Comparing Piaget And Vygotsky

Cognitive development involves the areas of brain development that effect information processing, intelligence, reasoning, language development and memory. From childhood through adolescence to adulthood, cognitive development is the formation of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making. Cognitive development is how we understanding the world around us. There are stages that have been clinically proven to be the average for children by theorists Piaget and Vygotsky. Jean Piaget theories focus on the stages of intellectual development through assimilation and accommodation. While Lev Vygotsky focused on the sociocultural approach to cognitive development. No single principle can account for development and
although Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories differ in a number of ways they both promote cognitive development. For this essay and the purpose of this class I will cover my development from birth through adolescents, as well as touching upon young adulthood.
Piaget believed there were certain points at which children’s learning move into new capabilities, 18 months, 7 years and 12 years. During my infancy I relied on my sensorimotor, the first stage. I was alert and watched things happening in front of me, putting things in my mouth and throwing objects. Of course I learned that crying would bring the response I was looking for weather it be for food or comfort. Like most babies I enjoyed playing on a blanket looking up at objects that moved, played music and lit up as I stretched to grab them. By seven months old I learned that objects still exists even when I couldn’t see them. The game peek-a-boo helped me develop my memory. I started recognizing and looking for familiar voices and sounds. The Preoperational Stage started around twelve months when I was
developing language and producing my first real words. As my language and memory developed I began to be able to use my imagination. I unwrapped toys in blankets and found-hidden toys. In my toddler years I enjoyed playing dress-up, house and arts “n” crafts. I would pretend play talking on the phone, putting my baby to bed and talking to them. Between the ages of seven and eleven I starting having more reasoning thinking in Piaget’s Concrete Operational stage. I would try to reason my way out of doing things I didn’t want to do with my parents, in other words ague. Even though I was developing I still tended to be egocentric even though I was more aware of others feelings. I also knew the difference between right and wrong. As an adolescent my intellectual development entered the Formal Operational Stage. I could consider multiple perspectives; apply logic and reasoning especially in the academic setting. As a college student this last stage is still being developed as I accumulate new knowledge. Viewing my developmental milestones with Vygotsky’s theory of sociocultural approach my learning was strongly tied my social interactions. He believed that the people around them enhanced children’s curiosity through good cooperative and scaffolding activities. This built scheme that the child could use later to build knowledge by making connections to what they already know. My mother stayed at home with me until I was in kindergarten. She provided me with the opportunity to have exposure to listening to books, play dates, preschool, and activities to build my cognitive development. As an infant my mother and father talked to me, engaged in baby talk and entertained me with rattles. As I grew they would show my how to do things such as play with toys and in return I would try to copy. Using Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development my family’s guidance allowed me to develop skills that I could then use on my own and developed my mental functions. This supported my language development for those first spoken words around twelve months old. Those first Frankenstein steps and my imagination play were really based on coping what I saw around me. The interactions I had with my parents taught me self-help skills. The play talking on the telephone and putting my babies to bed were activities I had first experienced with adult support. Growing up in a linguistically stimulating environment my language developed as I talked to my babies and gained new scheme. As I entered school years my education was based on teachers scaffolding the information in order for me to achieve success. Learning to read was difficult for me until second grade and the teachers and my parents needed to provide more guidance and scaffolding. The nurturing environment with which I grew up in was based on the social interaction I received and cultural factors within my family. The difference between right and wrong, importance of education and the use of language to communicate in the world were all based on my environment and social interactions. These foundations and new interactions continue to shape the person I am becoming. Piaget saw children adapting to their environment through the process of assimilation and accommodation.
While Vygotsky, saw children as participants in an interactive process brought on by social and cultural factors. As my cognitive development increased by a combination of Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories my brain had to process and store all this information. The stages of Information Processing contain four steps that process and store events from our surroundings: attending, encoding, storing and retrieving. In infancy, I was attending and paying close attention to what was happening and interactions I was having in my environment. As I grew and started to understand the world around me, and language I started to encode the information. This gave it meaning. Once the information had meaning storing was the next step and then retrieving. Retrieving would allow me to use this information again later when I need it. All cognitive development requires information processing and memory. It can be considered the bridge of different learning theories. We use our scheme or prior knowledge to activate and gain new information. We actively select and integrate experiences with existing knowledge. As an infant when I was hungry I cried and my mother would feed me. Processing this information taught me when I needed my mother crying would provide the response I wanted. This learning says that information from the world around us moves from sensory storage to working memory to
long-term memory. Like any other muscle the brain needs exercise to develop its cognitive system. My experiences allowed me to increase memory capacity, categorize information, recall and learn at faster rates. This exercise was based on my overall physical, cognitive and emotional changes. These experiences and factors contribute to my individual differences and impacted my formal learning success starting in preschool and continues today.