Jean Piaget

        

•          Personal Background and the Career History

              Jean Piaget was born on August 9 1896, in Neuchatel, Switzerland.  He was the first born to the Rebecca Jackson and Arthur Piaget. (Erin Patterson, n.d.) . Arthur Piaget was a professor who taught medieval literature at the University of Neuchatel. (Jean Piaget: Biography, 2013).  His father was a person who was very dedicated to his studies and this motivated Jean Piaget for studies and developed an interest in biology and natural world at a very young age. (Jean Piaget: Wikipedia, 2013).This resulted in Jean Piaget writing a short scientific paper on albino sparrow at the age of 11 while he was attending Neuchatel Latin High School (Erin Patterson, n.d.). The success he got to this paper resulted in the beginning of a brilliant scientific career. At his late adolescence he developed an interest on mollusks and published many papers on it (Leslie Smith, 2000). One particular article written on this when he was 15 led to a job offer in natural history museum which he declined to continue his studies. (Jean Piaget Biography, 2013). After graduating from the Neuchatel High School he joined the University of Neuchatel where he continued to study about natural sciences and received his Ph.D. in zoology in 1918. (Kendra Cherry, 2013). After he left the University of Neuchatel he spend a semester in University of Zurich where he attended Carl’s Jung lectures (Erin Patterson, n.d.). This was when he developed an interest about psychoanalysis and he left Switzerland to study about abnormal psychology and logic in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1919 ( Dr. C. George Boeree, 2006). In 1920 he worked in a Ecole de la rue de la Grange-aux-Belles a boys' institution with Alfred Binet who was the developer of the Binet intelligence test. He then worked with De Simon and Alfred Binet on these intelligence tests (Biography, 2013). These tests were meant to measure a child’s intelligence and draw connections between a child’s age and the nature of his errors. For Piaget, this test rose the question “how children learn?” (Jean Piaget. Biography, 2013). He was so fascinated about this question, he decided to continue experimenting about this after returning to Switzerland (NNDB tracking the entire world: Jean Piaget, 2013). In 1921 his first article on the psychology of intelligence was published, at this year he accepted the director of studies at the J.-J. Rousseau Institute in Geneva (Leslie Smith, 2000).  He continued his research with children and in 1923 he got married to Valentine Chatenay where 3 children were born to him. Their first daughter named Jacqueline Piaget was born in 1925, their second daughter Lucienne Piaget was born in 1927 and their 3^rd child was a male and he was born in 1931. He was named as Laurent Piaget. He studied the intellectual development of his three children from the time of their infancy (Leslie Smith, 2000).

                    During Piaget’s career he worked in a lot of universities and organizations. It includes the chairman of the   psychology, sociology and history of sciences of the Neuchatel University from 1925 to 1929. He then taught the historic of scientific thought at the University of Geneva from 1929 to 1939. He also served as the director of the International Bureau of Education in Geneva from 1929 to 1967. He was the director of the Institute of Educational Sciences of the University of Geneva from 1932 to 1971. He was the professor of Experimental psychology and Sociology of Lausanne University from 1938 to 1951.  He also was the professor of Experimental psychology in Geneva University from 1940 to 1971. And from 1952 to 1964 he was the professor Genetic psychology in Sorbonne, Paris.  He also founded the International center for Genetic Epistemology of Geneva in 1955 and was the director of that Centre till 1980. He was also the Emeritus professor of the Geneva University from 1971 to 1980.  (Torran I. Anderson, n.d.)  and (Leslie Smith, 2000). By the End of his career he has filled the president chair of the Swiss Commission UNESCO, Swiss Society of Psychology, French Language Association of Scientific Psychology and International Union of Scientific Psychology.  He was also the Co- Director of the Department of Education, UNESCO.  In addition to this he was a member of Executive Council, UNESCO and 20 other Academic Societies.  He was also the Co- Editor of Archives de psychologie and 7 other journals (Leslie Smith, 2000). Jean Piaget has written over 60 books and many hundreds of articles (Dr. C. George Boeree, 2006).  He was awarded Erasmus Prize and other 11 international prizes and honorary doctorates from 31 Universities all over the world (Leslie Smith, 2000).  Exploring the life of Jean Piaget it’s a fact that he is one of the most significant psychologists of the twentieth century.

•       Jean Piaget's theory

    Jean Piaget's developed  the cognitive development theory. This theory has 3 basic components.

1.      Schemas.

2.      Equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation.

3.      Stages of development.

1.       Schemas

          These are the units of knowledge, each relating to one aspect of the world.  The knowledge we acquire are stored in these units and they are applied when needed. For  example a person might have a schema about buying items from a supermarket. The schema is a stored form of the pattern of  behavior which includes taking a basket and putting all the items the person wants to buy and going to the reception to pay for them. So whenever the person is in a supermarket they retrieve this schema from their memory and apply it to the situation.

2.       Assimilation

      This happens when the new information acquired can be fitted to an existing  schema.

Accommodation

      This happens when the new information does not fit into an existing schema and a new schema is formed to store the information.

Equilibration

      This is the force which moves the development along.

For Example 

  3.       Stages of development

Stage	Age	Characteristics
Sensorimotor Stage	0 to 2 years	The infant knows the world through their movements and sensations.
Preoperational Stage	2 to 7 years	Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects.
Concrete operational  Stage	7 to 11 years	Children begin to think logically about concrete events.
Formal Operational      Stage	12 and above	Children begin to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems.

    

Jean Piaget also developed the moral development theory.


Jean Piaget believed that the cognitive development is closely related to the moral development of the children. He suggested that people pass through 3 different stages of moral reasoning.
        
       The First Stage: Moral Realism
        In this stage children tend to have a clear understanding of what is wrong and what is right. Yet they believe that there will be only one right answer to every situation. At this stage the children tend to trust the adults decision and they do not ask questions about the decisions taken by adults. Also at this stage the children believe in moral absolutes and see a particular situation from a limited perspective.
       
       The Second Stage: Morality of Reciprocity
           In this stage children start to understand that there will be no fixed rules and the rules can be negotiable. They see the world from the other peoples' eyes and learn that there will more than one right answer for a situation.  They understand that punishments are given to compensate for the loss due the immoral acts. And they begin to use logic and hypothesis at this stage.
    
      The Third Stage: Mature Adult Thinking
            In this stage many different moral issues are concentrated through practical decision making.  The ethics of cooperation and the complexity of moral issues are better understood at this stage.

•              Application of the theory to the classroom/ teaching

      Here I am going to focus on the assimilation and accommodation process.

          A teacher is about to take the topic “butterflies” to 1^st graders. She pasted a picture of butterfly on the board so that all the children can see. The children stared at it not knowing what it was. The teacher explains to the children that it was a butterfly. And outlined the features (has colorful wings and has two antennas) of the butterfly.  A new schema was formed for butterflies. After explaining the topic, in order for the children to understand butterflies well, the teacher decided to take the children outdoors on a later day. That day the teacher took the children to the school garden and let the children explore the place. The students saw beautiful little creatures flying from one flower to another. The students noticed that these little creatures had colourful wings and two antennas, so they recognized them as butterflies. But them flying and sitting on flowers were not included in the butterfly schemas they have developed so disequilibrium occurred. The teacher explains that they are butterflies and the reason why they fly and sit on flowers is to drink the nectar from flowers which are food for them. After this confirmation assimilation (the new information: flying and drinking nectar was added to the butterfly schema) occurs and equilibrium is restored. On an another day the teacher showed a video on moths to the class and this particular video shows different coloured moths flying around and sitting on flowers. The students noticed that these little creatures had two antennas and had colourful wings also they flew from one flower to another so they decided that these creatures must be butterflies. The teacher explains that butterflies and moths are very similar but they are two different creatures, and the creatures that they saw were moths. Disequilibrium occurs and the teacher continues her explanation about the differences. She explains that even though both of them have coloured wings butterflies have much more colorful wings than moths and the antenna of moths are much shorter than that of butterflies. Equilibrium is restored and a new schema is formed for moths ( accommodation occurs).

    Reference

        About.com Psychology:Piaget’s Stages. (2013). Retrieved on November 16, 2013 from http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/l/bl-piaget-stages.htm.

        Anderson,T. (n.d.). Explore the laureate legacy: Jean Piaget. Retrieved on November 15, 2013 from http://www.kdp.org/aboutkdp/laureates/jeanpiaget.php.

  Biography. (2013). Retrived on November 15, 2013 from http://jean-piaget.wikispaces.com/Biography.

    Boeree, G. (2006). Personality Theories: Jean Piaget. Retrived on November 15, 2013 from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/piaget.html.

      Cherry, K. (2013).  About.com phsychology: Jean Piaget Biography. Retrived on November 15, 2013 from http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/piaget.htm.
 Character Development. (2011). Retrieved on November 16, 2013 from http://www.slideshare.net/IiumStudyWall/piagets-moral-development-ppt#btnNext.

  Jean Piaget Biography. (2013). Retrived on November 15,2013 from http://www.notablebiographies.com/Pe-Pu/Piaget-Jean.html.

  Jean Piaget: Wikipedia. (2013). Retrived on November 15, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget.

  Jean Pigate. Biography. (2013). Retrived on November 15, 2013 from http://www.biography.com/people/jean-piaget-9439915?page=1.

      Leod, S. (2012). Simply psychology: Jean Piaget. Retrived on November 16, 2013 from http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html.

    NNDB tracking the entire world: Jean Piaget. (2013). Retyrived on November 15,2013 from http://www.nndb.com/people/359/000094077/.

    Patterson, E. (n.d.). Psyography: Jean Piaget. Retrieved on November 15, 2013  from http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/jeanpiaget.html.

   Smith, L. (2000). Jean Piaget Society. Retrieved on November 15, 2013 from http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html.