Piaget Vs Vygotsky Essay

Piaget believe that children are active thinkers. He recognized that the mind develops through a series of irreversible stages. He also acknowledged that a child’s maturing brain builds schemas that are constantly assimilating and accommodating to the world around them. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is split into four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage occurs from birth to nearly two years of age. At this stage, infants learn about the world around them by sensing it and interacting within it. It is also in this stage that the idea of object permanence develops, that is, the awareness that things continue to exist even when they are not being observed. In my personal life, I am certain that in this stage of development I would have enjoyed peek-a-boo, because if I didn’t see it, to my developing mind, it wasn’t there at all. The second stage, preoperational, lasts from two years of age to seven years of

Cognitive development is the term used to describe the construction of thought process, including remembering, problem solving and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. In this essay I will compare and contrast the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, both of which were enormously significant contributors to the cognitive development component to/in psychology. In addition to this I will also weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of each theory and outline how they can be applied to an educational setting.

The four universal developmental stages of Piagetian theory are as follows: The 'sensorymotor ' stage which occurs between the ages of 1 and 2 years old. This is the period during which Piaget identified the child developing a general schema for movement and sensation. This is followed by the 'preoperational ' stage from 2-7 years where the child in his opinion has an inadequate ability to turn thought into action. The child is seen as Egocentric as is demonstrated in the 'three mountains ' test, where three differently decorated, sculpted mountains are placed before the child and she is asked to demonstrate an understanding of how the view might look from the perspective of another; she is unable to do so. (Martin et al. 2009 p. p63). This struggle continues into

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.

When we think of cognitive development theories that are widely discussed among educators, the names Piaget and Vygotsky seem to appear. This is so, because they are both renowned psychologists in the fields of cognitive development. As students grow and mature, one could see the changes and aspects outlined by each theorist among their class. As a result, we could analyze the aspects of each theory as they are applied in the classroom among each student. Educators then have insight into the instruction planning process, as they know what developmental supports each child may need; thus making conducive and appropriate classroom instruction.

Jean Piaget, a cognitivist, believed children progressed through a series of four key stages of cognitive development. These four major stages, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, are marked by shifts in how people understand the world. Although the stages correspond with an approximate age, Piaget’s stages are flexible in that as long as the child is ready they are able to reach a stage. In kindergarten, many of the stages of both sensorimotor and preoperational stage were easy to find. For instance, the teacher allowed the students to have a couple minutes of free time. Many of the students chose to go to the tree house play area and began playing house. This is an example of the sensorimotor stage

In the sensorimotor stage the child discovers the environment through physical actions such as sucking, grabbing, shaking and pushing. During these first two years of life children realize objects still exist, even if it is out of view. This concept is known as object permanence. Children in the preoperational stage develop language skills, but may only grasp an idea with repeated exposure. As Piaget describes in the next stage, children draw on knowledge that is based on real life situations to provide more logical explanations and predictions. Lastly, in the formal operational stage children use higher levels of thinking and present abstract ideas.

During the sensorimotor stage, an infant's knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities (Cherry, K 2014). The child's behaviors are restricted to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli. Children use the skills and talents they were born with to learn more about their environment. These such skills include grabbing, sucking, looking, and listening. According to Piaget J (2003), the development of object permanence, which is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when the child is no longer visualizing that object, is one of the most important accomplishments at the sensorimotor stage of development. The child also begins to understand that his or her actions could cause another action, for example, kicking a toy car into another toy car will make them both

Children’s early interactions with the environment are strictly sensorimotor. With increasing experience, children expand their cognitive structure, enabling them to better adapt to the increasing number of situations they encounter. The gradual decreasing dependence on the physical environment and the increased utilization of cognitive structures is called interiorization. (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009) As the cognitive structure grows and develops it makes more complex problem solving possible. As the process of interiorization continues, the child’s adaptive response becomes more covert; Piaget called these actions operations (thinking). The most important characteristic of operations is it is reversible. Once something has been thought it can be undone or “unthought”. As a child’s cognitive structure develops, thinking becomes more important. In early childhood, the use of operations depends on

Working with children from the early 1920s to the late 1970s, Piaget discovered that there are four stages of mental development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations (“Jean Piaget”). Each stage is defined by what a child is or is not able to do, as well as specific milestone accomplishments. Beginning at the sensorimotor stage, the focus of cognitive development for children from birth to age 2 is to “distinguish themselves from the objects around them.” The main accomplishment of this stage is for the child to develop object constancy. When first born, children are unable to recognize or understand that when an object is not in sight, it still exists (TB.) This is what

Lev Semionovich Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist and constructivist learning theorist who was known for arguing against the theories of psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget believed that in order for any learning to occur there had to development within the individual first, but Vygotsky argued the contrary. He argued that in order for development to occur, the individual would first have to have learning take place through instruction and example in a given appropriate environment. Vygotsky’s theory on cognitive development is centralized on two key ideas known as scaffolding and the zone of proximal development which will be explored in this essay and how they contribute to the classroom.

In the world of psychology, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are considered to be very prominent figures in the area of cognitive development. Both of these men considered themselves a constructivist, which entails a viewpoint that is concerned with the nature of knowledge. In their lifetime, both of them made contributions in the area of education and even after death, their theories still influence teaching methods. The purpose of this paper is to show some similarities as well as differences in the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky and what can be gained by having a better understanding of their theories.

     Jean Piaget was born on August9, 1896, in the French speaking part of Switzerland. At

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.

The first stage of Piaget’s development theory is the sensorimotor stage which takes place in children most commonly 0 to 2 years old. In this stage, thought is developed through direct physical interactions with the environment. Three major cognitive leaps in this stage are the development of early schemes, the development of goal-oriented behavior, and the development of object permanence. During the early stages, infants are only aware of what is immediately in front of them. They focus on what they