Piaget's Basics
The mental framework we create to understand the world.
What is a schema?
Stage (0–2 years) where children learn through senses and actions.
What is the sensorimotor stage?
Ages 4–10, children see rules as unchangeable.
What is heteronomous morality (moral realism)?
Tasks a child can do with help but not alone.
What is the Zone of Proximal Development?
Playing peek-a-boo helps infants develop this concept.
What is object permanence?
Fitting new information into an existing schema.
What is assimilation?
Stage where egocentrism and centration are common limits.
What is the preoperational stage?
After age 10, children see rules as human-made.
What is autonomous morality?
Tailoring support to fit a learner’s responses.
What is scaffolding?
Role-play and “think-alouds” in teaching reasoning.
What is the preoperational stage?
Changing a schema to fit new information.
What is accommodation?
Stage where conservation and logical reasoning about specific events are mastered.
What is the concrete operational stage?
Belief that rules come from authority and must be followed strictly.
What is moral realism?
More than an influence—it actively shapes cognitive development.
What is the social environment?
A teacher gives hints and step-by-step support for math problems.
What is scaffolding?
Balancing assimilation and accommodation.
What is equilibration (equilibrium)?
Stage where abstract and hypothetical reasoning appears.
What is the formal operational stage?
In autonomous morality, children begin to test these.
What are boundaries (rules)?
“Inner” tool children use to plan, solve problems, and reason.
What is inner language (private speech)?
Debates and designing investigations in high school align with this stage.
What is the formal operational stage?
Piaget’s two basic learning instincts.
What are the innate drives to organize and adjust?
Stage where seriation, classification, and reversibility emerge.
What is the concrete operational stage?
Difference between moral realism and autonomous morality.
Moral realism = rules unchangeable; Autonomous morality = rules are flexible, created by people.
Learning is best when tasks are both ________ and ________.
What is challenging and attainable?
A “just-right” challenge to keep students motivated.
What is Vygotsky’s principle of challenging-but-attainable tasks?