Jean Piaget theory of cognitive development provides an explicit view of how a child constructs a mental model of the universe. He was in disagreement with the concept that intelligence was a fixed trait. He viewed cognitive development as a process that occurs due to interaction with the environment and biological maturation. Jean Piaget work provides a solid foundation on which constructionist theories are premised. Constructionists have a firm belief that knowledge is constructed learning takes place when children create artifacts and products. Cognitive development entails lots of concepts that children begin to master from the master in middle childhood. Some of the concepts include conservation, classification and seriation among other terms.
Conservation
Conservation entails the capability to understand when the quantity of something remains constant across two or more scenarios irrespective of the appearance of that thing altering across the situations ( Piaget & Inhelder, 2015) . The conservation idea is applicable in any form of measurement encompassing length, mass, volume, among other measurements.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Each passing day, children perform a demonstration of the conservation of number when they notice that 10 cookies will stay constant in number irrespective of whether they are stacked together into a tower or are spread out. Children that grasp an understanding of mass realize that the weight of their body remains constant whether they sit cross-legged or stand up straight on a scale. On the same note, children that understand the conservation of length are aware that the length of the rope stays similar whether it is coiled up or laid out straight.
Classification
Beyond conservation, Jean Piaget had a firm belief that children in middle childhood study hierarchical classification. Saxe (2015) confirmed that c lassification incorporates the ability to sort out things simultaneously into general and more specified groups by utilizing different comparison types.
A classic example is when children perform a collection of superhero cards can potentially sort their cards by gender, good-guy/bad guy status, and specific categories of superhero powers. The ability of kids to perform hierarchical classification is pivotal to them at school when they start to understand social studies and science concepts that entail making comparisons like sorting out living things into separate groups.
Seriation
This is the cognitive ability of mentally arranging things or items along quantifiable dimensions for instance weight or height. Seriation encompasses the capability to put things in order premised on their magnitude or quantity. The moment we do a count of numbers in order, we demonstrate the ability to seriate since numbers are represented in generic or abstract form and specify quantities of things ( Inhelder, Sinclair & Bovet, 2014). When we count numbers in a particular order, we do so in such a way to arrange them so that the predecessor number after another will often be a larger quantity than the previous number.
As an example, kids occasionally use their seriation skills in the learning environments. Before the children can do any measurement in math or science, they often arrange reliably arrange things in the order of their magnitude.
Conclusion
It can censoriously be summarized that children are often in the business of creating ideas. They construct their environment out their own knowledge. To date, Jean Piaget work remains relevant and forms the basis on which constructionist theories are premised. Through the cognitive concept of conservation, the children can potentially apply different forms of measurement for length, mass; volume among other measurements. Through seriation, the kids can mentally quantify separate things.
References
Inhelder, B., Sinclair, H., & Bovet, M. (2014). Learning and the Development of Cognition (Psychology Revivals) . Psychology Press.
Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (2015). Memory and intelligence (psychology revivals) . Psychology Press.
Saxe, G. B. (2015). Culture and cognitive development: Studies in mathematical understanding . Psychology Press.
