Piaget's theory about children's cognitive development-genetic epistemology is widely circulated in the field of education. Although the theory was formed in Piaget's later years, his thoughts sprouted from his early research on children and ran through his life. In addition, the "children's play theory" derived by genetic epistemology is also the "originator theory" of "kindergartens are not allowed to attend preschool classes" recently put forward by the Ministry of Education of China.
Knowledge is neither a copy of an object nor a pre-existing form of consciousness in the subject's mind. From the biological point of view, it is a perceptual construction formed by the interaction between organisms and the environment; From the cognitive point of view, it is a perceptual construction formed by the interaction between thinking and its object.
-jean piaget
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"Science prodigy": Arousing Interest in Epistemology
Jean piaget was born in Nachate on 1896. His father is a professor at the University of Nachate, who mainly studies medieval history and literature, attaches great importance to Piaget's view of science, and pays more attention to cultivating Piaget's attention to facts and hobbies. Piaget's mother is a devout religious believer. She insisted that Piaget receive strict religious training and chose a godfather who studied philosophy for Piaget.
When Piaget was young, he traveled a long way.
1907 Piaget, aged1/kloc-0, found an albino sparrow in the park, and then wrote an article about albino sparrow, which was published in the journal of natural science history in Nachate. Therefore, he was called a "science prodigy" at that time, and was invited by the curator of the Natural History Museum in Nachate to collect specimens together and participate in the research of mollusks.
During Piaget's middle school years, he often spent holidays with his godfather, which stimulated his interest in epistemology.
19 15 years, 19 Piaget got a bachelor's degree in biology. In the next three years, he also studied biology and philosophy courses. During the period of 19 19, Piaget became interested in philosophy, physiological psychology and logic while studying pathological psychology at the University of Paris. He thought that the integration of biology and philosophy was a shortcut to epistemology, and then he became interested in the study of the occurrence and development of children's thinking and began to turn to psychology.
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An introduction to children's psychology: a study lasting for half a century
192 1 year, Piaget obtained the French doctor of science degree and went to work in the laboratory in Binet.Alfred. Alfred (Binet.Alfred. Alfred (French experimental psychologist, founder of intelligence test) works as an assistant scholar of intelligence test in Paris. This job gave Piaget a wealth of knowledge about experimental psychology.
Binet.Alfred. Alfred laboratory is located in a primary school. Piaget talks with children aged 7 to 12 every afternoon during his work. In the process of talking with children, Piaget respects them very much. He believes that studying children's logic is the basis of understanding the development of human mind.
Tuyuan network
At the same time, he was exposed to psychoanalysis and clinical psychiatry. Piaget, after studying the lessons of psychoanalyst Jung and Freud's theory, wrote an article on Children's Dreams with psychoanalytic theory. It is said that Freud himself was very concerned about this article at that time.
While working and studying in Paris, Piaget wrote down his ideas and sent them to the dean of Rousseau College of Geneva University in Switzerland. Piaget himself was hired as the research director of Rousseau College, thus creating the Geneva School. Later Piaget wrote in his autobiography that he only planned to spend about five years studying children's thinking, but after devoted research, the research work lasted about half a century.
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My three children became the objects of observation, and game theory was born.
When he returned to his motherland and worked in Rousseau College of Geneva University, Piaget married his wife, valentina Chatney. His two daughters Jacqueline and Luciana were born in 1925 and 1927 respectively, and Piaget's son Lauren was born in 193 1.
Piaget and his wife have been good partners at work since their marriage. They carefully observed and recorded children's behavior in development and learning. Then Piaget announced his research results to the world and published three books: The Origin of Children's Intelligence, Children's Construction of Reality and the Formation of Children's Symbolism. Piaget's three children, Jacqueline, Luciana and Lauren, have thus become classic baby cases in the literature of child development psychology.
Piaget and their three children
Piaget's "game theory" is produced by observing the behavior of three children when they were young. Piaget believes that games provide children with opportunities to consolidate their cognitive structure and develop their emotions. In other words, in the game, children can practice new sports, social, intellectual and emotional behaviors repeatedly without being hindered by some results. Because games provide opportunities for children to experience a certain role, ta can correct and change the direction of activities according to her own wishes, and arrange the development of events by herself, so as to meet her interests, needs and emotions.
Therefore, Piaget believes that play is an inherent requirement of children's psychological development, an important aspect of children's intellectual activities, and is of great significance to children's cognitive development and the development of the whole psychological structure.
The seemingly abstract game theory actually coincides with the concept of "reducing the burden on children and not developing preschool classes in kindergartens" recently put forward by China's Ministry of Education.
In today's society, in order to let their children far surpass other children from the "starting line", parents mistakenly equate their children's intellectual development with learning knowledge, and think that their children's play is unlearned and "unworthy". Therefore, children's reading literacy is overemphasized and knowledge instillation is emphasized. The "Guiding Opinions on Vigorously Promoting the Scientific Connection between Kindergarten and Primary School" issued by the Ministry of Education on April 9 requires that kindergartens should not hold preschool classes, teach primary school curriculum content in advance, or arrange reading, writing and homework. The first semester of the first grade of primary school is set as the adaptation period.
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The maturity of epistemology: four stages of children's cognitive development
In Piaget's later years, his genetic epistemology's four stages of cognitive development-children have matured. He believes that all children in the world have to go through four fixed stages of development: perceptual movement stage, pre-operation stage, concrete operation stage and formal operation stage.
He pointed out that the difference between these four stages is not only reflected in the quantity of information obtained, but also in the qualitative change of knowledge and understanding. In short, people's cognitive development is a process of gradually changing their understanding of the world. When children reach a certain maturity and have relevant experience, they can enter the next stage. Piaget believes that children cannot reach the highest level of cognition without the transitional development of these experiences.
The first stage:
Perceptual motor stage in infancy (0.2 years old).
Children at this stage can't perceive the world with images, language or other symbols, but can only touch, suck, refuse, shake their heads and manipulate objects. Piaget hid the toy behind the black curtain and watched the baby's reaction. Piaget found that babies aged 9 months and above can usually accurately point out the hidden position of toys. Through this stage, children gradually develop from an individual with reflective behavior to a problem solver with a preliminary understanding of the daily life environment.
The second stage:
Pre-school (2 7 years old) calculation stage.
The main task of children's development at this stage is the use of language. Children gradually use the internal representation system to describe people, events and emotions, and can play symbolic games with symbols, such as riding a stick as a horse. Children in the pre-operation stage are often in self-centered thinking, that is, observing the world from their own perspective. For example, when playing hide-and-seek, a 3-year-old child may put his face against the wall and close his eyes. He can't see others at this time, so he thinks others can't see him either.
Although children in this stage have higher thinking ability than children in nastic movement stage, they can't understand the principle of simple conservation, that is, changes in the shape and outline of objects will not affect the number, volume and length of objects.
The third stage:
The specific operation stage of childhood (7 1 1 year).
Children at this stage can't fully understand the conservation principles, such as weight conservation and volume conservation, and this situation will continue for several years. At the same time, children begin to develop the process of self-centeredness. Although children at this stage have made great progress in logical thinking, there are still limitations: they are extremely dependent on concrete material entities and have difficulties in understanding abstract and hypothetical essence.
The fourth stage:
Puberty (1 1 15 years old) represents the maturity of cognition.
Piaget believes that adolescence is an important development stage from childhood to adulthood, during which adolescents' cognition will undergo major changes. Children in the stage of formal operation can master an abstract, formal and logical new thinking. You don't need to rely on physical objects, you can directly solve problems with logical thinking. The most representative research is pendulum experiment.
Until 1972, Piaget retired and returned to Switzerland to rest, and still did not give up his research work. For decades, he has been studying children's thinking, language and psychological experiments and published nearly 50 books. He devoted his life to the research and development of "genetic epistemology", which had a great influence on children's education scholars in the East and the West, and he himself won the Erasmus Prize in the Netherlands.