A paper presented at the Sri lanka Association for Advancement of Science annual session on 3rd December 2013

1. Applicability of Piaget’s Liquid
Conservation to Sri Lankan Children
T.Mukunthan
Dept. Early Childhood and primary Education
The Open University of Sri Lanka

2. Introduction
• Jean Piaget is the most renowned
developmental psychologist who studied how
children develop cognitively.
• Much of Piaget’s theory was found on the
problems he presented to children of different
ages.
• Based on this theory he described how
children develop cognitively through four
different stages.
December 5, 2013
T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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3. Introduction..
• Teacher training programmes too are greatly
influenced by Piaget’s Theory.
• The Open University of Sri Lanka conducts a
certificate programme for the Pre-School
teachers and ‘Development of mathematical
Skills’ (is a compulsory course in this
Programme.
• The content of this course is mainly based on
Piaget’s cognitive development theory.
December 5, 2013
T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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4. Introduction..
• Content of the subject Mathematical
concepts in the pre-School teacher training
programmes conducted by the National
Institute of Education and Eastern University
of Sri Lanka is also based on Piagetian
concepts.
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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5. Introduction..
• Piaget developed his theory of cognitive
development in a cultural context which is
dissimilar to Sri Lankan context.
• Nevertheless, the influence of Piaget’s
Cognitive development theory is evident in
early childhood education and primary
education.
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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6. Problem
• Considering the impact of Piaget’s Cognitive
Development Theory in the education of our
children and conclusions of studies conducted
on applicability of his theories to different
cultural contexts, the researcher feels that
the problem whether children’s conception of
‘liquid conservation’ is applicable to Sri Lankan
children should be investigated.
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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7. Conservation
Recognition that a physical property
remains untransformed despite
evidence.”
- Piaget(1941)
“
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8. Sample of this study
Age Group
Urban
Rural
Estates
Total
4-5
5
5
5
15
5-6
5
5
5
15
6-7
5
5
5
15
7-8
5
5
5
15
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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9. Procedure
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10. Procedure
• The child is first given two cylindrical
containers of equal dimensions (A1 and A2)
containing the same quantity of liquid (as
indicated by the levels).
• The contents of A2 are then poured into two
smaller containers of equal dimensions (B1
and B2) and the child to asked to whether the
quantity of liquid poured from A2 to into (B1 +
B2) is still equal to that in A1.
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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11. Results
Age
Urban
Rural
Estates
4-5 Years
0/5
0/5
0/5
5-6 Years
0/5
0/5
1/5
6-7 Years
1/5
0/5
1/5
7-8 Years
2/5
4/5
3/5
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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12. Findings
• The Chi-Squared Test applied to compare the
results of present study and jean Piaget’s
Study. The P value is greater than 0.05.
• Therefore it can be concluded that there is no
significance difference between both findings.
December 5, 2013
T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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13. Findings
• Kruskal-Wills test applied for test the
differences between the sectors.
• The P value is greater than 0.05. Therefore,
there is no significant difference among the
sectors for the Piaget’s liquid conservation
task.
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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14. Conclusion
• The Jean Piaget’s conservation of liquid task is
applicable in Sri lanka.
• There is no significant difference among the
sectors for this task.
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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15. THANK YOU
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T.Mukunthan, SLAAS
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