Literature_Review

JEAN PIAGET Socialisation is a development process by which an individual learns and becomes aware of the patterns of behaviour expected as a member of society. Jean Piaget , a famous socilisation theorist was Swiss born on the 9th of August, 1896 and passed away in 1980. Piaget spent 50 years, between 1929 and 1967 studying cognitive development in children. This all began when jean developed a particular interest in psychology, jean was very independent and in his spare time and took an interest into nature. When Piaget turned ten his first paper on Albino Sparrows was published. By his twenty first birthday, he had published twenty scientific papers on molluscs. He studied at the University of Neuchatel, from where he graduated in 1916 at the age of twenty, and received his doctorate of Biology at the age of twenty two. In 1919 he became interested in psychology, and studied and carried out research in Zurich, Switzerland. Jean then moved on to teach philosophy and psychology in Paris, this is where his questions began to arise.Jean has had a great impact on what is known about how children think and operate, he believes that children are curious, willing learners who need stimulation and make sense of the world by dealing with people and objects. Piaget noticed that children repeatedly kept making the same mistakes which adults didn’t. This made him realise that child’s processes are differing from adults. Through further thinking piaget realised that children develop though different stages until they develop a level of thinking that resembles an adults. After Piaget married Valentine Chatenay in 1923 he began studying the intellectual development of their three children. For many years Piaget came up with a theory relating to the socialisation of a child. This theory consisted of four different stages: The sensiormotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage and the formal operations stage. The first stage was the sensorimotor stage. This stage lasts from birth to approximatley two years of age. The child through physical interaction with his or her environment builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works. The infant uses senses and motor abilities to understand the world, beginning with reflexes and ending with complex combinations of sensorimotor skills. Between one to four months the child develops primary circular reactions. This stimulates the child. For example the baby blows a bubble they find it interesting so they do it again. Between four and twelve months the child learns secondary circular reactions. The infant learns procedures that make interesting things last. This stage also includes the Childs ability to recognise just because you cant see something doesn’t mean its not there. Thirdly between 12 and 24 months the infant works on tertiary circular reactions. This stage is similar to the previous stage as it is making things interesting by varying them. For example the infant hits a pot with a stick, clunk, they hit a drum with a stick, thump. Lastly the child develops mental representation. This stage develops the ablilty to hold and remember an image in their mind beyond the experience, as well act the image. For example they see a child throwing a tantrum, hours later they do the same. The second stage in Jean Piagets theory is the pre-operational stage, this stage lasts from two to seven years. As the child begins to apply their new knowledge of language they begin to use symbols to represent objects. The child is now able to think about things that arnt immediately present. The child uses symbols as well as creative play to represent something else. This is also known as manipulating symbols. The infant also develops a clear understanding of past and future. For example you ask a child remember when you dropped your ice-cream, they respond with a sad face. During this stage we also see the child become egocentric where they see everything only from their point of view. Piaget proved this when he investigated the view children thought that Piaget could see. This was known as the mountain study. This resulted in proving that children simply centre on one aspect at a time. Another example is a tall glass and a wide glass, the child thinks that the tall glass would have more liquid when it is actually the wide glass. The ability of the children’s decenter marks their ability to move to the next stage. Thirdly the concrete operations stage lasts from about seven years to eleven years. This is were the child learns logical operations or principles we use when solving a problem. This also incorporates equations being solved with numbers, not just objects . The child develops the ability to conserve numbers, length and liquid volume. For example you lay four marbles in a square, then you spread the marbles into a straight line, the child now has the ability to realise that there are still four marbles. This stage is where the child learns about classification, seriation and reversibility. Lastly the Formal operations stage develops from twelve years and onwards. This stage is where the child begins competent adult thinking involving the use of logical operations such as hypothetical thinking. This stage allows the individual to investigate the problem. The child has now learnt to consider many possibilities from several perspectives. To put Piagets theory into practise it is important to be aware and recognise that children are active learners. Parents and childcare workers need to provide opportunities to enhance the childs learning by listening to their ideas, providing a stimulating environment aswell as recognising what children are interested in and develop learning around these. It is also important to realise that babies, toddlers and preschoolers will need learning stimulus in different ways. Piaget has taught society that there is a pattern to the way children learn to think, and this pattern develops in stages. Every stage is equally important and must be developed.