Piaget montessori: Comparison of Piaget, Vygotsky, Montessori on Early Childhood Education Theories

Comparison of Piaget, Vygotsky, Montessori on Early Childhood Education Theories

Piaget’s Theory of Development

Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, developed several key concepts. First, “schemas” involve the physical and mental actions in learning, understanding, and knowing. Schemas involve anything a child is learning about. If the child’s family has a cat, they develop a schema about felines: small, fluffy, cute, makes purring sounds.

If the child goes to the zoo with their family and they see the tigers’ cage, they may be surprised at the size of those cats. This forces them to modify an existing schema about cats. Now, they need to add new information about the large size of tigers and lions. Mentally, they will modify that previous schema so they can easily include the new information.

Next, Piaget said that children who are adding new information to a schema are assimilating that information. Children try to modify information or their experiences so that they fit into beliefs they already hold.

Next, they attempt to create a comfortable balance between assimilation and accommodation, using a process called equilibration. As children move through each stage of cognitive development, they work at keeping that balance between using new knowledge and changing their behavior/schema to account for new knowledge they have learned (assimilation and accommodation). By using equilibration, children can progress more easily from one developmental stage of thought and into the next one.

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Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Development

Vygotsky’s theory differs a little because he says that social interaction has a strong influence on how children develop cognitively. Children rely on people or devices with knowledge they don’t yet have.

The adult, more experienced peer, or (in today’s world) an electronic learning device is referred to as the More Knowledgeable Other or MKO. A teen or adult child can be an MKO to an adult who wants to learn something new about teen culture or a new electronic device.

Learners work within a Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD. This zone consists of three circles, with 2 inside the outermost circle. Within the smallest, interior circle, is what the child already knows. The next, larger circle contains information that the child still doesn’t know but is capable of learning with assistance from an MKO. The largest, exterior circle consists of information, skills, or knowledge that the child can’t yet learn, even with help.

Vygotsky believed that the MKO should teach the learner only what is within reach, in the zone of proximal development, with guidance and encouragement. The MKO demonstrates the new skill, then begins to guide the child through each step, and then the student can progress to more complicated skills that were previously out of range for them.

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Montessori Theory

After Montessori was able to successfully treat mentally disabled children who were thought to be impossible to educate, she decided she wanted to determine the potential of regular children who had no problems learning.

Working with children living in the San Lorenz slum, she developed her own theory, which is based on Periods of Development. She proposed the idea of Conducive Learning, where children were grouped based on periods of development. Children are grouped in three-year or six-year spans and work with the same teacher during this period.

The youngest group (Nido) is aged 0 to 1, or until the child is walking. The second group is the Infant Community, aged 1 to about 2 and a half or three. Group three is the “Casa dei Bambini,” aged 2.5 or 3 to 6.

Group four covers a wider age range, from 6 to 12. The children in this group have the same learning habits and tendencies. Their emotional and physical growth tends to be steadier, and their intellectual work is strong. In this group, the younger children are inspired by and learn from the older children. Finally, the next grouping is 12 to 15-year-olds. Montessori proposed a farm school for this age group, giving the children real farm work to do.

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Stages vs. Planes of Development

Piaget based his theory on what he saw as a child’s stages of development. These included:

• Sensorimotor, from birth to 2 years. They use their senses to learn about the world.
• Preoperational Period, from 2 to 7 years. They learn and develop language and learning skills, but are self-centered, and can’t understand abstract reasoning or logic.
• Concrete Operational Period, from 7 to 11 years. Now they think logically and organize their knowledge. They classify objects and work on thought problems.
• Formal Operations Period, 11 to 15. The child starts reasoning more realistically about their future and deals better with abstractions.

Montessori worked using her own Planes of Development. These included:

• Birth to 3 years: An absorbent mind, learning from the sensory
• 18 months to 3 years: Begins muscle development and working on coordination – Likes smaller objects
• 2 to 4 years: Refines movements – Focuses on truth and reality – Develops awareness of order sequences in time and space
• 2.5 to 6 years: Sensory refinement
• 3 to 6 years: Becoming susceptible to adult influence
• 3.5 to 4.5 years: Works on writing
• 4 to 4.4 years: Tactile senses begin to mature
• 4.5 to 5.5 years: Works on reading

Piaget vs. Vygotsky

Piaget didn’t spend much time thinking about a child’s social context. Instead, he believed that their cognitive development revolves around changes in the cognitive process and the child’s abilities. Early cognitive development uses processes based on actions, then progresses to changes in mental operations.

He used schemas or categorization to explain how children learn, using both the physical and mental in learning. Within schemas, assimilation and accommodation also take place. Children also place already-known information with newly learned information in a process called equilibration. In his theory of child and human development babies, toddlers, preschoolers, children, teens, and young adults progress through four stages of learning and development. He said that the early cognitive development of a child involves processes that are based on actions. This development then progresses into changes in mental operations.

Vygotsky believed that social interactions have a big influence on the development of cognition. He also felt that the community surrounding a child holds a role in how children make meaning out of everything they see, learn, feel, and hear.

He introduced the More Knowledgeable Other as a source of experience and learning for a child. This MKO can be a parent, teacher, or relative of the child. This person can also be a younger child or teen who teaches an older adult or family friend about using electronics or learning a new dance, for instance.

Next, he introduced the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in where the most sensitive guidance should be provided, allowing the child to learn by practicing.

What Do They have in Common?

Between Piaget and Montessori, both psychologists believe that young children begin to work on the refinement of their movements early. At 3.5 to 7 years (covering the developmental periods for both professionals), children begin to develop drawing and writing skills.

While Vygotsky didn’t divide child development into age groups, he did believe that a child could progress to this stage if that was what was culturally expected of him. If the majority of children in a certain age group know a certain skill, then one of them, or a teacher-figure, will act as the MKO for that child and he will inevitably also learn that skill.

In all three theories, the psychologists say that every child begins to learn about their world by using their senses. Vygotsky calls it “making meaning.” Piaget says that children obtain knowledge or their environment through the five senses.

Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is similar to Montessori’s Planes of Development and Piaget gives each developmental stage a name (sensorimotor, preoperational, formal operations).

Likewise, Vygotsky’s ZPD has an outer ring that denotes all the information that a child is not yet ready to learn. Montessori’s planes of development show that some learning may be out of reach of children at various stages. Piaget does the same thing, noting that there are things children can’t learn until they reach a certain cognitive level.

Image from http://steppingstonesoflearning.blogspot.com

How These Theories Manifest in the Classroom

Children are social creatures. When they start school, they are one of 20 or more other students who are ready to begin formal learning.

Montessori created a model for learning that is known the world over. Montessori-based schools exist in most communities around the world. Individual classrooms and teachers in a Montessori school don’t teach traditionally. Instead, they are based on conducive learning, with multi-aged groups. The teacher doesn’t actively teach the entire classroom. Instead, they have a more generalized lesson plan. They introduce children to a concept using a book, lesson, or lecture. As the children learn, individually and with older children, they process the information, then “know” the knowledge and demonstrate this by passing a test, completing a project, expressing what they have learned, or by teaching another student.

Montessori said that children are always learning something new, which prepares them to learn another new thing. This is indirect learning. The entire class isn’t learning the same thing as classmates; they are working at their own pace, using the environment, and working with other classmates. The teacher teaches one child at a time. All areas of study link together and students can work on them in the order they choose.

In Piaget’s theory, assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration all work in a classroom setting. Children learn something new in the primary grades; as they progress grade by grade, they encounter the same information at a higher level of difficulty.

Vygotsky’s theory relies much more on the social interactions between children, adults, and society in general. Because of the social networks between children and their families, children can go to someone they know to ask for help in learning something new.

Constructivism Explained

“Constructivism” is a learning theory that says humans construct their knowledge using hands-on experience rather than being taught abstract concepts from books. The teacher who uses constructivism in teaching students does everything they can to give students hands-on experiences, using people and objects. The teacher also asks students to use any skills they have already learned.

It’s a constructivist learning process to use materials to learn about assembly lines and what working conditions were like when assembly lines were most in use.

When the teacher has students use wrapping paper to determine whether it’s sufficient to wrap two cans, students put together a mathematical formula to determine a cylinder’s area.

It’s also constructivist to have students read persuasive articles, decide which of the articles have features that make them the most effective, and then create a rubric that includes all of those qualities for their own persuasive papers. Once they have written their reports out, they will be assigned to read more persuasive papers so they can fine-tune their criteria even more.

Maria Montessori was a constructivist. She wrote, “Education is not something which the teacher does, but a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. ”

Lev Vygotsky was another constructivist. He wrote, “A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what he has experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions he has acquired. He combines them and uses them to construct a new reality.”

Jean Piaget was also a constructivist and said, “Each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely.”

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Play-Based Learning vs. Montessori – West Allen

Who were Piaget and Montessori?

A Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, identified different stages of mental growth of children. A child’s main concern in the early years was learning about physical objects and gaining motor control. As he grows, the child becomes more intrigued by communication–verbal skills, words, writing, and learning to read. As time goes on, abstract concepts such as relationships and logical reasoning are introduced and dealt with by the child.  Piaget’s method is most often called “hands on”, “theme based” or “center based” learning.

An Italian woman, Marie Montessori, developed a successful teaching method for working with mentally handicapped children who had very short attention spans. Her method today focuses on giving children a great deal of freedom and requiring only a brief attention span. When interested, a child may choose an activity to participate in and is free to leave the activity when interest decreases. Montessori believes a child can learn from self-discovery alone and without direction from a teacher.

Montessori’s and Piaget’s methods are very similar for children under the age of three. Emphasizing the development of motor skills using manipulative or “hands on” activities and lessons, both methods give children the freedom of choice and movement and are appropriate for a child’s short attention span. The methods differ in Piaget’s (Kids ‘R’ Kids) use of a scheduled naptime where all children lay down for a quiet time whereas Montessori’s method allows children to determine for themselves whether or not they need a nap. Piaget does not have older children in the toddler’s classrooms whereas Montessori often groups two-year-olds through five-year-olds together in the same classroom.

The differences in the teaching philosophies of Montessori and Piaget become apparent at preschool age. The child chooses what he wants to do and for how long in the “child-directed” activities of a Montessori classroom.

Kids ‘R’ Kids Piaget classrooms have advanced academic materials, teacher-directed lessons and incorporates “child-directed” activities as well. Routine is established to acknowledge there is a “time” to teach math, a “time” to do music, etc.  “Finishing your work” is a life skill concept developed. It is believed that routine helps children develop an inner self-discipline, though flexibility strongly remains in this method. The Piaget philosophy of learning better prepares children for the rigorous and high expectations of education from primary school through the college years and beyond.

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UNDER THE AGE OF THREE:

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academies (Piaget)

• Uses manipulative or “hands on” activities to emphasize motor and verbal skill development. Lessons give children relative freedom of movement.
• Both child-directed and teacher-directed.  Playtime, teaching time and naps occur on a schedule.
• Follows the “Love and Logic” method of Redirection as a discipline tool.
• Children are grouped by age.

Montessori

• Child-directed.  No scheduled learning times. When and how long to learn, play and nap is determined by child.
• Uses manipulative or “hands on” activities to emphasize motor and verbal skill development.
• Lessons allow relative freedom of movement for children.
• Grouped in mixed ages: children from 2 years through 5 years are together.
• No specific discipline tool, self-education experienced through self-correcting.

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OVER THE AGE OF THREE:

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academies (Piaget)

• Both child-directed and teacher-directed
• Age-specific Curriculum and Classrooms
• Role-play and realistic social experiences encouraged
• Research-Based, hands-on method of teaching is adapted to each individual child’s needs
• Follows the “Love and Logic” method of Redirection as a tool for discipline
• Freedom to speak (without disturbing others) as he pleases
• Freedom to explore and move about the classroom while also having scheduled circle times

Montessori

• Child-directed only
• Children of various ages in the same classroom
• Less social experiences allowed, more individualized learning
• Unstructured and flexible method of teaching
• No specific discipline tool, self-education experienced through self-correcting
• Silence is encouraged even at times of snack and lunch
• No scheduled learning times

M.

Montessori and L.A. Wenger

There are books that constitute an important stage in the development of Russian psychology. Among them is a book by L.A. Wenger “Perception and Learning”, which was published in 1969 in a considerable circulation – 40 thousand copies, but soon became a bibliographic rarity. The special significance of this book lies in the fact that it allows, at a new theoretical level, to conduct a discussion on the problem of sensory education (sensory culture) of preschool children with the outstanding teacher of the 20th century, Maria Montessori.

Her didactic system is known all over the world. In recent years, it has found more and more supporters in our country, both among teachers and psychologists. At one time, M. Montessori had a decisive influence on the formation of the scientific views of J. Piaget. J. Piaget made the first discoveries in the field of the development of children’s logic in a kindergarten, which worked according to the M. Montessori system. It was there that he was able to isolate and measure the egocentric speech of the child. There he was able to observe how the child spontaneously learns to perform the operations of classification and seriation. It was the didactic material of M. Montessori that served for J. Piaget as the basis for creating his own original tasks for preserving the properties of an object during its spatial transformation. J. Piaget, like M. Montessori, argued that the child’s psyche develops through actions with objects, spontaneously and independently of purposeful learning. The task of adults is only to organize a developing subject environment.

It can be said that J. Piaget extracted from M. Montessori’s system what was already potentially present in it and in a new way comprehended the ways and methods of development of the child’s mind intuitively outlined by it.

Another approach to the analysis of M. Montessori’s system is contained in the theory of sensory education, which is presented in the already mentioned book by L. A. Wenger. Along with the advantages of M. Montessori’s didactics, he draws attention to the shortcomings and “narrowness” of her system, which are useful to understand for everyone who today, focusing on the bright, attractive features of M. Montessori’s didactic material, is trying to reproduce her system in a modern kindergarten without adjustment corresponding to the current state of science.

L.A. Wenger emphasizes that the fundamental drawback of M. Montessori’s system is “the lack of teaching children rational ways of performing tasks, purposeful formation of perceptual actions in them to examine the properties and relationships presented in the material” (p. 314)

In the theory of L.A. For Wenger, perception as the highest mental function is mediated. In its formation, the decisive role is played by the use of sensory standards and the construction of models of the relations of the selected properties of objects. The didactic material developed by M. Montessori consists of “abstract” objects, which are the standards of certain qualities of objects. The child, examining these objects themselves, singles out the corresponding qualities, but does not use them in solving problems of a practical and cognitive nature. That is why L.A. Wenger emphasizes that “to acquaint children with the material of the standards does not mean to equip them with the standards themselves” (ibid.).

L.A. Wenger and a group of employees identified the main tasks of educating sensory culture and the corresponding levels of perceptual development of the child from birth to entering school.

Further concretization of this program, its enrichment with didactic materials made at a high professional level, wider implementation of his ideas into life would be a worthy monument to our Teacher and Friend – Leonid Abramovich Wenger! And, of course, a speedy reprint of his book is needed. Today it will be perceived as a model of scientific research and will help young psychologists overcome the attitude towards only a diagnostic examination of the child.

Jean Piaget’s Experiments in Modern Performance / Maria Montessori Pedagogy Journal: Articles, Reviews and News

Yulia Yadrikhinskaya

The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget believed that it was useless for a teacher to give children ready-made mathematical concepts. Such an approach leads only to rote learning, not understanding. A participant in the informal educational program of the Montessori Club magazine recently conducted a series of experiments by Jean Piaget with her pupil Fedor (4.5 years old).

Yulia Yadrikhinskaya – a quote from the reflection after the Meeting of the 2nd informal Program of the Montessori Club magazine “Understanding Mathematics. Montessori method

Experience 1. Correlation of “1” to “1”.

I laid out eight beige pieces on the table. She asked Fedya to get the same number of brown rectangles out of the box. Fedor’s actions: he counted the beige pieces and continued to lay out the brown ones in the same line, resetting the count. Fedya began to count the brown pieces separately: “one, two …. eight.” I settled on eight, although there were still brown rectangles in the box.

Following the explanation of Jean Piaget, it would seem that we can conclude that Fedyusha has reached the third stage of development in the formation of the concept of number. He does not care about the visual correlation of the first and second types of pieces, their location relative to each other is not significant. Fedya focuses in comparing quantities only on the account. But there are certain subtleties in this point, which Piaget says: “Children must grasp the principle of the conservation of quantity before they can form the concept of number. But, of course, the conservation of quantity in itself is not a numerical concept; it is rather a logical concept. So these experiments in the field of child psychology throw some light on the epistemology of the concept of number, which was the subject of study.

It turns out that Fedya followed a certain mathematical logic in his calculations, but the result of the experiment does not yet indicate the end of the child’s formation of a stable, three-dimensional concept of number.

Experiment 2. Children’s angle of view

I am sitting at the table opposite Fedya. Between us is a wall of mountains made of paper. We both see this ridge in a mutually inverse perspective. I ask Fedyusha to choose from several drawings one that corresponds to his own view of the mountain range, and one – to her view from my position (I am sitting opposite him).

Fedya chooses the right drawing, the contour of the mountains on which corresponds to his vision at the moment. Sitting in my place, Fedya still chose a drawing corresponding to his point of deployment.

Young children think that all points of view are like their own. This is an example of children’s self-centered thinking, preventing them from accepting that there can be more than one point of view. In the first moment, Fedya chose the option that corresponded to my point of view, but quickly changed his mind. His initial perception turned out to be so stable, stable and priority.

This experience proves that the perception of space for a child is much more complicated than mathematical calculation.

Experiment 3. Beginning of measurements

I built a tower of yellow cylinders on a low chair for children. I ask Fedya to build on another chair (higher, which I am silent about) a red tower of the same height.

I supply Fedya with measuring instruments: a centimeter tape (previously instructed and measured a number of objects), wooden rods with divisions into decimeters.

The measuring tape was too complicated. We carried out measurements of the towers by joint efforts. F. I. did an excellent job with the bars himself. It is noteworthy that with their help, Fedya noticed an error in our measurements with a centimeter. After all, the centimeter is soft, curving. And the bars are absolutely straight. Numerical bars allowed Fedor to independently and accurately determine the slight difference in the height of the towers.

I am glad that Fedor agreed to participate in this really difficult experience for him. The words of Jean Piaget explain this fact: “measurement develops later than the concept of number, because it is more difficult to divide a continuous whole into interchangeable units than to enumerate already divided elements.”

When we put a centimeter tape on the red tower and counted each centimeter aloud, Fedya could see, but, most likely, did not realize the divisibility of the tower into elements, in this case, into centimeters. The tower is a kind of continuous whole, which we divided by simply attaching a tape with divisions and sounding each part with numbers from 1 to 27. The red tower was measured in a similar way, finding the similarity in height, expressed in one number.

Experience 4. Measurements in two directions. Dot on Sheet

I drew a dot on the left side of the sheet. Fedi’s task is to draw a dot on the next sheet in exactly the same place. Measuring tools can be used. First Fedyusha took the rope. But then he put it off. Then I attached a ruler. But I did not measure it, but simply put it on a sheet. I drew the point with precision. Very close to the original. Fedya focused mainly on his eyesight and experience in drawing. Never before had such a task been set before a child.

It turns out that in this experiment Fedya showed a good result without the use of measuring instruments. To complete the task, the child had enough visual assessment of the location of the point on the sheet on the left and the ability to copy it to another sheet. A high degree of similarity in the position of the points indicates Fedor’s developed eye, his ability to adequately assess the situation and boldly implement the task in quick action.

Fedya still cannot divide the measurement into horizontal and vertical. Never did it. Not knowing the concepts of the height and width of the sheet, allowing you to get the exact coordinates of the point, however, the child coped with the task by 90 percent. How?

Cursed skill is present. Is this a skill we have worked out in drawing? Fedya has impressive experience, about four years with a pencil and a brush in his hands. In happy moments of creativity, I shared with Fedyusha my experience of perceiving the world around us. She conveyed information not only with words, but also with gestures, facial expressions, and emotions. There was a Refinement of feelings, not verified by the mind, but inspired by the joy of comprehension.

Experiment 5. Checking the perception of projective structures

I placed two wooden blocks at a distance of one meter. Fedi’s task is to build the most even fence. Fedyusha quickly understood the task and coped with it quite well. Although the fence is not perfectly flat and has curves.

I can conclude that the child sees the topological patterns of the surrounding space quite well. Fedya’s fence elements are connected by the relationship of proximity and the projection of the line. The waviness tells us about the skill that has not yet been finally formed to build projections. The perception of projective structures is in the boy’s stage of development.

I would like to note that the understanding of perspective and the ability to convey it in still life and landscape are two different things. In addition to knowledge, talent is important in this matter. Interestingly, at different times, artists followed a certain fashion in the transfer of perspective. Russian icons were created according to certain canons. One of them is a reverse perspective, when objects increase when removed, and the vanishing point of the lines is the viewer. This deliberate distortion of space is a unique pictorial technique. Thanks to the reverse perspective, the viewer has the feeling that the face of the saint is turned specifically to him. It’s real magic when you feel the eyes on you, directed at you from time immemorial.

“Academician Boris Raushenbakh made a great contribution to the understanding of reverse perspective. He solved the problem of the accuracy of spacecraft docking. In these searches, he studied perspective in painting, including in the icon. Experiments showed that in reality we see perspective not just as it seems to us. When looking into the distance, direct perspective works, but if the object is near us, the eye gives a distortion that resembles reverse perspective. Children in all countries, in all cultures, most often draw objects in reverse perspective. It is believed that in children, the angle of distortion is even higher than in adults. The world was also depicted by naive artists who were not told about the straight line” (art critic Anastasia Mamaeva “Russian Icon Painting”).

Modern tradition suggests that artists use the laws of direct perspective in their works. “Recall that direct perspective is when all objects decrease as they move away from the viewer and the lines converge at one point on the horizon. Renaissance artists discovered direct perspective only in the 15th century. They were helped in this by the camera obscura – the prototype of the camera. Then it was is new, and artists have used direct perspective in all paintings, gradually making it familiar.Today it seems to us that the world looks like this, and all other options are wrong.0003

However, before the Renaissance, direct perspective was not known. Even ancient art, which strove to convey reality, could not deduce the laws of the “correct” perspective, although there were attempts” (Anastasia Mamaeva).

Objects in the background of the child’s drawing are no less than objects close to us.As if the child emphasizes their equality regardless of the distance.In the children’s drawing, priority is given to the semantic load of the subject, the location in space is secondary.

Experiment 6. Studying the child’s discovery of maintaining distance

Between two toy cars, located half a meter apart, Feda suggested building a wall of blocks. She asked the question: “Are the cars at the same distance from each other as before the construction of the wall?”

Fedyusha began to compare two parts of the distance with his hands. Before the wall, and after. The measure of length is the palm. Analyzed which distance is greater, which is less. I found that the distance from the car to the wall is less on the left than on the right. The wall seemed to block the child’s ability to see the total distance between objects. Then I used the stencil as a measuring device.

Fedya couldn’t answer my question. Children under the age of seven do not reach the principle of conservation of length. Thinking has not yet matured to such generalizations. But Fedya solved the problem in his own way. Not confused. It is not until around the age of seven that children come to understand that intermediate elements (the wall) do not change the distance between objects.

I wonder why the first geometric discoveries, according to Piaget, are topological? I believe, because the child feels his presence in space and analyzes his surroundings with interest.

There are plenty of spaces in the house: bedroom, playroom, dining room, hallway, bathroom. And how many discoveries are waiting for the baby on the street! Yard, playground, sky with an airplane flying in the distance. “I wonder why the airplane is so small?”, the child probably thinks. sides with bedspreads. An unexpected decrease in space gave a feeling of mystery, mystery. There is another favorite game with space, when children get the opportunity to feel like Gulliver. They just loved to look through the hole into the box with their friends, and there was a whole world in the box! The walls of the box are covered with wallpaper, miniature toy furniture, characters… We created plots, events in this tiny world. And it was precisely the play with space that fascinated us. Sunlight penetrated through the hole in the lid and in the wall. The world we created came to life. Miracle.

Jean Piaget’s experiments with Fedya made it possible to shed light on deep thought processes. The potential of a young child to master mathematical concepts is amazing and fragile.