Journal of Human Growth and Development
Print version ISSN 0104-1282
Abstract
ABREU, Luiz Carlos de et al. Piaget's genetic epistemology and constructivism. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2010, vol.20, n.2, pp.361-366. ISSN 0104-1282.
The Genetic Epistemology argues that the individual goes through various stages of development throughout his life. The development is seen by the overlap of the balance between assimilation and accommodation, resulting in adaptation. Thus, in this formulation humans assimilate the data they obtain from the outside, but once they already have a mental structure that is not "empty", they must adapt these data to the existing mental structure. The process of change itself is called accommodation. This scheme reveals that no knowledge comes from outside without suffering any change by the individual, and everything that is learned is influenced by what was learned. Assimilation occurs when information is incorporated into pre-existing structures in this dynamic cognitive structure, while the conversion occurs when the organism is changed in some way to incorporate the new information dynamically. Finally, a modern thought that seeking the unusual synthesis between the biological and logical-mathematical seems to find its limits in the deconstruction even more unusual that tends systematically all thought at present: the self developing in a essentially clarified way.
Keywords : assimilation; cognitive structure; constructivism.