Cognitivism

Cognitivism
The cognitivist replaced behaviorism in 1960. Cognitivism concentrate on the internal mental activities, opening the mind is necessary to understand how people can learn. Knowledge can be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions. So, cognition is defined as the act or process of knowing in the biggest sense, specifically an intellectual process by wich knowledge is gained fromperception or ideas Also, cognition refers to mental activity such as think, remember, learn, and use language.
Are two main schools of cognitive learning psychology: the information processing approach, growing from the work in computer science on artificial intelligence, and the cognitive constructivism that attempts to provide understanding of learning through accounts that relate theindividual learner with their schemata.
Genetic Epistemology
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget conducted a program naturalistic research that has profoundly affected our understanding of child development. This theoretical framework was called “genetic epistemology”, because he was interested in how knowledge development in human organism. Piaget defined himself as a constructivist. He believed that whatdistinguishes human from others animals are our ability to do “abstract symbolic reasoning”.
Process of Cognitive Development
Piaget said that the people born with schemes, tendency to organize their thinking progress, which at birth he called reflexes. The structures change through the processes of adaptation: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the interpretation of events interms of existing cognitive structures and accommodation refers to changing the cognitive structure to make sense of environment.
In trying to adapt to the environment the following can occur:
Assimilation: Trying to understand something new by fitting it into what already know.
Accommodation: Is the change of existing schemes to respond to a new situation.
Equilibration: Is the complex act ofsearching for the balance in organizing, assimilating, and accommodating and in this stage the disequilibrium motivates us to search for a solution through assimilation or accommodation.

Stages of Cognitive Development
Here we are four primary cognitive structures according to Piaget: sensoriomotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations.
The sensoriomotor stage: (infancy0-2 years approx.) In this period intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity, it includes seeing, hearing, moving, touching, and tasting. Some symbolic abilities (language) are developed at the end of this stage.
The preoperational stage: (toddler and early childhood 2-7 years approx.) The intelligence is demonstrated by the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory andimagination are developed. In this stage thinking is done in a non-logical non reversible manner and predominates the egocentric thinking of the children.
Concrete operational stage: (elementary an early adolescence 7-11 years approx.) In this period intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects.
The student’s ability to solveconservation problems depends on an understanding three basic aspects of reasoning: identity, compensation and reversibility.
Formal operational stage: (adolescence and adulthood 11- on.) The intelligence in this stage is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. Characteristics of formal operations include: hypothetic-deductive reasoning, propositional reasoning andcombinational reasoning.
Constructivism
Is a philosophy of learning originated on the premise that by reflecting our experiences we construct our own understanding of the word we live in.
The four several guiding principles of constructivism:
1. Learning is a search for meaning.
2. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts.
3. In order to teach well.
4. The purpose of...