Jean Piaget essays

Jean Piaget essays Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist famous for his pioneering studies of the development of thought processes, particularly in children. He is generally considered to be one of the most important figures in modern developmental psychology and his work has had a great influence on educational theory and child psychology. He received many international honors for his work, including seven scientific prizes and 25 honorary Piaget was born on 9 August 1896 in Neuchtel, Switzerland. He published his first scientific article about an albino sparrow when he was only 10 years old, and by the age of 15 he had gained an international reputation for his work on molluscs. Subsequently he studied at the universities of Neuchtel, Zurich and Paris, obtaining his doctorate from Neuchtel in 1918. His interest then turned to psychology and he spent two years at the Sorbonne researching into the reasons why children fail intelligence tests. The results of this research gained him the directorship of the Institut J.J. Rousseau in Geneva in 1921. During his subsequent career Piaget held many academic positions, some of which were concurrent. He was Professor of Philosophy at Neuchtel from 1926 to 1929; Professor of Child Psychology and History of Scientific Thought at Geneva University from 1929 to 1939; Director of the Institut Universitaire des Sciences de l'Education in Geneva from 1933 to 1971; Professor of Psychology and Sociology at Lausanne University from 1938 to 1951; Professor of Sociology (1938 to 1952) and of Experimental Psychology (1940 to 1971) at Geneva University; Professor of Genetic Psychology at the Sorbonne from 1952 to 1963; and Director of the International Bureau of Education in Geneva from 1929 to 1967. In 1955, with the help of the...