Compare and Contrast Two Educators
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.
How does knowledge grow? As someone who spends most of their time with children in one capacity to another looking at both these theories in terms of which is more applicable is interesting. To compare Piaget and Vygotsky is like comparing apples to oranges, both have similarities to one another; they were both brilliant people, with brilliant theories on how humans developed; nonetheless, they also cannot completely explain human development with their theories alone.
Piaget believed a child is unable to understand until they progress through with age appropriately. Vygotsky in contrast believed a child could receive assistance or with proper scaffolding could attempt to participate in problem solving. The approach to providing instruction is different as well. Piaget thought the child could discover independently through play and discovery. While Vygotsky stated a child could have learned though guided instruction. This is similar to Accountable Talk, where the teacher can ask assessing and advancing questions to move instruction. Although the students are learning through discovery, they are being guided and pushed by the teacher with quality questioning. In contrast, Piaget believed in productive struggle where the child struggles through as they are attempting to figure out a solution
Even though Piaget didn’t believe in the significance of inputs that could be acquired from the environment, but yet Vygotsky was very confident that children that children where very acknowledgeable of the inputs from their environment around them. Piaget’s cognitive development theory has four stages to it. His first stage was the sensorimotor stages which happens from birth until a child is two years old. This stages infants rely solely on their reflexes like rooting and sucking. Preoperational stage is the 2nd stage and it happen from the age of 2years old up until a child is 7 years of age, and during this stage children feel as if everyone thinks like they do. His 3rd stage is known as the concrete operational stage, that occurs when children are 7-11 years of age and during this stage children will start to feel a lot of improvement in their thinking. Piaget’s last stage was known as the formal operational stage, and at this stage children are able to understand and recognize symbols, and master abstract thinking. Children are also have the ability to solve intricate problems on their own. And even in contrast, Vygotsky assumed that there are no set of phases. And even in contrast Vygotsky thought that there was no set of phrase for children. But he felt that private speech was way more essential to the aid for children when they are thinking about an issue they are having/ going through. Private speech can be internalized sooner or later, but it’s something that never goes away. Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky didn’t think that the development could be detached from social context while children can create knowledge and lead their
Phsycologist has offered educators a great advantage and insight into how children learn cognitively. With these theories made by physiologist, teachers are able to improve teaching styles and make a greater impact in the lives of their students. There are several theories stating how a child learns from social interaction to a child’s developmental stages. There are many Psychologist who have contributed to children’s learning theories but I will be focusing on the four main psychologist. These psychologists have given insight and prospective into the minds of children and are a great advantage to anyone whom is or seeks to become an educator.
This core concept reflects theorists like Piaget and Vygotsky because both of them see children as active organism in that they can influence and shape their own development and learning (Cole & Wertsch; Miller). Both theorists viewed children as essential central players in the learning process. They did not see children as mini-adults, but rather believed that children saw the world differently from adults and lived by different rules and standards than adults (Miller). As such, both theorists advocated for adults to consider the child’s perspective and understanding of the world.
Two well known pioneers in the area of children's cognitive development were Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky and Jean Piaget. They were constructivist who believed that children learn through the mental construction. His theories about teaching and learning are used even today. They were similar in their theories, but they differed in how he believed that children learned better. Their approaches still are used by many educators today to teach children in the classrooms.
A program that I would discover for a 6-year old would be counting numbers and identifying objects by placing post-its on the items. This program would help the child remember objects by increasing all types of their speech. These two programs would be different because Vygotsky would believe that the child learning in both programs differ culturally, while Piaget would think that the children’s learning is caused by universal characters. Vygotsky might believe that a child who is learning expeditiously or slowly is due to social factors, while Piaget would disagree. Lastly, Vygotsky might believe that a child could be learning but we may not be aware of this because a child may keep it as internal thoughts rather than Piaget’s view that thoughts form language. The similarity between both programs I have addressed is the idea behind the activity, learning, and involvement of learning children.
They are often used/compared to Jean Piaget. Jean Piaget is another theorist, with some of the same ideas. Some of the same ideas they had are, they both believed that children play is an active way of learning, cognitive development requires both physical and social stimulation and children need to be active in order to develop thinking. The differences between the two are Piaget believed the end point of cognitive development was adolescent, a child acts on his own environment for learning, a child 's mind is a child’s mind, hands on activities help hugely on growth, and a child constructs his/her own knowledge. Where Vygotsky
Piaget's theory differs in mainly that it is focused on child development rather than actual leaning and it suggest small differences rather than an increase in behavior. The basic steps to his theory is Schema, the foundations of knowledge, Assimilation, which is the process of applying existing knowledge to new situations, Accommodation, which is applying new knowledge to new situations and Equilibration, the step between Assimilation and Accommodation. Each step may occur at anytime in a child's life and neither is more important than the other.