Theory Basis

• An early interest in psychoanalysis led Piaget to work at a French boy's institution established by Alfred Binet, co-creator of the original intelligence quotient "IQ" test. During this period, Piaget began experimental studies pertaining to childhood learning processes. Piaget also studied the intellectual development of his own three children. Ultimately, Piaget concluded that children do not think like adults. Before Piaget, psychologists viewed children's thinking skills as the same, yet less competent than adults. Piaget believed that children are born with a basic mental structure and that intellectual abilities develop through interactions with external environments. In other words, learning is a continual process.
  
  

Adaptation

• Piaget believed that adaptation and organization affect intellectual growth and biological development. He found that an individual must be able to adapt to stimuli and external environments to survive. The human mind has the ability to organize information to fit within an existing mental structure, yet mental structures must be flexible in order to accommodate new and constantly changing stimuli. Although Piaget is well known for developing childhood learning theories, his concepts of assimilation, accommodation, equilibration and schemas are applicable to any age group.
  
  

Organization

• Schemata, the foundation of thinking abilities, are a collection of schemas -- mental representations of perceptions, ideas and/or reactions that form mental structures. As the brain absorbs new information, the mind either assimilates the data into a previously learned schema or accommodates the information by changing a schema in order to organize the information. Equilibration is the balance between mental structures and external environments. Disequilibration occurs when the mind is unable to assimilate or accommodate unidentifiable information. This state may cause discomfort until the mind is able to form a new schema and organize the material into a mental structure, resulting in equilibration.
  
  

Learning Stages

• Piaget identified four stages in childhood development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Piaget believed that children pass through these phases to achieve cognitive development skills. Each phase increases intellectual abilities needed to process and internalize complex external stimuli. The adaption and organizational processes continue throughout life. Adults achieve mental balance by relying on intellectual skills acquired in childhood.