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Although some of Piaget's ideas are similar to those of Lev Vygotsky, Piaget was apparently unaware of Vygotsky's work. Originally a marine biologist, with a specialization in the molluscs of Lake Geneva, he embarked on his studies of developmental biology when he observed the way his infant daughters came to grips with and then mastered the world around them.
Piaget's theories of psychological development have proved influential. Among others, the philosopher and social theorist Jürgen Habermas has incorporated them into his work, most notably in The Theory of Communicative Action .
Piaget also had a considerable impact in the field of computer science. Seymour Papert used Piaget's work while developing the Logo programming languageThe Logo programming language is an adaptation by Wally Feurzeig and Seymour Papert of the Lisp programming language that is easier to read. One could say that Logo is Lisp without the parentheses. Today, it is known principally for its "turtle graphics",. Alan KayAlan Kay is an American computer scientist. He joined Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center ( PARC) in 1970. In the seventies he was one of the key members there to develop prototypes of networked workstations using the programming language Smallt used Piaget's theories as the basis for the DynabookThe Dynabook was a conceptual system proposed by Xerox PARC in the late 60s and early 70s. The ideas behind it led to the development of the Alto prototype, which embodied all the elements of a graphical use interface or GUI as early as 1972. The software programming system concept, which was first discussed within the confines of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, or Xerox PARCXerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) was a flagship research division of the Xerox Corporation, based in Palo Alto, California, USA. It was founded in 1970 and spun out as a separate company in 2002. PARC's founding director, George Pake, was an outstan. These discussions led to the development of the Alto prototype, which explored for the first time all the elements of the GUI, or Graphical User Interface, and influenced the creation of user interfaces in the 1980's and beyond.
PIAGET POSTCARD A "Piaget Postcard" written by Leslie Smith is available on:
http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html
with a fuller summary of Piaget's work and achievements. Anyone who - like Oliver Twist - still wants more is welcome to read:
Smith, L. (1997). Jean Piaget. In N. Sheehy, A. Chapman. W.Conroy (eds). Biographical dictionary of psychology. London: Routledge. Smith, L. (2001). Jean Piaget. In J. A. Palmer (ed) 50 Modern thinkers on education: from Piaget to the present. London: Routledge