JEAN PIAGET

Jean Piaget was born on August 9, 1896, in Neuchâtel,

Switzerland, becoming an expert on the study of mollusks by his
teen years. Over the course of his later career in child psychology, he
identified four stages of mental development that chronicled young
people's journeys from basic object identification to highly abstract.
Piaget died on September 16, 1980, in Geneva. He was his parents’
first child. Piaget’s mother, Rebecca Jackson, attributed his intense
early interest in the sciences to his own neurotic tendencies. His
father was a medieval literature professor named Arthur, he was
pasionate in bis studies,a trait that Piaget began to cultivate from an
early age.
At just 10 years old, Piaget’s fascination with mollusks drew him
to the local museum of natural history, where he stared at specimens
for hours on end.When he was 11 and attending Neuchâtel Latin
High School, Piaget wrote a short scientific paper on the albino
sparrow.
By the time he was a teen, his papers on mollusks were being
widely published. Piaget’s readers were unaware of his age and
considered him an expert on the topic.
After high school, Piaget went on to study zoology at the
University of Neuchâtel, receiving his Ph.D. in the natural sciences in
1918. That same year Piaget spent a semester studying psychology
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under Carl Jung and Paul Eugen Bleuler at the University of Zürich,
where Piaget developed a deeper interest in psychoanalysis. Over
the course of the next year, he studied abnormal psychology at the
Sorbonne.
In 1920, working in collaboration with Théodore Simon at the
Alfred Binet Laboratory in Paris, Piaget evaluated the results of
standardized reasoning tests that Simon had designed. The tests
were meant to measure child intelligence and draw connections
between a child’s age and the nature of his errors. For Piaget it
raised new questions about the way that children learn.

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that

children move through four different stages of mental development.
His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire
knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of
intelligence.1 Piaget's stages are:

• Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years

• Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7
• Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
• Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up

Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning

process, acting much like little scientists as they perform
experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids

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interact with the world around them, they continually add new
knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously
held ideas to accommodate new information.
Piaget called his collective theories on child development a "genetic
epistemology“.

Piaget is responsible for developing entirely new fields of

scientific study, having a major impact on the areas of cognitive
theory and developmental psychology

In His Own Words

"The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable
of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done."

Jean Piaget died of unknown causes on September 16, 1980, in

Geneva, Switzerland. He was 84 years old. His body rests at the
Cimetière des Plainpalais .

Bibliografie :
Wikipedia.ro
Verywellmind.ro

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