Piagets and Vygotskys Theories in the Classroom Essays

Since the early 1900’s psychologists have developed theories about how the human brain develops and how humans learn. Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood (Wells, 2011). There are many factors that play vital roles in how we learn, some of which are intelligence, reasoning and memory. There are different theories as to how children learn. Some believe that babies are born with the ability to pay attention, sort information and develop perception. Jean Piaget believed that children develop cognitively through schemes that are constructed through trail and error. On the other hand, Russian†¦show more content†¦As a problem presents itself, children will verbally work through the steps to solve it. This ‘private speech’ is a vital part to cognitive development, according to Vygotsky. This private speech gradually progresses into thinking as children become more proficient. He was also a proponent for scaffolding which is a process in which a new task is given and direct instruction is given then gradually taken away as the child learns. Both psychologists believed that children learn and develop through action but in different ways; Piaget felt it was through personal, self action while Vygotsky felt is was through social interaction, internalization and vocalization. Vygotsky and Piaget realized that social factors play a part in cognitive development but in different ways; According Piaget, self processing within a child leads to social processing while Vygotsky felt the opposite- social processing leads to self processing. Lastly, both came to the conclusion that by internalizing information, children transform it into knowledge and mental growth. Piaget’s stages of development are broken into stages of growth to bridge the connection between cognitive and biological development. According to Piaget, there are four stages to cognitive development; Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operations and Formal Operations. In the sensorimotor stage, children form babies to two years old, experience and gather information by using the five senses.Show MoreRelatedJean Piaget s Theory Of Education1672 Words   |  7 PagesPsychologists Jean Piaget’s and Lev Vygotsky’s contributions to our knowledge about cognitive development and learning, forms the foundations of modern education. Both men’s work was revolutionary for their times, underpinning the transformative shift to a constructivist way of thinking, which emerged as the most significant influence on education of the 21st Century (James Bader, 2002). 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