made popular a theory which took into consideration the contribution of the learner
and her internal processing mechanisms to the acquisition of knowledge, which had
been proposed by Piaget.
1.1.2 The theory of Piaget
Piaget does not share the behaviourist assumption that learning is a
mechanical process which is external to the learner. Rather, he introduces a
constructivist model which, as Wood (1988: 5) stresses, ‘…places action and selfdirected problem-solving at the heart of learning and development.’ Thus, according
to Piaget (1951), children actively construct their knowledge by acting upon subjects
in space and time. Every new knowledge that the child internalizes as a result of
experience creates or modifies, as Βαρνάβα-Σκούρα (1994: 17) explains, the
cognitive ‘schemes’ which the child utilizes in order to perceive the world around
them. Two notions are crucial in this process, referred to by Piaget as ‘assimilation’
and ‘accommodation’.
According to Shorrocks (1997: 263), Piaget uses the term ‘assimilation’ to
describe the process where a new object can be integrated into a pre-existed ‘scheme’
which had been created by previous experiences. Thus, what a child already knows
influences the way she perceives something new. Moreover, as this new knowledge
fits into the pre-existing ‘scheme’, it extends it a little, giving the child the ability to
see and recognize yet more possibilities in the world next time. This, as Wood (1988:
39) stresses, requires adaptations, usually minor ones, to the pre-existing scheme in
order for the new knowledge to be assimilated, a process referred to by Piaget as
‘accommodation’. Shorrocks (1997: 262-263) stresses that assimilation and
accommodation are two complementary processes which give organization to our
ever-growing knowledge and understanding. However, when experience leads the
child to modifications of her existing ‘scheme’ which are wide-ranging and
revolutionary, Piaget (as referred in Shorrocks 1997: 263) claims that new, more
advanced forms of thinking emerge. Thus, as Wood (1988: 37-38) comments, for
Piaget development is not simply the continuous accumulation of things learnt step by
step. Rather, it involves a number of intellectual ‘revolutions’ at specific junctures in
the life cycle, each one of which involves important changes in the structure of
intelligence. Each stage yields a different way of thinking about and understanding
the world to that it grows out and replaces. This led Piaget to claim that children do
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