4 Stages of Development
This stage lasts approximately from birth to age 2 and involves learning primarily through senses and physical actions.
What is the Sensorimotor Stage?
This is a mental framework that helps a person organize and understand information.
What is a Schema?
A teacher gives elementary students counting blocks so they can physically group, add, and rearrange them. Why does this fit Piaget's theory?
Students are using concrete materials to actively construct understanding.
Two children are given the same amount of clay. One child rolls their clay into a ball. The other child flattens theirs. A child says the flattened clay is “less.” What concept is this child struggling with?
What is Conservation?
A 5 year old uses pretend play and language but has difficulty understanding that the amount of water stays the same after it is poured into a taller glass.
What is the Preoperational Stage?
A child sees a sheep for the first time and calls it a “dog” because it has four legs and fur. Which process is happening?
What is Assimilation?
Instead of explaining how a science experiment works, a teacher gives students materials and asks them to predict, test, and observe what happens. Which Piaget idea does this represent?
What is Active Discovery / Learning Through Exploration?
A 4 year old thinks everyone sees a toy exactly the way they do. What characteristic of preoperational thinking does this demonstrate?
What is Egocentrism?
A child can logically understand that the amount of clay stays the same even after the clay is reshaped into a different form. Which stage is this most associated with?
What is the Concrete Operational Stage?
A child learns that a sheep is NOT a dog and changes their understanding by creating a separate category for sheep. What process is this?
What is Accommodation?
A teacher is teaching an 8 year old a difficult mathematical concept. Which approach is most consistent with Piaget?
A. Only give a verbal definition
B. Have the student memorize the rule
C. Use manipulatives, examples, and problem solving
D. Skip directly to abstract equations
C. Use manipulatives, examples, and problem solving.
A student has always believed that “big things sink.” They see a large plastic bowl floating. They become confused and have to rethink their original idea. What on of Piaget's processes is happening as the student changes their understanding?
What is Accommodation?