Making Sense of Piaget


Book Description

This book was first published in 1983. This book is intended to introduce students of child development to the underlying philosophical orientation of Piaget's theory. Without some grasp of this the theory cannot properly be understood. The book does not presuppose a previous knowledge of philosophy but aims to introduce the central issues in simple terms which will help the reader to see what is at issue.




Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic


Book Description

In this fully revised second edition of the classic Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic, Constance Kamii describes and develops an innovative program of teaching arithmetic in the early elementary grades. Kamii bases her educational strategies on renowned constructivist Jean Piaget's scientific ideas of how children develop logico-mathematical thinking. Written in collaboration with a classroom teacher, and premised upon the conviction that children are capable of much more than teachers and parents generally realize, the book provides a rich theoretical foundation and a compelling explanation of educational goals and objectives. Kamii calls attention to the ways in which traditional textbook-based teaching can be harmful to children’s development of numerical reasoning, and uses extensive research and classroom-tested studies to illuminate the efficacy of the approach. This book is full of practical suggestions and developmentally appropriate activities that can be used to stimulate numerical thinking among students of varying abilities and learning styles, both within and outside of the classroom. “In this new edition of her important book, Connie Kamii demonstrates scholarship not just in what she has written, but in her willingness to incorporate new ideas and findings. Many people update their books; few assiduously revise them, confronting what they believe to be past errors or gaps in their thinking. Such intellectual honesty, along with consistent connections between theory and practice, make this book a solid contribution to mathematics education of young children.” —Douglas Clements, State University of New York at Buffalo “The development of young children’s logico-mathematical knowledge is at the heart of this text. Similar to the first edition, this revision provides a rich theoretical foundation as well as child-centered activities and principles of teaching that support problem solving, communicating, reasoning, making connections, and representing mathematical ideas. In this great resource for preservice and in-service elementary teachers, Professor Kamii continues to help us understand the implications of Piagetian theory.” —Frances R. Curcio, New York University




Piaget and His School


Book Description

Inhelder in her introduction. The reason for this unity is that explanatory adequacy can be attained only by exploring the formative and constructive aspects of development. To explain a psychologic reaction or a cognitive mechanism (at all levels, including that of scientific thought) is not simply to describe them, but to comprehend the processes by which they were formed; failing that, one can but note results without grasping their meaning. JEAN PlACET VI Man distinguishes himself from other creatures primarily by his abstract reasoning capacity and his ability to communicate his knowledge by highly complex symbolic processes. What is called "humanity" and progress is to a large degree a measure of his consciousness and the deployment of his creative potentials. There are few scientists who have explored the universe of cogni tion, and contributed to the understanding of the realm of knowledge, with greater genius, care, and scientific intuition than Jean Piaget and his longtime collaborator Barbel Inhelder. Professor Inhelder and her assistant Dr. Harold Chipman realized this book in spite of the heavy load of research, teaching, and administra tive duties in a rapidly expanding Institute. It is therefore a particular pleasure for me to presen t this book.




Making Sense of Beliefs and Values


Book Description

Social psychologists have studied beliefs and values, and related constructs such as "attitudes" and "prejudice" for decades. But as this innovative and interdisciplinary book convincingly demonstrates, the scientific examination of beliefs and values now influences research and practice across a range of disciplines. Specifically, this edited volume explores the many cutting edge implications and applications of Equilintegration or EI Theory and the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI). Grounded in twenty years of research and practice, EI Theory seeks to explain the processes by which beliefs, values, and worldviews are acquired and maintained, why their alteration is resisted, and under what circumstances they are modified. Based upon EI Theory, the BEVI is a comprehensive analytic tool which examines how and why we come to see ourselves, others, and the larger world as we do as well as the influence of such processes on multiple aspects of human functioning. Edited by the developer of the EI model and BEVI method, and informed by contributions from leading U.S. and international scholars, this book features captivating research findings and pioneering practice applications. Research-focused chapters explain how the EI model and BEVI method increase our conceptual sophistication and methodological capacity across a range of areas: Culture, Development, Environment, Gender, Personality, Politics, and Religion. Practice-oriented chapters demonstrate how the BEVI is used in the real world across a range of applied domains: Assessment, Education, Forensics, Leadership, and Psychotherapy. Written in an accessible and engaging manner, this fascinating and timely volume speaks to many of the most pressing issues of our day, by illuminating why we believe what we believe, and demonstrating how our beliefs and values may be assessed, explained, and transformed in the real world. Key Features: Presents an interdisciplinary theoretical model and innovative assessment method derived from two decades of work on the etiology, maintenance, and transformation of beliefs and values Features contributions from leading scholars from the U.S. and internationally, demonstrating the many implications and applications of this cutting edge approach for research and practice Demonstrates the importance of "making sense of beliefs and values" in addressing many of the most pressing issues of our day




The Eye of Spirit


Book Description

One of the most influential American philosophers of our time presents his vision for a fully integrated world—a world that includes body, mind, soul, and spirit In this groundbreaking book, Ken Wilber uses his widely acknowledged “spectrum of consciousness” model to completely rewrite our approach to such important fields as psychology, spirituality, anthropology, cultural studies, art and literary theory, ecology, feminism, and planetary transformation. What would each of those fields look like if we wholeheartedly accepted the existence of not just body and mind but also soul and spirit? In a stunning display of integrative embrace, Wilber weaves these various fragments together into a coherent and compelling vision for the modern and postmodern world.




Piaget's Theory


Book Description

This volume marks the 20th Anniversary Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society. Some of the American contributors were among the first to introduce Piaget to developmental and educational psychology in the United States, while some of the international contributors worked with Piaget to develop his program of genetic epistemology and continue to make significant contributions to it. Within this volume the possibility of Piaget's paradigm is reviewed not only as the stuff of normal science, yielding fascinating empirical questions that linger within it, but also, and more importantly, as the stuff of revolutionary science, with continuing potential to comprehensively structure our thinking about developmental theory. The constructive contribution Piaget's theory has for developmental theory emerges as four central themes in the volume: understanding the intentional or semantic aspect of mental life without abandoning the Piagetian assumption that is rational and committed to truth testing; examining mental life and its development as a dialectical relation of function and structure--a relation Piaget introduced in his study of the developmental relation between procedural and operational knowledge; exploring new and interdisciplinary perspectives on equilibration as the driving force of constructive adaptive processes; understanding social and historical forces in individual and cultural development--not necessarily as forces antithetical to Piaget's perspective but as forces that take on new meaning within his framework which avoids erroneous dichotomies such as the distinction between subjective and objective knowledge.




The Development of Children’s Thinking


Book Description

The Development of Children’s Thinking offers undergraduate and graduate students in psychology and other disciplines an introduction to several core areas of developmental psychology. It examines recent empirical research within the context of longstanding theoretical debates. In particular, it shows how a grasp of classic theories within developmental psychology is vital for a grasp of new areas of research such as cognitive neuroscience that have impacted on our understanding of how children develop. The focus of this book will be on infancy and childhood, and it looks at: Theories and context of development How developmental psychology attempts to reconcile influences of nature and nurture Communication in infancy as a precursor to later thinking Language development in primates and young children Cognitive and social development, including the child’s understanding of the mind How studies of moral reasoning reflect upon our understanding of development




Thinking Goes to School


Book Description

Proposes to show how children can be prepared to develop their full potential as 'thinking' human beings. The activities or 'games' described provide a general foundation which should help the child to deal successfully with specific academic subjects. With Additional Thoughts.




Piaget's Theory


Book Description

This book was first published in 1979. The authors' examinePiaget’s Theory starting by considering and commenting on the kinds of question one must ask of a scientific theory. None of the questions demands an absolute answer. Theories are judged in some respects with reference to competing theories. In other respects they are judged against our sense of scientific progress. In subsequent chapters the authors’ look at Piaget's theory in detail with such issues in mind. They also endeavour to locate Piaget's theory in the context of other views of intellectual development. In that section we focus on the issue we first nominated, that is the problem of making choices about the kinds of question to ask and the kinds of data to select.




Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology for Mathematics Education Research


Book Description

The book provides an entry point for graduate students and other scholars interested in using the constructs of Piaget’s genetic epistemology in mathematics education research. Constructs comprising genetic epistemology form the basis for some of the most well-developed theoretical frameworks available for characterizing learning, particularly in mathematics. The depth and complexity of Piaget’s work can make it challenging to find adequate entry points for learners, not least because it requires a reorientation regarding the nature of mathematical knowledge itself. This volume gathers leading scholars to help address that challenge. The main section of the book presents key Piagetian constructs for mathematics education research such as schemes and operations, figurative and operative thought, images and meanings, and decentering. The chapters that discuss these constructs include examples from research and address how these constructs can be used in research. There are two chapters on various types of reflective abstraction, because this construct is Piaget’s primary tool for characterizing the advancement of knowledge. The later sections of the book contain commentaries reflecting on the contributions of the body of theory developed in the first section. They connect genetic epistemology to current research domains such as equity and the latest in educational psychology. Finally, the book closes with short chapters portraying how scholars are using these tools in specific arenas of mathematics education research, including in special education, early childhood education, and statistics education.