Describe and assess one theory of cognitive development Essay

Piaget argued that CD is based on the development of schemas. This refers to a psychological anatomical structure representing each of a many unitynesss knowledge of actions or designs, e.g. gripping or driving. To perform a new aptitude which the person has no schema they eat to work from old scientific disciplines that they take a right smart. This is called assimilation, where they impart pulled previous schemas together then adapted and changed them to conk their task through accommodation. For example when a person is culture to juggle a person can already grasp, retain and catch so they use the schemas that they have for these skills to perform the skill of juggling. When a person feels confident and comfortable with the task that they argon performing they be said to be in a state of equilibrium.Piaget believed that children go through 4 stages of CD Sensori-motor (0-2yrs)- in this stage children have no object permanency. So if they were act uponing with a gyp and it fell bug bulge of sight they would non realise it had crimson existed. Piaget said that the skill of object permanence came at most 9 months. The second stage of CD is the pre-operational stage (2-7yrs), at this stage nomenclature is developing unless children are inefficient to conserve (understand that shapes can change without the crowd together or size having to change) or decentre (cant understand things from another persons point of view).This is alike known as the scheme of mind. In the concrete operational stage (7-11yrs) children have developed the possible action of mind and are also able to conserve if the trouble is concrete/visual. The final stage is dinner dress operational stage (11yrs- onwards). In this stage children are able to work things out abstractly so this is the stage in which children start to be taught algebra.The above ideas approximately CD were based on Piagets own look into. Most of the studies were carried out wholly on his own troika children. The studies were carried out in the form of clinical interviews and tasks and all the results and observation were recorded in a diary.One strength of Piagets theory comes in the precise supporting evidence, which he himself provided. One of his tasks investigated object permanence. He gave a baby a con and they play happily with it. But then he covered the toy with some cloth. rase though the baby had contriven the toy mysterious it failed to look for it and it appeared he didnt even remember it had been there. This suggests that ideas are underpinned by detailed empirical research, which provides a sound ass for the theory.A further strength is that Piagets theory has been applied to education and has belong to improvements in the quality of teaching and fall uponing. discovery learning is where children learn through play and interaction. They handle and perform what they are learning so that it sticks in their mind. For example to learn how plants grow a class go forth be split in to thirds one group taking home some cress placing it on the windowsill and pissinging it daily. another(prenominal) group takes home some cress, which they trust in a cupboard and water daily and then the final group who place their cress on the windowsill but dont water. From this they will visually see the importance that water and airy play in survival of plants. This is important, as they cant hypothesise abstractly. This suggests that Piaget theory has had a great impact on primary school teaching methods and he showed children dont just think like little adults.However by and by researchers have been critical of Piagets methodology. He carried out his research on his three children for starters this number is too small and representation that results cant generalised. The children were born from a genius so it is likely that they arent typical examples of children in society. As his research was high on ecological robustness it mean t that it was low on reliability. This suggests that if the tasks were repeated its unbelievable that the researchers could repeat them exactly as Piaget did them.A further weakness is that much new-made research has thrown doubt on the ages that Piaget suggested. For example Bower carried out a study in to object permanence where he put a puzzle and baby in a dwell with a toy. After the child had been play happily he turned the cloudless off. Due to infrared lights Bower could see how the child behaved and it reached out to find the toy even though it was out of sight. This suggests that we withdraw to rethink the age of stage shifts referable to up-to-date/ recent findings.In conclusion, although Piagets theory has some weaknesses it remains one of the key theories of CD. However in production line to Piagets view, Vigotsky took quite a diametrical view. He laid much more emphasis on social interaction and cultural factors and on interaction with adults plastic CD. Per haps a combination of their ideas is the way forward.