Jean Piaget’s systematic study of the cognitive process was the first ever conducted by a psychologist. His contributions included detailed observational research on cognitive development in children, as well as a stage model of cognitive development. Piaget’s theory of cognitive growth explains the way a child creates a mental picture of their world. He believed cognitive development was caused by malnutrition or lack of interaction.
Piaget began working at the Binet Institute during the 1920s. He was responsible for translating the English questions into French. Piaget was intrigued by children’s reasoning when they incorrectly answered a logical question. He believed the wrong answers also revealed the differences in thinking between adults and kids. Piaget was interested in how fundamental concepts like time, quantity, causality, justice, etc., are formed. emerged. Piaget changed the way we thought about children. This theory seeks to explain why children and infants are able use hypotheses to reason. Piaget considered cognitive development to be a gradual restructuring of mental processes. This was due to biological maturation as well as experience in the environment. Children can understand the world they live in and are able, in addition, to experience the contradictions that exist between their knowledge and what’s revealed by their environment. (McLeod (2015). This theory is different from other theories in several ways. It focuses more on children than other learners and focuses more on their development.
The theory suggests discrete stages in development, marked by qualitative differences as opposed to an increase in the number and complexity or ideas, concepts and behaviours. Piaget’s definition of a schema from 1952 is “a repeatable, cohesive action sequence whose component actions are tightly interconnected by a core purpose”. Piaget referred to schemas, in order to simplify the concept, as a building block for intelligent behaviour. Wadsworth, (2004) suggests that schemata are ‘index-cards’ stored in the mind that tell an individual what to do when faced with incoming stimuli. Piaget, when discussing the development and growth of a person’s mental process, was referring to how much information an individual learned.
Piaget emphasized the importance and development of schemas during cognitive development. A schema can be described as a collection of linked representations that individuals use to respond and understand situations. It is assumed that people store mental representations, and then use them as needed. Schema can be stored as a pattern in a restaurant. The individual orders food, eats the meal, and pays the bill. This type of schema, also known as a Script, is stored in the memory so that the individual can use it every time they enter a new restaurant.