The World Before
In the 19th century all the way to the early 20th century, schools grew in popularity (especially after the “baby boom” occurring around the 50s after the second world war). Since there were many children, the lessons were programmed, meant to leave no child behind. In other words, all the children were expected to achieve a certain level of literacy and numeracy by following only one curriculum. The lessons were teacher-centric; students were expected to be as quiet and motionless as possible, because that was considered to be a sign of attentiveness, of respect. They were taught to memorize, being conditioned to process information as they were taught (usually through nursery rhymes for younger children). The curriculum was focused on the 3R’s (reading, writing, arithmetic) and the most prevalent teaching method was through a blackboard and a chalk.
Discipline was also much more stricter, resulting in not only detention or suspension, but also lashings. This was considered normal. An 1883 document by the Board of Education in Franklin, Ohio even provided regulations for the lashings, stating that, “Whenever it shall become necessary for teachers to resort to corporal punishment, the same shall not be inflicted upon head or hands of the pupil.” ("The 1950s Education")
Children were believed to be smaller, less intelligent versions of adults; an empty vessel to be conditioned with new knowledge.
But first....
Let's Take a Look at The Man Himself
Jean Piaget, born on the 9th of August 1896 in Switzerland, is most well-known for his work in developmental psychology, becoming a benchmark figure in the world of contemporary behavioral science. Piaget became a pioneer in educational psychology after introducing his Cognitive Development Theory, in which he formed 4 stages that provide a comprehensive look at the acquisition of knowledge and the nature of human intelligence. (Mooney)
Jean Piaget
"What we see changes
what we know. What we know changes what we see."
His Creative Process
It all started when he did a job at the Binet Institute standardizing the French version of an intelligence test. During this job, he noticed that children who are within the same age range would give similar wrong answers to logical thinking questions, leading him to wonder how their thought process worked. Unlike most others at his time, instead of asking what these children know, he wonders how they know it. Prior to his theory, most believed that children were merely mini adults, passive beings that acquire knowledge when someone else passed it on to them. But Piaget believed that to understand children, one must see things from their perspective. He saw that children see the world differently, constructing their own understanding by building their knowledge according to their own experiences. People at the time believed that the acquisition of knowledge is either intrinsic or extrinsic, but Piaget believed that children learn through their environment, constructing thoughts by giving meaning to things. He believed that curiosity motivates children to learn, and from there they will learn to perceive and adapt. This research shaped a new approach to childhood education; one that is more suited towards the behavioral science of children, making the acquisition of knowledge more efficient. (Mooney)
A Brief Look
Before We Dive Into The Deep End
Piaget’s theory circulates around how knowledge is best acquired through perception and action, leading to subsequent motivation. When a student is merely taught codified abstractions that are not applicable to their own life, their motivation dwindles; this knowledge is not useful to them. Piaget recognizes that cognition is developed through perception and action, as this provides the learner with a permanent basis to the knowledge from associating it with their own experiences. This means that an understanding of basic concepts, in which the students actively build their own insight, is more efficient than programmed learning that instructs the student what to do, as this prevents the student from reverting back to primitive ideas due to a lack of foundation.
(Demetrio, Andreas, et al.)
