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process visual patterns. They described mental
manipulations as: accommodation, which means
changing existing schemata, and assimilation,
which means changing a new object to corre-
spond with existing schemata. Piaget discerned
developmental stages in children mental activities:
children (age 2-8) perform symbolic or semiotic
functions; children 7-12 years old make concrete
mental operations, they define classes and rela-
tions; the age of 11- adolescence a stage marks
the beginning of conceptual thought and formal
operations, when hypotheses are formed, not only
representable realities.
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) constructed a model
of child development and learning that showed
how children develop cognitively by building
cognitive structures, mental maps, schemes of
their environment. When the experience is new or
different, children alter their cognitive structures to
maintain their mental equilibrium, accommodate
the new conditions, and to set up more adequate
cognitive structures.
Piaget assumed there are several cognitive
developmental stages:
to investigation, make decisions, synthesize
information, understand abstract concepts
(such as electromagnetism or ß-radiation).
Thus, the formal stage implied the ability to
deal with propositions and to employ pro-
portionality and combinatorial systems in
problem solving (Arlin, 1984). The formal
operational stage characterizes a consider-
able part of population; however, about 50%
of the adult population under study (college
seniors) never attained the Piagetian stage
of formal operational thinking called the
problem solving level (Arlin, 1984).
Inquiry about Higher
Order Thinking Skills
Results of investigations from the seventies sug-
gested that the adult thought structures might
extend beyond the equilibrium level, so the adults
might develop progressive changes in their thought
structures (Gruber, 1973). Some adults extend
beyond this level and enter a problem-finding
stage that would include the creative formulation
of problems, raising questions and developing
scientific thought. This most complex stage in the
development of cognitive thinking is characterized
by adaptability, flexibility, the use of concepts
and generalizations, drawing logical conclusions
from observations, making hypotheses and testing
them. The Piagetian notion of formal operations
includes the convergent or problem solving phe-
nomena in response to specific tasks. Arlin (1984)
hypothesized a fifth, problem-finding stage go-
ing beyond formal operations and including the
creative thought on problems described by other
authors as the 'discovered problems' (Getzels &
Csikszentimihalyi, 1970, 1976), the formulation
of generic problems (Taylor, 1972), the raising
of general questions from ill-defined problems
(Mackworth, 1965), and the cognitive growth
represented in the development of significant
scientific thought (Gruber, 1973).
•
A Sensorimotor Stage (Birth-2 Years
Old):
When children interact with their en-
vironment and build concepts about reality
•
A Preoperational Stage of Concrete
Mental Operations (Age 7-12):
When
children form symbolic and semiotic class-
es and relations, conceptualize upon their
experiences, and create logical structures,
and
•
A Stage of Formal Operational
Thinking and Conceptual Thought (11-
Adolescence):
When children cognitive
structures include hypotheses, and con-
ceptual reasoning, not only the represent-
able realities. A stage of formal operational
thinking was considered to be the final equi-
librium status (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958); it
was meant as the ability to engage in abstract
thought, generate hypotheses, subject them
