According to the California Department of Education, Cognitive Development refers to “to the process of growth and change in intellectual/mental abilities such as thinking, reasoning and understanding. It includes the acquisition and consolidation of knowledge.” It is the field in which both psychologists named Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky rose to fame. Though both theorists significantly contributed to the human understanding of the process, they differed on concept of development and how it occurs. Piaget and Vygotsky varied on the influence of the concepts: Culture, language, environmental source (stimuli) and pedagogue or agents of change.
Children are genetically endowed with particular ways of responding to their physical and social environment, …show more content…
According to Piaget, when children can comfortably explain new events using language about what they know and believe about the world, they are in a state called equilibrium. However, this stage does not continue indefinitely, for as children engage in communication with adults and other peers, they create new experiences some of which they cannot adequately address with their prior knowledge and beliefs. This results in disequilibrium where these inexplicable events cause mental discomfort for children which leads to a reexamination of a child’s current understandings. By the integration of their schemas, children replace (accommodation) or reorganize (assimilation) events and information to better understand and explain previously puzzling events. The movement from equilibrium to disequilibrium and back to equilibrium again is known as equilibration (p.144). Equilibration and a child’s inner drive to maintain homeostasis therefore promotes the development of complex thought and knowledge. Vygotsky differs by stating that intelligence develops as a result of social processes. Social learning is the necessary component that drives a child to learn. In his terminology, the Zone of proximal development (ZPD), Vygotsky states that there is a range of task a child can do independently and with the help and guidance of others. A child’s Zone of proximal development ZPD are learning and problem-solving abilities that are immature at birth and progressively change over time. As some tasks are mastered, conflictions occur as more complex ones appear. Vygotsky proposed that by the appearance of these conflicts, children develop primarily by attempt to complete these tasks only in collaboration with a more competent individual. Cognitive Development then occurs not by successfully completing the task but by the challenges faced prior of
Children are genetically endowed with particular ways of responding to their physical and social environment, …show more content…
According to Piaget, when children can comfortably explain new events using language about what they know and believe about the world, they are in a state called equilibrium. However, this stage does not continue indefinitely, for as children engage in communication with adults and other peers, they create new experiences some of which they cannot adequately address with their prior knowledge and beliefs. This results in disequilibrium where these inexplicable events cause mental discomfort for children which leads to a reexamination of a child’s current understandings. By the integration of their schemas, children replace (accommodation) or reorganize (assimilation) events and information to better understand and explain previously puzzling events. The movement from equilibrium to disequilibrium and back to equilibrium again is known as equilibration (p.144). Equilibration and a child’s inner drive to maintain homeostasis therefore promotes the development of complex thought and knowledge. Vygotsky differs by stating that intelligence develops as a result of social processes. Social learning is the necessary component that drives a child to learn. In his terminology, the Zone of proximal development (ZPD), Vygotsky states that there is a range of task a child can do independently and with the help and guidance of others. A child’s Zone of proximal development ZPD are learning and problem-solving abilities that are immature at birth and progressively change over time. As some tasks are mastered, conflictions occur as more complex ones appear. Vygotsky proposed that by the appearance of these conflicts, children develop primarily by attempt to complete these tasks only in collaboration with a more competent individual. Cognitive Development then occurs not by successfully completing the task but by the challenges faced prior of