Most beginning students of psychology and education have little or no opportunity to directly observe clinical interviews as described by Jean Piaget and his collaborators. These productions are the next best thing to one-way mirror observations. The Classic Piaget series allows students to see many of the clever situations used to study the development of cognition.

Piaget had to develop new vocabulary to express the discoveries he made about the development of human cognition.  With these videos, generations of students have been able to experience the clinical interviews upon which he based his theories. The English subtitled MEMORY AND INTELLIGENCE gives students the very rare experience of attending a Jean Piaget lecture themselves.

The CLASSIC PIAGET SERIES is available in two DVD compilations containing 3 films each. DVD #1 is comprised of Growth of Intelligence in the Preschool Years, Classification and Conservation.  DVD #2 contains Formal Reasoning Patterns, Morality: The Process of Moral Development, and Memory and Intelligence.

DVD NO. 1

Truly a landmark series, these films have introduced generations of students to the work of Jean Piaget.  Because he was breaking new ground, Piaget had to invent a whole new vocabulary, which makes his written works very hard for readers new to the field.  However his wonderfully ingenious “clinical interviews” he used for his research are very illustrative of his theories.  These films enable students to see children reacting to them as conducted by prominent Piagetian professors.  The voice-over narration defines terms and points viewers to the concepts being demonstrated.

GROWTH OF INTELLIGENCE IN THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

With Celia Stendler Lavatelli, Ph.D.

Children from infancy to six years of age perform tasks designed by Jean Piaget and his collaborators which reveal how intellectual thought develops and manifests itself in early childhood. Dr. Celia Stendler Lavatelli narrates.

Content:

Schema

Clinical interview           

            Sensiormotor stage

                        assimulation/accommodation

                        Physical exploration-

            Permanent object

            Pre-operational stage

                        Conservation tasks

                        Classification tasks

                        Seriation tasks

Visuals: Children from eight months through six years of age responding to these tasks

(1974) 31 minutes   

Visit our Support Materials section to view or download the Learning Guide and Discussion Topics for this film.

CLASSIFICATION

With Robert Karplus, Ph.D. and  Celia Stendler Lavatelli, Ph.D.

Drs. Robert Karplus and Celia Stendler Lavatelli use Piagetian classification tasks to demonstrate how children’s ability to use categories develops during middle childhood.

Three stages of reasoning:

                        Pre-operations

                        Concrete operations

                        Formal reasoning

            Classification tasks-each type more challenging

                        Multiple

                        Class inclusion

                        Hierarchical

Visuals: Children of four years to eleven years of age responding to these tasks

(1968) 16 minutes 

Visit our Support Materials section to view or download the Learning Guide and Discussion Topics for this film.

CONSERVATION

With Robert Karplus, Ph.D. and  Celia Stendler Lavatelli, Ph.D.

Children between the ages of five and twelve perform tasks dealing with quantity, length, area and volume to illustrate the Piagetian concept of conservation. The children’s differing approaches to the tasks are discussed by Dr. Robert Karplus and Celia Stendler Lavatelli.

Content:

            Three stages of reasoning:

                        Pre-operations

                        Concrete operations

                        Formal reasoning

            Conservation tasks- children may respond at different levels to the different tasks

                        Need to not be swayed by perception but by ability to reverse operations

                        Of length

                        Of volume both of liquids and solids

                        Of area

 Visuals: Children of 6 years to twelve years of age responding to these tasks

(1968) 29 minutes

Visit our Support Materials section to view or download the Learning Guide and Discussion Topics for this film. 

Consultants:

            Cecelia Stendler Lavatelli, Ph.D. was a professor of education at the University of Illinois, Urbana.  She was important in bringing Piaget’s work to the attention of educators and psychologists during the 1960’s and 1970’s and wrote several textbooks and many articles on early education, language studies and cognitive development.

            Robert Karplus, Ph.D., started his academic career as a celebrated physicist and only later became interested in science education and Piaget’s developmental theories.  In this new career he eventually became Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Berkeley.

ALL 3 FILMS: $250.

ISBN: 1-891340-50-6    

[ BACK TO TOP ]

Visit our Support Materials section to view or download the Learning Guide and Discussion Topics for this film.

MORALITY: THE PROCESS OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

With Elliot Turiel, Ph.D.

This film identifies the progress of moral thinking starting in preschool years and continuing to its unfolding in young adults. Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages are illustrated through an interview conducted by Drs. Susan De Merresmen-Warren and Elliot Turiel. Note: Davidson Films offers a more recent film on this subject, also with Dr. Turiel, Morality: Judgments and Action.

Content:

            Definition of morality

            Piaget’s study of the development of morality

            Turiel’s work on morality versus convention

            Damon’s work on children’s justice (sharing scenarios)

            Kohlberg’s Hans interview-adolescents on justice

Visuals: Clinical interviews of people from four years of age through 24 showing the progression of moral reasoning. 

(1978) 28 minutes   

Visit our Support Materials section to view or download the Learning Guide and Discussion Topics for this film.

MEMORY AND INTELLIGENCE

Jean Piaget presents his work on this intriguing subject at a conference in Kyoto in 1971. Carefully translated English subtitles accompany Dr. Piaget’s presentation in French.

(1973) 44 minutes   

Content:

            Passive versus active education

            Three forms of Memory

                        Recognition-most accurate

                        Reconstruction

                        Evocation-least accurate                                                

            False memory with a personal example

            Tasks used longitudinally to understand how memory gets reconstructed as children develop higher levels of reasoning

                        Seriation of sticks

                        Conservation of liquid

Visuals: Jean Piaget presents a speech in French to an audience at an early education conference in Kyoto, Japan in 1971.  The film is subtitled in English. 

Consultants:

            Robert Karplus, Ph.D., started his academic career as a renown physicist and only later became interested in science education and Piaget’s developmental theories.  He was involved in many national programs to improve science education. In this new career he eventually became Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Berkeley.  

            Rita Peterson, Ph.D. was the Director of Research in Science Education at the National Science Foundation and the Director of Teacher Education at the University of California, Irvine where she continues to teach.  

Elliot Turiel, Ph.D. His current title is Chancellor’s Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley.  He teaches courses on human development.  His most recent book is The Culture of Morality: Social Development, Context and Conflict, c. 2002. 

Jean Piaget, Ph.D., was the preeminent developmental psychologist of his time.  His work on the developmental of logical thinking has had a great impact on constructivistic education and cognitive psychology.  He lived and worked for most of his life in Geneva, Switzerland and wrote numerous books and articles.  He died in l980.

ALL 3 FILMS: $250.

ISBN: 1-891340-51-4      

[ BACK TO TOP ]