New Morning School’s curriculum and philosophy are influenced by the work of Swiss psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget. Piaget developed the fields of developmental psychology and cognitive theory and spent countless hours observing children.

Spend time reading more about Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development. The assumptions about the mental development of children and the manner in which they build their understanding of the world is at the very heart of our curriculum.

Head of School Elaine Kennedy outlines how Piaget’s theory translates into practice at New Morning School. You might also explore why Time Magazine named Jean Piaget one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century or learn more about the connection between the work of Jean Piaget and that of his contemporary, Maria Montessori.

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How does Piaget differ from Montessori?

Parents familiar with a Montessori system of education will notice many similarities in the New Morning School approach, including:

There are a number of differences between a Piagetian approach to education and a Montessori approach; however, both Jean Piaget and Maria Montessori were constructivists. (Read this article about constructivism for a more complete understanding of constructivism, especially as it relates to learning.)

In his article entitled Jean Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology: Appreciate and Critique, Clemson University Professor Robert L. Campbell points out that:

The experimental nursery school in Geneva, La Maison des Petits, where Piaget carried out his first studies of children in the 1920s, was a modified Montessori institution, and Piaget was for a number of years the head of the Swiss Montessori Society (see Rita Kramer, Maria Montessori: A biography, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1976, pp. 311, 321, 326). Piaget seems to have grown dissatisfied with Montessori’s lack of theoretical rigor in psychology, but disgust with her long and ultimately futile collaboration with the Mussolini regime in Italy (1922-1934) may have played a more decisive role…

…In fact, an article by David Elkind, written in 1967 when both thinkers were getting renewed interest in the United States (Piaget and Montessori, Harvard Educational Review, 37,535-546) correctly identifies several points of agreement without showing any awareness of Piaget’s role in the Montessori movement.

The following is a letter written for the Alumni News by New Morning School Head of School, Elaine Kennedy.

Dear Parents,

This fall parents at New Morning have been learning about Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist who researched the cognitive growth of children.

Piaget writes, “The goal of intellectual education is not to know how to repeat or retain ready-made truths. (A truth that is parroted is only a half-truth.) It is learning to master the truth by oneself at the risk of losing a lot of time and going through all the roundabout ways that are inherent in real activity.”

What’s important about what Piaget said is that true discovery of knowledge is not clean, doesn’t proceed in a straight line, and is not necessarily quiet. It involves trial and error, interfacing with peers, sometimes being extremely focused, while other times not. In sum, real learning is a bit messy. When children discover something of their own by playing with the blocks, they may go through three or four iterations or even days of discovery before beginning to understand that two little blocks are the same size as a bigger block. Remember, in pre-operational children (ages two through seven) conservation of volume/size is not yet in place. We could tell a four-year-old that the two blocks are the same as the big block and they could parrot back that two blocks equal a larger block, but real understanding only comes through student discovery.

Two children in the elementary room are weighing pumpkins on a balance scale, the goal being to arrange the pumpkins in order of weight. A teacher might enrich this environment by using plastic pumpkins and real pumpkins of different sizes. Then a child couldn’t just surmise that if he put them in order from smallest to largest, that they would also be in order by weight. Within the elementary classroom you would see children use a variety of approaches to this problem, based on their developmental levels. As adults we would weigh pumpkins against each other to put them in order of weight. Older elementary children might use this approach, but younger children, by trial and error, would approach it in different, sometimes incorrect ways.

What do we do as adults? Do we observe and guide with questions or do we show a child how to do it step by step? If you show a child, you have robbed from her the joy and permanence of her own discovery.

Piaget writes, “Every time we teach a child something, we keep him from inventing it himself. On the other hand, that which we allow him to discover for himself will remain with him visible for the rest of his life.”

The process is the same at the middle school level. Our science teacher might ask students to construct an experiment. Some will easily make a hypothesis and keep all but one variable constant (formal operational thought, age 11+) while others may need much trial and error and growing time to do this. The teacher can ask questions and make suggestions, but the best thing she could do would be to let a student do his experiment where variables are not held constant. Through the course of the experiment, he might reach that “ah-ha” stage where he understands how he should have done it or may do it the next time.

Does teaching him how to set up an experiment and holding his hand every step of the way result in powerful learning?

– No.

– You know the answer.

Learning is not neat and clean and efficient as you or I might like it to be. Children need to experiment and figure if out for themselves, though it takes longer and is a bit “messy.”

Next time you’re feeling uncomfortable about a learning situation and asking yourself things like:

Think of Piaget. You know the answer to the questions.

Let me know what you think.

Head of School

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New Morning School prides itself on remaining current in the implications of the latest research in brain development and learning. When necessary, we use the information to make changes that we can incorporate into our classroom. However, most often we find that the latest brain research confirms that we have been on the right track all along.

The Head of School, Elaine Kennedy, and teachers have attended multiple Brain Expo conferences. Elaine Kennedy is in a graduate program on brain research and education, completing her studies at the Midwest Brain and Learning Institute. She shares the latest information with her staff and the parents. Areas of focus include the five principles for learning (information processing, social, emotional, safety and nourishment) and specific strategies for brain-friendly instruction.

New Morning School offers an extraordinary, individualized learning environment where we nurture children to their full potential as critical thinkers, creative problem solvers, and responsible citizens.