Theories of Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky

When it comes to Greg’s intellectual development he is in Formal Operational Stage of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development. At times throughout the book Greg can become the leader and think about situations in a logical manner. This is seen consistently while he is in school. “They don’t come right out and tell you if you’re in the Gifted group or the Easy group, but you can figure it out right away” (Kinney. p 13). Greg is able to identify which students have higher order thinking and which do not base off reading groups. Most students would not think about the groups and continue on with the lesson, “they are able to hypothesize and consider possibilities that are not within their realm of direct experience” (Brighton. p 4). Greg

This assignment is in two parts. The first part of this assignment would attempt to use the theories of human development to explain the child behaviour observed during child observation at the preschool while the second part of this assignment would propose an intervention on a scenario at my practice placement. I would demonstrate my critical understanding of the theories and evaluate their relevance for evidence-informed and value-based practice.

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.

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.

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.

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).

The cognitive development theory suggests that moral development is related to the development of rational reasoning. According to Jean Piaget, the development of moral reasoning involves a systematic progression through a sequence of phases, each characterised by a particular quality of thought. (Jean Piaget 1932, 1965) Through his research on how children develop judgement about morality and ethics, Piaget found two stages of moral thoughts that children go through; the heteronomous and the autonomous. In the heteronomous phase, the morality and ethics of children are based on how an action affects them, the consequence of an action and the conformity of social rules and regulations. The rules set by an individual

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

Cognitive is mental processes that allow one to perceive, make decisions, give attention and remember things then store it for their long term memory, it allows human to reacts to environment accordingly, Cognitive development on the other hand, is the changes that are happening throughout one’s lifespan (White, Hayes and Livesey, 2005). It has been a debate on when cognitive development begins, however recent study shows that it begins since inside the womb (Goswami, 2008).

Jean Piaget, known for his interest in the Epistemology in children is seen as the pioneer of Developmental Psychology. Piaget 's Cognitive development theory led to a great deal of research work in the field of educational philosophy . But in the discipline of Psychology, every theory has been faced with a counter theory or an alternative. So is the case with Piaget 's theory. Lev Vygotsky, a soviet psychologist came up with the socio-cultural theory, which is another strong theory emphasizing child development and is seen as a major counter theory to Piaget 's work (Saul McLeod, 2004). Theories of these two cognitive psychologists have been compared and contrasted on different levels. This essay will look into the differences and similarities between their theories.

One of Piaget’s key views was stages of cognitive development, he divided cognitive development into separate stages as follows: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage. It was hypothesized

Cognition is the study of the mind works. When we study cognitive development, we are acknowledging the fact that changes occur in how we think and learn as we grow. There is a very big difference in the way that children and adults think about and understand their environment.

When one thinks about the major influencers and contributors in the field of developmental psychology, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky comes to mind, for they had great impact as influential developmental psychologists. Both psychologists studied the cognitive development of children and resulted in many resemblances as well as many fundamental differences. For Piaget, he developed a theory called the Piagetian Theory, influenced by Kant’s Philosophy and the Evolutionary Theory, where development leads to learning, indicating that the “individual constructs his or her knowledge individually or solitarily” (Lourenco, 2012, p.282), completely in contrast to Vygotsky’s theory, called the Sociocultural/Sociohistorical Theory, “based upon Marxist ideas of political economy” (Sugarman, week 2 lecture, pg.2), where learning leads to development, believing that “one only develops as one participates in various forms of social interaction, using then tools and signs, tools and signs which are also social in their very nature” (Lourenco, 2012, p.282). In addition to both of these theories having similarities and differences, the two theoretical propositions come with implications, issues and considerations.

For this assignment, I have selected two theories, cognitive theory and socio-cultural theory, to compare and contrast for further understanding children development and both theories’ implication in current education. Cognitive theory studies how people think, what’s going on within people’s mind. Social-cultural theory studies how the society, the culture, other people or external environment impact individual development. This paper would firstly respectively demonstrate both theories’ basic philosophy, representative persons and their claims. In the part