Piaget's Theory And Its Application To Education ^_^

Piaget suggested that children have an innate tendency to learn about the world; the Plowden Report suggested that Primary education should move from being teacher-led to being child-centred.

This would mean that the role of the teacher would not  be to teach, but rather to provide opportunities for the children to explore and learn about the world around them; this is known as 'active discovery learning'.

This supports Piaget's view that children are like 'little scientists' who explore their environment.

Piaget believed that cognitive development is a result of biological maturation and therefore, children cannot be taught certain activiites until they are biologically ready.

In education, young children are taught verbal skills before they are taught mathematical skills; this is due to the way in which they learn.

According to Piaget, growth in intelligence comes from the desire to maintain equilibrium (balance); however, in education, teachers aim to create conflict in order to make a diseqilibrium (imbalance).

They do this by challenging pupils so that they form new schemas in order to cope with new information.

By teachers asking pupils questions, children aren't given information, but are instead encouraged to discover it for themselves. This supports Piaget's idea of active discovery learning.