Education was shaped by many people, especially Jean Piaget. He was a Swiss born developmental psychologist. His theory cognitive development caused a new revolution in thinking about how thinking develops (Snyder, 2008). His theory consists of four stages of cognitive development: Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete-operational stage and Formal operational stage (Snyder, 2008). Sensorimotor Stage is the stage of newborns where all they can do is react to the environment and not interact; this stage is mainly development of perception with motor activity. Infants begin to realize the relation between physical movement and the result they sense and perceive. The next stage is Preoperational Stage, which begins at age two when children begin to use words and symbols to represent objects. Children in this stage cannot comprehend all the aspects at once, so they focus only on the one most obvious-the way a substance looks. They cannot comprehend volume, weight, shape of, or arrangements of change, because the basic property is preserved. The Concrete-Operational stage is at the age of 5-7 when children show signs of thinking like an adult (Bee, 2000).
There logic is still grounded in concrete experiences, this is a reason teachers should teach hands on at this young age. 'Seeing believes ' for this age in children, at these stage children can focus on two stages of the problem. At this age, they understand the laws of convention, which now allows children to comprehend more than just the looks of the substance. They understand that a short wide glass could hold the same as a tall thin glass (Santrock, 2001). This paper will describe how the theory of Piaget can be used in the classroom through instructional planning, delivery, classroom set-up, management, and finally assessment.
Piaget theories are applied to our classroom learning environment each day. Piaget theories suggest learning is more effective
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