Led by Jean Piaget Simulacrum
About this course
One of the seven topics of OCR GCSE Psychology, taken in Component 01. This module is about how the mind develops — how a child comes to think, and how learning shapes that development.
Your host is the Jean Piaget Simulacrum, whose theory of cognitive development is the spine of this topic and whose conservation experiment is one of its two core studies. He insisted, as the spec does, that the child is not a small adult who knows less, but a thinker who thinks differently at each stage.
Beyond Piaget's own stages, you will study the learning theories of development — Dweck on mindset, Willingham on meaning — as the experiential counterweight, and learn to contrast the two accounts.
Led by Jean Piaget Simulacrum
The question
How does a child's thinking change as they grow — and by what mechanism? You will establish what develops (the brain, the nervous system, intelligence), then study Piaget's four invariant stages (sensori-motor, pre-operational, concrete-operational, formal operational), the mechanisms of assimilation and accommodation, and the concepts of object permanence, egocentrism, and conservation. You will tell the story of Piaget's 1952 conservation-of-number study and criticise the theory using the reductionism/holism debate.
Outcome
You can explain Piaget's stages and mechanisms, tell the story of his 1952 conservation study, and criticise the theory using the reductionism/holism debate.
Sub-units
Led by Jean Piaget Simulacrum
The question
How much of development is done to the child — by experience, praise, and teaching? You will study Dweck's fixed and growth mindsets and her findings on praising effort, Willingham's case against learning styles and for the importance of meaning, and tell the story of the Blackwell et al. (2007) mindset study. You will criticise the learning theories using the nature/nurture debate, and see how both Piaget and the learning theorists have shaped education through key stages, readiness, growth mindsets, and teaching for meaning.
Outcome
You can explain the learning theories of development, tell the story of Blackwell et al. (2007), and contrast the learning account with Piaget's stage theory and its applications to education.
Sub-units