Neo Piagetian Theories Of Cognitive Development

Piagetian theory was once considered able to describe the structure and development of human thought. As a result, it generated an enthusiasm that it could direct education to develop new teaching methods, particularly in science and mathematics. However, disillusionment with Piagetian theory came rather quickly because many of its structural and developmental assumptions appeared incongruent with empirical evidence. In recent years several neo-Piagetian theories have been proposed which try to preserve the strengths of Piaget’s theory, while eliminating its weaknesses. At the same time several other models have been advanced originating from different epistemological traditions, such as cognitive/differential psychology or socio-historical approaches. Originally published in 1992, this title was unique in representing most of these theories and traditions. Specifically, the authors focus their work on the educational implications of their research. The chapters are organised in three parts: the first part presents some widely known models of cognitive development and discusses their implications for different aspects of education; the second part is devoted to learning and cognitive acceleration; while part three highlights teaching methods that would improve the acquisition of particular skills in specific areas. Written by an eminent group of truly international contributors, this title will still be useful to students and researchers in cognitive development and education, as well as educational policy makers.

Tying together almost four decades of neo-Piagetian research, Cognitive Development provides a unique critical analysis and a comparison of concepts across neo-Piagetian theories. Like Piaget, neo-Piagetian theorists take a constructivist approach to cognitive development, are broad in scope, and assume that cognitive development is divided into stages with qualitative differences. Unlike Piaget, however, they define the increasing complexity of the stages in accordance with the child’s information processing system, rather than in terms of logical properties. This volume illustrates these characteristics and evidences the exciting possibilities for neo-Piagetian research to build connections both with other theoretical approaches such as dynamic systems and with other fields such as brain science. The opening chapter provides a historical orientation, including a critical distinction between the "logical" and the "dialectical" Piaget. In subsequent chapters the major theories and experimental findings are reviewed, including Pascual-Leone's Theory of Constructive Operators, Halford's structuralist theory, Fischer's dynamic systems approach to skills, Case's theory of Central Conceptual Structures, Siegler’s microgenetic approach, and the proposals of Mounoud and Karmiloff-Smith, as well as the work of others, including Demetriou and de Ribaupierre. The interrelation of emotional and cognitive development is discussed extensively, as is relevant non neo-Piagetian research on information processing. The application of neo-Piagetian research to a variety of topics including children's problem solving, psychometrics, and education is highlighted. The book concludes with the authors' views on possibilities for an integrated neo-Piagetian approach to cognitive development.

This volume shows, in contrast to Elkind and Flavell's Essays in Honor of Jean Piaget (1969), not so much how Piaget's teaching has been assimilated, as how it has been accommodated. It shows even more the process of a quest for a new level of equilibrium in the evolvement of the psychology of cognitive development. This may be seen in the fact that the neo-Piagetian theories presented in this volume clearly indicate progress over classical Piagetian theory in that they overcome many of its anomalies as exposed in Elkind and Flavell's volume, as well as in others.

The intellectual development of human beings from birth to adulthood is a fascinating phenomenon. Understanding the constraints that limit children’s intelligence, as well as discovering methods to improve it, has always been a challenging undertaking for developmental psychologists. This book presents a unique attempt to address these issues by establishing a dialogue between neo-Piagetian theorists and researchers specialized in typical and atypical working memory development. The book integrates recent advances in studies of working memory development with theories proposed by the most prominent neo-Piagetian researchers who have emphasized the role of cognitive resources and working memory capacity in the development of thinking and reasoning. In the opening section, the main proponents of this tradition develop their theories of cognitive development in terms of available mental attention, processing efficiency and speed, inhibition and relational complexity. The second part of the book addresses the mechanisms that underpin the increase in working memory capacity and the respective roles of processing efficiency, storage capacity, and the use of reactivation processes of memory traces such as rehearsal. Finally, the central role played by working memory in atypical development and learning difficulties is examined. This book provides psychologists, students and researchers who are interested in child development with an integrated and up-to-date series of chapters written by prominent specialists in the areas of working memory, attention, and cognitive development.

`At the end of the day, what is crucial is to enable educationalists to promote and apply their own metatheories and models of child development which they feel comfortable with and which enable children to develop. ... Peter Sutherland should be credited with making a significant contribution towards achieving this fundamental goal' - Educational Psychology in Practice ` ... this book deserves to become a classic in the field. Will appeal alike to academics and students in higher education, and to serving teachers- BPS: Educational Review Section This book provides a general outline of the dominant schools of thought on cognitive development, with a focus on Piaget. His views are outlined and a range of critical responses and alternatives are detailed. The author examines the application of these schools of thought to teaching pre-school, primary and secondary children. Each chapter includes a summary and questions for discussion. The book concludes with a glossary of terms.

This book sets forth a new model of development from a causal perspective. As this is an area vital to several disciplines. It has been written at multiple levels and for multiple audiences. It is based on the work of Piaget and Neo-Piagetians, but also covers other major models in development. It has elements that make it attractive as a teaching text, but it is especially research-focused. It has clinical applications. It presents many new ideas and models consistent with the existing literature, which is reviewed extensively. Students, researchers, and practitioners should find it useful. The models presented in the present work build on models introduced in prior publications (e.g., Young, 1990a, 1990b; 1997).

This volume marks the 20th Anniversary Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society. Some of the American contributors were among the first to introduce Piaget to developmental and educational psychology in the United States, while some of the international contributors worked with Piaget to develop his program of genetic epistemology and continue to make significant contributions to it. Within this volume the possibility of Piaget's paradigm is reviewed not only as the stuff of normal science, yielding fascinating empirical questions that linger within it, but also, and more importantly, as the stuff of revolutionary science, with continuing potential to comprehensively structure our thinking about developmental theory. The constructive contribution Piaget's theory has for developmental theory emerges as four central themes in the volume: understanding the intentional or semantic aspect of mental life without abandoning the Piagetian assumption that is rational and committed to truth testing; examining mental life and its development as a dialectical relation of function and structure--a relation Piaget introduced in his study of the developmental relation between procedural and operational knowledge; exploring new and interdisciplinary perspectives on equilibration as the driving force of constructive adaptive processes; understanding social and historical forces in individual and cultural development--not necessarily as forces antithetical to Piaget's perspective but as forces that take on new meaning within his framework which avoids erroneous dichotomies such as the distinction between subjective and objective knowledge.

The Study of Women In Midlife GRACE K. BARUCH AND JEANNE BROOKS-GUNN To describe the middle years-that relatively long span when one is neither young nor old-as a neglected period may no longer be accurate, given current scientific and popular interest in adult development and aging. But midlife is still too often seen merely as a kind of staging area on the way to old age, when one gathers one's forces and tries to stock up on assets-health, money, relationships-that will be needed for the rigors of the last phase of life. The middle years have been characterized more as a transition period than as a time of growth, satisfaction, and creativity. As this volume will show, although midlife is not without its difficulties, it is, for many women, a time of unexpected pleasure, even power. MAJOR THEMES A central theme of this volume is the impact of social change. The influence of economic conditions, of ideology, of the normative timing of such life events as age of marriage and childbearing, are addressed in many chapters from hlany different perspectives. Social changes are shown to have both negative and positive consequences. On the nega tive side, for example, the sex differential in life expectancy is a biosocial phenomenon that greatly restricts the availability of sexual partners-or, more precisely, heterosexual partners-for older women.