This paper will explore two influential men whose theories have a remarkable influence on development and learning. Second, this essay will examine Piaget and Vygotsky’s background, each hypothesis as it relates to cognitive development and education, the similarities and differences, the impact of having better insight into and understanding the concept of learning. Developmental science involves looking at the entire realm of human thought, behavior, and expression (Steinberg, Bornstein, Vandell & Rook, 2011). Cognitive development entails qualitative changes in thinking as one matures. Sociocultural perspective involves examining ways development adapts to culture (Steinberg et al., 2011). Equally significant is Piaget and Vygotsky’s mutual perspective on a dialectical approach, a non-reductionist view, a non-dualistic thesis, an emphasis on action, a primacy of processes over external contents or outcomes; and concentration qualitative over quantitative changes.
Piaget and Vygotsky Theories
Psychologist Piaget and Vygotsky have different theories of development and learning. Cognitive psychology perspective view thinking as how we perceive the physical and social world from infancy to adolescence and some may also consider through adulthood (Steinberg, Bornstein, Vandell & Rook, 2011). Developmental science involves looking at the entire realm of human thought, behavior, and expression (Steinberg et al., 2011).
Piaget, a psychologist from Switzerland, views his
Known to be a discontinuous form of cognitive development that goes through a set of stages. Piaget’s developmental theory takes’ only one course of development but, is well-assumed that it is universal. The influence of nature and nurture is found to be in
Jean Piaget is a key figure for development, focusing on cognitive constructivism – that being that we must learn from experience and development, building on knowledge that has already been developed. The strengths and weaknesses of Piaget 's cognitive development theory will be discussed.
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
B. Blake & T. Pope. (2008). Developmental Psychology: Incorporating Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s Theories in. Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education, Vol. 1, No 1,, 59-67. Retrieved from http://jcpe.wmwikis.net/file/view/blake.pdf
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 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.
Cognitive development can be described as the process in which a person constructs their thoughts for example, remembering things, problem solving and attention. In this essay I am going to evaluate the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. I will look into the weaknesses and strengths of the theories with supporting evidence and also the similarities and the differences of the two theories.
Piaget and Vygotsky on how children learn Strategies and ways to deal with educating have been incredibly impacted by the examination of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Both have added to the field of education by giving clarifications for kids' psychological education styles and capacities. While Piaget and Vygotsky may vary on how they see intellectual improvement in kids, both offer teachers great proposals on how educate certain material in a formatively suitable way. Piaget suggested that subjective advancement from baby to adult grown-up happens in four all inclusive and successive stages: sensorimotor, pre-process, solid process, and formal process (Woolfolk, A., 2004).
The essay is going to introduce short overviews of Piaget (1926) and Vygotsky’s (1978) theories to indicate their different approaches when considering cognitive development. Piaget (1926) developed a constructivist theory which is the basis for the other cognitive development theories that followed. He proposed the definition of schema which refers to children’s construction of shaping their thought and actions through the set of cognitive processes as assimilation, disequilibriums and accommodation. When encountering new experiences, children try to interpret them in terms of known cognitive schemas. In case of failing, they need to adjust their interpretation to the reality (Schaffter & Kipp,8th ed). Based on his assumptions, Piaget (1926) proposed that child as a lone individual progress through four main stages of cognitive development. On the other hand, Vygotsky (1978) presented sociocultural theory. Vygotsky (1978) concentrated on the social interaction between child and adult considering
Outline the main similarities and differences between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s explanations for cognitive development in children.
are already learning at birth, and they build up and learn at a rapid pace in their early years when
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.
Cognition is the process involved in thinking and mental activity, such as attention, memory and problem solving. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky both have very different yet similar views about the child and tenets within their theoretical perspectives. While Piaget sees children as upcoming scientists, many discoveries found were attained at each of his four stages. Vygotsky views the childas competent who is capable and the childs development is led by learning. Though Vygotsky puts huge emphasis on the sociocultural aspects of learning, both Piaget and Vygotsky consider sociocultural theory in their own perspectives. However they were distinguished by various types of thinking which led to reveal a child’s reason for doing certain things at
To answer this question, Piaget's theory of development should be explained along with Vygotsky's theory and the connectionist theory of development, and then each should be compared with the others. Once this has been achieved the main similarities and differences will be summarized, and finally the areas of Piaget's theory that have not been undermined by other theories will be reiterated.
Lourenco, 2012 states “the main argument is that there are considerable resemblances between Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s theories and that their differences can be relatively ignored. Among the similarities are a genetic, developmental perspective, a dialectical approach, a non-reductionist view, a non-dualistic thesis, an emphasis on action, a primacy of processes over external contents or outcomes and a focus on the qualitative changes over the quantitative ones.” In the developmental perspective, children move through