Educating Adolescents from a Piagetian Perspective

Abstract

After briefly discussing key aspects of formal operational thinking and the three kinds of knowledge (social arbitrary, physical, logico-mathematical) that Piaget has identified, this paper offers eight principles for secondary educators. They suggest how teachers may select content, attend to students' social and emotional needs, stimulate thinking, coordinate instruction with development, and conduct evaluations of students' performances. This approach is contrasted with traditional approaches.