Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist who is widely considered the father of constructivism. His theory of cognitive development has been extremely influential in psychology, and it continues to be studied and applied today. In addition to his work in cognitive development, Piaget also conducted research on genetic epistemology and the concept of equilibration. He was an incredibly prolific thinker and writer, and his work has had a significant impact on psychology as a whole.
In this article, we will examine The Father of Constructivism Jean Piaget Biography. Jean Piaget is a well-known developmental psychologist who greatly influenced the field of psychology. Born in 1896 and died in 1980, he was an influential figure for most of his life. Piaget’s main contribution to psychology was his theory of cognitive development, which he called constructivism.
His theory focused on how people think and learn from their experiences through interactions with the environment around them. Piaget identified three types of intellectual structures: behavioral (or sensory-motor) schemas, symbolic schemas, and operational schemas.
The life of Jean Piaget is a fascinating tale that imparts many lessons. A Swiss psychologist, his research has had a profound influence on the way we think about children and their development. His work led to the creation of constructivism, which holds that all knowledge is constructed by individuals through interactions with their environment. One of his most famous contributions was the idea that intelligence develops in stages as people grow, creating what he called “the theory of cognitive developmental stages“.
What is constructivism?
Constructivism is a philosophical and psychological movement that holds that individuals create their own reality based on their personal experiences. It emphasizes the active role of the learner in constructing knowledge, rather than receiving it from an external authority. Proponents of constructivism argue that humans are not blank slates at birth; instead, they come into the world with a rich set of cognitive abilities and experiences that help them make sense of the world.
Constructivism has been applied to a wide range of educational contexts, including early childhood education, primary education, and higher education. Some constructivist educators focus on student-centered learning, while others emphasize problem-based learning or inquiry-based learning.
Jean Piaget Biography and Life
The world is a very interesting place. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like without your senses and the knowledge of society that you accumulate as you grow up. Jean Piaget, one of the most influential developmental psychologists in history, once said “To understand ourselves we must first understand our children.” And this is exactly what he did. Also, Jean Piaget’s Biography is very interesting.
Jean Piaget was born on August 9th, 1896 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He became well known for his studies of cognitive development which was an area that hadn’t been explored before him. He researched many things such as how humans acquire their intelligence through various stages all throughout life and how they can learn more than just from formal education but also by using their imagination.
He is best known for his work in developmental psychology and cognitive science. His theory of child development is called constructivism. It states that the knowledge a person has at any given time is based on their own experiences with the world and how they make sense of it. From this perspective, children learn by interacting with objects and people around them every day to build up their understanding of what the world looks like, responds to, etc., which means that no two people will ever have identical views about reality because they are different from each other!
What Is Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development?
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is a theory of intellectual development that proposes that humans go through four stages of cognitive development. The first stage is sensorimotor, which lasts from birth to about 2 years old. During this stage, infants learn through their senses and motor skills. The second stage is preoperational, which lasts from 2 to 7 years old. During this stage, children learn to think logically but not abstractly. The third stage is concrete operational, which lasts from 7 to 12 years old. During this stage, children can think logically about concrete concepts. The fourth and final stage is formal operational, which lasts from 12 years on. During this stage, people can think logically about abstract concepts.
Books by Jean Piaget
List of Jean Piaget’s Some Books;
Classics
- The Language and Thought of the Child (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1926) [Le Langage et la pensée chez l’enfant (1923)]
- The Child’s Conception of the World (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1928) [La Représentation du monde chez l’enfant (1926, orig. pub. as an article, 1925)]
- The Moral Judgment of the Child (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1932) [Le jugement moral chez l’enfant (1932)]
- The Origins of Intelligence in Children (New York: International University Press, 1952) [La naissance de l’intelligence chez l’enfant (1936), also translated as The Origin of Intelligence in the Child (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953)].
- Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood (New York: Norton, 1962) [La formation du symbole chez l’enfant; imitation, jeu et reve, image et représentation (1945)].
- The Psychology of Intelligence (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1950) [La psychologie de l’intelligence (1947)].
- The Construction of Reality in the Child (New York: Basic Books, 1954) [La construction du réel chez l’enfant (1950), also translated as The Child’s Construction of Reality (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1955)].
- With Inhelder, B., The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence (New York: Basic Books, 1958) [De la logique de l’enfant à la logique de l’adolescent (1955)].
- With Inhelder, B., The Psychology of the Child (New York: Basic Books, 1962) [La psychologie de l’enfant (1966, orig. pub. as an article, 1950)].
Major Works
- The Early Growth of Logic in the Child (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964) [La genèse des structures logiques elementaires (1959)].
- With Inhelder, B., The Child’s Conception of Space (New York: W.W. Norton, 1967).
- “Piaget’s theory” in P. Mussen (ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. 1. (4th ed., New York: Wiley, 1983).
- The Child’s Conception of Number (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952) [La genèse du nombre chez l’enfant (1941)].
- Structuralism (New York: Harper & Row, 1970) [Le Structuralisme (1968)].
- Genetic Epistemology (New York: W.W. Norton, 1971).
Significant Works
- The Child’s Conception of Physical Causality (London: Kegan Paul, 1930) [La causalite physique chez l’enfant (1927)]
- Child’s Conception of Geometry (New York, Basic Books, 1960) [La Géométrie spontanée de l’enfant (1948)].
- The Principles of Genetic Epistemology (New York: Basic Books, 1972) [L’épistémologie génétique (1950)].
- To Understand is to Invent: The Future of Education (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973) [tr. of Ou va l’education (1971) and Le droit a l’education dans le monde actuel (1948)].
- Six Psychological Studies (New York: Random House, 1967) [Six études de psychologie (1964)].
- Biology and Knowledge (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971) [Biologie et connaissance; essai sur les relations entre les régulations organiques et les processus cognitifs (1967)]
- Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child (New York: Orion Press, 1970) [Psychologie et pédagogie (1969)].
- Intellectual Evolution From Adolescence to Adulthood (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977) [L’evolution intellectuelle entre l’adolescence et l’age adulte (1970)].
- The Equilibration of Cognitive Structures: The Central Problem of Intellectual Development (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985) [L’equilibration des structures cognitives (1975), previously translated as The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures (1977)].
- Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini (ed.), Language and learning: the debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980) [Theories du language, theories de l’apprentissage (1979)].
- Development and Learning
Last Updated on January 21, 2022 by Lucas Berg
