Key theorists in early childhood education: Piaget's historical influence

What contribution to the understanding of early childhood development did this theorist make?
Jean Piaget has been one of the most influential early childhood and developmental psychologists. Focusing primarily on childhood cognitive development, Piaget hypothesized that children used different logical schemas than adults, and also that children progress through stages of cognitive development as they acquire new knowledge from the world around them and incorporate that information into their mental constructs (McLeod, 2018). The four stages of cognitive development Piaget proposed include the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. Piaget contributed tremendous understanding to how children adapt to new stimuli and changes in their environment, through the assimilation of new concepts into their schemas, the accommodation for potentially conflicting ideas or objects within those same schemas, and through the achievement of cognitive equilibrium as each individual progresses through the various stages of development.
Identify two key ideas from this theory that are found in the current trends or best practices used in the early childhood care settings of today.
Especially within early childhood education, children learn via active play: interacting with their environment in a physical way rather than only encountering new information via verbal lessons (Hopkins, 2011). Also, Piaget contributed greatly towards the trend of age-appropriate learning experiences, curricula, and classroom design. Piaget also helped to promote the idea that in early childhood especially, learning is not about right or wrong answers but about how a child systematically incorporates new information into their mental maps, challenging each individual to learn, grow, and change (Slavin, n.d.). In early childhood care settings, children are also encouraged to explore and play, interacting with their environment in self-directed ways. Children are also viewed as being at a distinct stage in their cognitive as well as biological growth: not just as immature or incomplete adults but as fundamentally different in the way they view the world. These methods of early childhood education have stemmed primarily from Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
Share one example from a key idea used in a practical way within the early childhood settings of today.
One example of the way Piaget’s theories continue to influence early childhood educational practices is through the use of interactive, self-directed, and spontaneous play. In preschool and kindergarten, children have the opportunity to interact with objects, games, tools, and to solve problems using their own methods with the encouragement and support of teachers. The teacher does not tell the child how to play with a game, toy, or object, but allows the child to encounter the world independently, to enable the processes of assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration.
Second, early childhood educational curricula are designed with Piaget’s theories in mind. Educators, administrators, and policymakers understand that there are some types of learning environments, subjects, and processes that are age-appropriate, according to known stages of development. Each child will progress at a different pace, though, allowing educators to make adaptations according to the individual needs and predilections of students. Educators are trained to identify when children are ready for new learning opportunities based on the stages Piaget identified.
References
Hopkins, J.R. (2011). The enduring influence of Jean Piaget. Association for Psychological Science. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/jean-piaget
McLeod, S. (2018). Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
Slavin, R.E. (n.d.). Educational implications of Piaget’s theory. Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. eBook: http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_slavin_edpsych_8/38/9951/2547615.cw/index.html