Jean Piaget
1896 – 1980 Swiss psychologist, epistemologist
Swiss psychologist whose stages of cognitive development transformed how educators view children's thinking.
- Religion
- Raised Protestant, later agnostic.
- Affiliations
- Studied child cognition at the University of Geneva.
Jean Piaget studied how children come to understand the world and proposed that they pass through distinct stages of cognitive development. He held that children actively construct knowledge by acting on their environment rather than passively absorbing facts. His work reshaped curriculum and teaching by matching instruction to a child's stage of development.
Connections
- rival of Lev Vygotsky — His stage theory contrasted with Vygotsky's social approach.
- rival of Lev Vygotsky — Offered a social account of development contrasting with Piaget's stage theory.