Jean Piaget Theory: Genetic Epistemology

Born on August 9, 1896 In Neuchâtel, Switzerland Eldest of Professor Arthur Piaget and Rebecca Jackson Piaget.

Background At age 10 Piaget published an article on Albino sparrows. He became an assistance to the curator (a biologist at the museum of natural history) in his teens. He studied the curator’s mollusk collection and by age 15 published articles on mollusk. Received a doctors degree in the natural sciences from the University of Neuchâtel

Background cont.. ﻰ He studied psychology, in Zurich and attended lectures of Swiss psychiatrist. ﻰ He went to Paris to work in the formal laboratory of Alfred Binet ﻰ In 1912 he began researching child psychology at the Jean Jacques Rousseau institute of education. ﻰ He was a professor at the University of Geneva from 1929 till his death. ﻰ Founded the center of Genetic Epistemology. ﻰ He was awarded numerous prizes and honorary degrees from all over the world. ﻰ He married Valentine Chatenay and conceived two daughters and a son.

Overlook His ideas were central to the creation of development psychology and influential in other fields including education, sociology and computer science He studied the thought process of children. He believed that children past threw 4 periods of mental development. Traced mental development from infancy to adolescents He said “ Children construct his or her model of reality in several stages.” He believed education should aim to offer opportunities to invent and discover.

Genetic Epistemology It’s the study of the origins of knowledge. Piaget’s study shows how a human develops cognitively from birth. According to Piaget, children learn three types of knowledge. »Physical knowledge- relating to objects »Logical/mathematical knowledge- things that man invents and things that have to be thought of. »Social arbitrary- has to do with culture, society and uniqueness. He also called it the equilibration. Those three types of knowledge are to develop the four types of development.

Theory *Four Stages of development. Sensorimotor period – Till age Two. They obtain a basic knowledge of objects through their senses. They learn reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and habits. Preoperational Period – Age two till seven Children developed such skills as language and drawing ability. They can only see things in their point of view and don’t think of others. Concrete operation period- Age seven till eleven they begin to think logically. For example they learn to organize their knowledge, classify objects and do thought problems. They can sort objects through size, shape color and texture. They can see things from different points of view, and solve problems logically, not only thinking of themselves.

They can understand that numbers and objects can be changed(4+5=8) and return to their original state.(8-4=4) Formal operation period- Age eleven till fifteen At this time children begin to reason realistically about the future and to deal with abstractions. Abstractions are ideas about qualities and characteristics viewed apart from the objects that have them. They begin to understand love, morals, and values. A child couldn’t skip a stage, you had to learn everything from the first stage to move on. It’s a growth of knowledge. For example, in school you can’t just start at grade 7, you wouldn’t know any mathematical problems, or grammar. You have to pass 6 grades before that to learn to understand how everything works.

Critic One of Piaget’s critic’s is a teacher educator who believes that his theory works well and has proven itself useful. He practices Jean Piaget’s Theory on genetic epistemology on a daily basis.

Piaget passed on September 17th,1980 however his theories and views are still practiced and studied today almost 30 years after his death.

Work Cited World book Biographical encyclopedia of scientists (page 112) World Book volume 15(page 445) mologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_episte mology