55 phrases by Jean Piaget on childhood and learning
Jean Piaget is one of the most recognized psychologists and researchers for his contributions to the psychology of development and learning. In his famous theory he proposed several stages of cognitive development through which all individuals pass.
- You can learn more about this in our article: "The 4 stages of Jean Piaget's cognitive development"
The best Piaget phrases
Throughout his life, Piaget delivered several quotes that have remained for history . In this article we review them.
- However, before you can review the most important aspects of their contributions in this post: "The Theory of Learning by Jean Piaget"
Now, let's start!
1. Scientific thought, then, is not momentary, it is not a static instance, but it is a process
As a scientist, Piaget contributed significantly to the study of cognitive development and intelligence.
2. When you teach a child something, you take away forever his chance to discover it for himself
Children are curious, and when curiosity leads them to investigate, the experiential learning that takes place is really enriching.
3. Possibility ... in the proper accommodation of sensory-motor intelligence, plays the same role as in scientific discovery. It is only useful to the genius and his revelations remain meaningless for unskilled workers.
The sensory-motor period is one of the stages of Piaget's theory, in which the greatest achievement is the notion of the permanent object.
4. On the one hand, there are individual actions, such as pulling, pushing, touching, rubbing. These are those individual actions that give rise most of the time to the abstraction of objects
A great phrase of Piaget, the abstraction is prior to the generalization instrument and the child learns with the manipulation of objects. Piaget always thought that human beings are active in learning.
5. Scientific knowledge is constantly evolving; who finds himself changed from one day to the next
Scientific thinking is not static, it develops constantly.
6. Look, I have no opinion in pedagogy. The problem of education interests me vividly, because it is my impression that there is much to reform and transform, but I think that the role of the psychologist is primarily to provide facts that pedagogy can use, and not put in place to give advice
Pedagogy can benefit enormously from psychology.
7. The essential functions of the mind consist of understanding and invention, that is, the construction of structures by structuring reality
Creativity plays an important role in learning.
8. Each acquisition of accommodation becomes a material for assimilation, but assimilation always resists new accommodation.
Assimilation is one of the most important concepts that revolve around the Piagetian theory.
9. Knowledge is, then, a system of transformations that become progressively adequate
Learning is cumulative and evolving, as Piaget explains.
10. Our problem, from the point of view of psychology and from the point of view of genetic epistemology, is to explain how the transition is made from a lower level of knowledge to a level that seems to be higher
As in the previous point, an appointment about cumulative learning.
11. I have always detested any deviation from reality, an attitude that I associate with my mother's poor mental health
A reflection carried out by Piaget, in which it is possible to appreciate a touch of irony.
12. What we see changes what we know. What we know changes what we see
What we see determines our thinking, but our thinking also determines how we interpret what we see
13. The main objective of education in schools should be the creation of men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical, verify and not accept, all that is offered to them
Piaget, in clear defense of creativity and active learning.
14. I could not think without writing
A great date that invites reflection
15. What genetic epistemology proposes is to discover the roots of the different varieties of knowledge, from their elementary forms, following the following levels, also including scientific knowledge
Piaget, making clear reference to genetic epistemology.
16. If you want to be creative, stay partly as a child, with the creativity and inventiveness that characterizes children before being deformed by adult society
Children have a curious mindset in which they do not judge but are open to constant learning . Something we should learn many adults
17. The relationships between parents and children are, without a doubt, not only those of restriction. There is mutual spontaneous affection, which range from first asking the child for acts of generosity and even sacrifice, to very moving demonstrations that are not prescribed in any way. And here, without a doubt, is the starting point for the morality of the good that we will see in development together with the morality of law or duty, and that in some people it completely replaces
Parents are the most important educational agents, because they educate their children on important topics such as morals or values.
18. Good pedagogy should confront the child in situations in which he experiences in the broadest sense of the word: try things to see what happens, handle objects, handle symbols, ask questions, find his own answers, reconciling what he finds in one occasion with what you find in another comparing your achievements with those of other children
Children are active learners, explorers at their best.
19. If an individual is intellectually passive, he will not be free morally
Learners must be explorers who build their own cognitive development.
20. In other words, knowledge of the outside world begins with an immediate utilization of things, while knowledge of oneself is stopped by this purely practical and utilitarian contact.
Experiential learning is a very powerful form of learning. More than the rote.
21. Education, for most people, means trying to take the child to look like the typical adult of their society ... But for me, education means making creators ... You have to do inventors, innovators, non-conformists
Culture tries to mold our thoughts, our motivations and even our expectations. This is possible to see in an educational system that does not favor creativity at all. Luckily, there are many psychologists and pedagogues who try to change this way of working.
22. Intelligence is what you use when you do not know what to do
The problems and the attempt to solve them stimulate our creativity and our intelligence.
23. What role would books and manuals have in this school? The ideal school would not have mandatory manuals for the students, but only reference works that would be used freely ... the only indispensable manuals are those used by the teacher.
Piaget making reference to what his ideal school would be like, which would benefit the students' learning.
24. To express the same idea in another way, I believe that human knowledge is essentially active
Once again, the vision of this psychologist is clear. Humans build our own learning.
25. Logic and mathematics are nothing more than specialized linguistic structures
Linguistic structures are the basis of our knowledge, says Piaget.
26. It is with the children with whom we have the best opportunity to study the development of logical knowledge, mathematical knowledge, physical knowledge, among other things
The children were the participants in Piaget's studies.
27. Understanding is inventing
If we do not understand something, we will not be able to go further and be creative.
28. Children have a real understanding of what they only invent themselves, and every time we try to teach them something too fast, we prevent them from reinventing themselves
We should not impose learning, because otherwise we will provoke memorization instead of understanding. Learning must be built by us.
29. Reflective abstraction is not based on individual actions, but on coordinated actions
Each stage of learning has its moment, according to Piaget
30. The second objective of education is to train minds that can be critical, that can verify and not accept everything that is offered to them. The great danger of today are the slogans, collective opinions, the tendencies already made of thought. We have to be able to oppose ourselves individually, to criticize, to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.
Piaget was always an advocate of critical thinking.
31. The main objective of education is to create people capable of doing new things, and not simply repeat what other generations did
People must be able to carry out their cognitive development in an active way
32. Knowledge can not be a copy, since it is always a relation between subject and object
Piaget is one of the greatest exponents of constructionism , and this appointment makes it clear.
33. This does not mean that logic is strong enough to support the total construction of human knowledge
Another clear reference to the constructivist theory, where Piaget was one of the most representative figures.
34. Knowing reality implies building systems in continuous transformation that correspond, more or less, to reality
Knowledge, we build it to make it is our reality.
35From then on, the universe is constructed in a set of permanent objects connected by causal relations that are independent of the subject and are placed in the time and space of the subject
The notion of the permanent object is one of the great achievements of the sensory-motor phrase.
36. A learned truth is only a half-learned truth, while the whole truth must be conquered, reconstructed or rediscovered by the student himself
An appointment that speaks of the truth and that stimulates free interpretation.
37. Everything that is taught to a child is prevented from inventing it or discovering it
The adult can provide the child with tools to learn, but it is he who builds it.
38. Intelligence, the most plastic and at the same time the most permanent structural balance of behavior, is essentially a system of vital operations
There is a curious paradox between the stability of intelligence and the ability of intelligence to adapt to the environment.
39. Any psychological explanation, sooner or later, ends up resting on logic or biology
Mental processes do not exist outside of biological ones outside of a logical analysis of their content.
40. To develop human intelligence it is essential to know the mathematical logic
These dimensions of knowledge are an essential part of the intellect, according to Piaget.
41. We must start from this dual character of intelligence as something biological and logical at the same time
The intellect exists thanks to the activity of nerve cells, but also thanks to the rules of logic.
42. To explain the psychological phenomenon well, it is necessary to study its line of formation.
What happens in the human mind it is the result of constant evolution and maturation .
43. There are many similarities between the development of knowledge in a child, on the one hand, and the development of knowledge in the scientific world on the other.
Piaget establishes a comparison between both ways of extracting knowledge.
44. The fundamental idea of my theory is almost always misinterpreted
This author and researcher warns of the need to pay attention to the nuances of his work.
45. Human knowledge is always an assimilation or an interpretation
Piaget emphasizes the importance of these learning mechanisms.
46. The structure is the source of the deductive capacity
The deduction It is based on formal rules .
47. If knowledge were innate then it would be present in babies and other animals
A phrase about the possibility that there are principles to know that they exist in an innate way.
48. Problems are resolved according to different levels of knowledge
Each stage of cognitive development offers different solutions.
49. It is necessary to study how the fact of reaching new knowledge opens the mind to new possibilities
Learning supposes give qualitative leaps in our level of knowledge .
50. The development of intelligence is a sequence of deductive operations
Piaget believed in the importance of deductive reasoning as the motor of learning.
51. The first clear indication in the development of knowledge is the constant creativity
The lateral thinking it is a fundamental aspect of intelligence.
52. Operations are transformations that are reversible
In the mental games that make up learning, operations are always reversible.
53. I am constructivist because I constantly build or help build knowledge
A phrase about the philosophical foundations of Piaget.
54. Mathematics is in constant construction, and we can see this even in the day to day of a child
The development of mathematical ability is evolving.
55. A child never draws what he sees, draws his interpretation of it
Piaget questions the idea of portraying objectively.
