Assimilation and Accommodation

Assimilation and Accommodation.

We learn new things every day, and children learn them at an exponential rate, too. But learning is a complicated process for young children, and we as adults and educators need to have more patience with them. For this article, two such learning concepts will be introduced, namely assimilation and accommodation.

This is a process introduced by Jean Piaget, and assimilation is about fitting new information into what we already understand about the world (Cherry, 2025). For instance, if you know what a bird looks like and you come across a penguin, you understand that it is still a bird because it has wings and lays eggs. It is like adding a new book to an old shelf, so teachers can reinforce prior knowledge by providing hands-on activities (Structural Learning, 2026).

Whereas accommodation is about changing what we already understand about the world, because we are learning something new (Cherry, 2025). So, if you realise that penguins do not fly but swim, this changes your understanding of birds. Some birds fly, some birds swim, some birds walk. It is like building a new shelf when the old shelf is unable to hold a new book, so teachers can have children work in small groups for each of them to understand different points of view (Structural Learning, 2026).

These concepts form Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, while Baldwin believes that assimilation is about object recognition, and these concepts are useful in martial arts (Hanfstingl, Arzenšek, Apschner, & Gölly, 2022). Then, when both assimilation and accommodation are well-balanced, it is called equilibration (Cherry, 2025). We use both concepts interchangeably to help us make sense of the world around us.

Teachers should be culturally sensitive and never assume that children know everything, particularly about cultural learning, because certain children from unique backgrounds may need more accommodation to change their current understanding of concepts to learn new knowledge, and hence some learners may appear slow, but they may just be suffering from overwhelming accommodation (Structural Learning, 2026). Hence, it is a good idea to pair children from various diverse backgrounds together, so they can learn from each other.

Even though we are adults, we also struggle with equilibration. We think we know and understand everything, but when something or someone different appears in our lives, we struggle to make sense of everything. But this is perfectly normal, and eventually we form a deeper understanding of the world around us, just as the world continues to learn about us.

References

Cherry, K. (29 October, 2025). How Assimilation in Psychology Helps You: The Importance of Assimilation in Adaptation and Learning. Retrieved from Verywell Mind: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-assimilation-2794821

Hanfstingl, B., Arzenšek, A., Apschner, J., & Gölly, K. I. (26 November, 2022). Assimilation and Accommodation. European Psychologist, 27(4), 320-337. doi:https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000463

Structural Learning. (23 January, 2026). Assimilation vs Accommodation. Retrieved from Structural Learning: https://www.structural-learning.com/post/assimilation-vs-accommodation

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