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A Critique On Piagetian Theories Of Cognitive Development
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1.2 PROBLEM OF THE STUDY
The fact of a child’s stages of growth
constitutes the current understanding of cognitive development, which is
based upon conclusions drawn by scientists who formulate questions and
device methodologies by which their questions can be answered. For
instance, it is said that, “Swiss developmental Psychologist, Jean
Piaget was so often asked by American audience, “what should we do to
foster a child’s cognitive development…?5
It is by understanding
clearly the true humanistic nature of this process that Jean Piaget set
forth to offer the world his cognitive developmental theories. However,
“we should remember that no particular theory which provides such a
comprehensive explanation of development, can be expected to
withstand the tests of further investigations without undergoing
some criticisms said, Beilin, 1989, 1990’ Daehler & Bukatko, 1985;
Halford, 1989, 1990.â€6 There are:
1. In his (Piaget)
child’s developmental theories, he underestimated the cognitive
capabilities of children. For instance, the kinds of memory, which
researchers now find in babies at 6 months of age, were not found by
Piaget until babies were 18 months old.
2. The
concept of stage has also encountered many objections: for example, that
it gives the false impression that development proceeds by a series of
abrupt jerks rather than smoothly; that intellectual functioning at any
one age shows more fluctuation than the concept of stage would suggests;
that cross-cultural variability limits the usefulness of the concept;
that environment is more influential than Piaget allows; and so on.
Of
course, Piaget did not have many of the methods that are now available
to scholars, including equipment and procedures to measure the
electrical activity of the brain. These and various others, which we
shall see later constitute a great problem about his theories and
therefore needs to be carefully examined in order to clarify matters not
well presented. A proper examination into Piagetian theories of
cognitive development, as well as critically analyzing the theories, is
what this writer set out to explore in this research work.
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