Piaget saw thinking (the ability to reason, connect ideas and solve problems) as the result of cognitive structures that are gradually built within the brain as a result of direct exposure to and interaction with the environment. Piaget offered a unique experimental method for determining children’s cognitive abilities, as well as a detailed explanation of how children develop logical and mathematical thinking. According to Piaget:ĭevelopment is understood as an increase in the complexity, mobility and systemisation of cognitive structures. The m ain features of Piaget’s educational theory It challenged the dominant psychometric and behaviourist approaches to intelligence, which measured intelligence (IQ) as a fixed and inherited trait, or referred to external conditioning (behavourism) as the source of cognitive change. Piaget argued that humans were active meaning-makers who construct rather than receive knowledge, with much capacity to improve intelligence over a lifetime. His theory that human intelligence was also an adaptive mechanism was controversial at the time. Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) was a psychologist and epistemologist who focused on child development. He developed a theory of human cognitive development (known as ‘genetic epistemology’) based on his interest in biology and particularly the adaptation of species to their environment.
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