Pyschology- Piaget and Vygotsky

Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. Piaget’s work includes a detailed observational study of cognition in children. Piaget showed that young children think in different ways to adults. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent knowledge is based.

Vygotsky may have overplayed importance on social influences because he suggests that child’s cognitive development occurs through social interactions, for example children do internalisation of problem solving via mutual interactions. However, if social learning is the essence of cognitive development then learning would be a lot faster than it is. Thus Vygotsky ignores the biological aspects that aid or restricts the cognitive development such as the development of brain and maturation. Therefore Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is different to

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky both agree and disagree in the area of the Nature/Development of Intelligence. Piaget and Vygotsky agree on the idea of constructivism, the certainty that cognitive development happens by accumulation to and building from what is previously recognized and learned. Piaget was a trivial constructivist, he believed that individuals acquire knowledge by interacting with their environment and building on their knowledge and understanding of their environment. On the other hand, Lev Vygotsky was a social constructivist, believing individuals acquire knowledge through social interaction and learning from others. They also both agree that the restrictions of intellectual growth are defined by social interactions. Individuals acquire knowledge from interactions that they have already been exposed to and what other people can teach them, whether if it other children that are older than they are, adults in the life, or teachers. Jean Piaget believed that individuals acquire their knowledge by interacting in their environment, and it comes as a direct outcome of the individual’s actions on to their environment. Piaget believed that individuals must learn before they develop (Educational Psychology). According to Jean Piaget’s theory, the order of acquiring knowledge is an individual acts upon their environment, learning from the consequences of their actions, and then developing knowledge and understanding of

171).” This, in other words, is when a child cannot completely perform a task independently but can do it with a bit of assistance from a more competent figure. This zone of proximal development is something I experience with Blair. At two years old she has got to pick out her tooth and hairbrush, but she still needs a bit of help with both operations. Another idea that Vygotsky believed in was the method of scaffolding. This is known as the support for learning and problem solving that encourages independence and growth (Feldman 2012). For example, sometimes Blair has a tough time communicating using her words. I often encourage conversation by asking questions that instigate more of a response from Blair. This helps her grow in her communication and is good practice for her. Cognitive development was viewed by Vygotsky as the product of social interactions. He focused on the social aspects of development and learning instead of concentrating on individual performance.

Lev Vygotsky was a psychologist that emphasized that children learn through interactions with their surroundings. He was often referred to as the "psychology of superman". Most of his work was in developmental psychology and he emphasized that interpersonal connections and the social environment had a lot to development. He had different theories on how biosocial development is an important aspect of a child’s development. Vygotsky felt that language and play had a lot to do with children's development because of the dialogue between those playing. "Psychologist Lev Vygotsky 's theory of cognitive development posits that information from the external world is transformed and internalized through language. Since language is both a

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.

4. I relate most with cognitive theories of development. Piaget provides the foundation by explaining the distinct stages of development. His insights allow teachers and parents to have a basis of what children are capable of during each stage. If the child drastically strays from these stages, it allows the caring adults to take action to help the child to reach the appropriate stage. With an understanding of these stages, the theories of Vygotsky can then be successfully utilized. Vygotsky stresses that with the

Piaget and Vygotsky theories look for ways to understand a child’s learning process. As an educator and someone who has observed classrooms to include watching my own kids. It is easy to apply both theories to kids. No kid is the same nor do all kids learn the same but there are similarities that educators can use and take away to incorporate into a learning atmosphere. Knowing and understanding how Piaget viewed the stages of learning and growth in the mind in my opinion cannot be overlooked without incorporating Vygotsky’s theory of the social impact of life.

Integral to Vygotsky’s theory is what he described as the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Vygotsky defined the ZPD as ‘‘the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers’’ (Ankrum, Genest, and Belcastro, 2013) We use this in our understanding of how the power of verbal scaffolding can really help children. In this study, we see how a teacher can really help her kindergarten students using strong guidance in their verbal lessons. In this class, students have already learned a lot of information that has guided them threw their days. Now the teacher will help guide her students by using open-ended question in- order to

A new concept, Zone of Proximal Development is suggested by the Vygotsky; a difference of what children can accomplish individually, without any help (an independent problem solver) and what they can accomplish with help, under the guidance and verbal instructions from a capable adults etc. Also, in a cooperating learning environment i.e. by interacting with peers, kids develop cognitive skills and strategies to solve

According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based. The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two renowned psychologists in the field of developmental psychology. The purpose of this paper is to summarize, to discuss the similarities, to discuss the differences, and to discuss what can be gained from a better understanding of the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky.

Piaget became interested in the nature of thought, especially in the development of thinking. He called it genetic epistemology, which means the study of the development of knowledge.

In this theory, Vygotsky suggests the idea of scaffolding from external influences, including parents and teachers. To scaffold is “to use language and social interaction to guide children’s thinking” (Trawick-Smith, 2010, p.53). The key to do this properly, is to know how much or how little guidance to give the children.

Routines and methodologies to teaching have been incredibly impacted by the exploration of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Both have helped the field of training by offering clarifications for children' cognitive learning styles and capacities. While Piaget and Vygotsky may vary on how they see cognitive improvement in children, both offer teachers great proposals on how to educate certain material in a formatively suitable way.