As a mother of 6, I have children that fall in each of the 4 stages of development that Piaget distinguishes between. Xaviah, or just X is our 2 year old that has been as of late in the sensory-motor stage, but has rapidly moved into pre-operational representation. He is learning so rapidly and is reformatting all that he learned in the previous stage. Walker and Hayden are currently in the concrete operations stage of development. I watch them focus their learning on ordering and love simple math that is definitive. Nick and Gabe are twins and Kylie is just a year older. All three of them have recently moved into hypothetic deductive operations stage. With Nick and Gabe being 11 they are just figuring out some abstract math and continually ask me to come up with algebric equations to ask them. Kylie has been in this stage for a couple of years now and she uses a lot of deductive reasoning in her attempt to learn new information.
Looking at my kids and studying Piaget this week I define learning depends upon the four factors that Piaget says explain development which are Maturation, experience, social transmission, and equilibrium.
As teacher/trainers we can encourage and support learning by understanding the different developmental stages and consider the learners from this vantage point to better fit their needs and increase understanding and retention.
I think having kids is the easiest way to understand Piagets theory. You watch as your child moves from one stage to the next. Some times you wish they would move a little quicker but they get there. What a cute family. I do not envy you the teenage years.
ReplyDeleteI have very little experience with children that are elementary age. Do you seen to notice that the ages that Piaget have given seem to be close to your observations of children that age?
ReplyDeleteFirst off – Wow – 6 kids – and just how are you managing grad school? I don’t have any and I feel like it is often too much. And what beautiful kids they all are. I also love that you call your youngest X – I think I might want to borrow that when I have kids.
ReplyDeleteThis must have been a treat this week. I really struggled because I work with Adult learners and am not really around kids much. I wonder if I had a houseful I could have related better. The way you presented the information helped me to match these stages up with my nieces and nephews and I appreciated that.
Thanks for sharing - Megan
I appreciate all of your comments this week on my blog. I really do think that the ages that Piaget determines to be at the different stages are pretty accurate. I think so far the hardest transition has been from concrete to hypothetic-decuctive operations. It is just so different from the others, from a childs perspective.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your article. It was interesting to ready how you were able to see the different stages within your own children. My own are still quite young and still in the 1st or 2nd stage (If I understand the stages correctly)
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I grew up as the oldest son of 6. Realizing now what my mother must have gone through, I salut your efforts!