Piaget's Theory Of Conservation In Child Development

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According to Piaget’s theory in child development, conservation is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes. To be more technical, conservation is the ability to understand that redistributing material does not affect its mass, number, volume or length. In cognitive psychology, the principle that properties of substance such as weight and mass remain the same (are conserved) when superficial characteristics such as their shapes or arrangement are changed (chapter 7- Human Development, 153).
We observed three video clips of Piaget’s theory operational stages in class. In the first clip, we observed the assessment with Zoe, who was five and a haft years old. The assessment was conducted in
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First, she did the liquid conservation test with kindergarten students: Lexie, Daniella, Jen and Angie. The assessment was conducted in the classroom, where there were a lot of school stuffs and other kids coming back and forth. All of the girls answered that the amount of liquid changed when the teacher poured in to the taller glass but they all gave some form of explanations about the changed in the size of glass. The teacher then conducted the Cracker test with four girls when she used one crackers and broke it into two pieces and asked “is this fair if I have two and you have one?” Four of them said that it was not fair that they got one and she got two. When the teacher broke their crackers into two pieces, they said “now it was equal”. By observing their responses, I think the kindergarten girls are level II. Their explanation is not yet logical but they show their 1 to 1 correspondent and their thought processes are also …show more content…
The crackers were not equally divided”. At this age (10-11), children were able to conserve (level III). They gave correct answer to all the questions. They were not swayed by the counter suggestion or were distracted by what’s happening around them. They explained the reasons why they think the liquid remained the same or the number of the cracker were not equally divided.
If I were doing the Piaget’s theory assessment, I would choose to the conservation on area and conduct the test with a 5 year-old kindergarten girl. I would pick up the same amount of play doll, I keep one and give her one. Then I would make a different size of cake and asked her “Do we have the same cake or mine is bigger?” How she answered it would help me to determine the level she was

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