The Role of Piaget's Theory in Education (AQA GCSE Psychology): Revision Note

Application of the four stages in education

• Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development states that a child’s cognitive development happens in four stages and that each stage is marked by age e.g. the pre-operational stage spans 2-7 year-olds

• Piaget’s stage theory is maturational:

  • Children will achieve specific developmental milestones according to an internal ‘timetable’ e.g. by the age of 8 months a child will have object permanence

  • Children cannot be expected to achieve cognitive tasks or skills which are beyond their current level of development e.g. you would not ask a four year-old child to sit a Psychology A Level

  • Children will move through the stages according to age so it is futile to push them beyond their readiness for a task/skill

• Piaget believed that children are continuously exploring their environment:

  • He saw the child as a ‘little scientist’, performing ‘experiments’ to test what they discover every day in their world

  • He referred to a child’s exploration and experimentation of their environment as ‘discovery learning’

• Educational settings can encourage discovery learning by setting up tasks that stimulate a child’s imagination and intellectual curiosity, challenging them to discover even more and to ask questions

• The stages should be considered when setting up learning environments (both physical and psychological/intellectual) as follows:

  • Sensorimotor stage: a range of sensory-based activities which involve the child’s five senses e.g. toys that rattle or can be struck to make a noise; blocks to encourage fine motor skills such as grasping, stacking, gripping

  • Pre-operational stage: the child should be allowed to explore the learning environment freely; there should be sand pits, water trays, plasticine - anything that the child can experiment with will aid their development

  • Concrete operational stage: the child should be allowed to develop practical skills such as cooking, woodwork etc; using counters/abacus can help them translate the concrete to the abstract

  • Formal operational stage: using scientific apparatus, engaging in mental maths, and discussing abstract and hypothetical concepts all help to continue expanding intellectual development into adulthood

• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is an example of constructivism i.e. children learn via action and reflection; they then build on these learning blocks to construct schemas which in turn help them to negotiate their world

Evaluation of application of Piaget’s stages to education

Strengths

• Piaget’s theory has been hugely influential over the years and helped to pave the way for ‘child-centred’ learning

• Children (and adults for that matter) learn information better when they are having fun/feeling engaged via discovery learning (Castronova, 2002)

Weaknesses

• Not all children will fit neatly into Piaget’s stages e.g. children with special educational needs or highly gifted children

• Discovery learning is fantastic but children also need some guidance and structure from adults, particularly as they get older and more able to take on higher-level cognitive tasks