Comparing Piaget And Vygotsky

In this domain Piaget stated that the child who is still in the preoperational stage can’t conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. They can’t mentally manipulate information. The child is able to form stable concepts as well as magical beliefs and their thinking is still egocentric, which means that the child has difficulty seeing the viewpoint of others. Piaget split this stage into the symbolic and intuitive thought substage. In the symbolic function stage children are able to understand, represent, remember, and picture objects in their mind without having the object in front of them. Vygotsky stated that children learn cognitive tasks through their interactions with older peers and adults. Not only do younger children watch and imitate older people or peers as they complete tasks, but these older guides also help younger children accomplish tasks they couldn’t accomplish on their own. He calls this the zone of proximal development which he describes what children can do alone and what they can do with assistance. Another theorist named Bandura coined the term observational learning which means people learn appropriate social behaviors by observing and modeling others. This type of learning is most effective during childhood. Vygotsky believed that the important part of the cognitive development is language. He observed that very young

The debate about who has the most accurate theory ,Jean Piaget or Lev Vygotsky. has been ongoing for many years. Both theorist have very supportive and reasonable theories concerning child development, but the differentiate along the lines of how how children process information through attention ,memory, and strategies.( Santrock 2011,p.50) Jean Piaget theory states that children development depends on their experiences and thoughts (schemas) as they grow up . While Vygotsky believed that development of child depends on experiences and assistants with others in the world.

There has been much controversy over understanding the social aspects of cognitive development in children. Some of this controversy is revealed through the differing views that Piaget and Vygotsky had on the topic of learning amongst children. Piaget theorized that collaboration between same aged children, who are equal in understanding, promotes cognitive development. He theorized that when children engage in disagreement during problem solving this promoted more understanding of the topics at hand. In contrast, Vygotsky reasoned that collaboration between novice and experts would lead to intellectual growth.

Piaget and Vygotsky both believed that young children actively learn from their hands-on, day-to-day experiences. Jean Piaget portrayed children as "little scientists" who go about actively constructing their understanding of the world. His theories hold the essence of developmentally appropriate curriculum since Piaget believed that children undergo cognitive development in a stage-based manner, such that a very young child would not think about things the same way that an adult might. He referred to the knowledge and the manner in which the knowledge is gained as a schema. In order to build on the cognitive stages that children experience, informal learning opportunities, formal instructional sessions, and the utilized curriculum must all dovetail with a child's current cognitive stage so that assimilation of the new knowledge may occur. Working with what the child knows and experiences, parents and teachers create bridges to the next cognitive stage that are characterized by the child's accommodation. Piaget argued that optimal learning took place in this manner and that adults should avoid thinking that they can accelerate a child's development through the age-based, maturity-referenced stages. This is because a child works toward establishing an equilibrium between the assimilation and application of new knowledge and changing their behavior to accommodate their newly adopted schemas.

The next issue separating the two theorists is the aspect of stages of cognitive development. Although, both Piaget and Vygotsky believed that there was a natural progression in development from child to adult, the similarities end there. Piaget believed that there are four stages in cognitive development that occur in certain age ranges. It is possible however for different children of the same age to operate at different levels of cognitive development, and some children may exhibit aspects of more than one stage - especially when in transition between stages of development (Slavin, 2006). What always holds true for Piaget however is that an individual passes through these four stages, in order, through their lifetime.

Developmental psychologists recognize both Vygotsky and Piaget as leaders in that field. So great are their contributions, not only to psychology, but to education also, a student of either discipline would be remiss if they did not consider the influence of these two men. Arguments are raised concerning the differences as most researchers would agree the commonalities outweigh the differences.

In contrast to Piaget, Lev Vygotsky had an entirely different metaphorical approach than Piaget. Vygotsky disregarded the infant resolving the problem through environmental sensory (assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration), but suggested construct of social communication.

Piaget and Vygotsky are different in that Piaget is a stage theorist while Vygotsky is a non-stage theorist. Piaget also believed that child development should be hands on and is not influenced by culture. Piaget’s theory has an endpoint to cognitive development, birth to adolescence while Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development begins at birth and ends at death. Vygotsky believed that language is key during development and is influenced by culture. They both believed in social interactions in cognitive development, but in different ways, such as scaffolding for Vygotsky. They also both believed that learners go from simple to complex information and skills the older they get.

Piaget believed that there is an “inborn plan for cognitive development but it is dependent on the child’s environment” (Boyd & Bee, 2012, p.138). “Piaget’s most central assumption was that the child is an active participant in the development of knowledge, constructing his own understanding” (Boyd & Bee, 2012, p.156). The two environmental factors that Piaget believed were crucial were social transmission and experience. Social transmission is the information that the child gets from other people. Experience, in Piaget’s perspective, means “the child’s own opportunities to act on the world and to observe the results of those actions.”

Vygotsky believed that children work with others to build knowledge, while Piaget believed that children gained knowledge through their own explorations.

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, are the two of the most recognized cognitive psychologist who developed theories that address cognitive development and learning in children. Piaget emphasizes that children constructs a mental model of the world through biological maturation and interaction with the environment. While Vygotsky emphasizes that children actively construct their knowledge and understanding through sociocultural influences. These two theories have widened my knowledge and understanding about child development and learning, even though they have some differences.

From the beginning of time and still to present day, people have always been curious as to how we develop from little tiny helpless humans into the fully functioning members of society. Two psychologists, Piaget and Vygotsky, developed different theories about cognitive and language development. Piaget’s theory says that children try to understand the world around them in different phases as they grow. As children, they want to make sense of everything that is going on around them. Piaget says that there are four stages of cognitive development that we go through as we age; sensory motor period, pre-operational period, concrete operational period, and finally the formal operational theory. According to Piaget, we should be through all of these

Two psychologists have different perspectives on the constructivist learning theory because Jean Piaget believes that children begin to develop intellectually by adaptations and organization through individual experiences. Contrastly, Lev Vygotsky's believes that children should be guided during learning experiences and be taught to “ reflect on inconsistency and to change their conceptions through communication” (“Learning Theory-Constructivist

While Vygotsky’s theory shows he was confident that children learned from their environment, Piaget’s theory was based on cognitive development happening socially. Vygotsky theory makes a connection between scaffolding of learning and a child’s interactions with its environment. Piaget’s theory did not link cognitive learning with scaffolding, his studies were based on a hands-on approach by the child. Piaget gives us a learning environment where the child is responsible for most of their learning.

While Piaget and Vygotsky both focused on the factors that influence cognitive development, this is where the similarities end. Piaget concentrated on informal learning based on individualism and Vygotsky dedicated his research to the significance of social constructs on cognitive development.