Criticisms of Piaget's work

Wednesday, June 19, 2002

* Critics of Piaget suggest that since many of his experiments did not relate to children's direct experiences, children were easily misled. This criticism particularly relates to his 'Swiss mountain experiment' that he used to show young children's egocentrism. In this experiment, children looked and could even walk around a model of three mountains where a doll was placed in different locations. Children were shown pictures of different views for the model and then were asked to choose the view that the doll would see. Critics suggest that the task itself was flawed, as it was complicated and thus not a reliable indicator of children's real abilities. Piaget is also criticised for the way in which he focused particularly on what children cannot do, rather than consider what children are able to achieve.