Piaget's Four Theories Of Cognitive Development

Theories of Cognitive Development There are four main theories discussed when teaching cognitive development: Piagetian, information-processing, sociocultural, and dynamic-systems. The first and most recognizable is the Piagetian theory founded by Jean Piaget. Piaget views children as “little scientists” who create hypotheses, preform experiments, and draw conclusions from their observations. He claimed development involves three main continuities: assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration. Although Piaget discussed some forms of continuity, he is most known for his emphasis on discontinuous aspects, which he refers to as “stages” of cognitive development. Piaget’s four stages are: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the

His views on nature versus nurture, continuous and discontinuous development, and viewing the child as having an active role are all advantageous because they appeal to the majority of people. Piaget’s strongest aspect of his theory are his specific, hierarchal stages of development. These stages have stood the test of time; they are still being taught in classes over a century later. Each stage has exact guidelines and a child cannot advance to a higher stage until the prior one is complete. There are several disadvantages of his theory including that the stages end after a child turns 12, meaning that cognitive development would plateau during that time. Also, Piaget underestimated how cognitively advanced many infants and young children are and how large of a role the social world plays in development. Neo-Piagetian theorists have taken these criticisms and edited the original stages and added additional stages for later development, improving the theory

Instead of focusing on precise stages for cognitive development like Piaget, information-processing theories claim cognition is constantly occurring and changing over time. A disadvantage of the information-processing theories is that it puts too much emphasis on memory. Memory is part of cognitive development, but it is not the only aspect. Piaget looks at other aspects like spatial learning, abstract thinking, overcoming egocentrism and centration. If information-processing researchers looked into other ways that children develop cognitively, they would improve their theory. Also, this theory is dehumanizing, it compares human mind to computers and emphasizes that cognitive development is inside the