Does Primary Schooling Have an Effect on Childrens Quantitative Understanding - Essay Example

The basic understanding of the development of concepts and understandings within a child's brain is given by two of the most renowned theorists of all time, i.e. Jean Piaget and Vygotsky, whose theories would be discussed and criticized during the course of this report.The theories presented by these two psychologists i.e. Piaget and Vygotsky with regards to cognitive development developed the psychological basis for constructivists approaches for learning and teaching. The belief of constructivism is the fact that a child should himself create an understanding of the world that they live in.

The presence of adults is merely to assist the knowledge construction or development process by means of assisting with support and structure.Piaget was a Swiss psychologist whose major contributions were in the field of developmental psychology and the growth/enhancement of intelligence. His theory for the subject under consideration is mainly concerned with the coming out and attainment of schemes i.e. how individuals in the developing stage perceive the world, in other words, these are the times when children are on their way towards learning the art of presenting the information that they retain.

This is also known as the constructivist theory. This theory fetched Piaget the Erasmus Prize. In accordance with this theory, the like life cycle of understanding can be split into the following four stages:Sensorimotor stage (years 0-2) Preoperational stage (years 2-7) Concrete operational stage (years 7-11) Formal operational stage (years 11-adulthood)The basic proposal that came from Piaget had two fundamental principles that in accordance with him provide a path to the intellectual development of a child and these are organization and adaptation.

With each enhancement that adds complexity to the thinking and knowledge systems of an individual child, children tend to become more realistic and stay better updated and closer to the environment. It is the process of assimilation and accommodation that ease the adaptation of knowledge.