Validation of Conservation of Number, Length, Weight, Mass and Volume at the Concreteoperational Stage of Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory in Mayo-belwa Local Government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which children between the ages of 8-12 in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa state exhibit the mental and behavioural characteristics of concrete operational stages of Piaget’s theory of mental development. A sample of 480 nursery and primary school pupils and unschooled children between the ages of 8-12 were selected using quota and purposive sampling techniques. One research question was formulated to determine the extent to which the mental and behavioural characteristics of 8-12 year old children in Mayo-Belwa Local Government area of Adamawa state conform to Piaget’s theory on concrete-operational stage while the hypothesis determined whether sex influences children’s attainment at concrete-operational stage of cognitive development. An instrument titled ‘Piaget’s Experimental Procedures and Interview Battery (PEPIB) was used to collect data. The instrument was subjected to face and content validation. The reliability index of 0.82 at the concrete-operational stage was obtained using Cronbach’s alpha during the pilot study. During the main study, the Reliability value of 0.98 was obtained. These values were considered high enough to permit investigation. Descriptive statistics of frequency lines was used to answer the research question while a two sample Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used to test the hypotheses. The results of the findings revealed that children between the ages of 8-12 in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa state exhibited all the mental and behavioural characteristics of concrete-operational stage of Piaget’s cognitive theory, though with variations in the ages of attainment. The study found out that there were no significant differences in performance on conservation of number, mass, length, liquid, weight and volume between boys and girls at the concrete operational stages of mental development It is therefore recommended that in using the theory, the age levels should not be taken as absolutes and that the theory can be used with confidence in non-western environments. Periodic training workshops should also be organized for elementary school teachers to understand how children think and learn.