Jean Piaget

Abstract:

The first portion of our presentation will be on Jean Piaget. We will review his major theories while introducing some aspects of how these theories have been expanded upon. We have also included short videos of children taking part in experiments which were influenced by Piaget. Six discussion questions are embedded into this portion. Please feel free to discuss any questions that are of interest to you.

Piaget Power Point Presentation

Classroom Application

Gardner expanded Piaget’s 3 Types of Knowledges into 7 Intelligences, and later the Naturalist and Existentialist intelligences were added on as well. The latter remains a topic of controversy. These intelligences were applied to learning by demonstrating that because there are multiple intelligences, there are multiple ways to learn. Studies show that each person has a dominant intelligence, thus teaching using a variety of these intelligences facilitates better learning and supports diverse learners.

At the same time, Piaget’s Stages of Development are also highly relevant and applicable to classroom teaching:

Stage	What do they understand?	How to support learning?
Preoperational	- Use symbols to represent objects	- Use props, visual aids, manipulatives and activities that require physical movement
Concrete operational	- Begin to learn and understand conservation of number, length, liquid, mass, weight, area and volume. - Also begin to think abstractly and make rational judgments	- Continue to use manipulatives and concrete examples to scaffold learning - Pose questions that require analysis and logical thinking
Formal operational	- Can think hypothetically and deductively	- Pose hypothetical questions -Ask students to explain how solutions were derived

After reading about Piaget's theories, watching his theories in action on the videos, and seeing how his theories can be linked to the classroom in the above chart, please refer to the discussion questions posted on vista and embedded in the PowerPoint presentation. We want you to think about Piaget's theories in your specific learning environment. We look forward to reading your thoughts.