Jean Piaget
1896-1980
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Piaget was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, studied at the University of Neuchatel, worked as chairs at the International Bureau of Education, the International Center for Genetic Epistemology, and many other places. He is recognised as one of the worldwide foremost leaders in the understanding of Intellectual and Cognitive Development. |
From the rationalist perspective, Piaget studied the development of cognitive processes in childhood and identified four stages of development as a child grows. His theory described intelligence as a product of the interaction between the person and the environment, and intellectual development as a structuring and restructuring process of assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. He asserted that learning was an individualized, concrete and self-directed reasoning process for discovering knowleged. Therefore, he opposed teacher-centered instruction and inspired child-centered education and espoused activity-based discovery learning.
Other resources:
http://www.unige.ch/piaget/biog.html
http://129.7.160.115/inst5931/piaget1.html