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3 JEAN PIAGET :
UNDERSTANDING THE MIND OF
THE CHILD
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Having read this chapter you should be able to:

recognise stages of child development according to Piaget

understand how his work has influenced past and present education practice

recognise how his work changed the way in which the child was viewed

critically evaluate his work.

KEY WORDS
cognitive development; adaptation; schemas; equilibrium;
disequilibrium; assimilation; accommodation; preoperational;
sensorimotor; egocentric; conservation; concrete operational;
formal operational

INTRODUCTION
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Understanding and Using Educational Theories · Talis

Jean Piaget was just eleven years of age when he wrote his first
scientific article on the subject of albino sparrows; this work
marked the beginning of a brilliant scientific career in which he
wrote several hundreds of articles and papers and over sixty
books (Halpenny and Pettersen, 2014). Despite having no official
qualification in psychology, sociology or epistemology, he was
arguably the most dominant voice in child psychology for a large
part of the twentieth century (Schaffer, 2004; Kohler, 2008), and
while he never intended his work to directly influence educational
pedagogy, we will see in the latter part of this chapter that
curricula past and present have been guided by Piagetian
principles.
Piaget was one of the first theorists to study how children think
and learn, and while his contemporaries saw learning as either
intrinsic, from the child, or extrinsic, from the environment, he
believed that neither fully expressed learning and that it was the
child’s interactions with the environment that generated learning
(Mooney, 2000). He saw children as constructors of their own
knowledge, taking information from the people and objects in their
environment and making meaning from them.
Piaget used his observations of children as a basis for his work
and established from this that children’s own curiosity would drive
their learning, and that the most effective way of enabling learning
was to provide an environment which promoted curiosity and
challenge and allowed children to control their own learning. This
required those working with young children to facilitate the
appropriate learning experience, nurturing enquiry and supporting
children in finding their own solutions to problems.
Piaget is perhaps most well-known for his stages of development,
and these have been the subject of the most significant critiquing
of his work. Through both his observations of children and his
experimental work, he established that children pass through a
series of stages when developing their thinking skills, and while an
approximation of the age in which stages were passed through
was given, he believed that this was sequential, and each stage
must be fully achieved before the next could commence. In view of
this he did not believe that a concept could be ‘taught’ directly to
children; rather, children must build their own knowledge of a
concept based on their previous experiences.
While many would argue that this is an outmoded way of thinking
and that children develop much sooner than Piaget’s theories
would suggest, we will see throughout the course of this chapter
that his influence in the field of psychology is unquestionable and
the impact of his work in the field of education is vast. As Schaffer
states:
… his enormous output of theoretical propositions and
empirical observations during a long lifetime transformed our
way of thinking about children and their intellectual

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development. (2004: 160)

JEAN PIAGET, THE PERSON

Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1896, Piaget was the eldest
child of Arthur Piaget, a professor of medieval literature at the
University of Lausanne, and Rebecca Jackson. He was brought
up in a household with conflicting religious views, since while his
mother was a devout Christian, his father was a staunch atheist
and, as described by Halpenny and Pettersen, ‘it appears that
these conflicting religious views and beliefs were the origin of
many a conflict in the Piaget household’; they also go on to
suggest that this may in part be the reason why Piaget began to
‘develop an interest in intellectual discussion and hypothesis’
(2014: vii).
Although Piaget is best known for his work on the cognitive
development of children, his early interest was in fact in biology,
and having written his first article on the subject of albino
sparrows, he then went on to write and publish a number of
papers on molluscs. Despite his young age (he was still in his
teens when the papers were published), many people considered
the young Piaget to be an expert in the field of malacology (the
study of molluscs). This interest in biology resulted in his studying
zoology at Neustadt University, where he was awarded a PhD in
the natural sciences in 1918.
Piaget’s interest in psychology, and psychoanalysis, began
following a period studying under Carl Jung and Paul Eugen
Bleuler at the University of Zürich, and subsequently he spent a
year in France working at an institute for boys created by Alfred
Binet, l’École de la rue de la Grange-aux-Belles. Binet was
responsible for devising a series of tests designed to measure
intelligence, and Piaget, working under the directorship of Binet’s
colleague Theodore Simon, was tasked with standardising Binet’s
test of intelligence. However, Piaget became less concerned with
the results of the tests, focusing instead on how the students had
come by their answers rather than the answers themselves –
hence the development of his first experimental studies of the
mind.
Like many of his contemporaries Piaget held numerous positions,
successively and simultaneously, in the fields of psychology,
sociology and science, in a range of institutions, including the
University of Neuchâtel (1925–9), the International Bureau of
Education (1929–67) and Lausanne University (1938–51).
Throughout his tenure in these positions Piaget built on his
observations at l’École de la rue de la Grange-aux-Belles and
sought to find out how knowledge grew.
As a genetic epistemologist Piaget was interested in human
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knowledge, most specifically the nature of thought and how it

develops: ‘while others asked what children know or when they
know it, Piaget asked how children arrive at what they know’
(Mooney, 2000: 59). Building on this concept he researched and
wrote prolifically on the subject of child development for over sixty
years. In his early studies he observed children at play and noted
that those of the same age tended to make similar mistakes. From
this he ascertained that children ‘do not just know less but think
differently from adults’ (Jarvis and Chandler, 2001: 131). He then
went on to conduct a number of experimental studies with
children, initially using his own children, whom he studied from
their infancy, and later studying larger numbers of children in a
psychology laboratory.
From his experimental work, as noted above, Piaget postulated
that children pass through stages as they develop towards
adulthood and that it is necessary for each stage to be
successfully accomplished before moving on to the next. He did
not believe that cognitive development was a continuous process,
but rather a cognitive revolution (Mitchell and Ziegler, 2007), in
which the child sheds early cognitive limitations as they shift to a
‘new and more sophisticated plane of intelligence’ (2007: 10).
Indeed, he was particularly interested in the development of
intelligence and believed that this was an important factor in
explaining how children adapted to their environment. He
categorised the environment into two distinct areas: the human,
social or psychological environment and the physical environment,
in which adjustments to both were of equal importance. Many of
his early theories centred on the idea of adaptation, in which in
order to move through the stages of development, adaptation to
existing schemas was required in order to develop revised
schemas to fit the new situation. This will be explored further in the
next section of the chapter.
Piaget’s work has directly influenced American pre-school
programmes and many elements of his theory can be seen within
the English Early Years Foundations Stage curriculum, which will
be discussed later in the chapter. While his work has often been
described as being difficult to read and intimidating to the
classroom teacher (Mooney, 2000), and despite criticisms of the
processes of that work, it cannot be denied that it has helped
practitioners in early education to consider more closely how
children think. Piaget was an active researcher for over sixty
years, publishing over sixty books and over a hundred articles on
the subject of cognitive development. On his eightieth birthday he
decided to rectify his missing psychology qualification by taking an
examination, subjecting himself to a colloquium for PhD
candidates (Kohler, 2008). However, Kohler (2008) explains that
since the examination could not be held under the official
university authority he never achieved this formal qualification,
citing Piaget (1976) who observed ‘I shall die without an actual
degree and shall take the secret of my educational shortcomings

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to my grave’ (Kohler, 2008: 238). He remained active in the field of

cognitive psychology up until his death in 1980.

PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT
Piaget’s theories centred on his fascination with how children think
and learn, and from this he focused his work on three specific
areas: how children acquire knowledge, how their thinking differs
from that of adults, and how cognitive development can be
classified into stages (Jarvis and Chandler, 2001). Through his
observations of children, he identified that even very young
children are intrigued by their environment and their own abilities
to interact with it. He theorised that it is through their interactions
with the environment that learning proceeds; however, in order for
learning to take place it is necessary for children to construct their
knowledge by making meaning of their experiences. He proposed
that the human mind contains structures which allow it to make
sense of the world, namely schemas and operations (Jarvis and
Chandler, 2001).
A schema refers to the mental structures in the mind in which the
individual stores all the information gathered from the world
around them. Piaget believed that babies are born with innate
schemas which enable them to interact with others; however, as
their experiences increase they begin to form a plan or
representation in their brains which aids them in developing new
schemas. The more experiences an infant has, then the more
schemas they construct. Once the infant can comprehend
everything around them they are said to be in a state of
equilibrium – this being a state whereby the world can be
understood through the existing schemas. Of course, given the
vast number of experiences the infant is likely to be exposed to, it
is frequently the case that existing schemas cannot explain a new
situation, in which case the infant finds themself in a state of
disequilibrium.
According to Piaget, human beings are programmed to try and
make sense of the world, and therefore a state of disequilibrium is
an uncomfortable place to be. He identified two processes by
which equilibration (attaining equilibrium or balance) could take
place: assimilation and accommodation (see Figure 3.1).
Through the process of assimilation the infant is able to adapt an
existing schema in order to make sense of a new experience. For
example, an infant may have already developed a ‘bird’ schema
constructed through experience with the family canary, which will
then be assimilated to accommodate a first encounter with
sparrows in the garden since these too will fit into the ‘bird’
schema (Jarvis and Chandler, 2001). However, in the case of

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accommodation an experience may not readily fit into the existing

schema and a new schema will be required. So, in the case of the
‘bird’ schema, on their first encounter with an aeroplane the infant
will find the object too distinctive to fit into the existing ‘bird’
schema, in which case an ‘aeroplane’ schema will need to be
formed.

Description
Figure 3.1 Piaget’s dual processes of adaptation
According to Piaget, schemas are continually changing, and are
an essential part of cognitive development. He referred to the
processes of assimilation and accommodation as adaptation, in
which children are taking in new information, changing existing
ideas or forming new ones, and adapting behaviours in order to
make sense of the world around them. Furthermore, Piaget saw
this process of adaptation as supporting growth through four
identified developmental stages (see Figure 3.2).

Description
Figure 3.2 Piaget’s developmental stages
Piaget’s stage theory of development was based on his belief that
as well as making sense of the world around them, children need
to understand the rules by which that world functions, referring to
these rules as operations. He believed that these operations
develop as the brain matures rather than through experience; as
such, whether or not the child has any operations will be
dependent upon their age. He referred to the very young child as
preoperational since they have not yet developed the brain
capacity to form operations. As the brain develops then so does
the child’s ability to form and understand operations, and it is on
this basis that he formed his stage theory of development.
As seen in Figure 3.2, Piaget suggested an approximate age for
each stage of development, and while these were only intended
as a rough guide (Mitchell and Ziegler, 2007), he theorised that
stages were fixed and invariant, with each stage serving as a
foundation for the next, and that no stage could be missed or
rendered incomplete. He believed that each stage was reached as
the brain matured, permitting ‘the use of new types of logic or
operations’ (Jarvis and Chandler, 2001: 138).

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Looking at each stage independently, the first stage identified by

Piaget was the sensorimotor stage, occurring approximately
between the age of zero and two years. At this stage he
suggested that the main focus is on the development of senses
and movement, by which the infant makes sense of the world
directly from information gathered through sensory experiences.
Infants at this stage are fascinated by their own bodies and what
they can do with them and will quickly transfer their
experimentations with their own bodies to the objects around
them. Towards the end of this stage infants experience increased
mobility and they will actively explore their environment, and their
innate curiosity will lead them to further experimentation within
their wider environment.
It is during this stage that Piaget suggested infants develop their
understanding of object permanence – that is, knowing objects
have a permanence in the world, and that ‘out of sight’ is not ‘out
of mind’ (Brain and Mukherji, 2003). Once object permanence has
been developed the infant will await the return of an object
because they know it exists even when they cannot see it. It is
also at this stage that the infant develops an awareness of
themself as separate from the world.
Piaget referred to the second stage of development as the
preoperational stage, occurring between two and seven years of
age. His assertions at this stage focused on what the child was
unable to do, and he believed that during this stage the child
needed constant stimulation in order that new schemas could be
formed through the joint processes of assimilation and adaptation.
He did, however, recognise that at this stage the child had
developed sufficient language for thinking to be based around
symbolic thought rather than through physical sensation (Jarvis
and Chandler, 2001); although as the stage name suggests, they
are not yet able to grasp logical rules or operations. At this stage
Piaget saw the child as being highly egocentric – that is, they can
only view the world from their own point of view.
He also suggested that the preoperational child had difficulty in
understanding the concept of conservation and many of his early
experiments focused on conservation tests. He established that
children in the preoperational stage lacked the ability to
understand that a concept such as volume, mass or number stays
the same even if the situation has changed. So, for example, one
of his most well-known experiments required pouring the same
amount of water into two identical beakers. Once the child had
agreed that the volume was the same Piaget would transfer the
contents of one beaker into a wider beaker. A child at the
preoperational stage would automatically assume that there was
less water in the shorter beaker because the water level was
lower, even though they had seen the water being transferred.
Hence he deduced that the child was unable to understand the
concept of conservation.

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Piaget theorised that cognition develops over time and a certain

level of maturity is required before stages can be reached.
Children who cannot conserve are said to be unable to decentre –
that is, they are only able to focus on one thing at a time. For
example, if given sets of pencils, red and blue, and long and short,
the preoperational child would only be able to sort these into two
groups, either red or blue or long or short, not a combination of
each.
Piaget’s third stage of development occurred between the ages of
seven and twelve years and he referred to this stage as concrete
operational. At this stage, the child is able to perform more
complex mental operations and, significantly, is now able to
decentre. They can conserve volume and number and are able to
take in the viewpoints of others. While Piaget recognised that
children at this stage had the capacity to solve problems, the
problems had to be real, or concrete, and they were not yet able
to solve imagined or hypothetical problems (Mitchell and Ziegler,
2007).
It is not until the final stage, formal operational, that children are
able to solve hypothetical problems and this, according to Piaget,
occurs between the ages of twelve and nineteen years. At this
stage children no longer require actual concrete objects to solve
problems and are able to carry out mental problems in their heads
using abstract terms. He ‘suggested that not everybody achieves
formal operational thinking’ (2007: 25) and in order to reach this
stage a wide range of experiences is required.
Building on his theory of cognitive development, Piaget later
theorised on the moral development of children in his 1948 text
The Moral Judgement of the Child. In this text Piaget observes
that:
All morality consists of a system of rules, and the essence of
morality is to be sought for in the respect which the individual
acquires for these rules. (Piaget, 2013 [1948]: 13)
As with his theory of cognitive development, which sees children
move through a series of increasingly complex stages of thinking,
Piaget’s theory of moral development proposed that children’s
moral reasoning also moved forwards in phases which directly
correlated with the increasing complexity of their cognitive ability
(Vozzola, 2014).
Piaget’s theoretical work on moral development saw him
conducting interviews with children about their understanding of
and respect for the rules of the game of marbles, asking questions
such as, ‘Can new rules be invented?’, ‘Could new rules lead to
new games?’ and ‘Which rules are the fairest?’ (Vozzola, 2014).
From his interviews Piaget theorised that:

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Very young children showed little regard for formal rules

although they handled the marbles as though they were
‘playing the game’.
Between the ages of two and five years children would
imitate rules of the game but still played egocentrically and
failed to use unifying rules.
At the ages of seven and eight children become interested
in trying to win and try to use standard rules, although not
consistently.
By ages eleven and twelve children can codify rules and
can play with a degree of harmony.

(Vozzola, 2014)

Piaget saw moral development proceeding in two stages. In the

first stage, between the ages of five and ten, children have little
concern for moral reasoning as they focus on other skills such as
social development. Piaget saw this period of moral reasoning as
being external to the self, and children view morality through a
heteronomous lens in which rules are made by those in authority
and as such were not to be broken at any cost (Dombeck, n.d.).
Children adhere to rules for fear of the consequences of breaking
them rather than due to an understanding of the rules themselves,
and any moral reasoning for compliance was to escape
punishment rather than out of respect for the rules themselves.
Piaget referred to this stage as the morality of constraint, in which
the egotistical nature of the child means they are only able to
comprehend a situation from their personal viewpoint.
In the second stage children begin to show a greater respect for
regulations as they move out of the egotistical stage and begin to
see things from the perspective of others. Piaget referred to this
as a morality of cooperation, in which children are able to work
cooperatively with others, adapting rules through negotiation and
mutual consent. This stage is characterised by flexibility and a less
stringent adherence to rules; additionally their definition of right
and wrong can change depending on the situation as they begin
to engage in moral reasoning. Children in this stage also begin to
recognise why rules exist in order to maintain order and structure,
but also begin to see how punishment should be fair and
equitable, developing a strong sense that punishment should fit
the crime.
It can be seen, then, that the depth and breadth of Piaget’s work is
far reaching, and as we shall see later in the chapter his work has

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influenced practice in education settings. However, firstly it is

pertinent to examine the influence of Piaget’s work with that of
other theorists in the field of education.

LINKS WITH OTHER THEORISTS

Piaget was influenced by the work of Maria Montessori,
particularly the importance of facilitating first-hand experiences for
the child in order to support their cognitive development. Like
Montessori, he recognised and valued the importance of play as a
vehicle by which children could construct knowledge and he linked
this to his stages of development, suggesting that at each stage a
different type of play could be observed based on what the child
was capable of. Montessori, too, subscribed to the idea that
children have a readiness to learn at certain developmental stages
and, as such, she suggested that the learning environment should
be a supportive one allowing cognitive development to proceed
through free exploration. While Piaget recognised the importance
of such free exploration, he was also critical of Montessori’s work,
suggesting that it was not open-ended enough and lacked the
opportunity for creativity and exploration to take place (Halpenny
and Pettersen, 2014).
Dewey’s work can also be seen reflected in Piaget’s theories
since, like Dewey, he recognised the importance of satisfying a
child’s curiosity in order for learning to take place. Indeed, he
believed that a child’s curiosity is responsible for driving their
learning (Mooney, 2000). As seen in Dewey’s work, Piaget
reinforced the idea that the teacher should facilitate rather than
teach, presenting children with problem-solving challenges rather
than merely imparting knowledge, and, as Mooney suggests, this
‘requires changing the image of a teacher into someone who
nurtures inquiry and supports the child’s own search for answers’
(2000: 62).
While Piaget’s work is undoubtedly the most well-known when
examining cognitive development (Jarvis and Chandler, 2001),
when considering links to other theorists it is pertinent to consider
the work of other cognitive theorists, namely Vygotsky and Bruner,
whose work is examined in Chapters 4 and 8 of this book.
Vygotsky, a contemporary of Piaget, agreed that cognitive
development proceeds in stages which are characterised by
different ways of thinking (Jarvis and Chandler, 2001); however,
whereas Piaget emphasised the importance of a child’s
independent exploration of the world, Vygotsky believed that
social interactions were essential for learning to take place.
Piaget’s theory advocated that a child would reach the appropriate
stage of development at a time that was appropriate to the
individual child and, as such, the practitioner should not ‘push’ the
child, instead believing that the stage would be reached when the
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child was mentally ready. In contrast, Vygotsky believed that with

the right social interactions the child could achieve developmental
readiness earlier than they might otherwise; as such, cognitive
development was influenced by their interactions with more
knowledgeable others.
Bruner too was influenced by both Piaget and Vygotsky; however,
he rejected the idea of developmental stages completely, instead
suggesting that cognitive development was influenced by different
modes of representation, relating to the forms in which information
is stored in the mind. Bruner saw development as a continuous
process rather than a series of stages and, like Vygotsky, believed
that development could be advanced through interactions with
others. Nevertheless, Piaget’s theories are reflected in Bruner’s
work, particularly with regard to the natural curiosity displayed by
children and in his assertion that children are active participants in
their own learning.
Finally, Piaget’s findings on the development of moral
development influenced the work of Lawrence Kohlberg, who
extended Piaget’s two stages of moral development into six
(Fleming, 2005). However, as observed by Fleming (2005), where
Piaget considered a child’s concept of morality to come from a
logical perspective, Kohlberg viewed this through a philosophical
lens, arguing that an understanding of moral development could
not be gained without first establishing a definition for morality.
Kohlberg presented children with a series of moral scenarios, in
which right or wrong was not always clear. He then assessed their
level of moral development not through the responses they gave,
but through the reasoning behind how they had reached their
conclusions. Nevertheless, despite their differences in
approaches, Kohlberg’s findings are similar to Piaget’s in that he
too saw moral development as one which was closely tied to
cognitive development, since he surmised that moral principles
were developed through thought processes as children grapple
with dilemmas as they emerge. Moreover, like Piaget, Kohlberg
also identified that a state of disequilibrium was common as
children struggle with punishments that might seem unduly harsh
or unfair.

CRITIQUING PIAGET
It cannot be denied that Piaget’s work was a dominant force in
child psychology for a significant part of the twentieth century, yet
he was not without his critics and many have sought to identify
flaws in his work which might disprove his theories. From the
1960s onwards comparative studies on his experiments were
undertaken and, while early replications yielded the same results,
researchers began to criticise his methods and modify his
experiments (Kohler, 2008). For many it was his research

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methods which were called into question, particularly given that

his early experimental work was carried out with his own three
children. This in itself suggests an unreliable scientific method, in
which generalisations cannot be formed and where researcher
bias is a potential risk, particularly given the clinical methods
applied. Even when Piaget widened his sample group, this was
with the children of well-educated professionals with high socio-
economic status, making it an unrepresentative sample. It could
be argued that this sampling resulted in an overestimation of the
abilities of children in the concrete operational stage, since studies
undertaken by Sutherland (1992) revealed that children of
working- or middle-class background only reached the concrete
operational stage at the age of twelve, not reaching formal
operational until the age of sixteen, thus operating a full stage
behind that which Piaget theorised. A further criticism of Piaget’s
work is in the complexity of the tasks which the children were set,
with the suggestion being that they did not fully understand what
was being asked of them (Flanagan, 1998). Post-Piagetian
research such as that of McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) has
sought to identify flaws in Piaget’s theories related to
conservation, and here it was identified that when questions were
framed in a different way, children in the preoperational stage
demonstrated an ability to conserve, which Piaget formerly
suggested they were unable to do. Furthermore, studies have also
shown that he grossly underestimated the abilities of children,
particularly in the formative stages (Kohler, 2008): for example, he
believed that children had no concept of object permanence
during the sensorimotor stage (0–2 years). However, studies
undertaken by Bremner (1985) and Baillargeon (1991) showed
that object permanence appeared in babies as young as three or
four months old.
Mitchell and Ziegler (2007) suggest that Piaget’s theory requires
some modification, observing that the essence of childhood itself
has changed, with children reaching both physical and intellectual
maturity much earlier now than his theory suggests. Likewise,
Flanagan (1998) believes that a more fluid approach to the ages
and stages should be applied, suggesting that there is no abrupt
change in a child’s capabilities at each stage. Rather, there is
some degree of crossover between the stages, with aspects of the
next stage being achieved while the child is still in the preceding
stage.
Perhaps the main flaw in Piaget’s work, practically speaking, is in
his assertion that a child learns best in isolation, and while this is
indeed a mode of learning encouraged in some settings, research
and modern education practice advocate a less formal style of
teaching, with children learning in groups, supported by the
intervention of the adult or more knowledgeable other in the room.
More will be said of this in the following section of this chapter.

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APPLYING PIAGET IN THE

CLASSROOM
Piaget never intended his research to be directly aimed at
education (Jarvis and Chandler, 2001); however, it is fair to say
that his work has influenced American pre-school programmes for
over thirty years (Mooney, 2000), while in England, following the
highly controversial Plowden Report (1967), primary school
teachers began to apply some of the Piagetian principles in their
classroom practice – a legacy which has endured to the present
day.
Prior to the Plowden Report a typical primary school classroom
saw children sitting in rows, learning by rote, with the assumption
that all children had the capacity to learn in this way, and those
who could not frequently found themselves left behind or, worse,
punished. The Plowden committee, then, was set up to examine
primary education and look for ways of improving it. Their
investigations led them to explore the work of Piaget, and when
compiling their report, aspects of his work were incorporated into
their recommendations, resulting in a shift from a didactic form of
teaching to one which put the child at the centre.
The three main messages from the Plowden Report made implicit
that:

Children need to be given individual attention and cannot

all be treated in the same way.
Children should not be taught things until they are
developed enough intellectually to cope with them.
Children mature intellectually, physically and emotionally at
different rates, so teachers should be aware of the stage of
development each child has reached and treat them
accordingly.

(Jarvis and Chandler, 2001: 142)

Piaget’s stage theory can be seen reflected clearly through these

recommendations, with the recognition that children mature at
different rates and that the teacher should account for this when
facilitating learning. This was a significant move from the previous
‘one size fits all approach’.
The Plowden Report also placed an increased emphasis on the

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role of play and discovery learning, stating that:

We know now that play – in the sense of ‘messing about’
either with material objects or with other children, and of
creating fantasies – is vital to children’s learning and therefore
vital in school. (1967: 193)
Piaget was a firm advocate of the importance of play as a vehicle
for learning, suggesting that it is through their symbolic play that
children make sense of the world around them, understanding
how things work and what they are for (Mooney, 2000). Likewise,
discovery learning was an important aspect of his theory, referring
to children as little scientists, who develop as a result of their
interactions with the environment; this too was a key theme of the
Plowden Report, suggesting that ‘[the report] lays special stress
on individual discovery, on first-hand experience and on
opportunities for creative work’ (1967: 187).
The direct impact of the Plowden Report was short-lived, due to
some hostility from the Labour government which came into power
in 1976 and also some well-documented extremes in school
practice for which Plowden was blamed. This led to the suggestion
that the report had encouraged some undesirable trends, which
far from improving the state of education had led to an actual
decline in standards. While this resulted in an immediate change
in education policy, to an outlook which was more focused on the
curriculum, it was heartening to see that in developing the
curriculum many of Piaget’s principles championed by Plowden
were reflected, and indeed were also present in subsequent
curriculum developments.
The most significant influence that Piaget’s work has had on the
curriculum is through the acknowledgement that children have
different intellectual capabilities at different stages of their
development; as such, the post-Plowden curriculum saw an
increased focus on what should be taught to different age groups,
with a specific focus on four age stages. These stages were
embedded into practice following the Education Reform Act
(1988), which saw the introduction of the National Curriculum in
England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The National Curriculum
presented content to be taught in four distinct blocks of years
which were referred to as key stages. Reflecting Piaget’s stages of
development, the key stages were as follows:

Key Stage 1 – 5–7 years

Key Stage 2 – 7–11 years
Key Stage 3 – 12–14 years

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Key Stage 4 – 14–16 years

(Gov.UK, 2021)

This was subsequently followed by the introduction of the Early

Years Foundation Stage in 2008, which saw a specific focus on
the standards for the care and education of children in the 0–5
age range.
It can be seen then that the primary curriculum recognises the
importance of making the transition from preoperational to
concrete operational thinking, with Foundation Stage and Key
Stage 1 offering children opportunities for play and discovery as a
key vehicle for learning, while at the same time facilitating learning
experiences which recognise the child’s stage of development and
support them in moving to the next. At Key Stages 3 and 4, when
children should be in the formal operational stage, the emphasis
should be on activities which involve abstract reasoning, allowing
pupils to demonstrate their concrete thinking.
A further legacy of Piaget’s influence on the Early Years
Foundation Stage curriculum is its child-centred nature, a feature
which has remained central to the many iterations of the
curriculum since it was first introduced in 2008. Of course, Piaget
was certainly not the first to encourage a child-centred approach
to early years education since such approaches had previously
been posited by the likes of Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel
(Halpenny and Pettersen, 2014). However, his influence lies in the
formalisation of a curriculum which puts children at the centre, with
the most recent Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum stating
that ‘every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and
can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured’ (Department
for Education [DfE], 2021: 6). The acknowledgement of each child
as a unique being, with their own needs and interests, certainly
reflects Piaget’s notion that the child should be the main driver of
their own learning and encourages a curriculum that allows
practitioners the flexibility to plan according to the needs of the
child rather than according to a prescribed set of objectives.
A key feature of a child-centred approach is the importance of
play, and we have seen previously that Piaget advocated this
throughout his stages of cognitive development. Indeed, he
suggested that each of his four stages of development could be
typified by the types of play which children engage in. While the
sensorimotor stage sees children engaged in play that is dictated
by their developing mobility, restricted largely to the use of senses
and the information gleaned from their immediate environment, it
is at the preoperational and concrete operational stage when play
really becomes important in supporting children’s intellectual
development. In the former, children engage in symbolic play,
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whereby they begin to make sense of objects and people around

them, while in the latter stage, children begin to understand the
rules of play and learn that they can alter the rules to change a
situation. Play can then be seen to support a child’s cognitive and
emotional development alongside allowing engagement with
problem solving and creative endeavours. Although Piaget did not
see a direct correlation between play and early years pedagogy,
practitioners and curriculum developers have been mindful that
providing the appropriate play activities at the right time can have
a direct impact on a child’s development. As stated in the Early
Years Foundation Stage curriculum, ‘play is essential for children’s
development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, to
think about problems and relate to others’ (DfE, 2021: 16).

Overview of application: Piaget’s ideas for

classroom practice
Following are some suggestions as to how Piaget’s work
might be incorporated into practice.

Discovery learning – Piaget saw children as little

scientists who construct knowledge from their own first-
hand experiences. Discovery learning then provides an
ideal opportunity for the development of schemas,
providing practical experiences for children to assimilate
and accommodate information at their own pace.
Identification of stages of development facilitates the
provision of experiences which support developmental
stages, for example at the sensorimotor stage children
should be provided with sensory materials which enable
them to learn through sensory experiences.
Awareness of stages of development should encourage
practice which supports children in making the transition
to the next stage, so children in the concrete operational
stage may slowly be encouraged to move to formal
operations through the gradual removal of support
materials.
Guide rather than teach – adults should facilitate
learning, providing experiences and stepping back,
allowing children to take responsibility for their own
learning, and allowing them to learn from their mistakes,
as Piaget believed that learning proceeded through trial
and error.
Focus on the process, not just the product; highlight and
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commend each stage of the learning process as it

occurs.
Encourage and facilitate play appropriate to the age and
stage of children; for example, at the concrete
operational stage children can be encouraged to play
games with rules which also supports their moral
development, while at the formal operational stage it
may be pertinent to encourage children to invent their
own games with rules.

SUMMARY
We have seen that some aspects of Piaget’s theory have been
called into question, particularly when considering the methods he
used to develop his theories. Yet it is a testament to the conviction
in his work that many of his theories have stood the test of time,
which makes him undoubtedly the best-known child development
theorist of the twentieth century.
Prior to the evolution of his theories those working with young
children merely assumed that the child thinks much the same as
the adult, the only difference being that the adult has more
knowledge on which to base their thought. Piaget was responsible
for reversing this view and, rather than assuming that intellect
develops gradually as the child matures to adulthood, he
demonstrated that thought actually develops through a series of
stages, with each stage having its own unique characteristics in
relation to the development of thought.
Piaget’s stage theory has inspired and influenced curriculum
developers and practitioners for over fifty years, and we can still
identify areas of the modern-day curriculum which reflect his work.
While his stage theory can be seen through the modern-day key
stages, his writings on the role of play, the environment and role of
the teacher are also reflected in our primary schools today. This in
itself is noteworthy but made even more so when we consider that
he trained as a biologist, having no formal qualifications in
psychology.
It is without a doubt that Jean Piaget was a remarkable individual,
and it is through his theories that practitioners today are able to
view children in an entirely different way than previously, thereby
providing them with the support and guidance appropriate to their
age and stage of development.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Accommodation
Piaget saw accommodation as part of the adaptation process, in
which the child adapts an original schema in order to make sense
of a new experience. New schemas may also be formed as part of
the process of accommodation.
Adaptation
Piaget saw adaptation as being a key element in the process of
cognitive development. Adaptation refers to the process of
learning through adjusting to new information and experiences
and can proceed through either assimilation or accommodation.
Assimilation
Assimilation is the ability to take in new experiences and
information, making sense of this through relating it to existing
schemas. Piaget observed that the ability to assimilate was not
always seamless in children, and where experiences did not fit
comfortably into an existing schema then it was necessary to
apply the process of accommodation.
Cognitive development
Cognitive development refers to a process of development which
includes intelligence, conscious thought and problem-solving
ability. Starting at infancy Piaget believed that cognitive
development occurred through the two processes of adaptation
and equilibrium.
Concrete operational
The third stage of Piaget’s cognitive development theory. He
theorised that this stage occurred around middle childhood and
was typified by a child’s growing ability to develop logical thought.
The child’s thinking also becomes more organised and rational at
this stage.
Conservation
Piaget believed that children understood conservation when they
could recognise that a quantity remains the same even if its
appearance has changed. One of his most well-known
experiments involved showing children two identical beakers
containing liquid. Once the children had agreed that the beakers
contained the same amount of liquid he then poured the liquid
from one into a smaller wider beaker. Children were then asked if
the two containers still contained the same amount of liquid.
Children not at the conservation stage would believe the smaller
beaker to contain the least liquid due to the water level being
lower. Piaget discovered that children began to understand the
concept of conservation at around seven years of age.
Disequilibrium

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Disequilibrium occurs when children are unable to apply an

existing schema to a situation or event; this causes an imbalance
between what is understood and what is encountered, which can
only be resolved through developing a new schema or adopting
old ones until balance is restored.
Egocentric
This is a stage of development in which children are unable to see
things from the point of view of others; the child will assume that
others see, hear and feel things in the same way as themself.
Equilibrium
When a balance between accommodation and assimilation is
struck children achieve a state of equilibrium. Piaget suggested
that this occurred through the process of equilibration in which
children use existing knowledge to make sense of new
knowledge. This is seen as an important stage in their
development.
Formal operational
The final stage of Piaget’s theory, occurring from twelve years
upwards. At this stage children can apply abstract thought to a
situation and can use logic and deductive reasoning to solve
hypothetical problems. Piaget also believed that at this stage
children developed moral, ethical and social awareness.
Preoperational
Occurring in early childhood (two to seven years), this stage of
development is typified by egocentricity. Children are, however,
developing language and thinking skills, although thinking is still at
a concrete level. Piaget observed that children learn through
pretend play and can use words and pictures to represent objects.
Schemas
Schemas refer to the stages of intellectual growth which children
go through. Piaget believed that they developed schemas through
their interactions with the environment, as they take in information
and learn new things. Schemas are constantly modified or
changed as new experiences happen.
Sensorimotor
The first of Piaget’s stages of development, occurring from birth to
two years. At this stage children rely on their senses to make
sense of the world and learn through basic movements such as
sucking, grasping and listening. At this stage they have no
concept of object permanence, believing that if an object has been
removed from sight then it ceases to exist.

FURTHER READING
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Donaldson, M. (1987) Children’s Minds. London: Fontana Press.

Donaldson presents a critique of Piaget’s theory, offering her own
perspectives on child development and child psychology.
Marti, E. and Rodriguez, C. (2012) After Piaget. New York:
Routledge.
An analysis of Piaget’s legacy, showing how the work of Piaget
and research undertaken at the School of Geneva have influenced
a range of fields, including infant development, ethnography and
neuropsychology.
Piaget, J. and Inhelder, B. (1969) The Psychology of the Child.
New York: Basic Books.
A comprehensive account of each stage of Piaget’s theory from
childhood to adolescence, written by Piaget and his colleague
Barbel Inhelder.
Singer, D.G. and Revensen, T.A. (1996) A Piaget Primer: How a
child thinks. London: Plume Books.
Offers a practical guide to child development for practitioners
working in early years settings.
Wadsworth, B.J. (2003) Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive and Affective
Development (Fifth Edition). Harlow: Pearson.
An introduction to Piaget’s constructivist theory showing how
pupils construct and acquire knowledge. The book offers new
insights into his work, demonstrating how it can be applied in the
modern day.

REFERENCES
Baillargeon, R. (1991) Reasoning about the height and location of
a hidden object in 4.5 and 6.5 month old infants. Cognition, 38,
13–42.

Brain, C. and Mukherji, P. (2003) Understanding Child

Psychology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

Bremner, J.G. (1985) Object tracking and search in infancy: A

review of data and theoretical evaluation. Developmental
Review, 5, 371–96.

Department for Education (2021) Statutory Framework for the

Early Years Foundation Stage: Setting the standards for
learning. London: Department for Education.

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Dombeck, M. (n.d.) Moral development: Piaget’s theory. Available

from: www.gracepointwellness.org/1272-child-development-
theory-middle-childhood-8-11/article/37690-moral-development-
piagets-theory [accessed 7 December 2021].

Flanagan, C. (1998) Applying Psychology to Early Child

Development. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Fleming, J.S. (2005) Piaget, Kohlberg, Gilligan and others on

moral development. Available from:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/ugmodules/ethical
beings/theoretical_approach_intro_reading.pdf [accessed 7
December 2021].

Gov.UK (2021) The National Curriculum. Available from:

www.gov.uk/national-curriculum

Halpenny, A. and Pettersen, J. (2014) Introducing Piaget.

Abingdon: Routledge.

Jarvis, M. and Chandler, E. (2001) Angles on Child Psychology.

Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

Kohler, R. (2008) Piaget. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

McGarrigle, J. and Donaldson, M. (1974) Conservation accidents.

Cognition, 3, 341–50.

Mitchell, P. and Ziegler, F. (2007) Fundamentals of Development:

The psychology of childhood. Hove: Psychology Press.

Mooney, C.G. (2000) Theories of Childhood. St Paul, MN: Redleaf

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Piaget, J. (2013 [1948]) The Moral Judgement of the Child.

Abingdon: Routledge.

Plowden Report (1967) Children and their Primary Schools: A

report of the Central Advisory Council for England. London:
HMSO.

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Schaffer, H.R. (2004) Introducing Child Psychology. Oxford:

Blackwell.

Sutherland, P. (1992) Cognitive Development Today: Piaget and

his critics. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

Vozzola, E.C. (2014) Moral Development: Theory and

applications. New York: Routledge.

Descriptions of Images and Figures

Back to Figure
The cycle begins from assimilation: a bank of schemas leads to
equilibriation: an experience can fit existing schemas that leads to
disequilibrilium: an experience cannot fit existing schemas which
leads to accomodation: a new schema is developed to ake sense
of the new experience.
Back to Figure
The data represented are as follows: Birth-24 months:
Sensorimotor period; 2-7 years: preoperational; 7-11 years:
concrete operational; adolescence to adulthood: formal
operational.

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