Background 

Constructivist theory today is driving a paradigm shift in higher education.  In order for the  goals of the Knowledge or Information Age to be realized, educators are being called upon to shift from the practices typical of today's traditional classroom and to adopt practices arising from constructivist principles.  Such a shift, according to Brooks and Brooks (1993), demands altering the characteristics of the curriculum and the teacher/student roles in the several ways. (See Table 1.)
 

These characteristics identified above sharply contrast with what Caine and Caine (1997) describe as the characteristics of the past Industrial Age model of education.  Caine and Caine assert that the past way of viewing education embodied these quite contrasting assumptions.

• Only experts create knowledge.
• Teachers deliver knowledge in the form of information.
• (Learners) are graded on how much of the information they have stored (p. 4).

Cognitive Stages

Piagetian theory outlines distinct cognitive stages that Piaget postulated as comprising human cognitive development.  During each  period of cognitive development, humans engage in processes unique to that stage for the construction of knowledge.  The following stages, as explained by Slavin (1988, p. 24), capture the major developmental shifts occurring at each of the four stages.

• STAGE ONE:  During the sensorimotor stage,  typically occurring between the eight to twenty-four months of age, the infant's cognitive development consists of constructing concepts of complex means and ends relationships as well as sensorimotor action -- concepts of time, space, causality, and permanence of objects.  Such cognitive development depends on the infant's physical actions performed on the physical environment. 

• STAGE TWO:  During the pre-operational stage, the one-and-a-half-year-old to seven-year-old's cognitive development shifts from the reliance on sensorimotor action as the means of constructing knowledge to an interiorized mental representation.  Language and beginning symbolic activities become the focus. 

• STAGE THREE:  During the concrete operations stage,  the seven-year-old to eleven-year-old's previous constructions become aligned as cognitive structures which can perform operations and their inverse operations to construct understanding of the relationships such as categories and their subclasses.

• STAGE FOUR:  During the formal operations stage, the fourteen to fifteen-year-old adolescent is capable of engaging in higher order thinking.  This stage marks the emergence of the ability to engage in metacognition - reflection on one's own thinking. Plus, at this stage, learners can extrapolate multiple causal relationships and propose numerous possible outcomes. Basically, during formal operations, people have reached the age at which they can reason logically and abstractly (Demetriou, Efklides, Papdaaki, et.al., cited in Zanden, 1996, p. 410).

Piaget's stage theory, as represented above, has not gone unchallenged.  Two issues regarding stage four are central to this discussion pertaining to adult cognitive development:  (1)  whether or not the age span associated with formal operations is restrictive and (2)  whether or not the fourth stage adequately accounts for adult levels of thinking.

In respect to question one, Moshman (1981) reports a great deal of debate occurred, in the late '70s and '80s, when researchers challenged, refuted, and attempted to refine the fourth stage.  At issue in the debate were the ages at which humans enter and complete formal operational tasks.  He summarizes, "suffice it to note the overwhelming evidence that, contrary to what Inhelder and Piaget originally suggested, the construction of formal operational reasoning seems to be far from complete by the age of 14 or 15.  Rather, it extends at least through the college years" (p. 8). 

In regard to question two, not only has debate suggested the extension of formal operations but, recently, building upon Piaget's stage model, others have postulated that an additional stage of cognitive development may occur in early adulthood, suggesting a higher order thinking level exists than defined by Piaget's fourth formal operational stage. Key to this fifth proposed stage are three cognitive processes. These operations constitute what is being labeled post-formal operational thought.

• "relativistic" thinking where facts come to be understood as "constructed realities," 
• acknowledgment of contradiction which demand that one's actions be decided upon from "a multitude of possibilities, and 
• development of an inclusive system of thinking that synthesizes and creates unity among the apparent contradictions (Zanden, 1996, p. 410). 

These challenges as to the ages linked to cognitive stages and the merits to the identification of a fifth stage, appear to resolved.  The current accepted view of Piaget's fourth stage of cognitive development is that formal operations begin during mid-adolescence and development occurs throughout the aging process (Baltes, 1987; Howe & Brainerd, 1988; Schooler & Schaie, 1987, cited in Zanden, 1997, p. 410).  Perhaps the contribution of the proposed later cognitive skills will be resolved through an expansion of our definition of what constitutes adult thinking patterns.

Importantly, these views of the continued development of cognition seem consistent with Fosnot's report of  Piaget's refinements of Piagetian cognitive theory in the years prior to his death.  Fosnot states that "He (Piaget) moved away from a static stage theory . . . toward a delineation of the successive possibilities and logical necessities generated by subjects as they attempted to explore and understand various problems" (cited in Brooks and Brooks, 1993, p. 26).  This refinement reduces the tension created by the perceived absoluteness of the stage theory and shifts Piagetian emphasis to the centrality of the interaction between the human, his mental constructs, and the environment. 

This refinement clearly has had implications for adult development and possible extensions for the education of adults.  The suggested variance in the age of attaining higher order thinking skills, the suggested expansion of formal operational thinking, and the emphasis on learning occurring through an individual's construction have served as a significant foundation for those explaining how one learns during adulthood and serves to connect Piagetian theory with constructivism.
 
 

Construction Process

Key to an understanding of Piaget's initial description of the construction process are the terms "disequilibrium" and "equilibrium," "schemata," "dissonance," "accommodation," "assimilation."  According to Piagetian theory, learning takes place when humans, during interaction with their environment, experience an unsettling.  This unsettling or disequilibrium is brought about by information which appears to contradict their present constructed notions of their world.  This lack of fit between the humans' cognitive understanding or schemata and the new data results in dissonance between what is thought to be true and what now appears to challenge that perception.  The adjustment process that must take place to resolve the dissonance is accommodation (a cognitive adjustment) which allows the new information to be assimilated (taken in).  When cognitive stability is re-established, that balance is expressed as equilibrium (Slavin, 1988, pp. 22-24).

Refinement of the Cognitive Process

The process of construction, as explained above, is referred to by Fosnot as "a simple, static process."  Fosnot reports, however, that Piaget, much as he did his stage processes, altered the description of this process, recognizing its fluidity and complexity.  Before his death, Piaget came to see construction of knowledge as  "a dynamic equilibrium characterized by successive coordination and progressive equilibrations" (cited by Brooks and Brooks, 1993, p. 26).  (Note: Explore this construction process through a classroom illustration.)

Closing

While one recognizes that the developmental work done by Piaget is not an educational theory, it, in conjunction with work done by several other theorists, is linked to constructivist theory from which today's educators are drawing many implications for the teaching of adults.  Educators of adults find that Piaget's initial cognitive theory, as well as his later refinements of it, laid the ground work for two educational questions which had implications for the teaching of adult learners:   Could Piagetian theory usefully inform educational practice and, if so, how would one go about using it to promote and support learners' construction of higher order thinking skills, skills which today are seen as essential for adults in the 21st century?