About this ebook
Jean Piaget, renowned Swiss developmental psychologist and epistemologist, is best known for his groundbreaking studies with children, which led him to develop a landmark theory of cognitive development. Geldolph A. Kohnstammâs Jean Piaget: Children and the Inclusion Problem is a critical study of a cornerstone of Piagetâs theory. This theory holds that a childâs ability to solve problems of class inclusion marks the beginning of the period of concrete (logical) operations at about seven or eight years of age. Kohnstammâs experiments show, however, that with directive teaching methods, most children of five can already learn to solve inclusion problems. His results make him question the basic assumption of Piagetâs theory that logical operations can only develop in firmly connected groupings of operations, not in isolation. The author argues that experimenters must therefore show that children who come to master one kind of operation should also show transference to other operations of the same grouping. As a result, he questions the real existence in brain functioning of the hypothesized groupings of operations in Piagetâs theory. This book is a revised edition of the 1967 original and includes a new introduction and epilogue. The original book was published in the Netherlands, not in the United States. Therefore it has reached only a negligible US audience and has sadly escaped the attention of many interested in Piagetâs developmental theory. This challenge to Piagetâs theory is an invaluable resource for cognitive, developmental, and educational psychologists.
About the author
Geldolph A. Kohnstamm is professor emeritus of psychology at Leiden University. He is the author or editor of numerous volumes, including Temperament in Childhood, The Developing Structure of Temperament from Infancy to Adulthood, Parental Descriptions of Child Personality, and I am I: Sudden Flashes of Self-awareness in Childhood.
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