Articles

Educational Implications of Piaget's Theory

by Sathishbabu Raghav Financial Adviser

As per research, various attempts have been made to implement Jean Piaget’s Theory and Research in Cognitive Development in the field of education.


First, Piaget's Theory was applied in the case of curriculum materials. Next, it was implemented in classroom learning. Finally, other constructs of Piaget’s Theory like equilibration were used in the classroom.


The following are the educational implications of Piaget’s Theory that will help educational practitioners as well as researchers in understanding why it is important to know Jean Piaget’s Theory.

I. Need For Research

The most important implication of Piaget’s theory for education is that there is a need for basic research with regards to the outcomes achieved through various educational practices.


For instance, the current practice of conducting final examinations is based on the view that learning amongst students will not take place without examinations.


However, if it could be proved that students retain very little of knowledge gained in school after 5, 10, or 20 years, then there is no point in conducting examinations.


Further, Piaget points out that it is quite suicidal to evaluate a student’s performance based on the empirical or factual evidence only. Such educational programs with no theoretical rationale will be effective for only a short period of time.


Thus, Piaget is of the view that research must be undertaken to know the factual evidence as well as the theoretical principles for understanding cognitive psychology.


However, deducing conclusions based on just factual evidence is not enough. One needs to implement the results outside the laboratory in order to verify them.


Thus, Piaget is of the view that the field of education needs to change its methodology and methods based on the research in the field.

II. Training of Teachers

Piaget was of the view that teachers at all levels must be trained. Further, such training must be based on the research conducted by the teachers themselves in small interdisciplinary setups.


In other words, Piaget proposed that teachers should not only attend graduate-level lectures. They must also conduct psychological research along with learning the art and science of teaching. This will help them in understanding the psychology of students in a better way.


This means that Piaget proposes that teachers must go for doctoral-level education and not just graduate level education.


However, he also asserts that the pay scales of teachers would have to be increased. This is because attaining doctoral-level education is an expensive affair. Hence, every teacher cannot afford such a level of education.


But, Piaget also asserts that the Western Society considers teaching-profession as a low-status one. That is, the general public underestimates teachers.


Piaget argues that this is partially due to the ways in which the teachers are awarded certifications. Thus, he believes that only research can give the necessary status to this profession.

III. Educational Objective

Piaget is of the view that the aim of school education should be the overall development of a student and not just learning.


Accordingly, the school teachers should focus on developing a child’s thinking rather than just concentrating on teaching them facts and skills.


What Piaget meant out of this was that teachers should not treat each child in the same way. It’s because the intelligence of all normal children grows and develops qualitatively.


And the source of such growth and development lies within each child. Thus, Piaget argued that school teachers can utilize this by giving the children an environment to think rather than to learn.

IV. Teaching Methods

Piaget questioned the teaching methods adopted in school. He was of the view that one should assume that the method of transmitting knowledge from teacher to the student is the ideal way. 


Further, one should not assume that such a teaching method passes on to the student knowledge as well as the tools of assimilating such knowledge.


Thus, Piaget asserted that a student must be given an opportunity to understand the tools of assimilating the given knowledge on his own. 


This is because he believes that transmission of knowledge is just one way to help a student develop intellectually. Further, Piaget believes that such a method is less effective than the internal-regulation method.


Accordingly, Piaget states that teachers must adopt active methods of learning in the classroom. Such an environment would give an opportunity to the student to reconstruct knowledge.


It is important to note that Piaget suggests these active methods of classroom teaching for the fields that are spontaneously constructed by human intelligence. These fields include Mathematics and Science.


Besides this, Piaget also proposes that a higher proportion of students must opt for science courses. He also asserts that active methods of teaching must be used in the field of Science.


In addition to this, Piaget also asserted that the elementary level in schools must focus on teaching just the universally developed qualitative concepts. They should not jump too quickly on the quantitative formultations.


This is based on the idea that students must first have a clear understanding about the basic qualitative concepts.


Thus, according to Piaget, there is a need to change the way of giving instructions to the students. It’s because students do not find difficulty in learning subjects like science. Rather, they find a challenge in adapting to the method of receiving instruction.


Finally, Piaget also claimed that the students must be introduced with experimental procedures of learning at high-school level. 


Again, Piaget emphasizes that one should focus on developing the thought process of students. Further, such a methodology would add on to the exam-based performance of the student and would thus help in evaluating the student’s performance more effectively.


Finally, Piaget also emphasizes that a teacher has an important role to play in implementing an active way of learning in the classroom. She should present situations to the child so that he gets the opportunity to think at his own level.

Likewise, as the child steps into late childhood or early adolescence, he will shift to learning through reading automatically.


Thus, for a teacher to implement active methods of teaching in the classroom, she needs to act like a mentor and not just a lecturer. And for this to happen, we need to train our teachers.


In other words, Piaget asserted that there should be no difference between a teacher and a researcher. This means we should promote teachers to undertake doctorate level training rather than graduation level training.


It’s because the teachers who are researchers understand their subject matter as well as the psychology of students quite well.


Hence such teachers would be in a better position to promote intellectual level development and not just factual level learning of a student.



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About Sathishbabu Raghav Innovator   Financial Adviser

23 connections, 1 recommendations, 82 honor points.
Joined APSense since, January 13th, 2015, From Bangalore, India.

Created on Oct 4th 2021 06:52. Viewed 175 times.

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