Introduction
Education is an area that has attracted the attention of many scholars. Unlike in the olden days where people were so much uncivilized and had no regard for education, in the modern world issues regarding education have completely taken a new look. According to Tipps (2011), currently education is the secret to succeed in life.
Nations are currently investing so much in education as they have realized education as one of the main ways that a nation can grow. Shelly (2012) says that several technologies have been invented in the favor of education.
Through these technologies, big advancements have been made in the sector of education. In today’s world, the economy growth of any given nation is measured not in terms of how much wealth it accumulates but by the level of learning education acquired by its citizens.
Theorists and various researchers have so much shown their interests in the area of education. Wadsworth (2004) points out that several theories have been developed by different theorists to support learning.
These theories form the basis for the learners to desire to know more, develop an understanding, absorb, and retain what is leant in their minds. Seel (2012) argues that the educational theories are very important in the learning process.
This scholar argues that when applied in the process of learning, these theories help the learners prescribe and apply educational skills learnt from the theories for better results in their learning process.
Education theories vary and address various areas for example some may address areas like education policies, curriculum, learning, pedagogy, leadership and many other education relevant areas. This paper seeks to explore Jean Piaget’s ‘cognitive development’ educational theory, its impacts, and applicability in the learning process.
‘Cognitive development’ theory description
Jean Piaget invented the cognitive development theory of education around 1955. This theorist was so much concerned with education of children as he argued it was the only way to prevent the economy of a nation from collapsing. This scholar viewed education of children as the pillar and foundation for success. Jean Piaget was through this theory was so much concerned with provision of quality knowledge to children.
This scholar relates this theory to the human development structures and stages as the regulator of acquired knowledge and education. The arguments of this scholar in the theory are purely based on the structuralism. Jean applies a cognitive approach in this theory.
According to this scholar, the intellectual development of children varies from one stage of development to another. After observing and studying the cognitive development of his children, jean interpreted the process of acquiring knowledge based on two concepts. The two concepts are accommodation and assimilation that not only consider biological interaction but part of cognitive point of view.
In the Cognitive development theory, jean proposes four stages of development that he argues they also represent the various stages of knowledge and education acquisition. The four stages of development as described in the Piaget’s cognitive theory are as follows.
- The sensorimotor stage of development- This refers to the stage between birth and the time a child celebrates its second birthday.
- The pre-operational stage- this is the period of child’s development ranging from the age of two to seven years.
- The stage of concrete operation- This refers to the stage between age seven and eleven years.
- The formal operational stage- according to Jean, this is the final stage of development of a child ranging between the age of eleven years to sixteen years and above.
Process of learning as described by the theory
Jean Piaget in this theory explains the process of acquiring knowledge and learning basing his arguments on the different developmental stages of a child. Although the learning process may not be gradual, Jean explains that the theory applicability is evident depending on the objects to which the child is subjected.
This theorist argues that in first stage of development, the child’s experience of the new environment is by movement of body the limbs and the five senses. At this stage, children are perceived egocentric, as they do not view the world from others’ perspective. In the second stage of development, egocentrism begins to disappear and the child begins to think logically.
According to Jean, this egocentrism nature disappears completely in the third stage of development and the thinking status of the child at this stage is very concrete and logical. From this stage going to the final stage of development, the child develops abstract reasoning and thinking. At this stage, the child mind is completely developed and thinking status at is very logical.
Broadly, Jean Piaget describes the child’s development and learning process as a cycle. This scholar argues that this development is heavily reliant on the immediate environment of the child, as it tries to comprehend various issues in the environment. Repeatedly, the child continues to acquire knowledge, differentiate elements ant their impact and ingrate them accordingly through reflex abstraction as described by Piaget.
As development progresses, Jean Piaget argues that the child starts to identify several objects and their various ways of action affecting those objects through what he refers as ‘empirical abstraction’. Through repetition of this process, the child is able to acquire new insights and achieve new knowledge levels. This process according to Jean forms new ‘cognitive stages’.
This way, such a child learns how to deal with various new issues within the environment. As the cycle continues, the child is thinking ability, reasoning expands, and the child attains different levels of knowledge. The child will be developing as time goes by, and it will be able to handle more complex objects and issues in the environment.
This way the child develops the knowledge of dealing with more complex patterns and the child continues to acquire more knowledge. This learning cycle continues and its more gradual especially when the child is exposed to various and also different environmental factors or objects and real life experiences.
Evaluation of learning occurrence
According to Jean Piaget’s theory, the cognitive structure is taking to develop from one stage to another depending on the various life experiences and objects the child is subjected. The mind of a child is small at the initial stages of development and cannot accommodate many things. At these early stages, the child may not be able to conceptualize much of the experiences faced abstractly.
Solving of problems like arithmetical calculations and dealing with physical situations is not easy for the child at this stage. As the child develops, so does the brain. The cognitive structure is defined in a way that learning takes place progressively as the child develops. A two-year child cannot be taken to class four because the cognitive structure is not developed to accommodate the information.
At the development stages, children in most occasions apply mental maps construction to learn more on environmental experiences. This is why when this two-year old child cannot learn anything when taken to class four. When these mental maps are constructed in the life of a child, the brain is able to absorb and retain the experience. Repeatedly, this information is assimilated permanently into the brain of a child.
A child’s memory is very sharp. The brain at this stage is able to retain information for a very long period. That is why a child is able to identify and love some people and dislike others depending on the first treatment given to this child at the early stages of development.
When a child is exposed to different life occurrence it may be in a position adjust the cognitive issues by lowering the equilibrium so as to accommodate all the new life factors (Leonardus, 2002). This way, the child continues to develop more complex cognitive structures solve hurdles of life.
Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory of education advocates for children exposure to various objects. According to this theory, the cognitive structure develops as the children grow. This calls for exposure of these children to different environmental conditions. This theory is can be effectively be applied in the entire process of learning and the education system to realize good performance.
Leonardus (2002) argues that learning is a mental process that is internal and the educator should majorly concentrate in building and improving the intelligence development of the cognitive structures of a child. This theory assumes that the memory system is actively organized to process information that influences acquisition of knowledge and the whole learning process.
However, the applicability of this theory may be criticized. This is because to come up and draw conclusion on this theory, Piaget only relied only on the sample of his three children. These three children had a similar genetic composition, subjected to similar objects, and brought up in very similar environment.
There is a likelihood that Jean Piaget conditioned these children to react in a desired manner (Antona, 2001). Children with different genetic makeup and brought up in different environments may not necessarily respond the same as Piaget’s children.
An illustration of learning applying the theory
According to Lefrançois (2012), there are many evident illustrations of learning applying Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory of education. One on the commonly known is the illustration is the use of the cognitive theory in Multimedia learning. This where, a learner is subjected to the experience of words and various pictures through the media for interpretation.
In this case, the learner uses words and images to advance his or her verbal capacity as a way of learning. Following every portion of pictures and words presented to the learner by the multimedia, these models are organized and integrated prior knowledge from the long-term memory. In relation to the basics of cognitive theory, this learning is based on four principles.
These principles include the dual-coding principle, working with limited memory capacity, active processing, and the transfer of information. The memory works better in a dual system, where verbal information is coupled with visual information for better memory. Only a limited amount of knowledge can be held by working memory at a given memory.
This means a learner should be in position to identify the points of cognitive resource allocation. One point that should also be put into consideration on the working memory capacity is that the memory has limited storage capacity that may affect the learning process.
Antona (2001) argues that, to avoid the effects of the limited, capacity of the memory, a learner should be able to integrate only the allowed concepts in the working memory and information that is extraneous to the memory working capacity.
Lefrançois (2012) says that the coding theory of Multimedia Learning recognizes that human beings by nature are always actively involved in cognitive processing of existing stimulus that is presented by different factors in the environment, because there will be an effort to make sense of every presented stimuli.
In multimedia learning, there is an active processing of information including all the selected information, organized and integrated accordingly. This learning involves the linking of the representation based on images and words.
After a successful learning process has taken place, the learner or other people are now able to retrieve the long-term acquired knowledge in situations when they need it to undertake given tasks. This is the information transfer principle. The knowledge acquired may be transferred immediately or reserved to be used when needed or faced with tasks requiring its application.
Learning tasks based upon the theory
The cognitive theory of learning poses several learning tasks not only the teacher or educator but also to the learner. One of the vital tasks that the theory poses to the teacher is the need to know and understand that cognitive structures develop as the learner grows from one stage to another.
It is equally important to know that the memory capacity of the working memory is limited and can only accommodate limited information at a particular time. By understanding this, the teacher will again be faced by the tasks of drawing the curriculum that includes effective planning to accommodate and enhances appropriate growth of logical and conceptual reasoning of the learner.
The cognitive theory provides a learning task for the educator to develop and apply some learning instructions (Duschl, 1992).
This is where a teacher has to realize the important role-played by the learner exposed to various experiences and interaction with the surrounding environment. An educator will be able to issue instructions that encourage inclusion of play to students in the learning process in order to develop cognitive structures.
Through the theory, the teacher bears the tasks of setting goals to measure the purpose of actions undertaken by various students to establish and provide meaning on their learning progress. This learning theory is also based upon the tasks of students’ self-observation and regulation. This is where by after the goals have been set, the learners are given the duty of monitoring and determining their own progress in the learning process.
In addition, it also encourages students’ self-assessment. This is relieves the teacher from the task of always assessing their progress. Finally, the theory entrusts the learners with the task of carrying out self-reinforcement. This make that develop a good feeling of the good things they do and regret for bad things done to enable them accomplish their goals.
Conclusion
Human intelligences involve a process of acquiring knowledge, its construction within the mind and finally how it is used. Learning is a complex process which involves allowing the mind to gather new knowledge, and use this new knowledge to develop the mind. The development of mind, according to Jean Piaget, is a gradual process. According to his theory, human development is not an abrupt process which takes place suddenly.
It is a consistent process that involves collecting experiences, either through teaching or by witnessing issues taking place within the environment. This theory holds that this process involves biological development of the mind as one gets to understand various issues in life that were not known before. This means that cognitive development of the mind takes place from the time a child is born.
This theory holds that when a child is born, it is exposed to the environment that is absolutely different from the environment it was used to. This child will be forced to learn how to survive in the new environment. The environmental factors will help such a child learn various issues within the environment. At that early stage of life, there are issues they know, while others are completely new to them.
This means that there is always a discrepancy of knowledge because there are some issues that are beyond their understanding. The cognitive theory holds that in such cases, learning will take place based on what is known to the child.
The child will use its current knowledge to eliminate the discrepancies of knowledge by trying to understand what it knows not. At the center of this development, according to Jean Piaget, is knowledge. It is through language that this knowledge will be learnt and the mind will be developed.
References
Antona, M. J. (2001). Introducing Christian education: Foundations for the twenty-first century. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishers.
Duschl, R. (1992). Philosophy of science, cognitive psychology, and educational theory and practice. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Lefrançois, G. R. (2012). Theories of human learning: What the professor said. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Leonardus, D. C. (2002). Learning theories: A to Z. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Seel, N. (2012). Encyclopedia of the sciences of learning. New York: Springer.
Shelly, G. (2012). Teachers discovering computers: Integrating technology in a connected world. Boston: Course Technology Cengage Learning.
Tipps, S. (2011). Guiding children’s learning of mathematics. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Wadsworth, B. (2004). Piaget’s theory of cognitive and affective development. New York: Pearson.