Hi I'm a Alevel psychology student and was wondering if you knew of any practical applications in education of Piaget's theory as there is a slight gap in my revision about this. Thankyou

-- Sarah Dalton (sarahslug@hotmail.com), May 26, 2002

Answers

Hi Sarah, my answer probably is over simple, but don't ask kids to do things they can't. Example, the parent that tells the little boy he has five min. to put his clothes on in the morning. Does the child have a sense of time? Better to have a clock with hands in the child's room, and then command, when this hand points to this number have your clothes on. Hope this helps. Best, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), May 26, 2002.

Similarly, design education in modes that the child is prepared to understand. If you're designing elementary classroom curricula, writing children's textbooks or story books, designing Sunday School curricula, and even the variety of motor-oriented toys available from Mattell and other toy-makers--the smart designers keep in mind the child's cognitive developmental level.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), May 26, 2002.

Hi Sarah, As supplement to the sense of time for kids, a 1-2 year old kid has the sense of "here and now". Implication for caretaker: if a kid want a candy now, the caretaker want to delay the desire by saying rewarding her 2 or more later is useless. Rather they can switch their attention to some other surprises. Instead of informing the child when and what they need to do by ..o'clock, it's better to inform them by event like saying " you will be given candy when you have finished taken a bath/the milk.." Another issue would be the problem of egocentricism. Expecting a kid to share toys with others or to do group work is unrealistic in the play group although we still have to teach them.

-- ELise Mak (myh@sfc-plk.edu.hk), June 03, 2002.