From Curiosity to Confidence: Supporting Your Child’s Thinking with Piaget at Kintess School

Jean Piaget showed that children gradually build their understanding of the world, particularly through the concept of conservation, which reflects their cognitive development. Conservation is the ability to understand that certain properties of objects, such as number, volume, mass, or length, remain constant despite changes in appearance. At Kintess School, this understanding is fostered through hands-on experiences, creative projects, and guided explorations that emphasize confidence and risk-taking in learning.

During the preoperational stage, around ages 2 to 7, children often fail conservation tasks. For example, if two identical balls of clay are transformed, one into a long, thin roll and the other into a ball, the child may believe the elongated piece contains more clay. At Kintess, this stage is approached with practical activities that encourage children to manipulate, test, and compare different objects and liquids. Teachers create an environment where mistakes are seen as steps toward discovery, reinforcing children’s confidence and their willingness to take cognitive risks safely.

During the concrete operational stage, around ages 7 to 11, children consistently succeed at conservation tasks and develop key skills such as decentration, considering multiple aspects at once, and reversibility, understanding that certain actions can be undone. At Kintess School, children engage in collaborative projects and scientific experiments that require analysis, comparison, and multidimensional thinking. By experimenting with different solutions and sharing observations, they learn to assess risks, formulate hypotheses, and trust their own reasoning.

During the formal operational stage, from around age 12, children can apply logic to abstract and complex situations. Conservation is now mastered, but they are able to reason about hypothetical scenarios, plan, and predict outcomes. At Kintess, students are encouraged to take on multidisciplinary challenges and design creative projects, fostering autonomy, critical thinking, and thoughtful risk-taking. Teachers provide individual guidance to stimulate curiosity, strengthen confidence, and support flexible and independent reasoning.

At Kintess School, understanding Piaget’s developmental stages is not only a framework for teaching but also a way to create an environment where every child can explore, experiment, and grow in confidence. Age-appropriate activities help children move from intuition to logic while developing their ability to take intellectual risks, solve problems, and think critically. This approach supports both academic and personal success, preparing each student to become a confident and independent learner.

References

• Piaget, J. (1952). The Origins of Intelligence in Children. New York: International Universities Press.
• Piaget, J. (1965). The Child’s Conception of Number. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.