Based on Piaget's theory of logico-mathematical knowledge, 126 students in grades 2-5 were asked 6 questions about elapsed time. The main reason found for difficulty with elapsed time is children's inability to coordinate hierarchical units (hours and minutes). The educational implications drawn are that students must be encouraged to think about…

Piaget (1971) made a distinction between intuitive (preoperational) time and operational (logico-mathematical) time. According to Piaget, operational time develops around 7-8 years of age and is characterized by children's ability to deduce, for example, that if A was born before B, A will always be older than B. When time is still intuitive,…

Preschool teachers use the domino effect--standing dominos on end in rows and pushing one over--to examine how play contributes to children's acquisition of knowledge. Using diagrams, photos, and vignettes of children between the ages of 3 and 5 years, the authors demonstrate how children at different stages of development use physical knowledge…

To find out if children could make functions before age 4, 73 children aged 1 to 4 were encouraged to imitate the use of a lever to make a beanbag fly up. Functions are mental relationships that preoperational children can make between 2 things at a time in a unidirectional way (Piaget, Grize, Szeminska, & Bang, 1968/1977). The child's…

The purpose of this study was to investigate children's construction of 10s out of the 1s they have already constructed. It was found that, for many younger children, a dime was something different from 10 pennies even though they could say with confidence that a dime was worth 10 cents. As the children grew older, their performance improved.…

A Piagetian perspective is used to build a rationale to explain why group games are good for young children. Three major areas in which group games might foster children's development are discussed. In the socioemotional area, the rationale is that moral development, personality development, and autonomy are enhanced by the social context of peer…

An outline for Piaget-based early childhood education curricula is presented. Long term objectives of the curriculum are the facilitation of moral and social growth, and intellectual development leading to formal operational functioning. Education is seen as a process that encourages creative and critical thinking. Short-term objectives are listed…

In this paper it is shown that one's conception of intelligence and its development profoundly affects the formulation of educational objectives. A mechanistic conception of intelligence leads to the definition of objectives as a collection of fragmented "cognitive skills" that have little to do with children's development of intelligence. A…

A Piagetian preschool emphasizes the child's active construction of mental images rather than passive association of words and pictures with real objects. The role of the teacher is neither to dictate good behavior nor to transmit ready-made predigested knowledge. Her role is to help the child to control his own behavior and to find things out as…

An interview taped in 1978 with Constance Kamii, a child development researcher who studied Piagetian theory at the University of Geneva, is presented in this document. When asked what teachers of young children should keep in mind, Dr. Kamii talked about teaching to the child's level and cautioned against dealing with symbolic materials, advising…

Education is not a respected profession because educational practice is not based on a solid body of scientific research and theory. Education is at a prescientific or early scientific stage of development. Attempts by educators to base their practice on behavioral science fail because behaviorism encompasses only a narrow segment of human…

Based on Piaget's theory, this book discusses the educational value of group games for the young child's social and intellectual development, suggesting ways to select or modify both new and familiar games to make them more appropriate for children's learning. Part 1 of the book provides a theoretical introduction to what is meant by good group…

Fifty 1-to 3-year-olds were asked to imitate: (1) the rolling of a cylinder down an incline and (2) the making of an incline with a board and a block. Their incorrect imitations and progress were videotaped and analyzed, and interpreted in light of Piaget's theory about the elaboration of logico-mathematical relationships in an interrelated way.…

Discusses how one's conception of intelligence and its development profoundly affects the formulation of educational objectives. A mechanistic conception of intelligence leads to the definition of objectives as a collection of fragmented "cognitive skills", while a Piagetian conception attempts to develop children's intelligence as an…