Ron Good Department of Science Education E. K. Mellon Department of Chemistry and Robert A. Kromhout Department of Physics The Florida State University Tallahassee Florida 32306
The Work of Jean Piaget
Piaget is recognized as the Ieading theorist in developmental It is somewhat ironic that a person trained in psychology today. the natural sciences wouldeventually dominate a socialscience field.
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Presenting a resource paper on a theory of developmental psychology in a journal designed for college and high school chemistry teachers would have seemed unlikely a decade or so ago. It has, however, become increasingly clear that the work of Jean Piaget has relevance for the field of chemical education as well as other subject matter fields that require logical, abstract thought. Of particular interest to the chemical educator is Piaget's work on the growth of logical thought ("formal operational thought" in Piaget's terms) in the adolescent and young adult. This paper deals with Piaget's research and theory over the past five decades. The purpose of this paper is to identify important aspects of the man's work and refer the reader to sources readily available in bonks and periodicals. These are outlined in the Annotated Bibliography a t the end of the paper.
Background It is a notable achievement to remain active in one's field for over half a century. I t is a rarity to find such a person who also maintains high quality work and creative leadership for such a long period of time. Jean Piaget, Swiss developmental psychologist and genetic epistemologist is one of those rare
' l ' l ~ i a papw ii the iirth in ;i i t r i p , uf llt- , u r w Pdprr-. m. ~cnclrd~vlrnnrilyfs,r ndlrre .and iun~\rrsitytvarhrra. Thc ~ ~ ~ ~ l h c~,ilh!s i ~ t i-rr~cs m 1s -Wptvled i n p ~ r I)!l a g r ~ n 1t w t n the Research Corporation. Ron Good received the PhD degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and began his work in science education at Florida State University in 1968. He has written numenus articles a n the nature of science learning and his most recent book. "How Children Learn Science" aoolies manv
mal thought and how the content of science can be used tofaeilitate such thinking. E. K. Mellon received the PhD at the University of Texas (Austin) in 1963. After a year as instructor of St. Edward's University (Au~tin), he was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the Universitv of Michiran (Ann Arbor). He has been cochemical education. Robert A. Kromhout has taught physics for more than 26 years, and for 22 years at Florida State. He obtained his BS at Kansas State University (then College) in 1948, and his PhD at the University of Illinois in 19%. His research interests are phase transitions theory, effects of van der Wads interactions, and pedagogy. 688 / Journal of Chemical Education
individuals. He is recognized as the leading theorist in develo~mentalpsvcholoav todav and his voluminous, authoritative work 'il
