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Challenging Piaget
July 12, 2016
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
-John Dewey (1859 - 1952), American psychologist
-John Dewey (1859 - 1952), American psychologist
In the article, "How to Build a Better Learner" in Scientific American Mind (Winter 2015), Gary Stix reviewed recent brain research developments and made the following observation:
"This line of research contradicts that of famed psychologists Jean Piaget, who contended that brains of infants are blank slates... when it comes to making calculations in the crib. Children, in Piaget's view, have to develop a basic idea of what a number is from years of interacting with blocks, Cheerios, or other objects. They eventually learn that when the little oat rings get pushed around a table, the location differs, but the number stays the same.
"The neuroscience community has amassed a body of research showing that humans and other animals have a basic numerical sense. Babies, of course, do not spring from the womb performing differential equations in their heads. But experiments have found that toddlers will routinely reach for the row of M&Ms that has the most candies. And other research has demonstrated that even infants only a few months old comprehend relative size. If they see five objects being hidden behind a screen and then another five added to the first set, they convey surprise if they see only five with the screen is removed."
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Comments (6)
Displaying 5 of 6 Comments [ View all ]CSBC
Denver, CO, United States
Yes, the writer is incorrect. Piaget argued that infants "think" externally - i.e. through sensori-motor activities - circular reactions - but he did not say this means there is nothing in the brain. Further, Piaget never said infants were not aware of physical aspects of the environment, such as quantity - they simply cannot count or have what he called "identity". There is a lot of misinformation about Piaget's theory.
Seattle, WA, United States
I have noticed several writers who describe a concept from Piaget inaccurately then go on to restate Piaget's ideas as their own new research. This is another example of misunderstanding Piaget. Nothing the writer asserts contradicts Piaget.
Urban College of Boston
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Jean Piaget never said infants were born with a blank slate, tabula rasa. That term was used by John Locke, but it does not apply to Piaget's ideas. Piaget was interested in HOW children think and learn, not whether they come to correct answers. He wrote that infants and preschoolers and adolescents and adults think in different ways, that learning is not just the accumulation of pieces of information.
Understanding Piaget, Montessori, Vygotsky and John Dewey, AND Skinner is important if we are going to use research and theories in ways that help children learn.
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IowA, United States
I need to respond to Gary Stix's notion that Piaget believes that infants are born as "blank slates." Piaget wrote that learners shape themselves rather than being shaped by the environment. We respond to the environment in the process of seeking cognitive equilibrium, sometimes through assimilation and sometimes through accommodation. Neither of those processes are the result of a more experienced learner filling up an empty brain.
Piaget, J. (1971). Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child. (p. 106). New York: Viking Press.
Dallas, TX, United States
Maria Montessori called it "the Mathematical Mind."
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