Piaget And The Classroom Teacher 1q1a4x

PIAGET AND THE CLASSROOM TEACHER Jean Piaget needs no introduction to a trained-teacher. Every teacher receives some exposure to the theories of Piaget during his training. However, a classroom teacher does not have a comprehensive knowledge of Piaget, since this would require a commitment in time and effort which is not readily available to the teacher. This makes it incumbent upon the teacher– educator to provide accessibility in the classroom setting. To achieve this effectively, we need to develop a systematic in-service programme which continues and builds upon the pre-service experience. This article hopefully provides some suggestions as to how Piagetion Theory can be made relevant for the classroom teacher. Piaget’s notions of assimilation and accommodation are probably the most commonly known and the most easily interpretive of Piaget‘s theories. The fact that is intrinsic to Piagetion theory and the one that must be reiterated in regard to these two concepts and indeed to the totality of his theory, is that at no point in the child’s intellectual development does Piaget consider the child as the ive recipient in the acquisition of knowledge. His theory rests on the fact that the intellect is active in the development of knowledge. He further contends that it is the acting on the information supplied by the external environment that results in the development of human knowing. The young child in the process of assimilation continually reaches out, touches, and tastes accessible elements in the environment. Piaget categorizes this earliest of stages as the sensorimotor stage in the development of the child. In the process of assimilating external reality, the child gradually moves towards a system of classification. This process of assimilation, however, remains comparatively uninhibited in the early stages of a child‘s life. Later when the child reaches the age of two or three, the process involve contradictions which result in disequilibration in the knowledge previously attained. For example, for very young children, all four-legged animals can be classified as “doggie”. The day arrives when he is informed that a particular four–footed animal is not a dog but a cat or a cow. Some resolutions must be found, a finer differentiation, a new classificatory category to accommodate this new knowledge and to reconcile this information with what was previously assimilated. Thus in Piaget’s Theory? The child seeks equilibration and resolves the problem through a process of accommodation. It is this process that contributes substantially to the development of the child’s intellect. The apparent simplicity of the example cited in regard to young children has applicability at other levels of development. The processes of assimilation, accommodation and equilibration are life – long processes. At the later stages of intellectual development, more sophisticated processes are developed, yet it is this disequilibration that is at the processes are 1

developed, yet it is this disequilibration that is at the heart of intellectual development. The interaction of the human intellect and the environment results in increasingly complicated systems of knowing, and assists the individual in attaining advanced stages of knowledge. These stages called SCHEME (Plural schemes) by Piaget, develop progressively, and although Piaget suggests ages at which they occur, the limits have been determined empirically from numerous investigations in Geneva and elsewhere. According to Piaget, although the age limits are not rigidly delimited, each stage must nevertheless be attained in the proposed sequential order: sensori – motor stage, Pre-operational stage, Concrete operational stage and Formal operational stage. FOUR PERIODS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT PERIODS RANGE Sensorimotor Pre-operational Concrete Operational Formal Operational

APPROXIMATE AGE Birth-1 ½ - 2 years 1- ½ - 2 – 6-7 years 6-7 – 11 – 12 years 11-12- through adulthood.

The ages at which these stages are attained has much to do with the development of the individual child and environmental factors. Some consideration of the Concrete operational stage which includes ages 6 to 12 years appears to have relevance for Primary School teachers. At this stage, the operations of classification and ordination are of great significance. Pupils who manifest difficulties in skills of classification even at the higher grade levels are often lacking in the development of such discrimination which is characteristic of the concrete operational stage of development. The ingenuity required of the teacher in discerning such deficits and in arranging the classroom environment to compensate for such deficits is critical to the development of the Childs intellect. The teacher must not only provide environmental phenomena but also challenge the child to become actively involved in dealing with the environment. Classification at the pre-operational level involves only simplistic actions, placing objects, often tangible objects, into various categories, squares, circles, animals, human beings. This concept of classes is preliminary to the concept of number, there cannot be two dogs or three apples until the classification of objects has been established. Similarly classification precedes ordination, the ordering of objects, there can not be smaller or larger until the object class has been established. Let us consider these operations of classification and ordination as they develop and discuss the processes by which teachers in the classroom can manipulate the environment to provide for the development of pupil’s intellectual abilities. The development of these operations is intrinsic to the acquisition of logical thinking. A primary level child can manipulate objects and divide them into classes. The child can also explain the process by which he has determined their

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classification. The use of photographs or pictures from magazines stimulates some very original groupings by young children in the Kindergarten of first grade. There will probably be a variety of different groupings with children and the rationale for their classifications will be quite enlightening to the teacher. It is important that children at this stage do not look to the teacher for supplying the right answer, but conversely, that the child feels that it is necessary for him to explain the name of the categories to the teacher. Once the child have mastered a system of classification to some degree, the operation of ordering objects from smallest to largest or in the opposite direction becomes a possibility. In talking about or arranging a hierarchical order there may be errors if the problem is complicated but gradually in formal social interaction with peers, the child learns new information and incorporates this information into existing scheme. The more structured rules of sports activities and experiments carried out with specific directions in the classroom lead the child to assimilate some facts but also to modify his views to accommodate the information that cannot be reconciled with existing information. The process of classification during the middle primary grades can be expanded to attain greater discrimination. First of all, the process of classification becomes more flexible since it depends less and less on physical manipulation. The development of language greatly facilities the learning process and classification skills can be used in teaching most subject areas; These skills can be used in grammar to identify parts of speech and to delineate their use in the sentence, they can be used by the child in developing the concept of sets. At the concrete operational stage it is important that the teacher asks questions that bring about a degree of conflict to the customary way of viewing things. Children can be asked to name everything about a child city and then divide these things into categories. The stimulation of class interaction by the teacher in making decisions process the operation of equilibration or self- regulation is characteristic of each construction and each transition from one stage of intellectual development to another. The processes of ordering and classification are thus critical to the development of concepts in science, mathematics and language. Another important characteristic of learning at this stage is the process of reversibility. Piaget and his Geneva colleagues have carried out numerous experiments with the operation which involve reversibility. The question of reversibility has significance for the development of knowledge, especially in mathematics and the sciences. The ability of the pupil to grasp the process of reversibility contributes significantly to more comprehensive learning. The application by teachers of this process in teaching; for example, addition with its converse substraction and multiplication with division, provides the pupil with the opportunity to perceive the process of reversibility. Early experiments by teachers with children in the primary grades in dealing with fractional parts and their relationship to the whole should be systematically incorporated into classroom activities. Such instructions at the early stages of the concrete operational level in the use of manipulative objects can establish the base for later functioning in the understanding of fractions and their combination in different mathematical problems. Piaget’s experiments with compensation of liquids when the shape of the vessel is changed demonstrate the empirical

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responses of children at different stages of intellectual development in response of these phenomena. In discussing Piaget’s theory of conversation, some attention should be directed to his theories of transformation and visual images as they relate to the operation of conversation. At the conference on Congnitive Studies and Curriculum Development sponsered by Cornell University in 1964, Piaget presented a paper on The Development of Mental Imagery. In this paper he discussed the contrast between the figurative function which deals with image and perception and the operative function which focuses on the transformation. The impact of the image is static and in Piaget’s not anticipatory. He states in his presentation. The Development of Mental Imagery: The images of small children are, above all, what we can all reproductive image. They reproduce representations of situations that have been perceived already. Anticipatory images- images which imagine the result of a transformation are yet unknown- but which could be predicated on the basis of some reasoning are not yet possible. At an average of about seven years, but sometimes much later, imagery can become anticipatory. Thus in the pouring of liquids young children consider only the visual image of level without taking into the factor of the changed shape of the vessel into which the liquid has been poured. Piaget concludes, therefore, that initial imagery is inadequate. It become adequate when operations become possible. Operations involve transformation – a transformation which is part of a whole system, a whole structure, where there is transformation in one direction and the possibility of reversibility in the other direction and the coordination of several operations. The importance of this capacity for transformation is the ability of children to work with geometrical figures. An elementary school pupil; can understand that the area of a perfect square or a rectangle can be calculated on the basis of multiplying the length by the width. The perceptions of the same area and its dimensions can be considerably altered by some very minimal transformations. For example the area of a square or a rectangle in which a section has been displaced and moved to an adjacent position appears substantially more difficult when in reality it encomes the same area space as the previous square or rectangle. The ability of the pupil to recognize the anticipatory image in the revolved segment in such transformations is important stages in intellectual development. It is subsequently important for teachers to recognise opportunities when the environment can be manipulated to make the process of reversibility and transformations accessible to pupils. It is also important for teachers to recognise that deficits in the earlier levels of the concrete operational stage may be due to some lack of experience at the manipulative levels. Fox example, a pupil who has difficulty with an algebraic calculation may well have lacked a more concrete experience with phenomena. Thus the role of the teachers is to provide at all levels of intellectual development a variety of environmental phenomena and experiential activities which are appropriate to the level and the development stages of the pupils.

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Although the discussion in this article has been largely limited to children and teachers at the elementary school level, teachers at the secondary level should be cognizant of the preliminary stages in the development of the child’s intellect. In addition, the principles of actively involving children in their own learning process are applicable to pupils at the later stages of the concrete operational level and at the later stages of development. Piaget has never ceased to argue that the intellect must be actively involved in the learning process. Teachers at the Secondary level should be always cognizant that their pupils have more resources with which to deal with external reality but that it is still the responsibility of the teacher to ask those questions that arouse intellectual conflict, to prepare a stimulating environment which makes questions arise and never to imply to pupils that there is a single right answer to every question, one which the teacher has in her possession and which the pupils have only to discern by turning to her. Finally there are several cautions that should be stated for the implementation of the theoretical ideas discovered by Piaget. It should be noted that Piaget is a biological epistemologist who has spent many years working with children in order to discover how intelligence develops in children. His Theory was developed by numerous experiments. He did not develop a pedagogy based upon his theory but has left that task to the educators. Although his experiments were employed to discern the stages in the development of intelligence, found that such teaching does not enhance the development of intelligence, they were never intended as teaching devices. Indeed it has been found that such teaching does not enhance the development of intelligence in children, but that in some instances hinders such development. Teacher that have attempted to accelerate the developments of intelligence by using the experiments as teaching devices have created very structured situations, just the opposite of People Watching, Piaget’s colleague of many years, Denise Prinzhorn, points out that the most effective use of Piaget’s theory is its use in an unstructured way, with the teacher creating the environment rich with phenomena and with an open and questioning atmosphere. The second problem, is the desire to accelerate the development of the child’s intelligence through some intensive tacking process. Piaget emphasizes that the development of intelligence is a process in which the pupil must be actively involved, a discovering, in which the cumulative impact of learning experiences results in the development of the intellect and the progression of the child from one stage to the next. Thus a rich environment for learning and a stimulating atmosphere are the teacher’s best resources in assisting the child to develop intellectually. Finally, period starting from March 86, When the New Educational Policy was likely to be operative should have (proven) to be a propitious time for in service education and the working with teachers on site. The Colleges of Education will have to realize and recognise the necessity of providing services to teachers. They will have to find more time and resources to dedicate to the continuing education of in service teachers. This interaction

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between schools and the Colleges of education should enable professors with a background in educational theory, in this instance the theories of children at all stages of intellectual development and to interact with teachers in making the school an significant learning environment. I. When you work with children, the concepts of cognitive development. 1.

All children through four main stages of cognitive development.

2. Children of the same chronological age may vary considerably in their level of cognitive development. Different levels of cognitive development are evident in student’s patterns of reasoning. 3. Because a child may perform one task that is at a specific level does not necessarily indicate that the child is at the level. Several tasks must be given to an individual in order to determine his cognitive level. 4. The development of a person’s cognitive ability is of real relevance to that individual. 5. There are two main types of experiences: (1) Physical (learning information) (2) logical mathematical (learning to perform mental operations). Physical experience occurs when children physically act on objects in the environment. They begin to realize that action is complex, for example, they find that objects may be ordered from short to long or vice versa. From physical experiences, the child becomes initiated into logical mathematical experiences. Eventually the child develops mental structures which she will use to grasp abstract concepts. 6. A student develops patterns of reasoning only by having experiences that allow or stimulate thinking. 7. Cognitive development results from an interaction between the student and the environment (including the teacher). 8. Development occurs through the process of equilibration (i.e. an imbalance between mental structures and experiences). 9. The process of equilibration can be initiated by educators through activities that engage the learner. II. Design a curriculum that facilitates development: 1. Stress intellectual development, It is not enough to teach just for facts; you must help students reach their human potential. Piaget’s efforts have made intellectual development an important face to the curriculum.

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2. Follow Piaget’s sequence of development in your curriculum. Since children through a sequence of stages, the curriculum must be designed to accommodate appropriately the student development progress. 3. Adapt curriculum materials to where the child is developmentally. Construct the curriculum to deal with the child’s needs, do not wait until the child has met your criteria for entrance to the curriculum. 4. Utilize the “moderately novel” or “optimal mismatch” principle. Piaget believes that presenting children with moderately novel problems only slightly above their cognitive level assists them in advancing to higher degrees of operational ability. Let children choose their own problem – Oriented takes, they will usually choose things that are challenging. 5. Use Piaget’s Theory in any culture. Since Piagetian levels are universal, they provide a predictive base for constructing curriculum materials for any culture. However, minority and lower socioeconomic groups may vary in the rate they progress through growth stages. 6. Stress learning through action and discovery oriented activities. Students learn only when they act mentally on what is being investigated. Curriculum materials should be oriented towards discovery, inquiry and creativity to help students develop. Provide activities for the students to make decisions and and deduce conclusions. Laboratory and field experiences should require students to use thinking processes such as hypothesizing, inferring, deg experiments and formulating models. 7. Involve students physically and mentally in acting on what is being learned. Rather than having them always listen, have them read or create something and then share in small groups their view about Project: Important qualities, creative value and possible further activities. The groups then should decide what conclusions they wish to report to the class for discussion and evaluation. 8. Create more interaction, allow small groups to works on problems. Students resolving a problem in small groups of three to five facilities more learning than do class discussions. This is due to greater student involvement and the advantage of a mix of in dividable at different cognitive levels. 9. Involve students in role playing. Have them play roles in resolving problems. For example, students may take the part of famous scientists or public officials. This activity provides opportunities to perceive different view point (thus reducing ego centricity) and involves active participation in the studied subject.

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10. Use conflict strategies. Cognitive conflict activities with in small groups give students opportunities. The students must resolve conflicts within the group perceiving view points other than their own. 11. Move from concrete to the abstract. Educational material and class activities should preferably start with the concrete and progress to an abstract level rather than the reverse. 12. Do not always use the direct approach. The direct way of attacking a problem, such as language development, may not always be the best way. Use other approaches to complement the direct approach. Exploration and extension are suggested as compliments to the traditional direct approach of explanation. III. Teach for the facilitation of development. 1. Ask more questions than you give answers, especially divergent questions. Students should get involved in finding out and analyzing the meaning of what is being learnt. Questions allowing for divergent answers stimulate creative and critical thinking. Convergent questions answered by ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ should be avoided. When children make contradictions, say, “But you said a little while ago that ……………. “or “Which do you mean?” 2. Talk less and listen more, stressing nonverbal instruction. Sense when to be quiet. After asking a question, wait at least five seconds for children to answer. , children need time to assimilate and accommodate information before they can respond intelligently. 3. Allow freedom of choice. Encourage and give students freedom to choose some of their learning activities so that they may use their minds to evaluate what should be studied. In this manner, they learn to develop commitment towards their studies. 4. Do not correct pupil’s errors in reasoning. Rather, ask questions and provide experiences so that students correct their own mistakes. 5. Determine cognitive levels by giving students conversation or formal reasoning tasks and by asking questions to determine how they think. For example, you might have the student describe her mental steps towards resolving a problem. 6. Accept the fact that students may develop at different rates. Individuals who are behind their peers now may be equally capable in adulthood. Be aware also that most classes will have students at more than one level, and many in transitional stages.

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7. As students evolve cognitively, they also progress to higher stages of ethical development, however, it is only with education that this parallel development occurs. 8. Children decrease in egocentricity through active social Interaction because they are confronted with different views. They begin to find that the way they understand life is not only view point. Interaction involving argument or critical analysis is the basis for developing higher cognitive abilities. 9. Students must have the abilities gained at one level before they may deal successfully with the required tasks of higher levels. 10. Pseudo learning occurs when students neither assimilate nor accommodate information. In such a case, children are required to memorize without understanding. IV. Follow The Teaching/Learning Cycle: CONCEPT EXPLORATION 1. 2. or situations. 3. 4. unanswered questions.

Students learn through their own activities. Learning is “directed” by the objects, events Teacher guidance is minimal. Activities

should

leave

students

with

CONCEPT EXPLANATION 1. A concept or principle is presented. 2. The concept should be related to the exploration activity. 3. Different instructional materials and approaches can be used. 4. Instruction is teacher directed. 5. Instruction should help students answer their questions. CONCEPT EXTENSION

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1.

Students are given different activities in which they must apply new concepts and reasoning patterns.

2. Additional time and experience are used to extend student understanding. 3.

Different instructional approaches can be used during this phase. CONCEPT EVALUATION

1.

Student learning in evaluated in a variety of ways.

2. Feed back us used by the teacher to recycle student through appropriate teaching/learning phases. V. Apply The Teaching/Learning Cycles : Steps for deg lessons: CONCEPT EXPLORATION 1. Identify interesting objects, events or situations that students can observe, this experience can occur in the classroom, laboratory, and field or through media presentation. 2. Allow the student time in which they can explore the objects, events or situations. During this experience the students may establish relationship, observe patterns, identify variables, question events as a result of their exploration. In this phase the unexpected can be used to your advantage. Students may have questions or experience that motivates them to understand what they have observed. CONCEPT EXPLANATION 3. In this phase direct student attention to specific aspects of the exploration experience. Introduce concepts in a direct and formal manner. Initially the lesson should be clearly based on student explorations. In this phase the key is to present the concepts in a simple, clear and direct manner. CONCEPT EXTENSION 4. Identify several activities in which students apply the concepts in new and different situations. Use of different activities will facilitate generalization of the concept by the students. Encourage the students to identify patterns, discover relationship among variables, and reason through new problems During discussions and individual and group questions be sure to point out the central concepts that are being applied in the different contexts. CONCEPT EVALUATION

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5. Evaluate students, understanding of the concept. If the student has not learned the material, decide which phase of learning cycle would be most appropriate to facilitate learning. Provide further exploration, explanation or extension activities for the student. VI. Follow these specific recommendations for teaching in the beginning. 1. Being the year with an assessment of your student’s development levels. Pencil and paper tests are good for screening large groups. 2. Use exploration activities to begin a unit. As a general rule the explorations should use concrete objects. 3. Begin individual classes or lessons with a demonstration or activity designed to engage the students. Discrepant events, puzzles, novel experiences, surprising activities, uncertain problems and curious adventures are all effective ways to initiate operation by students. VII. Follow these explanation phase of teaching. 1. 2. experiences.

specific

recommendations

for

the

Present concepts clearly. Provide time for students to assimilate and accommodate

3. As students show signs of puzzlement (disequilibrium), help them “Put the pieces together.” 4. students life. 5.

Make connections to concrete experiences in the Clarify students’ reasoning patterns for them.

6. Have the students justify their answers regardless of the answers correctness or incorrectness. Ask students questions such as the following: “How could you demonstrate that? “ “What is your evidence?” 7. Be a model of the reasoning patterns you wish to foster in your students. Reason out loud; tell about your hypotheses, justifications, and alternative explanations. 8.

Give your students time and opportunity to think.

9. Provide opportunities for students to extend their understanding through activities based on similar concepts in different contexts.

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VIII. Follow these specific suggestions for the evaluation phase of teaching. 1.

Be sure you test for reasoning, as well as context.

2.

Ask students to justify their answers.

3. Make a conscious effort to help students who are reasoning at levels lower than that of their peers. IX.

When giving assignments, follow these recommendations.

1. Review texts to see the level at which most concepts are presented, If level are too high, provide concrete experiences and/ or examples that will help students. 2. Give the students problems requiring analysis and argument Have them justify their positions. 3. Provide special puzzles, tasks, and activities that will initiate the process of equilibrium. X. When working with children at the sensorimotor level, (birth to two years), follow these recommendations. 1.

Provide objects for play.

2.

Let the child experience her would as much as possible.

3.

Stimulate the child’s sensory and motor behaviours.

4. Let the infant/toddler develop naturally through a rich and stimulating environment. XI. When working with children at the preoperational level (two or seven years) follow these recommendations. 1. 2. interaction.

Make sure that children manipulate and group objects. Involve preschool children in activities requiring social

3. Encourage children to play games such as “house” and “store” so they can act out various roles.

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4. Ask children to make comparisons. Create activities where children need to know “which is”, for example, which is taller, bigger, wider, heavier or longer. 5. Encourage children to line up in rows from tall to short and vice versa so that they may become more involved in ordering operations. Give children tasks where they have opportunities to order objects. 6. Have pupils weigh objects. Left them play with balances and teeter-totter like toys. 7. Bring in various examples of life cycles of animals and plants such as several pictures of butterfly development of the sprouting of bean and corn seeds. Examples of natural stages help children develop ordering ability. 8. Have children draw scenes with perspective. Encourage them to draw objects in approximately the same location as they are viewed, for example, if they see a cow in the far end of a field, they should place the cow similarly on the paper. They should also try to copy geometrical figures some open and unconnected (like a half circle) other connected (like a square) Give them some outlines within which they would have to include objects or exclude objects; for examples, they can be instructed to draw a square with a circle inside it, an ellipse with an arrow drawn tangent to it, or a few triangles with small circles inside and outside. 9. Have a children tilt a closed container with colored liquid and draw how the water inside appears with the container slanted, upright or lying flat. This activity may be repeated using several different types of plastic or glass container as those emptied of milk. 10. Construct an inclined plane or hill. Place together different size marbles on top of it and let the children roll those down the hill and complete how they finish. This should help children eventually gain a concept of speed. 11. Ask children to justify their answers when making logical mathematical types of conclusions. For example, when they say that a liquid poured from a tall glass into several glasses will still contain the same volume of liquid, ask, “Why do you think so?” “How would you prove that to another student?” XII. When working with students at the concrete operational level (seven to eleven years) follow these recommendation : 1. Continue any pre-operational activities you believe are relevant for children in this age group.

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2. Encourage children to discover concepts and principles. Although you should refrain from telling them outright, you may formulate questions relevant to what is being studied in order to help them focus on some aspect of their learning. it is necessary for children to assimilate and accommodate on their own, and the processes take time. 3. Involve children in operational tasks such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, ordering, seriating and reversing, preferably in concrete ways where they utilize objects. 4. Plan activities where students must grasp the idea of an ascending and descending classification hierarchy. 5. Design many activities having children order and reverse order. Many third graders have problems reversing order, such as going from tall to short rather than from short to tall, or listing the cities they would through in taking a trip to a large metropolitan centre and then reversing their order in coming home. 6. Involvstudents in using horizontal and vertical coordinates Achieve this task by asking them to locate places on city and state maps. 7. Present problems requiring students to isolate variables. Usually you will need to help students because they will not suggest all the possible variables. 8. Have students who are in the advanced part of this stage construct theoretical models tied to concrete examples; for example they may explain molecular theory through the use of concrete models of atoms rather than by symbols. 9. Include activities which require conservation of mass of volume, understanding of continuous quantity, weight and volume. 10.

Have children define and state problems.

11. Involve students in testing all possibilities towards resolving problems. Help them discover what strategies they use to solve problems. 12. Particularly continue to ask students to justify their answers to logical mathematical problems and situations encountered in conservation tasks. Help students check the validity and accuracy of their conclusions. XIII. When working with students at the form operational level (eleven years onwards) Follow these recommendation :

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1. Encourage students to engage in problems requiring hypothetical deductive reasoning, propositional thinking, theoretical reasoning, reflexive thinking, separation and control of variables, combinatorial logic and other forms of abstract thinking. 2. Engage the student in questions and problems such as the following: “What was your hypothesis?” “How could you demonstrate that idea?” “What other problems can be investigated?” “How do you solve the problem?” 3. Be aware that the majority of students are probably at the concrete level or in transition to the formal level. This finding suggests that the teaching/learning cycle outlined would be a good approach, for it could begin at the concrete and progress toward the abstract. 4. Provide time for maturation and activities with physical experience. Allow social interaction, and when you teach concepts, model formal patterns of reasoning. 5.

Have the students establish classification systems.

6. Give students some freedom within limits, so they have time and opportunity for creating, inquiring and problem solving. 7. Engage adolescents in discussions requiring synthesis, evaluation and criticism of ideas, theories and personal positions. 8. Challenge the adolescents position by pointing out counter examples, discrepant facts and unanswered questions in their positions. 9. Encourage students to argue using formal patterns of reasoning in areas where they are familiar with the content and where they have strong attitudes. “I recall one evening of profound revelation. The identification of God with life itself was an idea that stirred me almost to ecstasy because if enabled me to see in biology the explanation of all things and mind itself…… The problem of knowing (properly called the epistemological problem) suddenly appeared to me in an entirely new perspective and as an absorbing topic of study. It made me decide to consecrate my life to the biological explanation of knowledge.” PIAGET

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