The main theories of Jean Piaget summarised by members of Professional Group 1 (Jo Badge, Salema Begum, Rachel Collins, Adrian Durrant. Bea White) University Leicester PGCE

2. Child is no longer ego-centric

5. Child does not understand conservation.

6. Child struggles with classification: thinks only about one feature.

7. Child begins to think abstractly. Understands ‘4’ represents:

9. Child takes instinctive skills (such as sucking or grasping), combines with newly learnt motor skills, and refines the process to develop new skills.

10. Child learns ‘object permanence’ i.e. even if object is no longer visible it still exists. The child will search for hidden objects, suggesting element of planning ahead and therefore cognitive ability beyond that with which they were born.These beads are pink, round and wooden. I like cats! Scan for PDF of summary sheet Scan for copy of poster I had a lolly ! References Atherton, J. S. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Piaget's developmental theory [On-line: UK] retrieved 25/9/2011 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.html Fisher, J. (2003) Starting from the Child, Maidenhead: Open University Press Goswami, U. (1998) Cognition in Children, Hove: Psychology Press Ltd Moyles, J. & Robinson, G. (Eds.), Beginning Teaching: Beginning Learning in Primary Education, Maidenhead: Open University Press Siegler, R. & Wagner Alibali, M. (2005) Children’s Thinking New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall Smith, P., Cowie, H. & Blades, M. (2011) Understanding Children’s Development, 5th ed., Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Wadsworth B. J. (1979), Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, 2nd ed., New York: Longman Images http://www.openclipart.org/ http://www.archivesjeanpiaget.ch/ Piaget today Piaget’s methodology has drawn significant criticism (Moyles& Robinson, 2004). Central to this criticism is the assertion that children develop much faster than Piaget claimed (Goswami, 1998). In terms of educational influence, his view of the child as “an individual explorer of the world” (Fisher, 2003) appears to render the teacher an inactive bystander, but the idea of the ‘child-centred’ classroom (Smith, Cowie& Blades, 2011) is largely developed from Piaget’s belief that an active role in the learning process is central to the cognitive development of the child. Piaget also argued that whilst all children progress through the four stages, they do so at different speeds, and as such assessment should be based on the progress of the individual child, rather than compared to that of their peers. Jo Badge, Salema Begum, Rachel Collins, Adrian Durrant, Bea White