Jean Piaget

"The child must actively construct his understanding of the world through experience."

"Success in education is not measured by the amount of information transmitted but by the quality of understanding developed."

"The human being has the capacity to continuously reinvent himself."

"The foundation of all understanding is the active engagement of the learner."

"Development is a process of progressive equilibration between assimilation and accommodation."

"The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, not to impose knowledge."

"The child is a researcher at heart, constantly experimenting and testing his understanding."

"Understanding arises from the actions we perform on objects."

"The principal goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done."

"Play is the work of childhood."

"To understand is to invent."

"The child who has never learned to act, to try, to experiment, to go round an obstacle cannot adapt himself to the new conditions."

"Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do."

"The more we examine the mental operations that are identical in the child and the adult, the more we are struck by the differences in articulation."

"It is with children that we have the best hope of studying the development of logical operations."

"Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society."

"Knowledge is not a copy of reality. To know an object, we must act upon it."

"The best indication of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to discover."

"The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things."

"A question becomes a serious scientific question only when it is a historical question."

"Conceptual thought is impossible without words."

"Sensorimotor intelligence is the foundation for all subsequent cognitive development."

"The child must know that he is a wonder, here by divine will, not an accident."

"The great principle which brings success to all things, to art, science, and every occupation of life, is adaptability."

"To the extent that we come to understand things, we learn; to the extent that we learn, we develop ourselves."

"Morality develops through stages, just as cognitive abilities do."

"The child becomes capable of operational thought when he can manipulate symbols internally."

"Egocentrism is not the product of moral egoism but rather an intellectual limitation of the child."

"Scientific thought, then, is not momentary; it is not static. It is a development which starts with the first sensorimotor organizations and a development which continues throughout childhood."