Jean Piaget 1896 - 1980

Early Life Born in 1896 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was a gifted child who developed an interest in biology and the natural world. He was educated at the University of Neuchâtel, and studied briefly at the University of Zürich. He published two philosophical papers that showed the direction of his thinking at the time, but which he later dismissed as adolescent thought.

Paris Studies He moved to Paris and taught at the Grange-Aux-Belles Street School for Boys. The school was run by Alfred Binet, the developer of the Binet intelligence test. While Piaget was grading tests, he noticed that young children consistently gave wrong answers to certain questions and began to wonder why they chose the answer that they did. This led to the beginnings of his theory of cognitive development.

Back to Switzerland In 1921, Piaget returned to Switzerland as director of the Rousseau Institute in Geneva. In 1923, he married Valentine Châtenay and they had three children, whom Piaget studied from infancy. In 1929, Jean Piaget accepted the post of Director of the International Bureau of Education and remained the head of this international organization until 1968. In 1979 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Social and Political Sciences.

Theory of Cognitive Development Children move through the stages in an invariant sequence- in the same order. Sensorimotor Intelligence (birth to 2 years): babies grasp their physical action schemes, such as sucking, grasping, and hitting, for dealing with the immediate world Preoperational Thought (2 to 7 years): Children learn to think- to use symbols and internal images- but their thinking is unsystematic and illogical. Concrete Operations (7 to 11 years): Children develop the capacity to think systematically, but only when they can refer to concrete objects and activities. Formal Operations (11 to adulthood): Young people develop the capacity to think systematically on a purely abstract and hypothetical plane.

Conservation Conservation is the awareness that a quantity remains the same despite a change in its appearance. Conservation develops during the pre-operational stage and there are two substages. 1st substage: the child is clearly unable to conserve. He or she is stuck on the way something looks. 2nd substage: the child takes steps towards conservation but does not achieve it. He or she will argue over there is a change or not. At this point the child is well on his or her way to conservation and the Concrete Operations stage.

Conservation of Continuous Quantities One of Piaget’s most famous experiments. In this experiment Piaget fills two identical glass that contain the same amount of water. Then one glass is poured into a different shaped or sized glass. The child is asked if one glass has more, less, or the same as the other glass. In the pre-operational stage the child will say one has more or less than the other. Once conservation has been achieved the child will answer that the glasses have the same amount of water despite the appearance.

Other Conservation Experiments Conservation of Mass: Take clay or Play-Doh and roll into two balls. Have child confirm they are the same. Roll one into a different shape. Are the two different or the same? Conservation of Number: Make two equal rows of objects and have the child confirm they are the same. Alternate one by spreading out the objects. Are the lines different or equal?

Achievement of Conservation Three Arguments Identity – Nothing has been added or taken away Compensation – Changes cancel each other out Inversion –It can go back to the way it was before, eg: You can pour the water back Logical operations – this refers to the reversibility of mental actions and is demonstrated through use of the arguments presented above.

Hypotheses We hypothesize that the majority of children in kindergarten will be unable to conserve and that the majority will also be under the age of six. We hypothesize that there will be a difference in the proportion of children who can and cannot conserve in the different areas, that the children in rural areas who can conserve will be least, that the children in urban areas who can conserve will be next-most and that the children in suburban areas who can conserve will be the most.

Responses Urban Child’s Code Response 1 Water Response 2 Clay Response 3 Pennies Response 4 Pennies 2F5 Small, because it’s all the way up here and it’s all the way down there Snake, because this one’s long and this one’s short like a ball. It is a ball! Same, because it’s this little because it’s spreaded out, it’s the same, but it’s not put together 1M5 because the water’s higher and the jar is littler than this one because it’s longer and a little bit wider same length, same size Long, because it’s spreaded out bigger and wider

Responses Suburban Child’s Code Response 1 Water Response 3 Clay Response 4 Pennies Response 5 Pennies 1M5 Small, because "this one has water all the way to here" *points at the top of the water* Snake, it's straight and it has more playdoh - weighed them, one soft, one hard Counted, Same, because they both have 15 they both have 15 again 11F6 because that one's full and that one's halfway because this one's in a ball and this one's in a line because they're all the same Long, because this one's long and this one's shorter

Responses Rural Child’s Code Response 1 Water Response 2 Clay Response 3 Pennies Response 4 Pennies 4F5 Small, because the water is up here Snake, because it’s bigger than that one Same, because it matches Long, because it’s got more longer 12M5 because it’s the same water because it’s the same clay because there’s 15 and 15 because there’s 15, you just spreaded them out

Results Overview Urban School: out of 6 students, 2 could conserve numbers Suburban School: out of 17 students, 3 could conserve numbers Rural School: out of 15 students, 1 could conserve on all levels

Interesting Points Gender Age Of the students at the urban school who could conserve, both were female. Of the students at the suburban school who could conserve, two were male and one was female. The student who could conserve at the rural school was male. Age Of the students at the urban school who conserve, both were 5 years old. Of the students at the suburban school who could conserve, two were six (one male and one female) and one was five. The student who could conserve at the rural school was 5.

Nature or Nurture? Rousseau Piaget Locke Nature Nurture Piaget belongs somewhere in the middle, yet closer to the Nature side. He believes that social interaction is necessary in learning, but many things, such as conservation, cannot be taught and must be allowed to develop naturally.