Differences Between Piaget & Vygotsky's Cognitive Development Theories - Essay Example

Differences Between Piaget & Vygotsky's Cognitive Development Theories 1.0 Cognitive Development Theories: Comparison between Piaget’s Theory and Vygotsky’s Theory Today, developmental psychology is a common subject for elementary education systems in most parts of the world. Its application is widely accepted in the field of education where children go through the process of learning how to think and to think about learning. Teachers have, therefore, adopted two of the most popular theories by Piaget and Vygotsky, into their teaching activities. Through the practices and guidelines provided by these theories, they are better placed to help their students achieve more. Development refers to any process of change and stability that takes place throughout the period of human life. The changes and stability occur in three interrelated scopes: psychological, physical and cognitive. Psychological development refers to the emotional, social and personality changes. Physical growth entails that of the body, brain, health, motor skills and even sensory capacity. Cognitive development involves the changes and stability in the mental capacities and is observed in the ability to learn, reason, retain attention, keep a memory, and learning a language (Hook, Watts & Cockcroft, 2002). In this paper, the discussion will rotate around the study of cognitive behaviour, also referred to as cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that studies how people think, learn, remember and perceive things (Galotti, 2012). The discussion will focus on the nature of people’s intellectual processes and how their thinking capacities change with age. The paper will also discuss the two common theories used today on cognitive development by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. The discussion will evaluate the main contributions by the two theorists on the education settings today while making a comparison between the two theories. Finally, the discussion will focus on some of the criticism of the ideas presented by Piaget and Vygotsky. The paper will, however, start with a brief introduction into the lives of Piaget and Vygotsky. 2.0 Jean Piaget Jean Piaget was born in 1896 in Neuchatel, Switzerland and died in 1980. He showed a great intellectual talent, and this was made evident when he published his first article at a tender age of 10. He later, at the age of 21, earned his Ph.D. degree. He was a naturalist and had great interest on nature’s elements such as wildlife. Later, Piaget became interested in the field of psychology, from where he sought employment at a psychiatric clinic in Zurich and later in Paris. It was during his years in the clinic environment (where he worked in a laboratory) that Piaget developed his theories and methodologies (Kleinman, 2013). In his theoretical findings, he recognized that children were active thinkers. This meant that they made efforts to get answers to questions facing them just the same way as the adults did. He therefore interpreted this as the children’s way of cognitively adapting to situations and their understanding of various situations. Piaget also noticed a regularity and consistency in the way children think, although he found out that their thinking was often incorrect. He also noted that children of similar age often gave similar wrong answers to questions. From this, Piaget noted that there could exist an age-related pattern in the way children think. In all these findings, Piaget established a new direction from the existing experts’ beliefs that considered children’s thinking as passive and incoherent. The experts believed that children only memorised information and did not necessarily interpret or modify it. Finally, Piaget developed a clinical method that exposed children to questions where they were expected to provide reasons why they gave certain answers (Kleinman, 2013). 2.1 Piaget’s Theory Piaget linked his biology background to his new interest of understanding how knowledge develops, thereby spending his life perfecting his theory of cognitive development. He, therefore, used some of the concepts from Biology to explain how knowledge advances. Piaget’s theory is often described by many as a constructivist view where people interpret their experiences and environments using the understanding and skill that they already have developed from similar past experiences (cognitive structures). According to him, people build or “construct” unique and individualised understanding and knowledge of an event or object. For the development of such knowledge to take place, Piaget introduced a concept of the scheme. A scheme is defined as organised patterns of both physical and mental actions (Kleinman, 2013). Illustrations of the scheme concept include: a baby reaching for an object (physical action) or a student thinking about how to answer an exam question (mental action). Piaget proposed four main stages in cognitive development: Sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational stages. Sensorimotor stage, also referred to as infancy, lies in the age range of between birth and two years. During this age, the baby can understand the world by relating the sensory experiences with other physical activities. The children are thus likely to learn by using their five common senses. The pre-operational stage spans between ages two to seven years. During this stage, children begin to complete one-step operations and logic and also develop a language. The third stage known as the concrete operation stage runs between ages of seven to 12 years. Children are now able to reason logically in regard to concrete events and also can classify objects. The last stage referred to as formal operation stage, occurs from age twelve to adulthood. In this stage, the adolescents can reason in more logically (Kleinman, 2013). According to Piaget, individuals must adjust to their environments for easier adaptation. He outlines two methods through which organisms adapt to their environment: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation involves the actions taken to transform the environment so as to align it in the pre-existing cognitive structures. On the other hand, accommodation involves changing of the cognitive structures to make them accept an element from the environment. This follows a change in the scheme for enhanced efficiency. According to Piaget, an individual attains the developmental best in the balance between accommodation and assimilation. This point is known as to as an equilibrium. When children attain a balance between mental scheme and the external world, they are considered to have reached a comfortable state of equilibrium. Conversely, disequilibrium happens when children are exposed to new environments. Their curiosity drives them to this state and thus teachers can use disequilibrium to motivate their students (Kleinman, 2013). 3.0 Lev Vygotsky Vygotsky, was born to Jewish parents in 1896 in Russia. He majored in History and Philosophy in his educational background. He was an ardent believer of the importance of a social cultural environment for cognitive development. His work was inspired by the Marxist theory which states that human nature is changed by material life and the historical changes in the society. Vygotsky’s theory emphasizes on the roles of culture and social interactions. His work has been used vastly for researches on cognitive development and were a major contributor to the Social Development Theory. Vygotsky died prematurely in 1934 at the age of 38 years and thus most of his theories are incomplete and several others are still being translated from the initial Russian language (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2013). 3.1 Vygotsky’s Theory In his theory, Vygotsky developed concepts of cognitive learning zones. The Zone of Actual Development is exampled using an analogy of independent students learning on their own. During this time, the students do not learn anything new. The Zone of Proximal Development involves instances where adults or peers provide assistance to the students who cannot need help in order to complete their assignment. Learning and instructions take place in ZPD (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2013). It is believed that students in this zone achieve more with the right instructional help. The theory by Vygotsky puts a lot of emphasis on social interaction and its impact on student learning. Vygotsky discovered that through interactions, students learn from their peers and adults as well. He, therefore, explored three useful types of speech that promoted the social interaction concept: social, private and internal. Social speech refers to instructions given to children by adults. Private speech refers to the process through which children digest the instructions given to them by adults and their application in similar cases. Internal speech takes occur during a conscious mental state whereby the student dialogues with inner self and following certain given instructions (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2013). The discussion will proceed to the comparison between the works by the two theorists now that their backgrounds have already been examined. As earlier mentioned, the discussion will build around Piaget’s constructive view against Vygotsky perspective on learning as appropriation. 4.0 Comparisons between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theory 4.1 Differences There are several salient differences between the two theories as it has been highlighted in the theory descriptions above. 4.1.1 Role of social factors Piaget advocated minimal intervention by the teacher during children’s learning. The children were, therefore, better placed to get more creative and thus discover ways of getting solution on their own. Piaget upheld that cognitive development largely cultivates from independent investigations and through which children create understanding on their own. On the contrary, Vygotsky promoted guided learning where the children are guided and provided with instructions. Through this model, a teacher offers stimulating questions to students that encourage them to discover their answers through a test hypothesis. The student, therefore, are involved in the discovery process while still receiving help from expert sources (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2013). This was an indication of how much value Vygotsky placed on the social factors and their contribution to cognitive development in children. 4.1.2 Role of culture According to Piaget, cognitive development is a universal process (Shaffer, 2009). He says that everyone must pass through the stages outlined in his theory. On the contrary, Vygotsky places more emphasis on the effect of culture and how it shapes cognitive development. He, therefore, assumes that cognitive development varies from one culture to another (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2013). 4.1.3 Nature of self-regulation For both theorists, self-regulation is an important part of cognitive development. However, for Vygotsky, self-regulation is behavioural while for Piaget, it is psychological. Vygotsky states that self-regulation develops as a result of instructions by others in a specific task (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2013). However, according to Piaget, self-regulation appears from the infancy stage of a child (Kleinman, 2013). It, therefore, does not depend on external regulations for development. In Vygotsky’s theory, self-regulation is enhanced through exposure to external regulators such as schedules and timers. According to Piaget, the regulation is promoted, for example, allowing children to make decisions by themselves while providing them with numerous options to choose from. However, all these depend on the mutually agreed rules (Kleinman, 2013). 4.1.4 Role of language in the development According to Vygotsky, words were an essential part of communicating scientific concepts to children (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2013). On the contrary, Piaget emphasised that children communicated quite different messages using similar words as adults. Therefore, it is only after children have gone through several stages that they start understanding scientific concepts. It therefore takes time for a progressive construction to take place until where children develop adequate reasoning capacity. 4.2 Similarities between the two theories The major similarity between Piaget’s theory and Vygotsky’s is in their shared agreement about the active role of children in developing knowledge on their own about their environment and the world at large. While Piaget regarded this process as biological, he still viewed children as active humans who could explore their environment in search of an understanding of the world (Pramling & Fleer, 2009). Equally, Vygotsky viewed children as active pursuers of new information especially when brought up in a culturally and socially active environment. He stresses on the importance of development of language and its role in cognitive development. 5.0 General evaluation and criticism of the cognitive theories According to most scholars, the two cognitive development theories have each its pros and cons; 5.1 Piaget’s theory 5.1.1 Pros Piaget’s theory remains one of the most popular and important theory of cognitive development to date. The theory provides a framework for understanding children’s reactions to the development of various cognitive functions. The theory has had a huge impact on the teaching methods used all over the world. 5.1.2 Cons Piaget’s theory bases most of its arguments on defined and rigid stages which might not be consistent with all children’s cognitive development process. The methodology that Piaget used to develop his theory has widely been criticised, owing his statement that children are incapable of developing certain cognitive functioning (Kleinman 2014). The theory has little mention of the social development. 5.2 Vygotsky’s theory 5.2.1 Pros The theory promotes scaffolding where parents, teachers and peers coach children and students during problem-solving. This has been found to achieve better results in children (Brain, 2013). Numerous studies have indicated that children who engage in pair discussions and group learning produce better results. 5.2.2 Cons There is minimal scientific evidence to back or challenge the concepts described in the cognitive development theory by Vygotsky. The theory lacks explanation for individual differences and possible developmental problems. 6.0 Conclusion As seen from the discussion, Piaget and Vygotsky hold varying views concerning cognitive developmental psychology. However, adoption of both models by teachers would be an advantage if used correctly. Teachers should focus on the advantages of each and apply the same in their classrooms. Students should be given rightful opportunities to interact and learn from their peers and other adults. References Brain, C. (2000). Advanced subsidiary psychology: Approaches and methods. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Galotti, K. M. (2008). Cognitive psychology in and out of the laboratory. Belmont: Wadsworth Gonzalez-DeHass, A. R. (2013). Theories in educational psychology: Concise guide to meaning and practice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education. Hook, D., Watts, J., & Cockcroft, K. (2002). Developmental psychology. Lansdowne [South Africa: UCT Press Kleinman, P. K. (2012). Psych 101: Psychology facts, basics, statistics, tests, and more. Avon, Mass: Adams Pramling, S. I., & Fleer, M. (2009). Play and learning in early childhood settings: International perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer. Shaffer, D. R. (2009). Social and personality development. Australia: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Read More