ext of Piaget's experiments. Piaget's original experiments described "only a part of the normal conceptual development of some middle-class Genevan children" (p. 1), yet developmental psychologists have tended to accept them universally. However, Egan (1982) notes that children, even those in a preoperational stage, can understand more than Piaget gave them credit for (p. 19). For example, it may be possible for some children to "learn" the concept of volume (even in a preoperational stage), despite the Piagetian's insistence that such an attempt would be "futile," or a "disservice." Pointing out to a child that the volume of water from a wide container stays the same when poured into a tall container is, in Egan's view, what an educator has been trained to do--teach.
Egan's evaluation of Piaget, as evidenced by the research studies he cites, has shown that many children demonstrate more cognitive skills than Piaget thought they had, and many older children and adults lack some cognitive skills that Piaget thought everyone had by their ages. One example of the above is found in a classic, typical Piagetian conservation exercise. Children are shown a bunch of flowers made up of an unequal number of red and white flowers. The subjects are asked, "Are there more red flowers or flowers?" The experiment is supposed to test whether or not a child can compare a class (flowers) with a subclass (red or white flowers). If there are, say, four red flowers and two white flowers, the preoperational child (under 6 years) will presumably respond that there are more red flowers.
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