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    • How Swiss biologist Jean Piaget revolutionized our understanding of children
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    How Swiss biologist Jean Piaget revolutionized our understanding of children

    Pabio Posted on

    Jean Piaget’s ideas on child development continue to influence educational practices around the world. His pioneering work revolutionized our understanding of how children learn and think.

    Born on August 9, 1896 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Jean Piaget showed an early interest in the natural world. At the age of 11, he published his first scientific paper on an albino sparrow he had observed in a nearby park, reflecting his early aptitude for detailed observation. During his teenage years he continued to publish works on molluscs, contributing to his later academic achievements. By the age of 21, Piaget had earned a doctorate in natural sciences.

    As Piaget delved deeper into biology, he became interested in broader questions about knowledge and the human mind. This interest led him to direct his career towards psychology and epistemology, disciplines in which he would become one of the most influential figures. In Paris, he worked with Théodore Simon, collaborator of Alfred Binet, the creator of intelligence tests.

    At this time, Piaget made an important discovery: children’s incorrect answers to intelligence tests are more revealing than correct ones. From these errors, he began to formulate the idea that children do not think like adults but go through a series of qualitatively distinct stages throughout their development. He believed that a child is not just a miniature adult; a child thinks in a completely different way.

    This belief led Piaget to develop his influential theory of cognitive development. He proposed that children pass through four main stages: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage.

    The first stage, the sensorimotor phase (0-2 years), is where children experience the world primarily through their senses and physical actions. At this stage, children develop object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are not seen.

    The second stage, the preoperational phase (2-7 years), is where children begin to use language and symbols, but their thinking remains egocentric. An example illustrating egocentrism at this stage is when Piaget observed his young daughter talking on the telephone and assumed that her interlocutor could see everything she saw. This shows that children in the preoperative phase do not fully understand how other people’s points of view work.

    The third stage, the concrete operational stage (7-11 years), is where children begin to think logically about concrete situations. Piaget conducted a well-known experiment in which children had to judge whether the amount of liquid in differently shaped containers was the same. He found that at this stage, children understand that even if the shape of the container changes, the amount of liquid can stay the same.

    The fourth stage, the formal operational stage (ages 12 and up), is where adolescents develop the ability to think abstractly and logically. This ability is fundamental to scientific and mathematical reasoning.

    Piaget’s emphasis on experimentation and detailed observation allowed him to see how children actively construct their knowledge by interacting with the world around them. He believed that knowledge is not simply a passive accumulation of facts but the result of constant interaction between the child and his environment. Knowledge construction occurs through two key processes: assimilation, by which the child integrates new information into their existing schemas, and accommodation, which allows the child to adjust these schemas to adapt to new experiences.

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    One of Piaget’s major innovations was his use of the clinical method, which involves openly observing and questioning children, without imposing answers or advice. This approach allowed him to discover how children actively construct their knowledge in interaction with the world.

    Piaget believed that educators have a vital role as guides who help children construct their own knowledge. He advocated that teaching should focus on providing rich and varied experiences that allow students to explore and discover for themselves. In other words, learning should be an active process that promotes creativity and critical thinking, rather than memorizing facts.

    He summed up his view by saying: “Everything a child is taught prevents him from inventing it or discovering it,” according to the BBC. He believed that the main goal of education was to produce individuals who could do new things, not to simply repeat what previous generations did.

    Although parts of Piaget’s theory have been revised with advances in neuroscience and modern psychology, his legacy remains relevant. His ideas about child development and the importance of tailoring teaching to children’s cognitive needs continue to influence educational practices around the world. Each stage of cognitive development is a step in building deeper, more complex knowledge, a process that defines who we are and how we understand the world around us.

    Piaget demonstrated that, just as in the case of the molluscs he studied in his early biological observations, the intellectual development of children is an organic and progressive process. His work has had a profound impact on pedagogy, suggesting that learning is not linear or homogeneous for all children but must be adapted to each child’s stages of cognitive development.

    Today, educators around the world continue to apply Piaget’s ideas to create learning environments that encourage exploration, discovery, and the development of critical thinking. His belief that children think differently from adults reshaped our approach to education and remains a cornerstone of educational theory.

    Sources: El Observador, BBC, Folha de S.Paulo, El Deber, La Nacion, El Nacional

    This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq



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