Discussion 2.2-Piaget and Vygotsky (Week 4 Start Date: Beginning of Week 4 End D
ID: 3493703 • Letter: D
Question
Discussion 2.2-Piaget and Vygotsky (Week 4 Start Date: Beginning of Week 4 End Date: End of Week 4 Your total response should be at least 250 words and should answer each one of the following questions Let's Talk About Piaget and Vygotsky . In addition to what you have already learned about Piaget, know that he is identified with having a guiding metaphor of human development with the child as an independent, curious scientist. . In addition to what you have learned about Vygotsky, know that he is identified with a guiding metaphor of the child as apprentice. Do you find support for these differences? Or not? How would you combine Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories to provide a more valid Scientists or a account of real-life development?Explanation / Answer
Piaget believed that children took at active role in the learning process, acting much like little scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information. This view had led Piaget to identifying child as an independent and curious scientist.
Vygotsky states cognitive development stems from social interactions from guided learning within the zone of proximal development as children and their partner's co-construct knowledge. He believed that adults are the important source of cognitive development in children. Adults transmit their culture's tools of intellectual adaptation that their children internalize. This led Vygotsky to identify children as apprentice.
The differences can be supported. While both theories have their own differences they also have similarities. These similarities support the theories and show commonalities that are agreed by both scientists in their cognitive development of children and adolescents. In both theories child is identified as an active learner either as an apprentice or as a curious scientist. They are able to organize new and existing information, learn from them and provide an active feedback to their learners. Second similarity is that the learning or development declines with age. The development is at a steady increase during childhood and then it peaks after which it starts to decline as child enters adulthood. Thirdly, they both believe that development is initiated by cognitive conflict i.e. a child seeks out new or correct answer when s/he realizes that the newly acquired idea s/he has does not align with his current thinking. This seeking out of correct answer or new idea initiates cognitive development in children. Fourthly, they both agree that the egocentric form of speech of a child is important to cognitive development of child. The speech of a child that is not addressed to other people helps the child move through an activity or problem on his/her own.
Both theories have proved important in developing practical application for classroom activates for children for their real-life development. A contemporary educational application of Vygotsky's theories is "reciprocal teaching," which is used to improve students' ability to learn from text. In this method, teachers and students collaborate in learning and practicing four key skills: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher's role in the process is reduced over time as the child gains mastery over these skills. Vygotsky is relevant to instructional concepts such as "scaffolding" and "apprenticeship," in which a teacher or more advanced peer helps to structure or arrange a task so that a novice can work on it successfully. Vygotsky’s theories also feed into the current interest in collaborative learning, suggesting that group members should have different levels of ability so more advanced peers can help less advanced members operate within their Zone of Proximal Development.
Using Piaget's theories, many educational programs are now built upon the belief that children should be taught at the level for which they are developmentally prepared for. And using Piaget's theories many strategies have been developed including providing a supportive environment, utilizing social interactions and peer teaching, etc. The Reasoning skills within the formal stage of Piaget’s Cognitive developmental stages refer to the mental process involved in the generalizing and evaluating of logical arguments (Anderson, 1990) and include clarification, inference, evaluation, and application. These skills are used to develop mathematical instructions to help children solve problems and to enhance their understanding of logic behind such problems.