These schemas, as patterns of behaviour, Piaget concluded, form the basis of children’s exploration and play and are a four-part process: 1. Assimilation – children construct a schema about the world based on their current knowledge and experiences. These processes, particularly assimilation and accommodation require children to be active learners. Problem solving cannot be taught, it must be experienced. The characteristics of effective learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) uses the term active learning for one of the three characteristics, along with playing and exploring and creating and thinking critically as the necessary ways to guide children’s learning. Piaget’s work on schemas has further been developed by researchers, including Chris Athey, Tina Bruce and Cathy Nutbrown, before becoming an integral element of the EYFS. Piaget continued his research and studies by observing young children and using questions to support his understanding of their cognitive development. His gentle and considered approach was very different to any type of previous intelligence testing, in which Piaget tailored his questions to the individual child he was talking to. He also continued to observe and question his own children. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposes that young children’s intelligence changes as children age and that it is not about gaining knowledge but constructing knowledge from a mental picture of the world around them. These mental structures that we now refer to as schemas enable children to function through a series of stages:
2. Equilibrium – current schemas support the gaining of new knowledge.
3. Disequilibrium – new information or an experience changes or challenges the current schema. Sometimes referred to as a more negative and less confident process.
4. Accommodation – the child uses new information or experiences to adapt or modify existing schema.
