Piaget's Concept Of Equilibration In A Private Universe

The teacher could place two cups that have the same amount of liquid in the cups but because one of the cups is taller than the other the child is going to think the taller glass has more liquid in it. The third stage is the concrete operational stage which occurs during ages seven to eleven. The term concrete operational means the child can reason only about tangible objects presents. So the child can conserve and think logically but only with practical aids. Thinking becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events. The fourth and final stage is the formal operational stage which occurs during ages eleven to fifteen. This stage focuses on hypothetical thinking and scientific reasoning. Piaget believed that only children can learn when they are ‘ready’ to learn. He also believed that development couldn 't be ‘sped up.’ Piaget believed that children learned through the resolution of disequilibrium (self discovery, active participation). He believed that teachers should ‘bend’ to children’s needs, provide an appropriate environment, promote self discovery, exploratory learning, self-motivated learning, and set challenges to existing schemes.

Piaget was a Swiss Psychologist and is most famous for his work and research on cognitive development. He put forward the Theory of Cognitive Development and key elements in this theory include the formation of “Schemas” and “organisation”. A “schema” is an individuals thoughts and beliefs about an object or event and “organisation” refers to the ability of the child to put stages of each period (eg. Sensori-Motor Period) into a logical order (Miller,

Piaget and Vygotsky both believed that young children actively learn from their hands-on, day-to-day experiences. Jean Piaget portrayed children as "little scientists" who go about actively constructing their understanding of the world. His theories hold the essence of developmentally appropriate curriculum since Piaget believed that children undergo cognitive development in a stage-based manner, such that a very young child would not think about things the same way that an adult might. He referred to the knowledge and the manner in which the knowledge is gained as a schema. In order to build on the cognitive stages that children experience, informal learning opportunities, formal instructional sessions, and the utilized curriculum must all dovetail with a child's current cognitive stage so that assimilation of the new knowledge may occur. Working with what the child knows and experiences, parents and teachers create bridges to the next cognitive stage that are characterized by the child's accommodation. Piaget argued that optimal learning took place in this manner and that adults should avoid thinking that they can accelerate a child's development through the age-based, maturity-referenced stages. This is because a child works toward establishing an equilibrium between the assimilation and application of new knowledge and changing their behavior to accommodate their newly adopted schemas.

After watching this video, I was surprised by number of inaccurate private theories and the confidence of most of them. It allowed me to reflect on my own personal response. I realized my theories had changed when I entered a classroom that had a passionate teacher, visual aids, hands on demonstrations, and interesting videos. As teachers, we need to be aware of student’s private theories because many of these theories they will carry with them into their adult life. The graduating students and college professors were still incorrect on why the Earth has seasons and seemed confident in their misconception of seasons. Inaccurate theories may subsequently have negative effects in future decisions or careers.

The study found that the majority of students held a naïve mental model of the night and day cycle. The study also identified several other mental models that students believed that were not based on a scientific model. As a result of this study, teachers could find new methods for teaching the night and day cycle that correct misconceptions that the students may have about the cycle. The researchers also say that the findings implicate that a change in curriculum may be important in order to keep these misconceptions from forming in the first place. The researchers suggest introducing the concept of a spherical earth at an early age. Researchers suggest that using models to demonstrate this concept is effective for young students. Sackes mention that (2015) “science activities conducted with young children should be inquiry based, informed by the children’s existing mental models or ideas regarding the targeted phenomena, and present developmentally appropriate hands on activities that invite children to be physically, mentally, and emotionally active participants in the learning environment.” (P. 1005). This is why using models is important for young

Jean Piaget 's hypothesis of cognitive development proposes that kids move through four unique phases of mental development. His hypothesis centers around understanding how children acquire knowledge, as well as on understanding the nature of intelligence. As children interact with their general surroundings, they constantly include new learning, expand upon existing knowledge, and adapt already held plans to oblige new information. To better understand the things that occur during the cognitive development, it is vital first to look at a couple of the vital thoughts and ideas

Piaget’s view of equilibrium in the text is defined as a dynamic balance between the person and the environment in which the person’s knowledge and self-organization are adequate to understand what is experienced (Carter, 2011 page?). The road to recovery was a long one where the hospital became my home and the nurses and doctors my closest friends. I became part of a culture of survivors where I grasped the concepts of the importance of life in itself. I had a daily routine which taught me the importance of having self-organization which I still use today. This accident will forever be a part of my story; and as with every event in life it is up to me to decide how much importance it will play.

According to Jean Piaget, the teachings shown in this classroom are not providing each child with the opportunities to discover and naturally grow, following the spectrum of nature. A classroom with too much structure, as shown in the video, is not a characteristic that Piaget found beneficial for the learning of students. The teacher in this class had control of all of her students by creating set procedures or stimuli of how to answer and respond to her questions. For example, when she said "mirror" she expected the children to restate or reenact what she had previously stated. From this, the students learned to mimic what the teacher exhibited. Piaget did not believe in these excessive amounts of stimuli; he would see that this learning

In the first stage, Piaget looked at understanding object permanence which is recognizing if an object still exist even when it is out of sight (Cardwell & Flanagan,2004). Children below the age of two failed to grasp the concept. Next, Piaget examined if children, in pre- operational stage, could understand the logic. He did this by seeing if children could understand that despite the change of the appearance of an object, it would remain the same (Cardwell & Flanagan, 2004). In his conservation experiment, Piaget showed children identical glass full of equal amount of liquid. He then pours the liquid of one the glasses in a taller narrow glass. After which, he would ask the child, "what glass has more?". Inevitably, the child would say the tall the narrow glass, believing it contained more liquid because of the height of the glass (Cardwell & Flanagan, 2004). Piaget believed that this was caused by centration , and was based on perception instead of logic (Cardwell & Flanagan, 2004).

At the age of 21, Jean Piaget earned a PhD from the University of Neuchatel with an interest in human organisms and the mechanisms that created scientific bodies of knowledge (Good, Mellon, Kromhout, 1978, p. 688). He began to study child development and through observation of his children and other children, he began to form a theory that focuses on the mental structures created to help children adapt to the world. Piaget felt that in order to help children adapt they use schemas. These schemas were used by children to understand and organize different knowledge and distinguish one thing, or group of things from another. After collecting this knowledge Piaget felt that children processed it in two different ways. The first was through

In Piaget’s theory disequilibrium means the “out of balance state” that occurs when a person grasps that their present way of thinking is not working to solve a problem or understand a situation (Woolfolk, 2012). For example, a child is working on a puzzle and can’t solve the finish the puzzle because they can’t use abstract thinking to picture the solution to solving the puzzle

Piaget considered the process of equilibrium an important factor in the cognitive growth and development of a child.(Piaget , 1952) This was the ground were he was criticize because he said that children must be allowed to do their own learning(Piaget,1952). Lourenco & Machado (1996)in defense of Piaget theory realized that Piaget has took into consideration the fact that humans progressively develop or mature to higher states of cognitive development and realized that children acquire knowledge transmitted by parents, teachers ,and books, Piaget called this "social transmission." Piaget believed that when a child hears contradictory statements that challenge established schemes, equilibrium is disturbed. Piaget called such a disruption in equilibrium cognitive conflict or disequilibrium. When children experience cognitive conflict they set out in search of an answer that will enable them to achieve states of equilibrium.(Lourenco & Machado,1996)

Piaget’s theory also allowed us a way to accept and understand that children's cognitive behavior is intrinsically motivated. Social and other reinforcements do influence children's cognitive explorations but children learn because of the way they are built. In Piaget’s mind cognitive adapts to the environment through assimilation. Also accommodation is a type of biological adaptation (Flavell, 1996). According to Piaget in order to characterize cognitive development in humans we need to understand co-present in cognitive activity which is cognitive structure (Flavell, 1996). Piaget was the first psychologist to try explaining describing cognitive development. His argument is that intellectual advances are made through the equilibration process that has three steps: the first step is for the cognitive equilibrium to de at a low development level; then, cognitive disequilibrium has to be induced by discrepant or inassimilable phenomena and lastly cognitive equilibration has to be at a higher developmental level.

Not everything can be assimilated into existing schemas, though, and the process of accommodation must be used. In accommodation, existing schemas are modified or new schemas are created to process new information. According to Piaget, cognitive development involves an ongoing attempt to achieve a balance between assimilation and accommodation that he termed equilibration. He formulated a theory that systematically describes and explains how intellect develops. The basis of his theory is the principle that cognitive development occurs in a series of four distinct stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations.

The concept of equilibrium and disequilibrium are important to the four stages of development. Equilibrium is achieved through balance and successful stage transition while disequilibrium is the opposite. In achieving this balance the child “adjust his or her thinking (schema) to resolve conflict” (Powell & Kalina, 2009, p. 241). According to Piaget, assimilation occurs when knowledge matches children’s schemas and accommodation occurs when children change their schemas to fit new knowledge.