Jean Vygotsky And Piaget Cognitive Theory

Jean Piaget was a Twentieth century Swiss psychologist and was the first psychologist to systematically study the cognitive development of children. Thomas (2005) wrote that early in Piaget’s career he worked with children and his observations and interactions with the students led him to the theory that a young person's cognitive processes are inherently different from those of adults (pp. 188-9). According to Ahmad, et al. (2005), Piaget showed that when compared to adults, young children think in differently and he then came to the conclusion that cognitive development was an ongoing process which occurred due to maturation and interaction with the environment (p. 72).

Life span developmental psychology is the field of psychology that involves the examination of both constancy and change in human behavior across the life span, that is, from conception to death. The focus of the study of developmental psychology is to further our knowledge of how we evolve over our entire life span. The study of development is possible within a range of topics in modern psychology like social psychology, cognitive psychology, abnormal psychology, comparative psychology, and neuro psychology. Child development is one of the studies in developmental psychology. The study of children is important because it has the potential to inform us about the nature of human development. By studying the earlier changes of behavior, we can

2. The psychodynamic theory is associated with, Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson. Theorists who support this theory state, early childhood experiences play a major part in later development of a child’s personality, even if it is buried in there unconscious. Psychodynamic Theorists also believe that children go through qualitatively distinct stages in their development. In my classroom, how I could apply this theory is by engaging the child on who they think they are, and how it will affect their future. Identity plays a major role in this theory, by engaging the child on who they think they are, I feel I will be able to assess their ability to learn.

Development refers to the pattern of continuity and change in human capabalities that occurs throughout the course of life (King, 2008). Children development is is a part of human development that refers to a biological, emotional, and psychological changes that take a place in human beings between birth to adult.

One of the most well known theories in cognitive development is Piaget 's theory. The psychologist Jean Piaget theorized that as children 's minds development, they pass through distinct stages marked by transitions in understanding followed by stability. Piaget describes four different stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation, and formal operations. Each stage describes the thinking patterns of a child depending on his or her age. In order to compare the thinking processes of a three-year old and a nine-year old using Piaget 's theory, you must compare two sequential stages of cognitive development: preoperational and concrete operations.

The concept of Learning as a process of Cognitive Development, has intrigued Psychologists for many years. Learning, as defined by Schacter, Gilbert & Wegner (2011) is “the acquisition of new knowledge, skills or responses from experience that result in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner”. Jean Piaget, a Swiss-born Psychologist, was one who was particularly interested in how children perceive their environment. So engrossed was he by this process, that Piaget used his own children as scientific models in his experiments, in establishing his theory of Cognitive Development. After analyzing the behaviors of his children in their early development, Piaget concluded that there are four main stages of human cognitive maturation:- The Sensorimotor Stage, the Preoperational Stage, the Concrete Operational Stage and the Formal Operational Stage. This essay seeks to outline and examine Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory, and to illustrate how this theory can influence the learning and teacher pedagogy in classes within the Caribbean region.

Behaviourism assumes that a learner is fundamentally flaccid, replying to environmental incentives. Behaviour theorists states learning as nothing more than the attainment of new behaviour. In this theory Language acquisition is the result of stimulus-response activities where factors that facilitate are imitation, replication, reward and reinforcement.

Throughout the year we have learned about many different theorists who have done a great but also horrible job at explaining adolescent/ young adult development. In this paper I will be talking about Freud and Piaget, and how I think that Piaget was the better theorist than Freud when it comes to talking about development. I will also be talking about the similarities and difference between the two. For starters, what are their specific steps of development?

Developmental psychology relates to the changes in behaviour and abilities that transpire over time as development advances. (Harwood & Miller, 2008). Infancy and childhood is a time of rapid development of social, sensory and cognitive abilities. Infants acquire perceptual and motor skills which allow them to comprehend the world they live in. Cognitive development is “the growth of cognitive abilities and capacities from birth to old age” (Colman, 2008). In this essay I will address Piagetian Theory, the cognitive performance of children from age seven to eleven, (the concrete operational period), and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development.

Lev Vygotsky's, cultural-historical theory of cognitive development is focused on the role of culture in the development of higher mental functions, such as speech and reasoning in children. His theory is sometimes referred to as having a sociocultural perspective, which means the theory emphasizes the importance of society and culture for promoting cognitive development. He emphasized the role of social interactions and culture in development. And he believed that adults in a society foster children's cognitive development in an intentional and systematic manner by engaging them in challenging and meaningful activities.

Biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes are all connected in the developmental task of a baby smiling at his or her mother’s touch. Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s physical nature. Cognitive processes bring changes to the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language. Socioemotional processes include changes in the individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions and changes in personality. For the baby, the biological process has to do with the physical touch by the mother and the baby’s response to this touch. The cognitive process deals with the fact that the mother is intentionally touching the baby, something that the baby is beginning to understand. The socioemotional process for

The first theorist introduced is Piaget and his theory was based on “the understanding of how children and adolescents think and learn” (198). The second theorist introduced is Vygotsky and his theory was influenced by Karl Marx’s proposal “that historical changes in society have significant impact on how people think and behave” (215). Piaget used a clinical method, in order to seek his theory of cognitive development. This allowed Piaget to understand how children and adolescents learn. On the other hand, Vygotsky used tangible items like stories, paper, and writing utensils to determine how the society would move forward. An educational difference from Vygotsky is that parents, teachers, and other adults has having an impact on how children learn and grow. However, Piaget found that

Cognition is a process where different aspects of the mind are working together that lead to knowledge. Piaget’s cognitive development theory is based on stages that children go through as they grow that lead them to actively learn new information. Cognitive change occurs with schemes that children and adults go through to make sense of what is happening around them. The change that occurs is activity based when the child is young and later in life correlates to mental thinking. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development start from birth to adulthood and it begins with the sensorimotor stage, a child from birth to the age of 2 years old learns and thinks by doing and figuring out how something works. The second stage is the preoperational stage and in this stage children from ages 2 through 7 years are developing their language and they do pretend play (Berk, 2005, p.20). Concrete operational is the third stage and children ages 7 to 11 years old lack abstract but have more logic than they did when they were younger. The last stage is formal

My play observation took place at Mill 180 Park in Easthampton, Massachusetts on February 17, 2018 between the hours of 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. This is an indoor urban hydroponic park where children can enjoy a variety of different games, food, and an open play area to interact with others. While I was at the park, I observed two school-aged Caucasians engaging in unstructured play. The children were siblings, with the boy being ten years old and his sister eight years old. When I first observed these children, they were not interacting with one another. The boy was building a structure with the foam blocks, while the girl was sitting on them, rocking back and forth. However, halfway through my observation, the children were building on a structure together, followed by helping another child build a structure afterwards. They also chased each other around and raced each other in an obstacle course….seeee what everyonnne wrote ….adddd (decreibe type of play asss it evolved over time)))))

Cognitive development is a process which enhancing the ability of learning. The cognitive theories emphasize on conscious thoughts which highlight the mental aspects of development such as logic and memory. The primary factors of cognitive theories is the structure and development of the individual’s thought processes and the means of these processes can effort the person’s understanding of the world. Therefore, the cognitive theories study on how this understanding, and the expectations it creates, can affect the individual’s behavior. There are three types of cognitive development theories in human which are Piaget’s Cognitive development theory, Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive theory and Information-Processing theory. (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1). All of them focus on the development of complex thinking skills.