Critique Paper on Cognitive Theory in Human Development

The theory chosen by the group to critique is the Cognitive development and learning theory. Cognitive development is concerned with the internal processes involved in making sense of the environment, and deciding which action might be appropriate. It is associated with acquiring knowledge and it involves attention, learning, memory, perception, language, problem solving, reasoning, and thinking. The critique looked at is Constructivism, the stages of development, including their strengths and weaknesses, and other perspectives on cognitive development.
Jean Piaget was a philosopher from Switzerland. He was also a natural scientist that was famous for the work that he did in studying cognitive development and learning theories encompassed in his view of "genetic epistemology". He was primarily interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms. Cognitive structuring of the knowledge was fundamental in his theory. Piaget's theory of Constructivism argues that people produce knowledge and form meaning based upon their experiences. Piaget's theory covered learning theories, teaching methods, and education reform. Two of the key components which create the construction of an individual’s new knowledge are accommodation and assimilation. Assimilating causes an individual to incorporate new experiences into the old experiences. This causes the individual to develop new outlooks, rethink what were once misunderstandings, and evaluate what is important, ultimately altering their perceptions. Accommodation, on the other hand, is reframing the world and new experiences into the mental capacity already present. Individuals conceive a particular fashion in which the world operates. When things do not operate within that context, they must accommodate and reframing the expectations with the outcomes.

From a Piagetian viewpoint, a child’s thinking develops as gradual growth of knowledge and intellectual skills towards a final stage of formal, logical thinking.