Piaget Reflective Journal
Piaget’s theory in ‘Where are we going, Dad?’ programme
Recently, a Chinese reality show of Hunan Television, ‘Where are we going, Dad? Season 2’ has taken Mainland by storm. The programme mainly focus on five male celebrities and their children as they travel to different rural places in China or even overseas. They are Francis Ng and six years old son, Feynman; Huang Lei and eight years old daughter, Christine; Lu Yi and five years old daughter, Belle; Gary Chaw and six years old son, Joe, four years old daughter, Grace; Yang Wei and four years old son, Yang YangYang.
According to the Piaget’s theory, children’s’ cognitive development has divided into four stages, including sensorimotor development, preoperational development, concrete operational development and formal operational development. As most of the children are at the age of 4 to 6, I would like to mainly focus on preoperational stage.
Animism has been shown in episode 6. The children face a mission in a group of two. Fathers stay in the control room, try to disguise their voice as a piggy and mimic the way human speak in order to induce their children open the fence for the piggy. Apart from Christine, all the children truly believe the piggy can speak. This feature which children demonstrate is animism. Animism means non-human entities have human feeling and intentions (McLeod, 2010). Since Christine is an eight years old kid, she is undergoing the concrete operational. With the understanding of animism, she can quickly discover the fact that someone is disguising as piggy. However, other kids are undergoing the preoperational stage, they hold a belief that the piggy are similar with them, having the same thought or even action as they do.
Although Piaget’s theory has enormous influences on cognitive development, doubts occur while I am watching the show.
In episode 2, the siblings, Joe and Grace, face conflict on the issue of having toys after the mission in wet market. Joe and Grace stare at
Recently, a Chinese reality show of Hunan Television, ‘Where are we going, Dad? Season 2’ has taken Mainland by storm. The programme mainly focus on five male celebrities and their children as they travel to different rural places in China or even overseas. They are Francis Ng and six years old son, Feynman; Huang Lei and eight years old daughter, Christine; Lu Yi and five years old daughter, Belle; Gary Chaw and six years old son, Joe, four years old daughter, Grace; Yang Wei and four years old son, Yang YangYang.
According to the Piaget’s theory, children’s’ cognitive development has divided into four stages, including sensorimotor development, preoperational development, concrete operational development and formal operational development. As most of the children are at the age of 4 to 6, I would like to mainly focus on preoperational stage.
Animism has been shown in episode 6. The children face a mission in a group of two. Fathers stay in the control room, try to disguise their voice as a piggy and mimic the way human speak in order to induce their children open the fence for the piggy. Apart from Christine, all the children truly believe the piggy can speak. This feature which children demonstrate is animism. Animism means non-human entities have human feeling and intentions (McLeod, 2010). Since Christine is an eight years old kid, she is undergoing the concrete operational. With the understanding of animism, she can quickly discover the fact that someone is disguising as piggy. However, other kids are undergoing the preoperational stage, they hold a belief that the piggy are similar with them, having the same thought or even action as they do.
Although Piaget’s theory has enormous influences on cognitive development, doubts occur while I am watching the show.
In episode 2, the siblings, Joe and Grace, face conflict on the issue of having toys after the mission in wet market. Joe and Grace stare at
References: Marc H. & Michael E. (2011). Cognitive Development: An Advanced Textbook. New York: Psychology Press McLeod, S. A. (2010). Preoperational Stage. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/preoperational.html McLeod, S. A. (2012). Jean Piaget. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html McLeod, S. A. (2014). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html