Cognitive Development in Jean Piaget’s Work and its Implications for Teachers

This paper reviewed definitions for four concepts related to the central concept of sociability (social cognition, social competence, social skills and social behavior). Cognitive psychologists have begun to address how motivational factors influence adults' performance on cognitive tasks. However, little researched has examined how different motivational factors interact with one another to affect behavior across the life span. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a biologist who originally studied molluscs (publishing twenty scientific papers on them by the time he was 21) but moved into the study of the development of children's understanding, through observing them and talking and listening to them while they worked on exercises he set. His view of how children's minds work and develop has been enormously influential, particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation (simply growing up) in children's increasing capacity to understand their world: they cannot undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. His research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has undermined the detail of his own, but like many other original investigators, his importance comes from his overall vision. Key wards: Cognition Assimilation Accommodation Schema Egocentrism INTRODUCTION extent those aspects of the environment to which he will According to standard college dictionary cognition development as, “the development of a set of fundamental refers to the act or faculty of knowing or perceiving. processes not the acquisition of any specific pieces of Cognition is a general term or a “generic term used to knowledge or information. “ In the view of Diggory [3] design all processes involved in knowing.” According to “The term cognitive development refers generally to Hilgard [1] cognition comprises all mental activity or changes in thinking abilities.” And according to Piaget states involved in knowing and the mind’s functioning [4], “Cognitive development is neither the result of the and include perception, attention, memory, imagery, maturation of the organism, nor of the influence of the language functions, development processes, problem environment alone, but of the interaction of the two.” solving and the area of artificial intelligence. From these definitions of cognitive development it Development as a term implies qualitative change and becomes clear that this is the development of the process it is applied to those innate potentialities that change and or processes by means of which an individual is able to grow under the influence of the environment. The study acquire knowledge. of cognitive development concerns changes with age in In any Education system teacher occupies pivotal relation to the system of what we know and changes in position. It is said that no system of education is better the way in which that system interacts with other facets than its teachers. The teacher is the kingpin in the entire of behavior. There are three views about the development educational, set-up. The chief function of the teacher is to of a child. According to Turner [2] these views are: impart knowledge among his students and to provide “Firstly, the child can be viewed as an organism adequate and meaningful experiences to them so that which grows almost like a plant, with the implication that they achieve an all-round development of their potentials. it contains within it the seeds of adulthood..... This is possible only when teachers will know and Alternatively the child can be thought to bring noting understand the nature of the growth and development of with him beyond a set of reflexes so that what he becomes learners and the learning process. According to Crow & is a reflection of what has happened to him. A third view Crow [5], “What a child learns and how well he learns are in the cognitive development is thought to be affected by depends upon his existing stage of maturation his the environment and yet to be able to determine to an readiness to learn.” respond.” She further defines the term cognitive World Appl. Sci. J., 12 (8): 1260-1261, 2011 1261 Significance of the Study: The study will be helpful to studied child development during the first half of the classroom teachers to understand: twentieth century. He was born in Neuchatel, The current mental abilities of their students. Switzerland in 1896. At the age of ten he published his The previous knowledge of their students. first “scientific paper” based on observations of the How to plan, organize and develop the instructional part-ability, but also of his future work i.e. observation. activities for further development of the students. It is impossible to evaluate his contribution to the Objectives of the Study: The purpose of the study he has written more than 25 books and 150 articles. In was to draw attention of classroom teachers towards this article, however, the major target to be achieved the cognitive development in Jean Piaget’s work would be to know how do the children of the “Cognitive and its implications in instruction. Therefore the developmental approach. He is concerned with the objectives are: qualitative changes which take place in a person’s To provide material to classroom teachers about the mental make-up between birth and maturity.” stages of cognitive development of their students. His method of investigation has been the clinical To help classroom teachers in the implication of Jean approach; detailed face-to-face discussion and Piaget’s development stages to their teaching. questioning of individual children in problem Delimitation of the Study: children attainment at a particular time in their lives. The study is limited to the all four stages of cognitive The work has led to a descriptive analysis of development of Jean Piaget only. development of basic physical, logical, mathematical The implications are limited only to classroom and moral concepts from birth, to adolescence. teachers of Pre-primary, Primary and secondary Lamax [6] summarizes the work of Piaget in these school only. words: “Piaget’s work on children’s thinking fall into three Methodology: The library reference technique of descriptive type of research methodology was used in His early work used the verbal clinical the study. method...... Review of the Related Literature: For the convenient, the 1920’s and 30’s were based on observation of his study is alienated into: own three children.... and. Jean Piaget and his work. His later and the most influential research are His development stages (study), concerned with the logical and mathematical Implication for the teachers. concepts such as number space and time. Jean Piaget and His Method of Study: The first His Develomental Stages: Before stating the unavoidable personality to be referred for this study development stages it will be useful to discuss the would be Jean Piaget. He is the psychologist who has basic concepts in Jean Piaget’s work. study of child development in a limited space, because situation. It aims to discover, the quality and nature of