children at different ages. His theory is very extensive, which starts from birth through adolescence, and includes concepts of language, scientific reasoning, moral development, and memory. Piaget’s assume that children construct their own knowledge in response to their experiences. Hence children

“Individuals are born with reflexes that allow them to interact with the environment. These reflexes are quickly replaced by constructed mental schemes or structures that allow them to interact with, and adapt to, the environment” (Lutz, S., & Huitt, W,2004). Piaget believes that each person is born with the ability to think and they use ideas gained from their environment to advance their thinking process in each stage of development. Fleming, PhD(2005), states that Piaget did his study on moral development of a child by carrying out experiments in two different ways. The first way was by getting the children to play a game but they are not made aware of the rules of the game. Piaget believed that the rules of these games control them. The second way was creating a scenario or telling a short story, where students had to come up with a punishment. The terms atonement and reciprocity were used by Piaget. For correct actions the term atonement was used and reciprocity was used when a child regrets and wants to improve. In each stage of Piaget’s cognitive development, a great emphasis was given on moral development. Another psychologist who is well known for theory of stages of moral development is Lawrence Kohlberg who is an American. He agrees with Piaget’s theory of moral development in principle and Kohlberg wanted to improve Piaget’s ideas furthermore. “Lawrence Kohlberg admired Piaget’s approach to studying children’s conceptions of morality. If Piaget saw children as little logicians, Kohlberg viewed them as moral philosophers” (Fleming, PhD,