Use questioning and counter-suggestions (contrepreuve) to produce disequilibration and support cognitive growth¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The handbook recommends turning children's "Why?" questions back on them ("Why do you think?") and using questioning or "contrepreuve" — examples offered that are counter to the child's suggestions — to produce disequilibration, the sense that what one believes may not always be true. As printed, "Questioning or "contrepreuve"-examples offeredwhiO are counter to the child's suggestions),according to Piaget, servc, to produce disequilibration." The child experiences cognitive growth as he assimilates and accommodates the new information. The handbook supplies concrete question stems and games such as class-inclusion questions, logic questions about what is alive, and predict-and-find-out games.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Questions should be taken seriously and used as starting points for exploration; guidance means creating situations in which the child can work and learn by himself, not providing ready-made answers

Constraints¶

• The handbook stresses Piaget does not suggest accelerating cognitive development as beneficial; questioning may facilitate a child already on the verge of moving to the next stage

Target Learners¶

• preschool through third grade children

Target Learning Goals¶

• encountering inconsistencies in one's own thinking; developing reasoning and prediction skills

Affordances¶

• Piaget Four Factors Stage Progression

Related Strategies¶

• Introduce Piagetian activities simply, one variable at a time, with ample time and repetition
• Scaffolded Questioning

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Felton, Victoria; Petersen, Rosemary. (1976). Piaget: A Handbook for Parents and Teachers of Children in the Age of Discovery--Preschool Through Third Grade. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED131912