Jean Piaget
Pioneer of developmental psychology
Most quoted
"The child who defines a lie as 'a naughty word' knows perfectly well that lying consists of not speaking the truth. He is not, therefore, mistaking one thing for another; he is simply identifying them one with another by what seems to us a quaint extension of the word lie."
— from The Moral Judgment of the Child, 1932
"The more the schemata are differentiated, the smaller the gap between the new and the familiar becomes, so that novelty, instead of constituting an annoyance avoided by the subject, becomes a problem and invites searching."
— from The Origins of Intelligence in Children, 1936
"Knowledge is not a copy of reality. To know an object, to know an event, is not simply to look at it and record it in a mental image or even to make a perceptual copy of it. To know an object is to act on it."
— from Speech at UNESCO, 'Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child', 1964
All quotes by Jean Piaget (326)
The child's understanding of the world is always partial and incomplete.
The development of intelligence is a process of continuous adaptation to the environment.
The child's moral development is influenced by both cognitive and social factors.
The child's play is not merely recreation, but a crucial aspect of his cognitive development.
The child's understanding of number is not innate, but constructed through experience.
The child's thinking is characterized by concrete operations before it reaches formal operations.
The child's understanding of the world is a dynamic and evolving process.
The development of intelligence is a process of self-regulation.
The child's understanding of causality is not simply a matter of observation, but of active construction.
The child's language reflects his underlying cognitive structures.
The child's understanding of space is not a passive reception of sensory input, but an active construction.
The child's moral judgments are initially based on external rules and authority, and later on internal principles.
The child's imagination is a powerful tool for learning and development.
The child's understanding of the world is shaped by his interactions with it.
The development of intelligence is a continuous process of restructuring and reorganizing knowledge.
The child is the architect of his own development.
Knowledge is not a copy of reality. To know an object, to know an event, is not simply to look at it and record it in a mental image or memory. To know is to act on it.
The most important function of education at every level is to develop the personality of the student.
The child's mind is not a miniature adult mind; it is a mind of its own kind.
Every acquisition of accommodation is a new construction of the mind.
Contemporaries of Jean Piaget
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Jean Piaget (1896–1980).