Dr. Jean Piaget

Dr. Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist whose career explored, among other things, children’s logical reasoning and children’s moral behavior and thinking.  He became interested in the field of psychology and in 1919 worked on standardized intelligence testing in the laboratory of Dr. Alfred Binet.  Piaget was more interested in how children formulate an answer than whether they reach the correct answer.  This interest sparked a career that spanned 60 years.

The Origins of Knowledge

Piaget saw knowledge not as a collection of facts but as the process of acting to learn (Thomas, 2005) and that learning occurs when what a child knows is challenged by new information.  Each person has schemes, or mental frameworks, related to each concept or topic from previous experiences and learned information.  When the child experiences information that challenges his scheme he must make an adaptation to relieve the disequilibrium.  The child may assimilate by perceiving the new information in a way that can fit into the current scheme or make an accommodation and change his scheme to accommodate the new information.  Through this process learning occurs and the child’s cognitive equilibrium is restored (Thomas, 2005).

Piaget’s Periods of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor * Birth to two years * Infants and toddlers use all of their senses and their motor abilities to explore their environment  * From infancy, children learn by acting on their environment, not by passively absorbing information

Preoperational * Two years to six years * Magical, egocentric thinking and immature reasoning * Children see the world and the people in it from their own point of view, unaware that others may view the world or think differently * Near the end of this period children develop theory of mind and are capable of understanding that others see the world from a different perspective

Concrete Operational * Six to eleven years * Ability to understand and manipulate tangible objects and mental images of tangible items * Inability to fully understand abstract concepts

Formal Operations * Twelve years through adulthood * Understanding of abstract concepts * Use of hypothetical thinking, an increase in analytical thinking, and a decrease in emotional reaction

Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg

Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist and educator whose career explored the development of moral reasoning.  He studied psychology at The University of Chicago where he became interested in Jean Piaget’s studies on children’s logical reasoning.  Kohlberg conducted his dissertation research on moral reasoning and this research spawned an almost 30 year career (Thomas, 2005).

Kohlberg conducted his research by interviewing children, presenting a story with a moral dilemma, asking what the protagonist should do, and why.  Kohlberg followed these children into adulthood to chart the changes in their moral reasoning as they aged (Thomas, 2005).  Kohlberg was not interested in whether the participants thought the behavior was right or wrong, instead he wanted to understand the reasoning behind their judgement. 

Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Reasoning Development

Preconventional * Pre-moral state of development * Judgments influenced by punishment or reward * If child will be punished the act is bad * Try to avoid getting caught * Be good to others so they will be good to you

Conventional * Influenced by a desire to be accepted – behave in a way that will be approved by the group * Social relationships and institutions influence behavior * Follow rules and laws out of a sense of respect and duty to the authority

Postconventional * Internalized values that benefit the good of all * Fairness, equality, and justice

Conclusion

            The works of Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg have influenced the work of educators and researchers for over 60 years.  Each established the most well-known and most frequently cited theories in their specializations.  The works of Piaget and Kohlberg have been reviewed, revised, and built upon since their inception and will continue to spawn new ideas and understandings of child development. 

References

Berger, K. (2016). Invitation to the Life Span (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Worth.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (2019). Jean Piaget: Swiss Psychologist. In Encyclopædia Britannica online. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Piaget

Thomas, M. (2005). Comparing Theories of Child Development (6^th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

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