Jean Piaget's theory
of cognitive development
Jean Piaget dealt with one main question when conducting his impactful research: "How does knowledge grow?"1 He used his background in biology and psychology to research how brains progress from birth to adolescence. He concluded that the progression of knowledge is constructed in levels: lower, less powerful logic moves toward higher, more powerful reasoning as people age. Therefore, children's logic is inherently different from that of adults.1
This philosophy makes Piaget a constructivist. Constructivists believe that people construct their knowledge based upon previous knowledge.2 He believed that knowledge is constructed based upon building blocks called schemas and he created his stages of development to expand upon how children progress through stages of logic and reasoning. |