Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

Jean Piaget 191
teaching and learning practices that encouraged children’s active participation in their acquisition
of knowledge and learning.
Jean Piaget’s research into the reasoning of elementary school children was a milestone in education
research. His theories of learning and knowing influenced the traditional education model
that fostered the “banking concept of education” (Freire, 1921–1997), minimized student’s creativity,
and undermined teacher–student partnership (which perpetuated teacher–student distance
in the classroom). The traditional model of education is grounded in passive learning and “storing
knowledge” ideology, which prescribes a teacher’s role as knowledge giver and a student as a
receiver of knowledge. The teacher-centered traditional classroom discourses follow norms of
obedience and constraints. In this environment children are treated as objects not capable of
constructing knowledge on their own. In such a context, a teacher is the only person respected
in the classroom. In the traditional education model, learning takes place in an environment of
constraint and in the absence of mutual respect. In the context of learning, teaching, schooling,
and adult–child relationships, Piaget advocated for mutual respect and a constraint-free learning
environment. Piaget (1932) studied adult–child relationships that were based on constraints in
which adults exercised their power and children played a subordinate role. According to Piaget,
children did not attain higher levels of understanding of concepts in an adult- or teacher-centered
classroom. Consequently, children do not learn in an oppressive learning situation.
BIOGRAPHY
Jean Piaget was born on August 9, 1896, in Neuchatel, Switzerland, in an educated family.
Although, as a child, Piaget was interested in biology, later in his life he became interested in
philosophy and the application of logic. In 1918, he received his PhD in science. After receiving the
PhD he renewed his interest in psychology and studied techniques of psychoanalysis. He worked
for a year in psychology laboratories and psychiatric clinics. In 1919 he became interested in
intelligence testing and became involved in developing intelligence tests with Binet and Simon.
During the 1920s, intelligence testing was a new field. The goal of intelligence testing was to set
performance standards for young children by testing them and comparing their test results. Piaget
was employed by Binet and Simon to administer tests. During this intelligence testing work, Piaget
developed an interest in children’s reasoning and thinking strategies. While administering tests he
observed children’s behavior and concentrated on their logic of thinking, their reasoning abilities
rather than their test scores. Piaget regarded intelligence as biological adaptation that occurred
at different stages of a child’s life by assimilation of objects in children’s thought processes.
Children used their reasoning power to adapt objects and situations in their environment. In
1921 he published his first article about the psychology of intelligence. His interest in children’s
thinking strategies led him to work with elementary school children.
To study children’s ways of reasoning and ways of knowing, Piaget developed a clinical method
that is a fluid way of interviewing children. Piaget investigated the development of children’s
reasoning power by interacting with them and asking questions. His interview questions were
not rigid or structured. The answer to each question determined the nature of the next question.
His research method involved both observations and interactions. While studying children he
interacted with them, pushing them to his desired interest direction. Thus, Piaget developed the
ethnographic qualitative research methodology, which is currently the most popular research
method among education researchers.
After his marriage to Valentine in 1923, and the birth of three children, his children became
the subject of his research. He wrote three books on the observation of his own children. Before
Piaget’s study with children, there was not much known about children’s thinking. The common
belief was that children were not capable of thinking strategies and could not make a connection