Session 6

• Mathematics
• Foundation Degree

Element 2 - Supporting Education 

Remote session 

[e-mail] 

ZE30801 

T - Level in Education & Early Years 

Session 6 

Learning Objectives 

All learners will be able to:

1. Recap Piaget's cognitive development theory. 
2. Explain Piaget's schematic development (schema's).
3. Describe the importance of moral development.
4. Complete the google classroom task to aid a summary of your understanding of Piaget's theory. 

Supportive resources have been added to google classroom.

Your online learning task allocation 

For your online learning, you will work through this powerpoint. 

There are a series of questions and tasks for you to complete on the google document assignment set for you all on google classroom. You must submit this document on google classroom by 4pm today to demonstrate your engagement in this session.

Slides highlighted in blue should prompt you to refer to your work sheet. 

House rules: 

• No copy and pasted information. 
• Wider reading and use of internet is advised to inform your knowledge. 
• Use session 3 to recap information on cognitive development. 

Connect (recap)

4 stages of cognitive development

2 sessions ago we looked at Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development. 

During the sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2) infants refine motor skills and engage in sensory exploration, forming early concepts like object permanence through active interaction with their surroundings.

Piaget’s second stage is the preoperational stage (2 and 7 years). At the beginning of this stage, the child does not use operations (a set of logical rules), so thinking is influenced by how things look or appear to them rather than logical reasoning.

By the beginning of the concrete operational stage, (7 -11 yrs the child can use operations (a set of logical rules) so they can conserve quantities, realise that people see the world in a different way.

Children still have difficulties with abstract thinking.

During the formal operational stage ( age 12 +), adolescents develop the ability to think abstractly.

They can solve problems and find solutions. 

They can relate to the experiences of others.

This is also known as deductive reasoning. 

Applying your knowledge - Respond on google Docs

Jean Piaget proposed that children move through four stages of cognitive development as they grow.

a) Identify and describe the four stages of cognitive development proposed by Piaget.

b) Explain how a practitioner could support a child’s learning during the preoperational stage of development within an early years setting. Use one example to support your answer.

Why is Piaget's theory relevant?

Piaget refined his theory to focus on how children construct knowledge about the environment around them.It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.

The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think.

To Piaget, cognitive development was about the development of mental processes.

Creating active learners who are developing in accordance to the type of experiences they are having.

Piaget's Schematic Development

Piaget came to the conclusion that all children will resemble some patterns in their behaviour and the way they 'think' & 'understand'. 

This helps them come to a reasoned conclusion about the world around them. 

For example: A child may develop a schema that all trousers are blue, simply because their trousers are blue. 

While schemas are a constant feature of each stage of cognitive development, they change in content and sophistication, just as the stages do.

What is schematic development?

Respond on google Docs

Schematic development in early years supports the curiosity approach and helps forms cognitive development using different learning styles. 

Schematic development is also known as a schema. 

A schema is a learnt behaviour. 

Transporting schema

Trajectory schema

Containing schema

Enveloping schema

Connecting schema

Transforming schema

Research the behaviours children will present for each schema listed.

Piaget's Moral Development

Worksheet response

Respond on google Docs

Part 1

Explain how practitioners / primary teachers working with children and young people can support and help develop Moral development in line with Piaget's theory.

Part 2 

Read the journal on google classroom called "Application of Piaget's theory in early childhood education curriculum development (2025)"

You must summarise and discuss key information stated in this journal in relation to supporting effective development for children.