Jean Piaget: The Father of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was a pioneering Swiss psychologist and epistemologist whose work revolutionized our understanding of child development. Unlike previous theorists who viewed children as "miniature adults" or passive learners, Piaget proposed that children actively construct their understanding of the world through experience and interaction. Early Life and Career Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Piaget was a child prodigy who published his first scientific paper on mollusks at age 11. He earned a doctorate in zoology but eventually shifted his focus to psychology and epistemology (the study of knowledge). While working in Paris with Alfred Binet, the creator of intelligence testing, Piaget made a crucial observation: children of different ages consistently made similar types of errors on IQ tests. This realization drove him to study how children's thinking processes evolve over time. He later directed research at the...