This is a selection of the most important of Piaget's writings spanning a period of some seventy years. These writings cover Piaget's contribution to modern psychological knowledge in a way that clarifies and illuminates his aims, ideas, and underlying themes.--From back cover.

`At the end of the day, what is crucial is to enable educationalists to promote and apply their own metatheories and models of child development which they feel comfortable with and which enable children to develop. ... Peter Sutherland should be credited with making a significant contribution towards achieving this fundamental goal' - Educational Psychology in Practice ` ... this book deserves to become a classic in the field. Will appeal alike to academics and students in higher education, and to serving teachers- BPS: Educational Review Section This book provides a general outline of the dominant schools of thought on cognitive development, with a focus on Piaget. His views are outlined and a range of critical responses and alternatives are detailed. The author examines the application of these schools of thought to teaching pre-school, primary and secondary children. Each chapter includes a summary and questions for discussion. The book concludes with a glossary of terms.

Inhelder in her introduction. The reason for this unity is that explanatory adequacy can be attained only by exploring the formative and constructive aspects of development. To explain a psychologic reaction or a cognitive mechanism (at all levels, including that of scientific thought) is not simply to describe them, but to comprehend the processes by which they were formed; failing that, one can but note results without grasping their meaning. JEAN PlACET VI Man distinguishes himself from other creatures primarily by his abstract reasoning capacity and his ability to communicate his knowledge by highly complex symbolic processes. What is called "humanity" and progress is to a large degree a measure of his consciousness and the deployment of his creative potentials. There are few scientists who have explored the universe of cogni tion, and contributed to the understanding of the realm of knowledge, with greater genius, care, and scientific intuition than Jean Piaget and his longtime collaborator Barbel Inhelder. Professor Inhelder and her assistant Dr. Harold Chipman realized this book in spite of the heavy load of research, teaching, and administra tive duties in a rapidly expanding Institute. It is therefore a particular pleasure for me to presen t this book.

Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was listed among the 100 most important persons in the twentieth century by Time magazine, and his work - with its distinctive account of human development - has had a tremendous influence on a range of disciplines from philosophy to education, and notably in developmental psychology. The Cambridge Companion to Piaget provides a comprehensive introduction to different aspects of Piaget's work in a manner that does not eschew engagement with the complexities of subjects or debates yet is accessible to upper-level undergraduate students. Each chapter is a specially commissioned essay written by an expert on the subject matter. Thus, the book will also be of interest to academic psychologists, educational psychologists, and philosophers.