Comparing Piaget And Vygotsky's Theories

Chapter six served as an explanation for two developmental theorists that focused on how children learn. Classic theorists Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky believed in the idea that children actively absorb knowledge, also known as constructivism. Today many researchers use Piaget and Vyvotsky’s theories as groundwork for their own research on how children make sense of their world. The chapter was divided into Piaget’s research and Vyvotsky and a comparison of the two. After each section, tips were provided on how educators could use their theories in the classroom. Piaget developed a theory that children are active learners who absorb information through interactions with their environment. He believed children were motivated to learn and that …show more content…
The first stage is called sensorimotor, which begins at birth. Children are unable to think about things that are not in front of them and exhibit goal-directed behavior. The second stage is called the preoperational stage, which appears at age two. During this second stage, children are now capable of thinking and talking about things that are not present but lack adult-like reasoning. Children in the preoperational stage begin to have a rapid expansion of vocabulary and demonstrate pretend play. The third development stage is concrete operations, which appears around six or seven years of age. During concrete operations, children display logic that resembles adults but cannot yet reason about real-life situations. Children begin recognizing that peers may share different thoughts. The last stage is called formal operations and it appears at around age eleven or twelve. Here, children are capable of logical reasoning and can apply it to abstract ideas and concrete situations. Children display idealism and proportional reasoning. These four stages introduced other theorists to research of children’s cognitive development. According to new research, Piaget underestimated children’s capabilities of different age groups and overestimated adolescence and the skills they acquire. Additionally, children’s logic on specific tasks depends largely on their past experience, knowledge and schooling with …show more content…
Vygotsky strongly believed children’s development stemmed from the influence of the adults in the child’s life. His research focused on adult guidance in promoting progression while emphasizing the culture and social impact on development also known as a sociocultural theory. Vygotsky recognized the importance of brain maturation on development. He believed there were different mental processes Vygotsky called functions. The first is a lower mental function that is biological, which refers to simple ways of learning and reacting to the environment. The second is higher mental functions which humans are unique to. This process refers to cognitive processes that improve learning, reasoning and memory. Another idea in Vygotsky’s theory is that through informal and formal interactions between adults and children, adults are teaching children how their culture interprets the world. He believed physical and cognitive tools were passed along within a culture. Vygotsky proposed the idea that thought and language are codependent during the first few years of life and emphasized the phenomenon called self-talk. He believed children absorb cultural tools in their own distinct, are more capable of performing challenging tasks when assisted by a competent person and thought challenging tasks promote cognitive progression. The last key idea discussed was the influence of play on cognitive