The Normal Stages of Human Beings Cognitive Development - Term Paper Example

Piagets 4 Stages of Cognitive Development Piaget developed a theory to explain how the cognitive development takes place from childhood to adulthood and as such, used the theory to explain that intellectual development begins with identification of objects at infantry. Therefore, the paper discusses the history of the Piaget’s theory that dates back to the early 1960’s with the identification of the four stages of cognitive development. On the other hand, the paper offers the insight on the implication of this knowledge in everyday life, including its use in classroom contexts, besides recommending how people use the theory in their daily lives because learning is a continuous process. Introduction In a bid to understand the normal stages of human being’s cognitive development, psychologists have come up with the theories to explore the stages of cognitive or intellectual development and Jean Piaget is the pioneer in this field with the Piaget Stages of Development (Piaget & Inhelder, 2014). Jean Piaget developed a framework for understand how human beings develop their cognitive abilities including judgment, thought, and knowledge. Thus, Jean Piaget, a psychologist, named the stages after recording the intellectual development and the cognitive abilities as observed in infants, children and teens (Piaget & Inhelder, 2013). After studying the infants and children, Piaget concluded that children usually progress intellectually or cognitively through four critical stages. Also, he noted that each stage is always marked by the shift in how the infants understand the world around them. In this case, Piaget provided the evidence to ascertain that children are like the scientists who are in a constant search for knowledge to explore as well as make sense of their surroundings or the world around them (Morra, Gobbo, Marini & Sheese, 2012). Therefore, it is imperative to identify what the literature provides as evidence for the cognitive development stages, the importance of the topic, in addition to the role that the topic plays in every person’s life as well as the current leading researchers on the topic. Various pieces of literature have since been documented as reviews to support or criticize Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development. For instance, Morra, Gobbo, Marini and Sheese (2012) supports and properly states Jean Piagets contribution to the constructivist theory of learning and confers that most of what are written on cognitive development in the modern history is because it was Piaget who contributed a great to lay the basis for developing the dynamic theory of constructivist learning. However, Piaget and Inhelder (2014) is of the different opinion on the coverage of the cognitive learning theory in most psychological textbooks because most of them summarize the usual four stages of sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operation but have failed in identifying and illustrate the six sub-stages of the sensorimotor. The omission of the four stages has been unfortunate to the understanding of cognitive development because the six sub-stages identify the core o the Piagets ideas concerning progression and mechanism of development. However, Morra, Gobbo, Marini and Sheese (2012) are exceptional because the text identifies or rather gives an account of the synopsis of Piaget’s theory to the details, including the six-sub stages of sensorimotor. Also, Pons, Harris, and de Rosnay (2012) refers to the contribution of Piaget as an equilibrium subject because the psychologist offered the insight to explain that the human being’s mental growth is a subject to continual activities whose aims are to balance the intrusions of physical and social environment where an organism conserves its imminent structural systems. Morra, Gobbo, Marini and Sheese (2012) is also in support of this significant contribution and claims that Piagets work was a major or an important mark in the history of understanding knowledge development because the theory provides a framework for giving the brilliant description of evolving or changing intellectual ability of a child. The stage of cognitive development is a unique subject because it offers the insight to explore how a human being develops from the infantry stage to the adult stage (Piaget & Inhelder, 2013). On the other hand, the topic is important because previously, psychologists believed that at tender ages, children have no clue about the world around them but Piaget developed a theory that discovered that cognitive development begins at the tender age of one year when a child learns through sensorimotor (Piaget & Inhelder, 2014). Jean Piaget, who hailed between 1896 and 1980, became the first Swiss development psychologist to teach the world about cognitive development through a systematic study of infants, children and adults (Piaget & Inhelder, 2014). The history of cognitive development dates back to the early psychologists who made the assumption that children usually see the world is a seemingly buzzing and booming confusion. However, Piaget soon developed a theory that claimed that even the youngest of the infants had the ability to learn as well as making sense of their surroundings. As such, Piaget theorized that knowledge is always organized into various sets of mental representation of the external environment and that when the subject encounters a new situation or object, the same is assimilated into the existing system. Therefore, Piaget would introduce a theory that ascertained that intellectual development is a continual process comprising assimilation, accommodation, and new information. Thus, Piaget would introduce the four stages of cognitive development namely sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage (Piaget & Inhelder, 2013). During the sensorimotor stage, knowledge acquisition by toddlers and infants occurs through the manipulation of objects and sensory experiences (Piaget & Inhelder, 2014). Piaget observed his nephew and the daughter and concluded that the stage of development is when the intelligence of the child comprises basic sensory and motor explorations of the surrounds or the world. In this case, Piaget made the assumptions based on the concept of object constancy because infants and toddlers would develop the understanding that the object exist implying that there is some knowledge development. After learning the difference between objects and that they are different entities, a child begins to attach the names as well as words to the learned object (Piaget & Inhelder, 2013).   At the preoperational stage, a child’s development or learning takes course through pretend play though there is the strong struggle with logic and the difficulty in taking the point of view of others besides the struggle with understanding ideal consistency (Piaget & Inhelder, 2014). In this case, the child still struggles to understand different shapes and objects because of the knowledge of consistency from the previous stage.   At the concrete operational stage, kids begin to develop more logical thinking though their thinking is still rigid (Piaget & Inhelder, 2014). As such, the kids struggle with the understanding of hypothetical and abstract concepts besides being less egocentric thus beginning to think about other people’s feelings. Also at this stage, kids have the understanding that their thoughts are opinions and also know the uniqueness of their thoughts. As such, the kids understand that not everyone can share the same thoughts, views and feelings as theirs (Piaget & Inhelder, 2013). Finally, the formal operational stage is where the logic ability increases; the kids start using deductive reasoning and as such, develop a greater understanding of the abstract ideas (Piaget & Inhelder, 2014). At this stage, there is the potential to develop solutions to problems as well as developing a greater scientific thinking of the world around (Piaget & Inhelder, 2013). Piaget’s theory has a serious implication for the education practice because, first, the theory can be used to develop the most appropriate education that is development oriented. In this case, the theory is used to develop the best education environment using the right curriculum, instructions and materials that suit the students in terms of cognitive and physical abilities in addition to emotional and social needs (Rutjens, van Harreveld, van der Pligt, Kreemers & Noordewier, 2013). As a student, the theory plays a significant role in my search for knowledge and the world around me. On the other hand, most of the instruction and curriculum approaches are usually constructed based on the Piagets theory and as such, the theory plays a significant role in the development of the constructivist models used in learning. Nonetheless, the theory has an influence on others because people learn through interactions and experiences (Morra, Gobbo, Marini & Sheese, 2012). In this case, people can learn from experimenting life and learn some good lessons from the experiences they have with the situation thus an important theory that shapes what people perceive to be right and wrong. As the theory suggests that every interaction leads to the establishment of a cognitive structure in a child, the same is with everyones life because people learn a great deal depending on the extent of their interctation with other people and the experiences they draw from such interactions (Piaget & Inhelder, 2014). Therefore, cognitive development affects everyones life, including parents who have to watch their children grow and in this case, the parent can do whatever it takes to help the child to understand fully the world around him or her or to ensure that there is full cognitive development. Conclusion In a nutshell, Piaget offered laid the foundation for understanding how children develop from their tender ages until they reach the age of reckoning the world around them. The four stages of cognitive development begin with the learning through sensorimotor, then the preoperational stage, operational stage, and the formal operational stage. Various works of literature have supported Piagets contribution to the understanding of cognitive development among human beings and the same knowledge explains how people learn in the everyday life and what they can do best to ensure their children comprehend their surroundings. On the other hand, the same knowledge can be used in the classroom context for selecting the teaching methods based on the cognitive ability of students. References Morra, S., Gobbo, C., Marini, Z., & Sheese, R. (2012). Cognitive development: neo-Piagetian perspectives. Psychology Press. Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (2013). The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence: An essay on the construction of formal operational structures (Vol. 84). Routledge. Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (2014). Intellectual operations and their development. Experimental Psychology Its Scope and Method: Volume VII (Psychology Revivals): Intelligence, 144. Pons, F., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2012). Piaget and Consciousness: Retrospect and Prospect. After Piaget, 1, 95. Rutjens, B. T., van Harreveld, F., van der Pligt, J., Kreemers, L. M., & Noordewier, M. K. (2013). Steps, stages, and structure: Finding compensatory order in scientific theories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142(2), 313. Read More