Piaget And Vygotsky Analysis

In comparing both Piaget and Vygotsky, both psychologist feel that expert teachers should help students with developing cognitive skills. Both also feel that a child should be pushed past the limit of which their cognitive ability remains to create a higher level of thinking. By doing this teachers can understand the thought process of the student and provide means to fix the misconception. Piaget explained that teachers should build carefully on what students already know and integrate their new knowledge to old knowledge. Vygotsky thought more along the idea of trying to understand why the student chose the answer and in what ways to fix their misconception and build on the students thinking process.
In contrasting points between Piaget and Vygotsky, they have very different ideas for how the cognitive development took place and continued. Piaget believed
In other words, children learn from the people around them. Vygotsky also thought of internalization as a continuous process, without distinct stages in cognitive development. His idea focused on moving from an elementary mental function to a higher mental function. The elementary mental function involves learning from their surroundings or from a teacher or mentor. The higher mental function is more along independent thinking with cooperative and collaborative dialog. The ability for the social interactions to further the cognitive development within a child or student, it starts with a more knowledgeable other—mentor or teacher. The tutor then gives examples of how to solve a problem, or gives a child guidelines in how to achieve the solution, this is called the Zone of Proximal Development. Within the communication, a child can learn from the language and begin thinking about what to do next. This is where Vygotsky felt that social interactions led to the belief that learning proceeds