Piagetian Research Research Articles

Jean Piaget and the autonomous disciples, Alina Szeminska and Bärbel Inhelder: From the "critical method" to the appropriation of research culture.

The problems addressed in this article are the transition from the Piagetian clinical method to the so-called critical method, that is, the use of objects manipulated by both the experimenter and the child, and the study of the role of Piaget's female collaborators--in particular Alina Szeminska and Bärbel Inhelder--in the establishment of the critical method. Several authors suggested that Inhelder was behind certain Piagetian experimental devices and the critical method. To evaluate this thesis, we used segment analysis, dealing with the isolable, relevant, and necessary parts of an experiment. Intensive research into Piaget's research data and publications from the 1920s, compared with the early publications of Szeminska and Inhelder, showed that it was Piaget who, as early as 1922, made the transition from the clinical to the critical method and invented a number of experimental setups, including those attributed to Inhelder. On the other hand, Szeminska appeared as the creator of her experimental design. To interpret this situation, we used the concept of research culture and the focus shifted from priority issues to methodological and social practices: Piaget's students had to appropriate his research culture, a "system of methods" in a dynamic relationship. This enabled their inclusion into his research programs by learning to create new devices and thus become autonomous disciples. Piaget adopted a strategy of generosity, making available to his students research directions that he had already dealt with, on which they specialized and which he had given priority, thus helping them in their careers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Domination-submissiveness as a communication pattern in adolescents’ dialogue: A qualitative study

The paper explores asymmetrical peer interaction and focuses on adolescents with higher competences, which is fairly rare in this field. Although interested in language, the Vygotskians dominantly studied adult-child interaction, while the Piagetian research, despite the orientation towards peer interaction, has started to investigate their dialogue only recently. In the current paper, we traced the domination submissiveness communication pattern in 10 dyad conversations of primary school students (the 6th and 8th grade), in which more competent students progressed or regressed most after an interaction with a less competent peer. This pattern is usually related to a lower achievement of less competent students who were found to be submissive, while domination was a feature of their more competent peers. The aim was to explore whether this pattern had variations and how it was related to the achievement and behaviour of more competent students. The results indicate that there are various forms of the investigated communication pattern and that it is associated with the more competent students? progression. The previous findings regarding the dominant behaviour of more competent students have been confirmed. Qualitative analysis enabled us to see the domination-submissiveness communication pattern as a complex form of interaction which appears in various forms in the dialogues of asymmetric dyads.

A trend analysis of Piaget's research theses relevant to early childhood education: Focusing on academic journals

A trend analysis of Piaget's research theses relevant to early childhood education: Focusing on academic journals

<p>The Rise of the Physical Sciences in “Stricto Sensu” The Developmental Approach and the History of Sciences</p><p><br></p>

J. Piaget dedicated several books and articles on the psychogenetic reconstruction of the history of sciences. A couple of disciples followed Piaget´s ideas and reconstructed the history of single disciplines or of some scientific developments in terms of developmental psychology. They found a striking similarity between childish psychological stages and the sciences in their premodern period. Correspondingly, they also found similarities between adolescent psychological stages and early modern sciences. Many data hint at the fact that psychological stage advancements respectively the emergence of the adolescent stage of formal operations during the 17th century was the cause to the rise of the physical sciences in stricto sensu. The research of Piaget and his followers, however, was not deep enough insofar as they were insecure whether the correspondencies related may concern the theories only or also the minds of the theoreticians (the scientists) themselves. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to demonstrate that the emergence of the formal operational stage took place in the minds of the scientists themselves. It is argued that the cognitive transformations within the minds of the scientists themselves were the origin of the scientific breakthroughs and the emergence of the new disciplines. The article presents the data according to them premodern peoples stood on pre- and concrete operational stages, as the ancient scientists did, too. Then it shows that premodern sciences substantially likewise root in these lower stages, as their adherence to magic and animism already evidence. Consequently, it is argued that the transformation from magical-animistic theories to the sciences in stricto sensu during the 17th century originates in the rise of the formal operations. The next step is to show how the formation of the disciplines such as physics, astronomy, chemistry and medicine and the accumulation of scientific knowledge already in the first generation directly followed the fresh establishment of the formal operational stage. The conclusion is that the relationship between psychological stage development and the history of sciences is closer and more direct than Piaget and his followers ever described.

Family Support and Early Intervention Services for the Youngest Children with Visual Impairments

The newest generation of professionals in the field of educating learners who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) have both preservice training and an abundance of professional materials to assist them as they work to address the early intervention and specially designed instructional needs of the youngest children with visual impairments, those from birth through 5 years of age. University preparation programs in visual impairment address the professional competencies that professionals need to provide education services across the life span from birth to 21 years. Federal grants from the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) have supported the development of both preservice (for example, the Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers) and inservice (for example, Vision Impaired Inservice in America, VIISA) modules or training resources for services for young children (birth to age 5) who are visually impaired. There are a plethora of books and resource materials that detail research-based findings for the developmental trajectory of young children who are visually impaired, as well as evidence-based interventions and family-support strategies. The field of visual impairment has a long and proud history of providing educational services to children under the age of the 5 years. Such services began before the U.S. federal mandate (that is, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA) for Part B services for school-age children with disabilities, including preschool-aged children, and later Part C services for infants and toddlers with disabilities. These specialized early educational services were offered traditionally by entities who worked exclusively with children who are visually impaired. Today, the field of visual impairment has evolved to expect the timely provision of specialized and visual impairment-specific early intervention services and supports as soon as a young child is diagnosed with early-onset visual impairment. Or do barriers still remain to early intervention services? It is important to ask whether every family of a child newly diagnosed with a congenital or early-onset visual impairment has access to a certified teacher of children with visual impairments and a certified orientation and mobility (O&M) specialist. For that matter, are all children diagnosed with visual impairments as early as possible to ensure the soonest possible medical interventions and referrals for specialized early intervention services? Are the visual impairment experts well trained enough in early childhood education that they can differentiate practices that are appropriate for infants and toddlers from those that are appropriate for preschoolers or those that are appropriate for kindergarteners or older children? The life span of birth to age 21 has many unique phases of development that are described in the research of Piaget, Erickson, Vygotsky, and other recent theorists of early neuroscience-based learning. Early childhood and early childhood special education are fields onto themselves. As such, practitioners need considerable knowledge to offer family-centered and developmentally appropriate practices that address and support routines-based interventions in natural environments that include the unique and important early intervention services and supports that are needed by infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. It is simply not enough to understand the effect of and general intervention needs related to pediatric vision loss when working with young children with visual impairments. Teachers of children with visual impairments and certified O&M specialists, in roles as early interventionists, need to first understand general child development, then the potential impact of vision loss on the development of children, and, most importantly, the need for individualized supports for children and families based on their priorities, culture, and self-identified needs. …

Transitory Connections: The Reception and Rejection of Jean Piaget's Psychology in the Nursery School Movement in the 1920s and 1930s

In 1927, nursery school educator Lucy Sprague Mitchell heralded Jean Piaget's psychology as of “outstanding interest” and wrote inProgressive Educationthat it should be of “immense service” to psychologists, teachers, and parents. In 1929, psychologist Lois Meek praised Piaget's research in the National Society for the Study of Education's yearbook on preschool and parental education. In 1931, the National Association for Nursery Education bibliography on nursery school-based research, for which Meek was on the editorial board, included no mention of Piaget at all.

Avoiding misinterpretations of Piaget and Vygotsky: Mathematical teaching without learning, learning without teaching, or helpful learning-path teaching?

This article provides an overview of some perspectives about special issues in classroom mathematical teaching and learning that have stemmed from the huge explosion of research in children's mathematical thinking stimulated by Piaget. It concentrates on issues that are particularly important for less-advanced learners and for those who might be having special difficulties in learning mathematics. A major goal of the article is to develop a framework for understanding what effective mathematics teaching and learning is, because doing so is so important for struggling students and for research about them. Piaget's research had a fundamental influence on the on-going tension between understanding and fluency in the classroom, supporting efforts toward increasing understanding. But in some countries, misinterpretations of Piaget led to practices that are counterproductive for children, especially struggling learners. Such misinterpretations are identified and a more balanced approach that also draws on Vygotsky is described—a learning-path developmentally-appropriate learning/teaching approach.

Early years teachers and the influence of Piaget: evidence from oral history

In studying the historical development of early years provision, a clear factor in raising its profile was the growth in scientific study of children, especially the reception and interpretation of Piaget's research. For an understanding of how the mediation of new thinking and new discoveries influenced students and teachers, textbooks provide an important documentary source, but evidence is also available through oral history in the living memories of practitioners themselves. This paper draws on the testimony of early years teachers who began their careers between 1927 and 1955 and continued teaching into the 1960s and 1970s. The account below begins with reflections on psychology and education in the early decades of the twentieth century drawn from a 1936 conference organised by the Nursery School Association of Great Britain, and from a widely used textbook that represents the gradual trend towards ‘fragmentation’ of educational theory into a multiplicity of disciplines. Reference is then made to two popular textbooks by prominent Froebelians, Brearley and Hitchfield, and by Ruth Beard illustrating the growing influence of Piaget as a post facto rationale for a pedagogy that was proceeding by instinct. Walkerdine, Lister and Hall are researchers who have investigated from various angles the impact of Piagetian psychology on primary practice, but the process whereby this translation from the laboratory to the classroom takes place is one that demands further investigation. Vital evidence lies in the living memories of early years teachers whose careers spanned the 1930s to the 1970s and a rich quality and personal texture of the data is apparent as retired early years teachers recounted their professional careers. It offers a more complex account than the grand narratives that historians have traditionally compiled from purely documentary evidence centring on great thinkers, key texts and policy initiatives. The role of in‐service education was clearly important in the experiences recalled in this paper. Above all we find evidence of a distinctive shift in teacher–child relationships over that historical period and of the contribution made to this by psychological theory, epitomised in the figure of Piaget and in his focus on the individual learner.

Issues in Constructivist Early Moral Education

The authors address Goodman's critique of constructivist moral education as articulated by DeVries and Zan (1994) and respond to her proposal that constructivist education be blended with traditional moral education as advocated by Wynne (1991). The authors cite empirical evidence contrary to Goodman's assertion that preschool children are egocentric and incapable of moral reflection. This difference links to dramatically opposed views on the educational implications of Piaget's research and theory. Goodman advocates that teachers should "exploit the child's natural heteronomy" by giving children rules and demanding obedience. The authors cite empirical evidence showing that heteronomous regulation of children leads to a host of undesirable outcomes and that encouragement of children's autonomy leads to positive outcomes. The authors also point out a number of misconceptions of constructivist education as propounded by DeVries and Zan. They discuss Goodman's specific suggestions for blending constructivist and traditional moral education, and conclude that such a blending contradicts considerable research on child development and early education and eliminates critical components of constructivist early moral education.

The questionable utility of “cognitive ability” in explaining cognitive illusions

The notion of “cognitive ability” leads to paradoxical conclusions when invoked to explain Inhelder and Piaget's research on class inclusion reasoning and research on the inclusion rule in the heuristics-and-biases program. The vague distinction between associative and rule-based reasoning overlooks the human capacity for semantic and pragmatic inferences, and consequently, makes intelligent inferences look like reasoning errors.

Piaget ethnographer

Although there have been extensive discussions of Piaget's theory, relatively little attention has been given to his research methods. Indeed, where Piaget's methods have been discussed they have generally been attacked for what are perceived as limitations and inadequacies. However, both in his work based on observations of infants and particularly in the clinical interviews with children and adolescents Piaget's research can be seen as a striking demonstration of the power of the systematic use of qualitative methods. Piaget's work in fact offers a paradigmatic example of an interpretive methodology in developmental psychology, not only for the intimate relations between interview and theory evident in all his research, but also for the argument through which the research is presented to the reader. As well as reviewing the clinical interview itself, this article also considers the different logics of research evident in this method and in that used by Piaget's critics.

Donner à tous envie d'apprendre. Cheminement et découvertes de l'équipe du Cresas

The author develops the progressive construction of a pedagogical approach called "interactive pedagogy" which favours the involvement of all the learners in the learning process. This approach is based on works which aim to clarify the way children learn. Drawing from the research of Piaget and Wallon, this study is based on the vital needs to be active and to communicate with the others which characterize all human beings from their birth onwards. We observe that when those who work in the educational profession are commited to these principle, then the learning people, whatever their individual characteristics of their sociocultural backgrounds, develop an inquiry mind, a sense of enterprise, a spirit of cooperation and a confidence in their learning abilities. A considerable amount of pleasure and sense of control is noted to be felt by educationalists when performing their jobs. Thus a new dynamic gets under way, in which children and adults alike experience transformation and which favours success for everyone.

Implications of Piaget's Constructivist Theory for Character Education

Character education from the constructivist perspective is outlined, drawing on Piaget's research on children's reasoning about moral rules, such as telling the truth. Piaget's distinction between two types of morality offers a framework for thinking about education. Parallel to the two types of morality are two types of teacher-child relationships, one that promotes children's moral development and one that hinders it. The first principle of constructivist education is to establish a socio-moral atmosphere in which mutual respect is continually practiced. Examples are given about what teachers can do to create a cooperative interpersonal atmosphere in the classroom. Research is described that shows that children from a constructivist kindergarten were more advanced in their interpersonal interactions than children from DISTAR and eclectic classrooms. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

The epistemological significance of Piaget’s developmental stages: a Lakatosian interpretation

A review of the literature shows that there is considerable debate as to the epistemological significance of Piaget’s developmental stages. Many of the critics have rejected Piaget’s theory on the grounds that stage-like development is too heterogeneous. The objective of this article is to demonstrate that most of the critics have misconstrued the significance of Piaget’s stages in human intellectual development and that stages were not an end in themselves but rather a heuristic to explain the process of equilibration. It is suggested that the stages be considered as part of the Lakatosian positive heuristic. As the function of the positive heuristic within a Lakatosian framework is precisely to “operationalize” the hard core (i.e. means to an end), Piagetian stages if construed as part of the positive heuristic would facilitate the understanding of equilibration — the hard core of the Piagetian research program.

Changing Beliefs: Teaching and Learning Mathematics in Constructivist Preservice Classrooms

Abstract Constructivism is a learning theory which has emerged from Piagetian research. Reform in mathematics education frequently centers around constructivist principles. Many barriers prevent reform from occurring. The authors describe changes in instruction which have been implemented in their university mathematics education classrooms and relate these changes to their own constructivist philosophies. They examine the effects of change in instructional pedagogy and classroom environment on preservice teachers' beliefs about mathematics learning and teaching as well as the prospective teachers' feelings and attitudes toward mathematics.

Repression in the child's conception of the world: A phenomenological reading of Piaget

Abstract The present article undertakes a psychological reading of The Child's Conception of the World as a cultural artifact in which genetic psychology's naturalistic and positivistic assumptions reflect an Enlightenment model of science, and Piaget figures as an agent of technological rationality. A phenomenological analysis of the text reveals how Piaget's research engages in an active repression of specific dimensions of childhood experience. Young children's ‘adualistic’ conceptions of thought, self and language are deemed ‘confused’, and thereby discounted, by virtue of the fact such children do not ‘correctly’ dichotomize experience in accord with the cultural norm of mechanistic rationality. Piaget's numerous associations of the child's ‘primitive’ views and the (childish) thought of the pre‐Socratics are briefly explored.

Play, Cognitive Development, and the Social World: Piaget, Vygotsky, and Beyond

This article provides a critical overview of research on play and cognitive development and an analysis of the two major theoretical frameworks that have informed it. Until recently, the dominant influence in this area has been that of Piaget, whose approach to play formed an integral part of his larger theory of cognitive development. Although the Piagetian research program is far from exhausted, the absence of a sociocultural dimension in his approach created a space for the influence of Vygotsky, whose developmental theory has increasingly emerged as the major alternative framework. However, this second stream of research has thus far taken up the Vygotskian ‘inspiration’ in a limited and inadequate way. In particular, it is too narrowly focused on interaction and does not address the wider sociocultural elements that define and shape the play context. The article concludes by suggesting the outlines of a more powerful research perspective. Among other sources, this approach builds on some of the unexplored possibilities within the Piagetian and Vygotskian perspectives themselves – in part by reconnecting certain elements in these perspectives with their roots in Durkheim and Freud – as well as drawing on the approach to cultural interpretation championed by Geertz.

Judgements and justifications: Criteria for the attribution of children's knowledge in Piagetian research

In empirical research, developmentalists attribute knowledge to children on the basis of performances on assessment tasks. Since knowledge is not itself observable, criteria are needed for reasonable decisions to be made about how to classify different intellectual states, such as false belief, empirically true belief, necessary knowledge. In Piagetian research, there are two distinct views about the selection of such ‘response criteria’. One view states that knowledge can be attributed on the basis of children's judgements-alone (J-view). A contrary view states that such attribution requires children to justify their judgements (JJ-view). An objection to the J-view is discussed by consideration of the two dominant philosophical accounts as to the nature of knowledge, namely the foundationalist and causal accounts. It is argued, firstly, that the foundationalist account requires the elimination of the J-view with which it is incompatible through its failure to deal with cases of knowledge at all. It is argued, secondly, that the causal account places a limitation on the J-view which fails to deal with cases of necessary knowledge. Since one of the main problems in Piagetian research is the construction of necessary knowledge, only the JJ-view should be used when this problem is addressed. Developmental research which is based on the J-view alone could not, without circularity, be concerned with the substantive issues which are outside its conceptual scope.

Learning Cycles in Art History

Art history has traditionally been taught by the lecture method.1 The general public believes that only experts talk about art, and our teaching has done little to dispel this idea. Students leave introductory classes able to repeat what the professor has said but are very hesitant to express their own ideas. The active learning method I have incorporated into my art history survey classes encourages stu dents to begin to express their ideas about what they see. It is a method that can be used in almost any field of study and has special advantages for instruc tors of introductory classes. The method described here is derived from the ADAPT Program (Accent on Developing Advanced Process of Thought) begun in 1975 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A number of courses are offered within this program, including physics, mathematics, Eng lish, and anthropology. The ADAPT program was set up to apply Jean Piaget's research on cognitive develop ment to classroom learning. Although the instructional methods described here can be implemented without the in structor's adopting Piaget's learning theory, a brief description of the rele vant aspects of Piaget's model of cogni tive development may be useful.

The Piagetian method of critical exploration in understanding special educational needs

Abstract What can research into cognitive development contribute to work with children who have special educational needs? Criticisms of the use of Piagetian research in particular are examined. Counter‐criticisms and evidence of the fruitfulness of a Piagetian approach are presented. After selection and examination of key publications, illustrations of the use of Piaget's work are discussed. It is argued that a developmental approach, particularly Piaget's method of critical exploration, is most appropriate for advancing understanding of children with special educational needs.