There are many different things that affect a students academics and process of learning. According to the social constructivist theory of Lev Vygotsky, students need interaction with others to have a more successful learning experience. Piaget thought a little differently and had the idea that students needed their individual experiences to make connections and understand content. Rather than interactions with people, individual connections could be made based on personal experiences. Students can learn so much by the things they experience and the stories they hear from others around them. It is an educator’s job to provide students with a learning environment that is comfortable and inviting for conversation, interaction, and experiences. …show more content…
Sivan (1986) explains cognitive activity as the process of the individual having a motive, which gives direction and a goal at the end of the interaction or conversation. The difference between the social constructivist theory and Piaget is their view on cognitive development and the amount of people that are involved in the process. Piaget perspective is based on an individual and their experiences and Vygotsky took it further and thought that it should be constructed with someone other than one person. Cognitive activity is a complex process, which develops and becomes more dynamic based on the person and their maturity level that you are completing the activity with. Sivan’s (1986) idea of cultural knowledge, tools, and signs is based on the idea of culture and the environment that the students are in. A tool of social constructivist theory would be language and speech between different students based on experiences, and living environment. Sivan (1986) states the “development of people’s psychological and cognitive processes is involved in, created by, defined by, and limited by the opportunities that culture provides”. When students are exposed to different cultures and different experiences students have the tendency to become more interested and engaged in the content. Students are gaining knowledge based on the culture interactions and conversations with other students or adults. The world has become a consistent and steadily changing world but many students do not leave the city where they were born to know of any change that is being made. A student’s cultural knowledge at a young age is based on parent or guardian’s attitude or idea behind culture. I have many students that are told they can’t play with a certain student because of what culture they are a part of. This is
Social and environmental variables affect cognitive development. Cognitive development focuses on the person’s ability to intellectually, perceive and process information. (35589) defined the cognitive ability as the process in which people learn, think and use language; it is the progression of their mental capacity from being irrational to rational (35589). Piaget and Vygotsky are two cognitive theorists who are interested in the cognitive development of a person across their life span and its relation with social and environmental factors. Piaget is the most known cognitive theorist who affected the world of psychology greatly, and was a great influence to many psychologists out there; however his main intention was the innate maturity process and, unlike Vygotsky, he underestimated the role of language and social interaction and his theory wasn’t useful in the teaching field.
The way in which the body is viewed is a complete social construction, dependent on the society, history and wider cultural attitude of a given group. Social constructionism can be defined as the ways in which society, culture and history builds up and dictates social norms. It shapes the way we think, behave and interact with our environment. The social construction of bodies is, therefore, the way in which society ascribes significance to different parts of the body and influences our understanding of it as a whole. The social construction of the body feeds into and reinforces inequalities to a great extent, on a number of levels. Gender inequalities and the issues of racism and colourism are good examples of inequalities that are fuelled
One of the teachers made mention of participation of students in class. In this stage moral and ethical lessons are important to them because it shows who they really are. Also, the middle school teacher made mention of the kind of social group middle school students want to belong to. Piaget considered children between the ages of 7 to 12 to be under the Concrete operational stage. In the Concrete Operational stage children develop from egocentric thinking and are more rule-regulated like how the middle school teacher explained it. One of the important aspect of this stage is their identity. She also talked about how crashed or down they are when they do not pass their exams that is SOL. During this stage, the middle teacher said she uses Station based learning where students are broken down or divided in order for them to learn and also differentiation where she creates different skills for students in helping them
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
Humans are, by nature, filled with curiosity. We incessantly seek to learn about the universe. Not surprisingly, we simultaneously strive to learn about ourselves. What is our place in the world? How do we grow into the people we are meant to be?
The four factors that Piaget believed to be central to children’s cognitive development are biological maturation, activity, social experiences, and equilibration. Biological maturation refers to the individual’s genetic heredity that is present at birth and will be a key role in their growth. Activity is the child’s physical experiences, from these experiences the child will construct their own knowledge base. Social experiences are the child’s interactions with others as they grow. These social experiences also have an effect on his or her growth. Equilibration is the child’s search for cognitive balance when there is a cognitive imbalance, or dissonance that occurs.
Educators produce a wide variety of experiences, perceptions, prospects, learning and abilities to their education (DEEWR, 2009, p. 9). In my career and through my studies, my philosophy and pedagogy have been closely linked with the constructivist theory from Piaget. Being able to focus on a child’s interests and creating learning activities that are implemented as fun is a big part of my motivation as an educator and teacher. The educational environment needs to sustain every single child along with inspiring significant work that can result in more advanced thinking (Evanshen and Faulk, 2011, p. 225). Following Piaget’s ideas while implementing the EYLF has made for a simple straight forward way of supplying quality learning experiences for children from birth to 12 years old and it has helped me widen the scope of each experience to allow for multiple levels of developmental stages. Using a constructivist approach to learning allows for the breaking down of the experience as a whole into smaller parts which brings the focus around to the process of learning (Evanshen and Faulk, 2011, p. 667). Overall I believe Piaget’s Theory to be one of the most important influences in modern teaching, allowing scaffolding of learning in a place that that
Jean Piaget and Carl Rogers were both interested in learning and how people learned throughout life. Jean Piaget was more focused on children, where Carl Rogers was more focused on everybody. Learning for Jean Piaget meant that we took in information and stored it for later use; Carl Rogers believed that learning in an active process. Jean Piaget believed that learning was teacher/facilitator guided, where as Carl Rogers believed that learning was determined by the pupil. The job of the teacher/facilitator was similar and yet different between learning theorist Jean Piaget and Carl Rogers. Jean Piaget believed that teachers played a more active role in learning for children. In Jean Piaget’s theory he believed that teachers/facilitators guided the children into connecting information to schemas. Carl Rogers believed that children played a more active role in their learning and teachers played more of a bystander role. In Carl Rogers theory teachers/facilitators played the role of helping children figure out their own learning strategies to
The emphasis on social interaction influencing cognitive development impacts on how students are taught. Class room environments need to allow social interaction as a key part of learning activities. This social interaction permits students to learn from both the teacher and their peers through collaborative activities. Teachers that encourage discussion will lead students to think critically and this will assist in providing meaning to new information. (Powell & Kalina, 2009 p245)
Children tend to learn more when they know why what they are learning is important and if that material is presented in an interesting way. Take for example a preschool teacher who needs to teach her class about the different shapes. Instead of just showing her students a poster with the different shapes on it, she has her students get out of their seats and begin exploring the classroom for differently shaped objects. Once they have found some objects, have them share with the class what the object is and what shape it is. This exercise will not only help the other students learn the shape of the object, but it will also help the student who is sharing. Piaget believed that children’s cognitive growth is fostered when they are physically able to experience certain situations. By having students share with the class what shapes their objects are, they are fostering their public speaking
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.
Piaget’s theory was guided by assumptions about how a learner interacts with their own environment and how they integrate new knowledge and information into existing knowledge. Briefly, he proposed that children are active learners who construct knowledge from their own environment. They learn through assimilation and accommodation in complex cognitive development. Furthermore, interaction with physical and social environments is the key and development occurs in stages. An example of Jean Piaget theory carried out in the classroom is that it gives children a great deal of hands-on practice, by using concrete props and visual aids.
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
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development focuses on the concept of schemas and cognitive thought that helps an individual organize knowledge and understand the world in comparison to Erikson’s theory which focuses on conflicts that arise between and within the ego. Accommodation and assimilation occur throughout Piaget’s theory as a result of children
Piaget’s Cognitive theory represents concepts that children learn from interactions within the world around them. He believed that children think and reason at different stages in their development. His stages of cognitive development outline the importance of the process rather the final product. The main concept of this theory reflects the view th...