Thursday, August 9, 2007
Jean Piaget
It's happy 111th birthday to Jean Piaget whose writings excited me as much as anyone else's about children and learning (though I can't overlook Winnicott or Dr. Spock, among others). His descriptions and theories of how and when we develop cognitively are enthralling, not to mention helpful, as one interacts with children. And as to how one approaches learning and teaching oneself and others. His example of understanding how a liquid occupies two completely different sized drinking glasses was an "aha!" moment for me. He was one of the first respected social scientists to encourage recognizing the amazing things children can do if one notes and then capitalizes on their stages. Silly, for example, to expect an infant to stack blocks or Legos in any organized way since any familiarity of gravity and shapes is not there yet. But wonderful to discuss abstract ideas with a toddler who is observing and organizing the world both literally and conceptually.

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Permalink | | posted by jau at 9:14 AM


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Blogger DADvocate — at 12:57 PM, August 10, 2007:
I found Piaget quite useful in raising my kids. I just studied him and, I think, read one of his books. (It's been a long time. I got my B.A. in psych in 1976.)

But, the concepts of the developmental stages, especially the stages of concrete and formal operations were very useful because I realized that to commmunicate and interact effectively with my kids (and others), I needed to keep these stages in mind. I try to keep my communications and interactions within the expected developmental range of the kids with whom I'm interacting.
 

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