COGNITIVE THEORISTS
WILLIAM WRIGHT
GRANTHAM UNIVERSITY
In this paper I will discuss the two Cognitive Theorists between Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. In this paper I will give describe the thoughts of each theorist and compare and contrast their research. I will explain which theorist I feel explained cognitive development in children. I will also share some of my personal experiences dealing with cognitive theories. I will begin with the definitions of Cognitive Theorists. Cognitive Theory is the study of mental processes or Cognitive science. It focuses on an individual thoughts and emotions which contribute to behaviors and personality.
I want to begin by giving the biography of Jean Piaget; Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, in 1896. He was a budding scientist and had his first publishing at the age of eleven. Piaget’s Theory about children learning, he believe children construct their s own knowledge by giving meaning to people, places and things in their world. He also believed that children that should do things on their own. One of the
…show more content…
Both Piaget and Lev believe that much learning takes place when children play. Vygotsky believed that children learned by talking as well as doing things. Both Piaget and Vygotsky place emphasis on closely observing children by listing and watching them. Vygotsky theory is curriculum and interaction based, whereas Piaget believes that children cognitive learning is internal at different stages. I feel that both Vygotsky and Piaget expressed their views point about Cognitive development and learning for children, based on their individual convictions, because no two people see things the exact same way. As for my personal opinion, I believe that, in order to provide children with the best learning opportunity, both Vygotsky and Piaget theories for learning will provide good
On August 9, 1896, Jean Piaget was born into this world not knowing he was going to be such an influence on the educational world today. “It is possible to give a rough definition of Piaget’s principal scientific concerns in a single sentence: he is primarily interested in the theoretical and experimental investigation of the qualitative development of intellectual structures” (Flavell, 1963, p. 15). Piaget was a theorist who placed an emphasis on the development of social behavior and nature as they contributed to cognitive development. When looking at cognitive development, you are focusing on problem-solving and how it develops throughout childhood.
First, both theories believe that a person mentally develops overtime rather than being born with everything they need to know (2012). Secondly, both theorists believe that in order for a person to develop, he or she must be regularly partake in the actions that simulate development (e.g. Piaget states a person must continually test their theories and expand their mental network in order to grow) (2012). Thirdly, both theorists believe a person must act in order to continue developing (2012). In other words, a person will learn nothing if they simply stand by and do nothing as the world passes them by. Finally, rather than focusing on the amount of information learned, both Piaget and Vygotsky focus on the quality of the content learned
I cannot say I completely believe in just one of these Psychologist, but rather agree with many of their ideas. In particular I agree with Piaget and Vygotsky more than others. I think a child’s learning is about more than just social development, but also developmental age. Jean Piaget research is truly fascinating and a foundation in child learning for many. At first I thought his theory was a little odd, but after hearing more about it and applying his theory myself and to people I know, I knew Piaget was right. I believe that a child’s cognitive development is a process but that not all steps are completed prior to adulthood. I myself have seen adults and even myself be in a place of being stuck because I had not yet fully developed a stage of cognitive development. I believe this happens more so than we realize and that many people do not associate the feeling of being stuck with skipping or missing a step of cognitive development. Piaget theory said that a person will complete all of the steps of development by the end of their life, they may just skip or be stuck in one before completing development. I also believe in Vygotsky theory of cognitive development associated with social development. There are things that stick out about Vygotsky to me that have made me feel his research and study are accurate. When you look at the lives of children they act, talk, and interact just like the people around them. Children copy adults as Vygotsky referred to as the more knowledgeable other, as they see them with greater knowledge than themselves. When you study other cultures and how children are raised you see a pattern of how children grow up to be like their example, the more knowledge other. I believe Vygotsky made a lot of good points in his research by showing how cognition is related to social development. Both Piaget and Vygotsky are
Lourenco’s (2012) article makes the point several times that the biggest difference is that Piaget adheres to an autonomous view while Vygotsky adheres to a heteronomous view. Piaget sees the child as constructing his/her own knowledge and that this is an internal process. Vygotsky, on the other hand, sees the child as developing through social interactions and that this is an external process.
Methods and approaches to teaching have been greatly influenced by the research of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Both have contributed to the field of education by offering explanations for children's cognitive learning styles and abilities. While Piaget and Vygotsky may differ on how they view cognitive development in children, both offer educators good suggestions on how to teach certain material in a developmentally appropriate manner.
Piaget’s theory is developed from the idea that the child constructs their knowledge individually whereas Vygotsky argued that children develop tools of learning by communicating with more knowledgeable others (O. Lourenco 2012). Piaget suggested that children develop through a series of four stages in their thinking – the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational stages each of which causes broad changes in the child’s intelligence structure and their logic (reference). These four structures are mental operations which are applied to anything in the child’s world these mental operations are referred to as schemas which grow and change from one stage to the next (book). Vygotsky had very different idea on this subject although they both agreed that the child is the active constructor of their own knowledge
Cognition is the process involved in thinking and mental activity, such as attention, memory and problem solving. In this essay on cognitive development I will compare and contrast the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, who were both influential in forming a more scientific approach to analyzing the cognitive development process of the child active construction of knowledge. (Flanagan 1996 P.72). I will then evaluate the usefulness of these theories in understanding a child's development.
The main difference one can see in their theories is that Piaget is very individualistic when it comes to learning and that Vygotsky is very group oriented. Vygotsky believes in dialogues that, “we socially interact and communicate with others to learn the cultural values of our society.” (Woolfolk, 2004, pg. 2) Vygotsky was a believer in social interaction to help learn. Vygotsky also believed in scaffolding. Scaffolding is a way of learning. Someone provides the learner with clues and hints that helps them with problem solving. This is different from Piaget because it is in that group setting. Lastly there is a zone of Proximity that Vygotsky believes in. This goes along with his group aspect of learning. He believes that one learns better through life interactions. (Woolfolk,
Blake, B., & Pope, T. (2008). Developmental Psychology: Incorporating Piaget's and Vygotsky's Theories in Classrooms. Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education, 1(1), 59-67. Retrieved November 4, 2017, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6c7b/9a7b4988df15c68a14434a5f162bef984723.pdf.
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are arguably two of the most noted and influential developmental psychologists. Their contributions to the field of developmental psychology, while different, also have several similarities. Throughout the following paper, I will discuss some of the similarities and, according to Orlando Laurenco, definitive differences of Piaget and Vygotsky.
Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development describes his belief that children try to actively make sense of the world rather than simply absorbing knowledge as previously thought. Piaget’s theory claims that as children grow and develop they experience four different cognitive stages of life. As a child grows through each stage they not only learn new information but the way he or she thinks also changes. “In other words, each new stage represents a fundamental shift in how the child thinks and understands the world” (Hockenbury, page 368).The first stage of Piaget’s theory, known as the sensorimotor stage, begins at birth and continues on until about age 2. As the name suggest, this stage is when children begin to discover
Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory is focused on the belief that development precedes learning, specifically upon individual development of one’s knowledge through independent learning and experiences (Lourenco, 2012). Piaget’s theory discusses how an individual’s surroundings affect their development resulting in a series of changes in the understandings of their environment.
Many researchers have written about child development, but none are quite as well known as Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory and Lawrence Kohlberg’s moral development theory have been essential for researchers to gain a better understanding of child development. While these theories are unique in explaining different types of child development, they have many similarities and differences as well.
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two very well-known theorists who emphasized the development of cognition in their theories. In Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental theory, he claimed that children go through a series of stages, which he used to describe human development. In Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Learning, he believed culture and social interaction played a role in cognitive development. Although Piaget and Vygotsky both focused their theories on cognitive development they take different stances a series of developmental issues. This paper will look at the similarities and differences between these theorist’s views on critical developmental issues, such as view of human nature, mechanisms of development, and their
1). The major theorist for Piaget’s theory is pretty obvious. Jean Piaget. He was born in 1896 and died in 1980. making him a pretty contemporary theorist. The main idea behind his theory was that cognitive learning goes in stages of development. So essentially you get to the max of one stage and then move on to the next, they are not connected. Think of it like steps on a staircase, you have to go to one before you can move onto the next. The two major weaknesses for this theory is that a lot of Piaget’s research was done based on bias’s and that Piaget underestimated the knowledge children. So while one of the pros is it gives a good base of how we can teach children, some of these might actually be developmentally too low. Again while a