Jean Piaget Argued That When Children of Certain Ages Watch Water Being Poured from a Short, Wide Container Into a Tall, Thin Container, They Think That the Amount of Water Has Changed. Discuss with Reference to Research Evidence.

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Jean Piaget argued that when children of certain ages watch water being poured from a short, wide container into a tall, thin container, they think that the amount of water has changed. Discuss with reference to research evidence. Jean Piaget started his career as a Biologist and initially was not interested in child development. He was however, interested in the nature of knowledge and how it is a form of adaptation in response to the environment. Within this essay I will discuss the results of Jean Piaget’s conservation experiments regarding children's cognitive development. His studies explore how children of varying ages understand the world around them in relation to Volume, mass, number and points of view. Conservation refers to the understanding that a quantity remains the same even if its presentation is changed. I will also explore alternative studies designed to challenge Piaget’s ideas and offer alternative theories about the responses given by the children observed. Piaget saw children as active agents in developing their own knowledge, not merely absorbing and storing information handed to them at school or at home. Children process information to expand their understanding of the world around them; they do not simply store information to be used at another time. Genetic Epistemology is a term created by Piaget which refers to the study of the origins and development of knowledge and this is how he described his studies. A child’s knowledge is used to create mental representations of their environment and Piaget believed that cognitive development is a gradual process that continually builds on previous knowledge and experiences. It is implied that there is a specific turning point between each stage of Piagetian theory in which one stage ends and the next begins, however, it is simply a sequence that children progress through as they
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