Original Article

Piaget, Pedagogy, and Evolutionary Psychology

Jeremy E. C. Genovese, College of Education, Cleveland State University, 2121
Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA.

Abstract: Constructivist pedagogy draws on Piaget's developmental theory.
Because Piaget depicted the emergence of formal reasoning skills in adolescence
as part of the normal developmental pattern, many constructivists have assumed
that intrinsic motivation is possible for all academic tasks. This paper argues
that Piaget's concept of a formal operational stage has not been empirically
verified and that the cognitive skills associated with that stage are in fact
"biologically secondary abilities" (Geary and Bjorklund, 2000) culturally
determined abilities that are difficult to acquire. Thus, it is unreasonable to
expect that intrinsic motivation will suffice for most students for most higher
level academic tasks.

In addition, a case is made that educational psychology must incorporate the
insights of evolutionary psychology.

Keywords: Piaget, developmental theory, formal operational stage, evolutionary
psychology.

Full text
http://www.***.com/

---------------------------------

Publish your best work in 'Evolutionary Psychology'

* rapid peer review and publication.
* greater visibility for your work.
* instant feedback from colleagues.
* open access - articles are available to all worldwide without charge.
* author retains copyright.
* electronic distributions lists are used to announce publication to
colleagues.
* details of each new paper included in our daily/weekly newsletter (10,000
readers each week).
* all papers available in HTML and PDF formats for convenient distribution, for
good printing, and for storage in your personal archive, on your own web site,
and in other archives (e.g., Cogprints http://www.***.com/ , HTP
Prints http://www.***.com/
* standard journal format for citations.

Evolutionary Psychology - homepage
http://www.***.com/
Evolutionary Psychology - Instructions for Authors
http://www.***.com/