Teacher's Alley

Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development  Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the 20th centuries most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology.  He was mainly interested in the biological influences on ―how we come to know. Piaget believed that what distinguishes human beings from other animals is our ability to do ―abstract symbolic reasoning. There are two major aspects to his theory:  the process of coming to know and  the stages we move through as we gradually acquire this ability. Piaget (1936) was the first  psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of child cognitive  development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series  of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities. Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adul...

CHILDHOOD AND GROWING UP Topic 1  Growth and Development of the Learner Meaning of Growth and Development  Most of us use the two terms growth and development interchangeably and accept them as synonyms. Both these terms relate to the measurement of changes occurred in the individual after conception in the womb of the mother. Change is accepted as the law of nature. An individual starting from a fertilized egg turns into a full fledged human adult. In this turn over process he undergoes a cycle of changes brought about by the process of growth and development. In various dimensions physical, mental, social etc. Therefore in the wider sense both the terms growth and development can be used for any change brought about by maturation and learning (Formal as well as informal education) and essentially is the product of both heredity and environment. In reality these two terms have different meanings. Let us now discuss the difference under the two headings:...