Piaget And Engineering Education

Abstract

Thomas Edison was a noted engineer while Jean Piaget made his fame in children's educational psychology. Piaget's "cognitive constructivism" has been adopted in many early childhood programs, but it also applies to engineering education and its "hands-on" approach, especially in laboratories and project-based courses. The direction of education dramatically shifted when Jean Piaget developed a child-centered developmental learning theory. According to his theory, children construct knowledge about their world through their active involvement in experiences that are meaningful for them in order to provide an ideal learning environment. A Piagetian classroom is filled with authentic activities designed to challenge students so they can construct knowledge at their own developmental pace.