Piaget's discussion

We are Clara Girona, Sandra Pérez, Carla Pretel, Judit Serra and Helena Vilella and we have chosen as a name for our group Tangram.

Based on the videos previously seen and our acknowledgement of Piaget’s constructivist theory of learning, we will present our opinion regarding this topic in order for the other groups to understand our point of view and besides, to improve our knowledge in this field thanks to the discussions and exchange of knowledge that will take place with our classmates. 

We will be focusing our attention in two main points which are the acquisition of knowledge as one’s own interpretation or assimilation of the reality and the the sequential process of knowledge construction or, in other words, the developmental stages that all individuals go through their life. 

Knowledge is acquired through the interaction with the different elements that can be found in the mediate context where the individual is immersed. Such elements, usually represented as objects, lead to the stimulation of the different senses and allow the subject to acquire knowledge in a progressive and constant way. It is needed to take into account that all individuals have one’s own way of interpreting and understanding this information. Thus, their interpretation and consequent knowledge will vary depending on their personal experience in this process.

In this way, creativity plays an important role when acquiring knowledge as the wider is the range of opportunities and possible scenarios for each interaction that the individual goes through, the richer will be the learning process that he/she is experiencing. Therefore, in order for children to enrich their learning experience, it is needed to provide them different and varied stimulus that give them the possibility to interact with and acquire knowledge that might be applied in their context.

For this reason, we agree with the Alligators group and their opinion about the knowledge acquisition process, but we believe that a concretion should be made as children do not only learn from objects but from other elements that can be found in their mediate environment too.

In terms of the knowledge construction process, Piaget differentiates four main stages that define the development of the individual. Each of these four stages has its own characteristics in terms of knowledge construction and, as the child goes through them, they become more complex. This four stages are (from simple to complex): sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. This process is universal, meaning by this that, all subjects move through these four stages. Even so, not all individuals reach these stages at the same age, everyone of them follow their own developmental process determined by one’s own specific rhythm. Clear examples of different rhythms regarding the same developmental process are kids with special needs or disabilities that may found difficulties while trying to reach higher stages. Moreover, there are not only developmental differences in those children with special needs but, as the context and its features also determine this process, those children with lacks in their environment might find developmental difficulties too. 

In order to reinforce our opinion, we have found a video that explains clearly why creativity should be worked at school.

Regarding the developmental stages, here there is another video where all different stages that Piaget defined are shown.