Comparing Piaget And Vygotsky's Philosophy Of Education

There are many different views and theories on how children think and learn. One theory is called constructivism, which is a philosophy of education. Constructivist believe that children generate knowledge and meaning from interaction between their experiences and their ideas. Two individuals that are well known constructivists are Piaget, the ‘father’ of constructivism, and Vygotsky. Both of these theorists believed that social interaction is important and played an irreplaceable role in cognitive development. Piaget believed that the development of thought and language is influenced by learning from others, where Vygotsky believed social interaction was instrumental cognitive development. Both theories see teachers as a facilitator and guide in education and development, but not …show more content…
(Santrock, 2014) Piaget and Vygotsky had many different interpretations of the constructivist theory. Paiget’s theory was one of cognitive constructivism, meaning the mind is described in terms of the individual. Cognitive constructivism approaches learning and knowing from the perspective of the individual, and the view on education is that is merely there to define existing skills that have already emerged. (Santrock, 2014) Vygotsky’s theory is one of social constructivism that emphasizes the collaborative nature of learning. He believed the Piaget’s theory overlooked the social nature in language and the collaborative process of learning. To fully understand the differences in the two theories, you must first understand each view of cognitive development. Piaget, the father of constructivism, theorized that there are four discrete stages of cognitive development that everyone goes through. These stages are called sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. During the sensorimotor