The stage of concrete operations is part of the development theory proposed by Jean Piaget, whose discoveries were fundamental to the evolution of positive psychology, according to him, the thinking of the child has unique characteristics that vary depending on the stage of maturation and interaction with the environment.
In this article we will explain what is the logic of a child who starts the phase of concrete operations, what his world vision is like and what problems he is able to solve.
- If there is one thing to say about the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget.
- It completely revolutionized the theories of child development and the concept of intelligence that had been supported until then.
- With his theory of development.
- He doubted that children were less competent thinkers than adults or that they were formed at the mercy of the environment.
- As was thought until the 1940s.
In this way, Piaget demonstrated, through ingenious experiments, that children’s ways of thinking were not inferior to those of adults, but totally different. With his development theory, he described babies as “little scientists” who actively work with the environment, experimenting and modifying their thinking according to their discoveries.
For Piaget, children build a series of mental representations of the world according to their maturation stage, by interacting with the environment, they observe the gaps between this mental map they have and the reality they perceive, allowing them to gradually change this design. .
Piaget divided his team into four main stages: the sensory-motor stage, the preoperative stage, the stage of concrete operations and, finally, formal operations, all children go through the stages in the same order towards a thought that evolves in complexity. abstraction.
According to Piaget’s theory, the stage of concrete operations is acquired between the seven and eleven years, however, the author recognizes the existence of a great individual and cultural variability, this third stage of development theory is considered fundamental when considering the beginning of logic or operational thinking.
At the stage of specific operations, the child has acquired enough biological maturity to start working through rules, that is, this stage is characterized by the development of a logical thought that no longer needs so much physical manipulation. for much more flexible reflection, not just based on the appearance of objects.
According to Piaget’s experiments, a child in the concrete operations stage could mentally classify a series of sticks by size, without the need to physically manipulate them.
According to Piaget’s development theory, at the stage of concrete operations, the child acquires three fundamental operations described below:
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development laid the foundation for current evolutionary psychology; for the first time, a unique and unique vision of the child was proposed; in addition, biological maturation processes and the relationship with the environment underlying the development of mental processes. have been described.
The stage of concrete operations is the third stage of the phases described by Piaget’s theories, at this fundamental stage the child acquires logical notions and has a more flexible thinking, the main operations acquired at this stage of the concrete operations are serialization, conservation and classification. These three skills will allow the child to solve problems more systematically.
The phase of concrete operations is often described as the birth of the “practical child” because it has gone through the previous stages related to learning through activity and intuition, becomes a practical child who stops learning by trial or error, acquiring the logic a small scientist.