Islamization of Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

Swiss cognitive theorist Jean Piaget has provided some insights into how children develop thinking abilities.

Piaget viewed children as discovering, or constructing, virtually all knowledge about their world through their own activity his theory is described as a constructivist approach to cognitive development.

Piaget believed that children through four stages- sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational- during which the exploratory behavior of infants transform into the abstract, logical intelligence of adolescence and adulthood.

Piaget's development stages abide to these basic ideas:

• The stages provide a general theory of development in which all aspect of cognition change in an integrated fashion following a similar course.
• The stages are invariant; they always occur in a fixed order and no stage can be skipped.
• The stages are universal; they are assumed to characterize children everywhere.

A summary of Piagetian stages are illustrated on the table below for our brief understanding. The table describes what would happen at each stage if we played a game of Monopoly with the child and some brief suggestions about how to relate to children in each stage.

 

* Coon D, Mitterer J.O (2007) Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind & Behavior, 12ed, Brock University, Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

However, Piaget’s Theory was not always true and incomplete to us as Muslims. This is because the theory doesn’t consider the intervention of the Almighty Creator. So, I will discuss and critic the theory from Islamic perspective here on.

According to Piaget, human infant do not start out as cognitive beings instead out of their perceptual and motor activities, they build and refine psychological structures-organized ways of making sense of experience that permit children to adapt more effectively to the environment. 

At sensorimotor stage, many studies suggested that infants display a variety of understandings earlier than Piaget believed. For example, newborn babies sucked vigorously on mother’s nipple. This behavior which closely resembles Piaget’s secondary circular reaction (a substage in sensorimotor stage), shows that infants explore and control their external world before 4 to 8 months. In fact they do so as soon as they are born.

One important element to note is the power of Allah, the Almighty Creator that has given innate knowledge to children. Research shows that the built in knowledge in an infant is a general purpose learning procedures, such as powerful techniques for analyzing complex, perceptual information. This has helped children tremendously to assimilate and accommodate themselves with the external world. 

So the basic idea of Piaget’s theory at this stage is refuted from Islamic point of view. In brief, each children cognitive development has started even before they were born and this reflects the Greatness of Allah.

Next, at preoperational stage, according to Piaget, children are more egocentrism- understands the world only from his point of view. They are actively involved in animistic and magical thinking. Among the common activity that most of them will experience is make-believe-play-children tend to play some role and believe it is him. For example, they want to be an astronaut and imagine things like spaceship as their house. Piaget said the children should not be controlled since it will destroy their creativity.

To Islamize this theory, it is best to guide the children and give them clear understanding on basic Islamic knowledge such as; heaven & hell, reward & punishment and  angel & demon. At this stage, the children are more excited and can easily accept the ‘ghaibiyaat’ (the unseen) or spiritual knowledge of the Deen.

Moreover, the make-believe-play should also be guided in order for them not to misbehave and be leaded to believe in superstitious and bad characteristics. For example, guide the child to become an Islamic hero that fights mungkar and enjoin maaruf rather then become some villain character such as joker in batman movie that do bad things. This is not to destroy their creativity but to guide them to be a better man in their life.

At concrete operational stage, children spontaneously will develop logical thinking. At this period they should be guide and trained. This agrees the Islamic traditions where we encourage them to Solah and learn good Islamic conduct.

Finally, the formal operational stage is considered sensitive period where critics towards the children should be gentle and soft when dealing with them. They are more sensitive and should be treated with care. 

From Islamic perspective, children should be treated as a friend only when they reach maturity. Before that, they should be controlled and guided. They should be strictly brought up during their teenage years since they are easily attracted towards sin and be deceived by the devil. In Islam, when children reached puberty, the parents need to punish them if they don’t Solah. In brief, Islam also agrees that this is a sensitive period but the method of approach towards the children is different. When they grow up to become a young man and more mature, then they should be treated as a friend.

At this stage, to even punish them physically is prohibited and advice and support is the best tool to deal with them. So, we can conclude that the time frame for cognitive development in Piaget theory should be modified where the formal operational stage should only be started after they reach some maturity.

As a conclusion, man is a dual nature. Hence, the element of spiritual and physical knowledge should be developed seamlessly during children upbringing. Fail to do so, will result in an unbalance human development where the ultimate role of the human being exist cannot be fulfilled. Wallahualam.