Jean Piaget
• Piaget was a Swiss psychologist.
• Piaget, emphasized the importance of the physical environment development;
• He also gave emphasis on the biological abilities we inherit heredity and somewhere ignored the social aspect.
• He is also known as the father of Child Psychology.
• Piaget was a radical constructivist who believed in the inde construction of knowledge by a child himself.
Important Terms:
• Schema
• Assimilation
• Accommodation
• Reversibility
• Equilibrium
• Object permanence
• Egocentrism.
• Animism.
• Conservation.
• Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
• Collective Monologue
• Transitivity
Schema:
Schema is a set pattern or organized categories of information and relationship between these categories. E.g. Books, relationships, devices, monuments etc.
Assimilation:
is the process of incorporating new information into the schemes.
Accommodation:
is the process of adjusting or manipulating existing schemes due to disequilibrium in the existing schemes.
Assimilation and accommodation come under the process of adaptation.
Equilibrium:
The state of balance between the assimilated information and the information you encounter in the outside world.
Disequilibrium:
The state of imbalance between the assimilated information and the information you encounter with the outside world.
Stages of
Cognitive Development
1. Sensory Motor Stage (Birth to 2 years)
• Senses are teachers
• Reflex actions.
• Imitative Behavior.
• Object Permanence- (Out of sight, out of mind does not apply anyrnore)
2. Pre- Operational Stage (2-6 years)
• "Operation"means mental processes.
• Transductive Reasoning or somewhat we say not so logical reason comes.
• Crucial stage for Language Development.
• According to Piaget, child learns to think first and develops the language later.
• Irreversibility-Children believe that action cannot be reversed or undone. E.g. a 3 year old can't think of ice becoming water and vice versa.
• Egocentrism - "I" (Children can't take others perspectives in this stage).
• Animism-A child believes in a non-living thing as a living thing which has feelings in it.
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)
• Logic begins with concrete objects.
• Reversibility develops.
• Transitivity develops the ability to recognize relationships among various things.
• Classification comes.
• Seriation.
▪ Conservation: Ability to understand that the quantity, area or volume does not change with the change in form or shape and size.
• This stage is also known as later childhood or gang age.
Example of Transitivity:
4. Formal operational Stage (12 year and up)
In this stage child develops logic about abstract things.
Deductive Reasoning comes- going from general to specific.
. Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning comes: is the ability to think scientifically by generating predictions or hypotheses, about the solution of a problem.
• Age of Divergent/convergent/creative thinking.
Educational Implication
• This theory provides a broad development perspective to the teachers and policymakers to make a better curriculum for the children.
• Piaget's theory-based curriculum requires that children should not skip any stage.
• Children learn faster if we provide concrete material to work with.
• A teacher should arouse the curiosity of the child through planned activities.
• Treat a child as a discoverer.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Development
Lev Vygotsky
- Was a Russian Psychologist, died at the age of 38 years
- A Social Constructivist
- Focused on socio-cultural aspects i.e he emphasized the role of the society and culture in the development of a child.
Three Important Aspects
Some other important Terms
ZPD: Zone of proximal development is the difference between what a learner can do by himself & what he/she can do with help.
So, ZPD is the area of proximal development in which guidance should be given so that a child can reach the maximum potential.
Scaffolding
- Scaffolding is a temporary structure of help provided in the zone of proximal development
- While providing scaffolding teachers, peers or any MKO breaks the problem in parts can give clues or provide support according to the need
- In scaffolding, MKO need not solve the entire problem but need to give hints, or can solve half problem, so that students can learn on their own.
MKO: More knowledgeable other is anyone who knows more than the learner in ZPD, age does not matter here. Examples can be teachers, parents, peers technology, etc.
Here in the following image, the father is providing scaffolding to the child by holding the bicycle from
the back
here in the second picture scaffolding is stopped as the child learn to ride the bicycle independently because scaffolding is temporary help given to the child in image 1
Some more terms related to the theory
Note: Vygotsky emphasized on assisted learning which means children learn better when they got assist and cooperation.
Vygotsky strongly believed that society and culture plays a central role in the process of "meaning-making".
• According to him, Social learning tends to precede development.
Vygotsky's theory differs from that of Piaget in a number of ways:
1. Vygotsky places considerably more emphasis on social factors contributing to cognitive development.
2. Vygotsky places more emphasis on the role of language in cognitive development.
3. According to Vygotsky adults play an important source of cognitive development.
4. According to Vygotsky, social interaction involving cooperative or collaborative learning promotes cognitive development.
Vygotsky and Language
• Vygotsky believed that language develop through social interactions.
• Vygotsky viewed language as fixes greatest tool, a means for communicating with the world.
Thought and language are initially separate systems for intial years of life, merging at around three years of age.
At this point speech and thought become interdependent.
Three forms of language:
1. Social speech: which is external communication used to talk to others (from the age of 2).
2. Private speech: (from the age of 3) which is directed to the self and serves a cognitive function.
3. Silent inner speech: finally private speech goes underground, and is transformed into silent inner speech (from the age of 7).
Educational Implication
• Vygotsky promotes collaborative learning, heterogeneous groups are better way of learning.
• Social interactions are vital in the process of the development of a child.
Critical Evaluation
• The main criticism of Vygotslry's work is the assumption that it is relevant to all cultures.
• In some cases, observation and practice may be more effective ways of learning certain skills.
Jerome Bruner's Theory of Cognitive Learning:
Jerome Seymour Bruner was an American psychologist who made significant contributions to human cognitive psychology
gave his cognitive learning theory in educational psychology.
There are three stages of cognitive learning given by bruner:
Here in these stages, a child goes to the next stage without leaving or forgetting the previous one. Learning should begin with the direct manipulation of objects.