Piaget And Vygotsky On Children 's Intellectual Growth

Piaget and Vygotsky have antonymous beliefs when dealing with the concepts of cognitive development. Vygotsky believes in development through social behaviour whilst Piaget believes in individuals acquiring knowledge on their own. Both however, believe that the interaction between development and learning hold significant implications for a child’s growth. This essay discusses some of the philosophical beliefs of each theorist in regards to a scenario based in the classroom of a year five teacher named Ann. Ann reinforces classroom lessons through the outdoor environment, exemplifying Piaget’s theories of constructivist based

Piaget’s theory is contrary to the behaviourist model as he believed that through observation, children ‘construct’ their own understanding of the world, based on their own experiences and prior knowledge. Piaget believed that this type of learning was more influential than instruction from a teacher or caregiver.

Both Piaget’s and Vygotsky Constructivist theories supports this framework, Piaget believed that children learn by being active participants, by exploring and discovering new concepts on their own they will construct their own knowledge and understanding (Kearns, 2010, p.38). Vygotsky believed that a child’s knowledge was developed through social transmissions, cultural experiences and language activities (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013, p,322). The author strongly believes ‘students learn best when they are given a variety of tools and opportunities to learn in different ways and with the right learning objectives children will develop higher order thinking skills’ (Pfeffer, 2017). The National Quality Framework’s [NQF] (2008) states that ‘Quality education and care early in life shapes every child’s future and lays the foundation for development and learning’. The author believes that quality education and care stems from providing children with multiple opportunities to learn and develop. Like Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory, the author suggests that ‘all children are

Learning, according to De Houwer, Barnes-Holmes, & Moors (2013), “has been defined functionally as changes in behavior that result from experience or mechanistically as changes in the organism that result from experience”. Throughout the years, a number of psychologists have come up with different theories to try and explain how young children develop and learn. Lev Vygotsky, a Russian theorist and psychologist that was born in 1896, constructed his own child development and learning theory that has strongly influenced the world of education (Nordlof, 2014; Dahms, Geonnotti, Passalacqua, Schilk, Wetzel, & Zulkoqsky, n.d.). His theory is created from concepts of both behaviorist and constructivist. Vygotsky’s theory suggests that learning and development occurs through social function as well as intentional teaching (DeVries, 2000; Nordlof, 2014; Slavin, 2015).

Children are constantly learning new information from many sources, but where is it that they receive the majority of their learning experience? Dr. Jean Piaget and Dr. Lev Vygotsky were both contributors to the theory of cognitive development. They both believe children are influenced by their environment, however both have different views of how a cognitive development occurs. Understanding the way children learn and take in information is essential to their development. With assistance for the text Development Through the Lifespan by Laura E. Berk (2014), this paper will examine the theories of both Piaget and Vygotsky in regard to cognitive development and teaching methods of children in mid-childhood.

A key difference between Piagets approach in contrast to Vygotsky is the context that each of them viewed the relationship between the child and the environment or stimuli. Piaget took a more biological approach to his work stating that human cognition was a biological adaptation of a complex organism to a complex environment (Flavell, Miller, P. & Miller, 2002). He proposed that the child manipulated the environment around it by “actively constructing their own sense of the world” (Blades, Cowie & Smith, 2011). Vygotsky challenged this by stating that “learning must be viewed in the context of the person’s culture and the tools available in that culture” (Flavell, Miller, P. & Miller, 2002). He attributed learning to authority based relationships (Lourenco, 2012) and argued that,

Outline the main similarities and differences between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s explanations for cognitive development in children.

Young children learn emotions and the way to respond to stressful situations and events by emulating what they observe in adult role models (Berger, 2014). With that said, the cognitive factor of development encompasses the inability of children to appropriately comprehend the difference between reality and fantasy as logical operations are not yet applied (Berger, 2014). Jean Piaget, a Swiss scientist, believes limitations exist which create obstacles in problematic thinking because operational thinking at this age is not yet feasible (Berger, 2014). This is best observed in the self-centered or egocentric way in which a six year old typically views and observes the world from his own vantage point or perspective and not from selfish desires (Berger, 2014). Furthermore, the child believes that the world is unchanging and remains the way in which it is presently exists (Berger, 2014). Lev Vygotsky, a Russian developmentalist, takes a different approach in that children are unable to think critically for themselves and often learn through the observation of those around them while mimicking behavior, action and speech (Berger, 2014). His thinking emphasizes the social aspect of development within children and the way in which they are impacted by the world (Berger,

Modern theories of play are developed by justifying theoretical concepts with supporting empirical research. These theories consist of psychoanalytic, arousal modulation, metacommunicative, and cognitive theories (Saracho, 2013). Jean Piaget (1951), was a French psychologist distinguished by his research and findings of cognitive development in children. He theorised that children do not acquire additional cognitive configurations in play, but simply endeavour to add new understandings into what they currently know. During the stages of play development, teachers and parents have numerous occasions to witness children as they develop physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually (Tomlin, 2007). He described play as a child’s enterprise to take in environmental stimuli correspond to their own perceptual experiences. Piaget states play is just for recreation and although it allowed a child to practice things they had already learned it did not necessarily result in the learning of new things. Lev Vygotsky (1934) however, had a different view on the cognitive theory in play. He believed there is a fundamental role of social interaction needed in the development of cognition and that plays a vital role in the process of “making meaning” (McLeod, 2014). Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory has a substantial part

Isaac is in between the sensorimotor and preoperational stages of Piaget’s Stages of Intellectual Development. Object permanence was obvious as was an excellent memory. Throughout most of my time at UCC, Miss Shanelle’s class had a fall theme. One of the decorations/toys for the children was 20 plastic black spiders. They were probably a little over the size of a quarter. A classmate was playing with them, so of course Isaac had to see what was going on. I took one of them and put in on a female student’s head. Excitedly I said, “Oh my! There is a spider in your hair!” The children laughed and started to put spiders on each other’s heads. Eventually they gave up on each other and placed every single spider in my hair. We had to clean up and

It is never too early to begin teaching orientation and mobility skills to an infant. Without early intervention, a child may lack the awareness and therefore initiative to move their bodies and explore their environment independently. Early intervention of orientation and mobility skills is the catalyst to encourage sensory and motor development, self-concept, as well as cognitive, social and language development. A future life of independence is dependent on these critical developmental skills.

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.

Piaget (1969) asserts that children’s cognitive development-stage is fixed; he believes children can only understand the concept of conservation and measurable attribute (e.g. volume, capacity, mass. weight) when they reach to certain age. However, Piaget’s (1969) theory is contradicted with numerous founding from recent researches that indicates children can develop an understanding of these concept during the early childhood year. Vygotsky (1978) believes the way children developed vary. Vygotsky (1978) emphasised children’s development occurs through parental instruction and interaction with the social environment. Number of researches shows the carers or the parent of the children provides scaffolding guides children to climb higher levels

There are many different theories when it comes to how children learn best, but when bits and pieces are taken from each a strong theory can be crafted for each individual child. These theories come from information processing, Jean Piaget, Lev Vgotsky, and Maria Montessori. Information processing looks at children’s scripts and how long-term memory works to help children learn, Piaget uses the concepts of object permanence and egocentrism to explain the ways children view different things, Vygotsky focuses on the zone of proximal development and scaffolding to give children the best environment to lean, and lastly, Montessori uses a trained adult and self-directed play to enhance learning in young children. These concepts combined are great ways to help a child develop cognitively and it is important to understand each one.

Constructivism is connected to the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget believed that cognitive development occurred in four stages that have distinct developmental characteristics.  He theorised that all information is organised into ‘schemas’, and this refers to the manner in which a child organisesand stores information and knowledge received. As new information is received, it is either incorporated into existing schemas (assimilation) or new schemas (accommodation) are created (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2010).  Vygotsky’s theories compliment those of Piaget and place a greater importance on social interaction as he considered cognitive development predominately was achievedthrough social interaction.  Vygotsky believed that learning could be accelerated with the assistance of a more advanced peer or teacher.  This concept is referred to as the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and works in conjunction with the theory of ‘scaffolding’, where a teacher provides support to student and as proficiency increases the scaffolding is decreased (Marsh, 2008). Evidence of scaffolding is seen throughout the Maths video as Ms Poole provides an outline of the lesson and the goals to allow students to establish a focus.