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Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

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Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence. It was first created by the Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). The theory deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans gradually come to acquire, construct, and use it.[1] Piaget's theory is mainly known as a developmental stage theory. Piaget "was intrigued by the fact that children of different ages made different kinds of mistakes while solving problems"
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Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a stage theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.
According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge are based.

Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment

He also believed that children are not like "little adults" who may know less; children just think and speak differently. By Piaget thinking that children have great cognitive abilities, he came up with four different cognitive development stages, which he put out into testing. Within those four stages he managed to group them with different ages. Each stage he realized how children managed to develop their cognitive skills. For example, he believed that children experience the world through actions, representing things with words, thinking logically, and using reasoning.

To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes resulting from biological maturation and environmental experience. He believed that children construct an understanding of the world around them, experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment, then adjust their ideas accordingly.[3]

Child-centered classrooms and "open education" are direct applications of Piaget's views.[5
Through his study of the field of education, Piaget focused on two processes, which he named assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is how humans perceive and adapt to new information. It is the process of fitting new information into pre-existing cognitive schemas.[15] Assimilation in which new experiences are reinterpreted to fit into, or assimilate with, old ideas.[16] It occurs when humans are faced with new or unfamiliar information and refer to previously learned information in order to make sense of it. In contrast, accommodation is the process of taking new information in one's environment and altering pre-existing schemas in order to fit in the new information. This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation.
Piaaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development which reflect the increasing sophistication of children's thought:

1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2)

2. Preoperational stage (from age 2 to age 7)

3. Concrete operational stage (from age 7 to age 11)

4. Formal operational stage (age 11+ - adolescence and adulthood).

Summary

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development had a significant impact on how people understand childhood development today. Piaget suggests that children go through four distinct stages of cognitive development from birth to adulthood.

Each stage includes certain milestones where the child demonstrates a more sophisticated understanding of the world. Piaget believes that development occurs through a continuous drive to expand and adapt schemas, or understandings about the world. However, some people have criticized Piaget’s theory.

People can also explore other theories of cognitive development, such as Vygotsky and Montessori theories.