Argument and Islamization of Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development

Cognitive theory is a learning theory of psychology that attempts to explain human behavior by understanding the thought processes. According to Piaget’s theory, he described four stages of cognitive development and relates them to a person's ability to understand and assimilate new information which are Sensorimotor (Birth-2 years), Pre-operational (2-7 years), Concrete operational (7-11 years) and Formal operational (11 years and up). Piaget focused on the maturational factors affecting understanding. The accommodation/ assimilation dialectic is the part most useful for understanding grown learners. 

On the other hand, there are some arguments that conflict to Piaget’s theory. Vygotsky believed that learning is shaped by social impact and that our culture helps shape our cognition. In other words, cultural and social influences are key elements to developing intelligence because children learn through their social interactions and their individual culture. Basically, what Vygotsky is trying to explain here is that social interaction plays an important role in the surroundings of children and that it is valued by the children, i.e. one's development is the result of one's culture. Vygotsky also believes that learning happens before development can occur while Piaget believed that development had to occur before learning could take place. He also suggests that children learn specifically because of the history and symbolism represented in their cultures. 

Turning to Islamic viewpoint, we cannot believe the Piaget’s theory all around. Though most of people’s development would be like the 4 stages of Piaget, there are some exceptions such as in case of Prophet Jesus. The prophet could speak and interact with people since he was in a cradle. From the case, it can be clearly argued that not all the children can speak after year of 2 as staged in Sensorimotor Stage.  Another case is reciting and conserving Quran of children. Normally, our children are encouraged to recite some simple Surah such as Al-Fatihah since 4 0r 5 years. Thus, it means children are able to memorize and conserve in this age. Moreover, some scholar such as Imam Syfiee and Imam Ghazali started memorizing Quran since the age under 10 years. These examples approve that piaget’s theory cannot be completely used.

To conclude, even theory of Piaget has been popular, there are some arguments in some states in both viewpoint of secular and spiritual aspect. Consequently, we should not believe at all without consideration to the principles of truth and comparing with the things that actually happened before.