Piaget’s theory: Is concerned with children, rather than learners of all ages. Focuses on development, rather than learning per se, so it does not address the learningof information or specific behaviors. Proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather thana gradual increase in the number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc. The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think usinghypotheses. To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experiencediscrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment.