Jean Piaget's Theory Of Learning

In comparing Jean Piaget to other cognitive theorists, it is important to understand that Piaget left out the implications of a social setting and culture in his theories by focusing on the universal stages of learning (McLeod, 2015). A common theorist that focused on cognitive development like Piaget was Lev Vygotsky who stressed the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition (McLeod,2014). This differs from Piaget’s model that based his theory from individual interaction among peers through the stages he developed. Vygotsky believed that peer interaction and social learning would build onto the cognitive knowledge but children would still experience new schemas and their own discovery as they continuously progressed …show more content…
The Zone of Proximal Development developed by Vygotsky outlines how teachers should use cooperative learning exercises to help less competent learners develop with the assistance of peers (McLeod, 2014). Therefore, Vygotsky implemented the idea of group interactions to address instruction, so the teacher can utilize a whole class into spreading knowledge by grouping strategies. Now shifting to another similar cognitive theorist like Jean Piaget is Jerome Bruner like Vygotsky focused on language and how social interaction can increase a child’s growth through a more on going continuous process through life. Also unlike Piaget he agreed you could speed up the process of a child’s learning without having to wait for a child to be ready. Although, Bruner proposes stages of cognitive development, he doesn’t see them as representing different separate modes of thought at different points of development like Piaget. Instead, he sees a steady development of cognitive skills and techniques into more integrated “adult” cognitive techniques (McLeod, …show more content…
Furthermore, Bruner takes it to another level from Piaget in saying that children can learn anything if they are presented information by adults no matter what stage level they are on. However, this does mean that Bruner understood what Piaget meant when he said children still have to develop to learn information at a higher level but Bruner agrees that they can still learn anything just in different forms of instruction and content. The involvement of adults in Bruner’s concepts separate from what Piaget viewed as making a difference in the learning process of children (McLeod, 2008). Regardless, of how these learning theorist are contrasted from one another they all helped educators accommodate, assess, and instruct students into becoming academic successful in the classroom. Piaget’s works exemplifies how a teacher should realize what a student should be capable of in that certain stage of their life. He defined how existing schemas can be replaced by new ones that don’t contradict other cognitive viewpoints a learner previously had. In return, this helps an educator realize how to build on to a student’s cognitive level of learning and shape instruction to benefit the