Discuss intellectual development from infancy to childhood?
Course Code 8610
Course: Human Development and Learning
BED Solved Assignment
Answer:
Piaget’s theories have had a major
impact on the theory and practice of education (Case, 1998). First, the
theories focused attention on the idea of developmentally appropriate education—education with environments, curriculum, materials, and instruction that are suitable
for students in terms of their physical and cognitive abilities and their
social and emotional needs (Elkind, 1989).
In addition, several major approaches
to curriculum and instruction are explicitly based on Piagetian theory
(Berrueta-Clement, Schweinhart, Barnett, Epstein, & Weikart, 1984), and
this theory has been influential in constructivist models of learning. In this of the developing intellect
throughout the evolution of his model, Piaget has clung to certain principles,
many of which reflect his biological interests. His faith in these principles
has been substantiated by his own research and that of his Genevan colleagues, most
notably that of Barbël Inhelder. The many replications of his work in this
country and Canada have also provided substantial support for his position.
It is these principles that will be
presented since they are essential to those working with the development of
intellectual skills. However, just as the total model cannot be presented
within the limits of this paper, neither can all of the principles. Thus,
applying the criterion of value to educators of young children, I have selected
the following:
1.
All development is hierarchical, that is, we must all go through the
same stages in the same sequence, moving from the simple to the complex.
2.
Early learning is slower than later learning, although the rate at which
we progress through a given stage is a function of an interaction between our
environment and our genetic endowment. By genetic endowment. Piaget means a
healthy organism and not of specific genetic programming, as is the mode today.
3.
Development is divided into four general stages or phases, with a
gradual transition from one to another. Each of the four stages is
characterized by modes of learning and thinking unique to that stage.
4.
Because of the hierarchical nature of Piaget’s theory, thought and
intelligence are rooted in the actions of the sensorimotor period, the first of
the four stages of cognitive development. Thus, for Piaget, thought and
intelligence are internalized actions.
5.
Throughout all of the stages, two “cognitive functions” are present that
are invariant. These are organization and adaptation. The former is involved in
the categorization of sensory data. The latter is comprised of assimilation, the
taking in of new information, and accommodation, the adjusting of the existing
knowledge to the new information.
6.
The result of the above invariant or unchanging functions is what Piaget
refers to as “cognitive structures.” The cognitive structures are formed
actively by each individual and contain all of the information that he has
assimilated and accommodated or is in the process of adapting.
7.
The cognitive structures result in behaviors from which the content of
the structures can be inferred. Therefore, Piaget refers to such responses as
“cognitive content.” Since the cognitive structures vary in content from
individual to individual according to personal experiences and level of
maturation, the behaviors or cognitive content vary accordingly.
As a result of the above, Piaget
concludes that innate factors, environment, social transmission, and
equilibration all play roles in what we know and in how we use our knowledge.
For him, equilibration consists of the processes of equilibrium and
disequilibrium which are in relative balance at all maturational levels,
motivating us not only to assimilate and accommodate within stages but also to
move from one stage to another.
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