Biography of Jean Piaget

p The Impact of Jean Piaget (1896-1980 ) on

How we Educate Children

I : Introduction

Jean Piaget was one of the most influential developmental . And cognitive psychologists of the 20th Century . His theory of Cognitive Development in children changed forever , how children are educated on an international level . Jean Piaget did more than to define stages of development he gave educators insight on how children think , and how their thinking processes differ from adults . Prior to Piaget children were frequently thought of as nothing more (or less ) than miniaturized adults . They

thought , acted , and learned in the same ways as adults This resulted in great difficulties in the education system as too often teachers were attempting to teach very young children subjects that were far beyond their capability of learning

Piaget changed this by giving teachers a set of guidelines to follow that allowed them to develop age appropriate curriculum that would both challenge children and keep them interested in learning . We still look to Piaget 's work today in the development of new teaching methods and curricula that allow the way we educate children to continue evolving Piaget will be remembered for his great contributions to education and developmental psychology

II : Biography

Jean Piaget was born near Lake Neufchatel , Switzerland in 1896 Piaget 's father taught Medieval Studies at the University of Neufchatel His mother was a religious housewife . As a child Piaget was greatly interested in the workings of the natural world . He studied botany and zoology , and even obtained permission to use the university library where his father worked by capturing a photo of a rare bird to give the librarians . He would continue to develop this interest in the natural world and would obtain his doctorate in zoology in 1916 .from the University of Neufchatel where his father taught . Piaget did not fight in World War I as Switzerland was a neutral country and did not participate in the petty territorial disputes of its neighbors . Paget would continue his postgraduate education at the University of Zurich studying philosophy , and then moved on to study the new field of psychoanalysis with Carl Jung , and abnormal psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris , France

Piaget 's eclectic education would soon lead him into the study of cognitive and developmental psychology . After completing his education he would begin working as a teacher at a private school for boys run by Alfred Binet . Binet was the developer of one of the first tests used to measure the human intelligence quotient (IQ . It was during this time that Piaget began to record his observations on how the thinking process was different in children than it was in adults . He noticed that children would habitually get certain types of questions on multiple-choice tests wrong as well as makes the same mistakes in math repetitively . He then noticed that children who were at different grade levels than his students did not make similar mistakes . This would soon lead to the development of Piaget 's Cognitive Development...