By using Piaget’s theory in the classroom, teachers and students benefit in several ways. Teachers develop a better understanding of their students’ thinking. They can also align their teaching strategies with their students’ cognitive level (e.g. motivational set, modeling, and assignments). Their goal is to help the individual construct knowledge. Conservation of constancy, as defined by Garner (2008), “is the ability to understand how some characteristics of a thing can change, while others stay the same” (p. 34). In other words, it is the realization that even though an object can be changed physically, some of the characteristics for that object remain the same. For instance, if you give students modeling clay and tell them to mold it, the shape will change, but the color of the modeling clay will remain the same. Conservation of constancy “identifies relationships and makes sense of physical and abstract information” (Garner, 2007, p. 47). Educators create, implement, and assess the curriculum being taught, assuming throughout the process that students can conserve constancies. If students lack this ability, they will not benefit academically because they have limited concrete sensory data and literal interpretations. Thus, they will experience difficulty in thinking abstractly, problem-solving, planning, and discerning relevance (Garner, 2008, p. 35). For example, if the student is studying fractions, he or she may not be able to recognize that one-third and three-ninths are equal. In order for students to develop their conservation of constancy skills, teachers must provide their students with opportunities to recognize similarities and differences at both the physical and abstract level (Garner, 2008). Many of us developed our conservation of constancy by doing chores and playing games. Piaget believed conservation is developed in students who are ages seven and eight. Visualization and reflective awareness are crucial to students’ understanding of conservation of constancy. By encouraging students to notice similarities and differences in objects, they increase their conservation of constancy.
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