It must be noted that ‘common sense suggests that the behaviours Piaget describes are necessary steps on the road to understanding Western European science, mathematics and technology. This is probably the most important aspect of Piaget’s theory to those of us who have been entrusted with the responsibility of preparing African children for their rightful place in an emerging modern society. This Paper aims at describing the application of Piaget’ theory of cognitive development to teaching and learning in a classroom setting. As teachers, our responsibility is to enhance and facilitate children’s cognitive development in keeping with the view that Piaget’s theory has made a major impact on education. This is vitally important, given that what children learn in school subjects is closely related to the concepts postulated by Piaget. A strong argument could be made for Piaget’s theory having definite relevance to education in that a child is perceived as someone who is not only an active discoverer, but also an inventor and a problem solver. Piaget views the goal of education as to create people with the ability to be creative, inventive and discovers rather than people who constantly reflect the ideas of others.

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