Piaget and Social Reconstruction

Jean Piaget and Social Reconstruction

Jean Piaget changed how educators think about children by treating cognitive development as something with a definite structure that unfolds in stages. His work on how children actually construct knowledge has shaped almost every modern approach to early-childhood and primary education. The chapter closes with social reconstruction and critical pedagogy: the fourth of the major educational theories the guide has been building toward, in which schools take responsibility for social change.

Who Piaget Was

The Swiss biologist who became a developmental psychologist, his genetic epistemology, and his insistence that only education can save societies from collapse

The Nature of the Child's Mind

Why children construct their own knowledge, why their incorrect ideas matter, and why schools cause learning disabilities by misreading children’s thinking

The Four Developmental Stages

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, the stages every child passes through and what each one needs from teachers

Piaget's Classroom and the Teacher's Role

The teacher as facilitator, real materials before abstract concepts, four teaching implications, and the contrast between assimilation and accommodation

Criticisms of Piaget

The underestimation of children’s abilities, the within-stage uniformity problem, the cultural blindness, and the methodological concerns

Social Reconstruction and Critical Pedagogy

Theodore Brameld’s vision after World War II, Paulo Freire’s critique of banking education, and the school as agent of social reform