Piagetian Tasks

I did Piagetian tasks with my two nephews. One was 9 years old and one was 7 years old. It was interesting to see the responses between the two. The first task I did was task 2 with the pennies. I asked the 9 year old the questions, and he answered with no problem. I then asked the 7 year old and he had said that there was the same amount at first, but when I moved them he said the row that I had moved had more pennies. So the 7 year old is in Preoperational thought and lack of conservation. The 9 year old was in concrete operational thought in conservation.

The second task I did was Task 4 with the beads. Again the 9 year old had no problem answering. He is in concrete operational though and class inclusion. The 7 year old went back and forth with the first question: are there more yellow than blue beads. He had to really think about it, then when I asked him the second part of the question again he went back and forth but he said more beads. He is in Preoperational thought and lack of class inclusion.

The last task I did was task 6 with the water. The 9 year old again had no problem and he is in concrete operational thought. The 7 year old said that it had the same amount of water at first but when I transferred it to a different cup he said that the water that I had transferred into the jar was more water. He was justifying his answer also. He said that because it was a wider glass that it had more water.

Overall, I thought it was interesting how they answered and to see them think about the answers and then how they justified their answers.