What makes Vygotsky and Piaget similar and different in their views about cognitive development?

1. Introduction
2. Body
3. Conclusion
4. References

Cognitive development encompasses human perception, thinking processes, and the way in which an individual gains an understanding of their world. This is done according to theorists, through interacting with others, and by past learned experiences. Cognitive development could therefore be said to be fluid and continually changing dependent on these factors. It involves gathering of information and processing of same, reasoning of information, the development of language and the brains memory system.

Cognitive development refers to the time between childhood and adolescence. Or as explained in Psychology: from inquiry to understanding. (Lilienfeld,S. 2015, p. 408)

Cognitive development shows how the brain develops throughout this period. Two of the dominant theories on Cognitive Development are from Theorists Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Piaget’s theory is built on ‘core principals’ around ‘stages’ of a child’s development, while Vygotsky believed that children are influenced by their environment and factors such as socio-cultural events and experiences.

Body

Piagets theory was the starting point of cognitive development. He believed that development precedes learning and that children’s knowledge is constructed through interacting with the environment, thus enabling them to make sense of things by way of experience. He believed this way of learning changed with age and posits ‘stages’ are the way in which we develop.

Piagets focused on what he describes as the ‘4 stages’ and believed it is through these different stages that a child learns and develops. These stages are known as sensorimotor – birth to 2 years, preoperational – 2 – 7 years, concrete operational – 7 – 11 years and formal operational 7 years and up (Lilienfeld,S. 2015, p. 410). He teaches that as children move through these stages, they learn by inventing or reinventing their basic knowledge through their experiences within each stage.

The stages in which Piaget believes children learn, is universal across cultures and therefore could be seen by some as incorrect or flawed as it does not consider the impact a culture plays within society. That is, race, gender, socio economic status, etc, does not play a part in the cognitive development of a child, it is merely universal stages in which children develop regardless.

The belief that development occurs in stages, (jumps) from one stage of life to the next at certain times or at milestones, irrespective of the social interaction with those around us, may be a little inaccurate, where in fact development across childhood and adolescence is viewed by some as more of a continuous, fluid change involving many other factors rather than confined to ‘stages’. (Flavell, 1992; Klahr & MacWhinney, 1998; Siegler,1995)

Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed learning preceded development. He taught that social learning comes before cognitive growth. His theory shows that developmental growth is enhanced when one is confronted with new things, therefore we step into new arenas, accept new challenges and learn in this manner.

Vygotsky’s theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of “making meaning”. (Vygotsky, 1978) His work and research have been widely used over the past few decades in the way of ‘Social Development Theory counselling’.

In noting the importance society plays on development, he suggests that children construct knowledge actively as they engage with others around them, hence the importance of interaction with others. As Vygotsky passed away in his 30s, he was unable to add to his theories, however many theorist came after him and continued his work. Psychologist and instructional designer Jerome Bruner also teaches Vygotsky’s theory and continues with the ‘scaffolding’ theory.

Bruner claims ‘In the field of education, the term scaffolding refers to a process in which teachers model or demonstrate how to solve a problem, and then step back, offering support as needed. Bruner first used the term ‘scaffolding’ in this context back in the 1960s. The theory is that when students are given the support they need while learning something new, they stand a better chance of using that knowledge independently. Bruner recommends positive interaction and three modes of representation during teaching: actions, images, and language. (2020)

We can see this theory differs from Piaget who poses ‘stages’ of learning occur, and development precedes learning. Vygotsky’ theory, as opposed to Piaget’, believes that the changes in cognitive development is a more fluid, steady change across the lifespan, influenced by society and experience.

Conclusion

Although the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky differ somewhat, they do share some similarities, and both acknowledge growth and development occur across the life span through various ways. One such similarity is the belief that interaction with the environment plays an irreplaceable role in cognitive development.

One key difference however, is that Piaget believed in self-discovery as a key part of development, that is a child discovers things through the stages of development, therefore learning along the way, whereas Vygotsky’s belief, was that learning occurred through the teachings and modelling behaviors of others whilst providing necessary supports.

Both theories play a key role in cognitive development. Whether we develop in stages as Piaget suggests, or we learn through social engagement as understood by Vygotsky, it could in fact be a combination of the two. Piaget does not include what Vygotsky states as imperative to learning, and that is to take into account the value of educational input and behavior modelling by adults in the childs’ world.

According to this one difference, it may be assumed that Vygotsky’s theory could be more widely accepted by teachers and educators as it places greater emphasis on the value teachers and society play in learning and development, as opposed to Piaget’s concentrating more on the stages of growth.

References

http://www.healthofchildren.com/C/Cognitive-Development.html

Lilienfeld, S. (2015). Psychology (2nd ed., p.408). Harlow: Pearson.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

(2020). Retrieved 27 April 2020, from https://study.com/academy/lesson/scaffolding-in-education-definition-theory-examples.html

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky developed their theories of cognitive development. These two theories were created at the same time, and that is why they are often compared. Piaget and Vygotsky studied the same phenomena, but they used different theories to explain them (Obukhova, 2016). The current paper analyses each theory and argues that there is a crucial difference between Piaget and Vygotsky. Namely, Piaget did not take into account the role of culture and collaborative learning, whereas Vygotsky put particular emphasis on the cultural dependence of development.

Cut 15% OFF your first order

We’ll deliver a custom Human Development Theories paper tailored to your requirements with a good discount

Use discount

322 specialists online

Jean Piaget suggested that children’s cognitive abilities were not the same as adults’ ones. He proposed that children developed through sequential, innate, universal cognitive stages that are qualitatively different from each other. Piaget implied the concept of schemes to explain how this development occurred. Schemes represented specific behavioral patterns at each stage, and they evolved from concrete to abstract levels in the course of development. Moreover, this theory included the concepts of assimilation, which is the process of implementing the existing thinking to new observations, and accommodation, which is changing the existing way of thinking when a new event occurs. Thus, Piaget’s theory implied that a child is born with the predispositions needed for natural cognitive development.

Although Piaget insisted on the developmental stages to be universal, this approach has been questioned. First, the stages are not always the same, and they can vary from individual to individual. Second, these stages are determined biologically, eliminating all other determinants of development. Finally, Piaget seems to isolate personal development from the influence of the environment and, specifically, from other people. These issues were addressed in the theory of Lev Vygotsky.

Proposing Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development, Lev Vygotsky argued that cognitive development was majorly culture-specific. He insisted that social interactions between children and adults determined the development of cognitive functions. The collaboration of a child and a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) happens within a child’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which is the range of abilities the child possesses. The lower boundary of ZPD is defined by the skills a child can perform independently, whereas the upper limit is the abilities a child can demonstrate with the help of MKO. The task of development, therefore, is to learn how to perform upper limit activity independently, which is achieved due to the scaffolding of MKO.

One can derive from Vygotsky’s theory that children do not passively go through the stages, but they actively construct their cognition in collaboration with adults. That is why this approach is considered as groundwork for constructivism. This theory suggested that children from different cultural backgrounds should not be directly compared because they probably developed different cognitive abilities specific to their environment. Moreover, the Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development implied that teaching methodology was of extreme importance for cognitive development. Therefore, Vygotsky’s theory put forward the significance of the social environment for cognitive development.

There is a striking difference between the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. While Piaget considered development as a passive progressing through the stages, Vygotsky emphasized the activity of people in collaboration. The latter is considered a more general picture because, indeed, the typical growing-up happens in society, where MKOs direct the children’s development. In contrast, Piaget’s approach seems to underestimate the contribution of the social environment suggesting age as the only factor of development. Vygotsky was aware of Piaget’s study, and he did not try to disprove the whole theory (Obukhova, 2017). Instead, he admitted that biological premises were necessary but he insisted that they were not the major determinants of the development.

On-Time Delivery!

Get your customised and 100% plagiarism-free paper done in as little as 3 hours

Let’s start

322 specialists online

Although these approaches are usually contrasted, there are also some attempts to integrate the two theories into a teaching methodology. For example, Hebe (2017) introduced the way to apply Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s principles to Environmental Education teaching in pre-school education. In his paper, Hebe (2017) suggests considering accommodation and assimilation within ZPD. Moreover, Sharkins, Newton, Causey, and Ernest (2017) show how integrating the two approaches “results in intentional teaching practices that support children’s construction of knowledge and development of autonomous thinking” (p. 17). Therefore, nowadays, these theories are believed to be complementary, at least for teaching practice.

There are other variants of explaining the difference between the two approaches. Fowler (2017) suggests that Piaget and Vygotsky did not focus on the same type of development. Instead, while Piaget studied universal features of development, Vygotsky considered non-universals, such as cultural tools of development. However, Fowles (2017) seems to ignore the fact that Piaget’s theory could not explain individual differences in development, therefore, it was not universal.

To conclude, Piaget and Vygotsky created massive theories of cognitive development. Both approaches still provoke much debate because their potential has not been fully revealed yet. Specifically, there are arguments on how similar the theories are and whether it is possible to integrate the best parts of them into one effective approach. Although Piaget’s theory is outstanding, it concentrates too much on the isolated development of an individual, whereas Vygotsky recognizes the significance of collaborative learning of children and adults.

References

Fowler, R. C. (2017). Reframing the debate about the relationship between learning and development: An effort to resolve dilemmas and reestablish dialogue in a fractured field. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(2), 155–162. Web.

Get a custom-written paper

For only $13.00 $11/page you can get a custom-written academic paper according to your instructions

Let us help you

322 specialists online

Hebe, H. N. (2017). Towards a theory-driven integration of environmental education: The application of Piaget and Vygotsky in Grade R. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 12(6), 1525–1545.

Obukhova, L. F. (2016). On account of the 120-th birthday anniversary of L.S. Vygotsky and J. Piaget. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 12(3), 226–231. Web.

Sharkins, K., Newton, A., Causey, C., & Ernest, J. (2017). Flipping theory: Ways in which children’s experiences in the 21st century classroom can provide insight into the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. International Journal of Early Childhood Education and Care, 6, 11–18.