1-Sensorimotor Stage: birth - 2 years

The sensorimotor stage is the first stage of the cognitive development. At this stage, children builds an understanding of their world by using the movement senses to explore the physical actions they perform (Piaget & Cook, 1952). During this stage, children depend on their ability to see, touch, feel, suck and other senses to learn things about themselves and the environment. Therefore, the learning style of the child in this stage is dominated by accommodative processes (Piaget, 1936).

One of the important finding during the latter part of the sensorimotor stage is the concept of object permanence (Piaget, 1936). Children are not aware of the fact that an object continues to exist even when it is not in view in the beginning of the sensorimotor stage. However, older infants search for the object when it is covered, realizing that the object continues to exist.

Play the video below to watch an experiment about object permanence conducted on some infants.

2-Preoperational Stage: 2 - 7 years

In the preoperational stage, children are able to represent objects by images and words. At this stage, children are capable of forming stable concepts even though they are not able to perform them. Also, the children are not able to think logically and their thinking is egocentric at this stage making it difficult for them to accept others perspective (Piaget & Cook, 1952).

On the other hand, children in the preoperational stage do not understand that the properties of objects are conserved and that just because something looks different it has not changed (Dasen, 1994). Children do not understand abstract concepts like amounts, speed, or weight in this stage.

Play the video below to watch an experiment about conservation conducted on some children.

3- Concrete Operational Stage: 7 - 11 years

Children in the concrete operational stage can think logically about objects and concrete events unlike the preoperational stage. At this stage, children are able to categorise objects into sets according to the features they represent (Piaget & Cook, 1952). Therefore, learning is directed by the logic of classes and relations in the concrete operational stage. Also, they are able to take other people’s point of view and take into account more than one perspective at the same time during this stage (Dasen, 1994).

Moreover, concrete operational children understands that although the appearance of something changes, the thing itself does not. In other words, they understand that when water is poured into a different shaped glass, the quantity of liquid remains the same, even though its appearance has changed. The children at this stage starts to understand reversibility and the learning style of the children in this stage is more assimilative (Piaget, 1936).

Play the video below to watch an experiment about reversibility conducted on a child of concrete operational stage.

4- Formal Operational Stage: 12 years and above

The formal operational stage is the last stage of the cognitive development. At this stage, children begin to think logically about abstract concepts in a more systematic way out of the concrete experiences (Piaget & Cook, 1952). Children at this stage are able to express hypotheses and systematically test them to arrive at an answer to a problem (Piaget, 1936).

One of the important finding of the formal operational stage is their ability to reason contrary to fact. That is, if they are given a statement and asked to use it as the basis of an argument they are capable to complete the task. Moreover, this is stage where children become anxious about trust, love, relationships, career, and the future.

Play the video below to watch an experiment about deductive reasoning conducted on some children.

Application Of The Theory To The Classroom/Teaching

In light of Piaget’s theory in the classroom, teachers can develop a better understanding of the students’ thinking by arranging their teaching strategies according to the students’ cognitive level. Some of the major implications from the cognitive development theory include focusing on the process of children's thinking rather than the product, recognising the child’s role of active involvement in learning activities and accepting individual differences in the stages of different developmental stages as they progress (Slavin, 2005).

Additionally, while applying the cognitive development theory in the teaching, it is important for teachers to act as facilitators of learning and provide a variety of experiences for students so that it gives the opportunity for them to explore and experiment, while encouraging new understandings (Wood, 2008).

Furthermore, some of the general suggestions while applying the cognitive development theory in the classroom include teaching using visual aids, using examples that students are already aware to explain complex ideas, giving opportunities for children to classify & group information, use outlines & hierarchies to facilitate assimilation of new information with prior knowledge and presenting problems that require logical analytical thinking to students (Lefrancois, 2006).

Conclusion

While incorporating the theory of cognitive development in classroom or teaching, one of the most important things a teacher should take into consideration is to identify how cognitively developed the children are and improve their learning experience through guided activities, open activities, individual and peer activities. Also, teachers should listen to the children’s stories or talks, visualize their drawings by asking them, identify their ideas about different conservations and think meaningfully about every single thing they do.

Moreover, children should not be taught certain concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage cognitive development. The teacher should become aware of how well the learners learn, process and remember the information presented to them so that suitable tasks can be set. If teachers are more conscious about these aspects they can cater more effective lessons and create a positive learning environment for the learners.

Works Cited

• Cherry, K. (2013). Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development. Retrieved October 06, 2013, from About.com: http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.htm

• Dasen, P. (1994). Culture and cognitive development from a Piagetian perspective. In W .J. Lonner & R.S. Malpass (Eds.), Psychology and Culture. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

• Lefrancois, G.R. (2006). Theories of Human Learning. Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education. 

• McLeod, S. A. (2009). Jean Piaget | Cognitive Theory - Simply Psychology. Retrieved fromhttp://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

• Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of intelligence in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

• Piaget, J., & Cook, M. T. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children.

• Slavin, R.E. (2005). Educational psychology: theory and practice. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

• Wadsworth, B. J. (2004). Piaget's theory of cognitive and affective development: Foundations of constructivism. Longman Publishing.

• Wood, K.C. (2008). Piaget's Stages. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from Department of Educational Psychology and Instrutional Technology, University of Georgia Web site: http://projects.coe.uga.edu/eplt /index.php?title=Piaget%27s_Stages#Educational_Implications