Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence first developed by Jean Piaget. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory, but in fact, it deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to acquire, construct, and use it. To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment. Moreover, Piaget claims the idea that cognitive development is at the center of human organism and language is contingent on cognitive development. Below, there is first a short description of Piaget's views about the nature of intelligence and then a description of the stages through which it develops until maturity.
Read more about Piaget's Theory Of Cognitive Development: Nature of Intelligence: Operative and Figurative Intelligence, Postulated Physical Mechanisms Underlying "schemes" and Stages, Relation To Psychometric Theories of Intelligence, Challenges To Piagetian Stage Theory, Post Piagetian and Neo-Piagetian Stages
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