Jean Piaget
A contemporary of both Montessori and Dewey, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (18961980) proposed a theory of cognitive development that initiated a constructivist view of curriculum. Piaget’s experiments with young children (some of them conducted at a modified Montessori school in Geneva, Switzerland) revealed them, during their play, to be active participants in the development of mental concepts through trial and error, repeated interactions with materials, and adaptation to the environment. His work confirmed early learning as distinct from other developmental periods, implying, therefore, that materials and activities for young children should reflect the idiosyncratic way in which they think and process stimuli (Branscombe et al., 2003; Chaille, 2008).
Piaget proposed that cognitive development occurs in four distinct stages, three of which occur either wholly or partially during early childhood (Piaget, 1977). In the sensorimotor stage, infants and toddlers process experience and begin to coordinate movement through sensory exploration (Branscombe, Castle, Dorsey, Surbeck, & Taylor, 2003). Preoperational thinking of preschoolers emerges spontaneously, as they are internally motivated to make sense of their environment by testing ideas and theories in play and exploration with materials (Chaille, 2008).
More From the Field
Critical Thinking Question
- Identify an experience you have had with a young child that provided you with insight about how they think and learn differently than older children or adults.
At about age 7, children figure out that they can solve problems logically by using objects to perform “operations” (like addition and subtraction). They also begin to understand that operations are reversible (e.g., 2 + 3 = 5 is the same as 5 2 = 3) (Branscombe et al., 2003). Formal operations, or the ability to think logically and perform operations entirely in the abstract without the support of objects, begins to emerge at about age 11.
Piaget’s ideas and experiments have been challenged and reinterpreted in ways that continue to expand our understanding of a constructivist view of curriculum (Branscombe et al., 2003; Cannela, Swadener, & Chi, 2008). Most early childhood teachers recognize that children are “concrete thinkers” who require large blocks of time to explore materials and processes. However, “Constructivism is not a method, a curriculum model, or a series of appropriate practices. . . . Rather, constructivism is the theory that underlies the choices and decisions you make about how you set up the classroom, choose the curriculum, and respond to the children’s work and ideas” (Chaille, 2008, p. 5).