Introduction
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of learning. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence. Piaget's stages are:
The Sensorimotor Stage. Preoperational Stage. The Concrete Operational Stage. The Formal Operational Stage
Factors that influence how children learn and grow;
> Schemas.
> Assimilation
> Accommodation
> Equilibration
Task
The task of the students is to define the Four (4) stages of Cognitive Development by Jean Piaget's Theory and the several factors of that influence how children learn and grow briefly explain each stages.
Process
1. The Sensorimotor Stage
Ages: Birth to 2 Years
During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. A child's entire experience at the earliest period of this stage occurs through basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses.
2. Preoperational Stage
Ages: 2 - 7 Years
The foundations of language development may have been laid during the previous stage, but the emergence of language is one of the major hallmarks of the preoperational stage of development.
3. The Concrete Operational Stage
Ages: 7 - 11 Years
While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point in development, they become much more adept at using logic.2 The egocentrism of the previous stage begins to disappear as kids become better at thinking about how other people might view a situation.
4. The Formal Operational Stage
Ages: 12 and Over
The Formal Operational Stage
The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas.3 At this point, adolescents and young adults become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world around them.
Piaget suggested several factors that influence how children learn and grow
Schemas
A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world.
Assimilation
The process of taking in new information into our already existing schemas is known as assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify experiences and information slightly to fit in with our preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing a dog and labeling it "dog" is a case of assimilating the animal into the child's dog schema.
Accommodation
Another part of adaptation is the ability to change existing schemas in light of new information; this process is known as accommodation.5 New schemas may also be developed during this process.
Equilibration
As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation).
Evaluation
Cognitive development means how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions, which help children to think about and understand the world around them.
Conclusion
Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information.