Piaget key Terms

A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are catagories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world.

In piaget's view, a schema includes both a catagory of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas. For example, a child may have a schema about a type ofn snimal, such as a dog. If the child's sole experience has been with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small, furry, and have four legs. Suppose then that the child encounters an enourmous dog. The child will take this new information, modifying the previously existing schema to include these new observations.

Assimiliation is the process of taking in new information into our already existing schemas is know as assimiliation. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify experiences and information slightly to fit in with our preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing a dog and labelling it "dog" is a case of assmiliating the animal into the child's dog schema.

Another part of adaptation involves changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information, a process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves modifying existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process.

Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between assimiliation and accommidation, which is achieved through a mechanism Piaget called it equilibration. As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge(assmiliation) and changing behaviour to account for new knowledge(accommodation). Equilibration helps explain how children can move from one stage of thought into the next.