Jean Piaget

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, before the time of Jean Piaget, theories of knowledge were considered to be a part of philosophical learning, but Piaget turned studies of cognition into a science in its own right. The author points out that Piaget did not consider himself foremost a child psychologist but rather believed that, by looking at the ways children learn to think, it is possible to better understand the ways in which knowledge in general is acquired. The paper relates in detail Piaget's classification system of the mental development of children.

From the Paper:

"Another interesting comparison can be drawn between Piaget's work and that of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). Vygotsky asserted that a child's learning was "not a solitary exploration by a child of the environment ... but rather a process of appropriation by the child of culturally relevant behavior." This theory of social constructivism asserts that cognitive development "can be understood as the transformation of basic, biologically determined processes into higher physiological functions." In other words, children are born with a diverse range of perceptual, attentional and memory capacities which are substantially transformed in the context of socialization and education. "

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