Does Piaget Still Have Anything to Say to Chemists?

Abstract

In 1975, Herron () wrote an article for this Journal entitled Piaget for Chemists that started many teacher-chemists thinking about why students were not succeeding in their chemistry courses. For many, this article served as their first introduction to Piaget's developmental theory. During the past twenty-five years, Piaget's theory has been expanded, modified and in some cases, even rejected. The developmental theory of Vygotski and the Constructivist and Information Processing learning theories build on much of Piaget's developmental theory. This paper will provide a synopsis of these developmental and learning theories, and offer examples from chemistry curricula reform and research studies that show the effect they have had on our understanding of the teaching and learning process in chemistry.