Piaget + Vygotsky

Piaget’s Theory

children pass through a series of 4 phases

• movement from stages occurs when a child reaches appropriate maturation

• knowledge is the product of direct motor behavior

What are Piaget’s four stages?

Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years)

preoperational (2 - 7)

concrete (7-12)

formal (12-15)

Simple Reflexes

Substage 1

• sucking, grasping, and rooting to help them explore their world

  • helps acomodate their experiences

  • ex) breast to bottle

First Habits & Primary Circular Reactions

Substage 2:

• First Habits: coordinate separate actions into single, integrated activities

  • ex) touching something while looking at it

• Primary Circular Reactions: reflecting an infant’s repetition of enjoyable actions

  • ‘primary’ → involves infant’s body

    • ex) baby sucking on thumb bc it is enjoyable

Secondary Circular Reactions

Substage 3

• Schemes regarding repeated actions within their environment that bring about a desirable consequence (based on an infants’ outside world) 

  • ex) repeatedly shaking a rattle to hear the noise it makes

• vocalization increases → prompts attention

Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions

Substage 4

• Goal Directed Behavior: combining several schemes to solve a problem

  • ex) pushing items out of the way to get what they want

• Object Permanence: realizing that people and objects exist even when they can’t be seen

Tertiary Circular Reactions

Substage 5:

• schemes regarding deliberate variation of actions that bring desirable consequences

  • carryout miniature actions to observe consequences

  • ex) throwing blocks

Beginnings of Thought

Substage 6:

• Mental Representations: emergence of symbolic thought

• Deferred Imitation: ability to pretend

  • play pretend, imaginative play

Preoperational Stage

Chilren’s use of thinking, mental reasoning, and concepts increase

Symbolic Function

Preoperational Stage

• Symbolic Function: use a mental symbol, word, or object to represent something that is not physically present

  • ex) toy car is not equal to a real car

• Concentration: concentrating on one stimulus by ignoring others

  • leads to inaccurate thoughts

Relation Between Language & Thought

Preoperational Stage

• can imagine future possibilities through language in daydreams

• dependent on cognitive advances

• provides foundation for language ability

conservation

Preoperational Stage

idea that volume, mass, and quantity stays the same despite changes in appearance

• ex) triangle V rectangular sandwich

Tranformation

Preoperational Stage

• process in which one state is changed into another

  • children = unable to envision process of immediate changing states

Egocentrism

Preoperational Stage

• struggle w/ taking things on from a different perspective

• struggle w/ realizing ppl have different opinions

• talk to themselves

  • ex) hide under a blanket/pillow → if I can’t see them, they can’t see me

Intuitive Thought

Preopertational Stage

• using primitive reasoning & knowledge abt the world for curiosity

  • not always confident in beliefs

at end of stage, functionality (events related to one another in a fixed pattern) & identity (same size, shape, appearance) should emerge

Concrete Operational

Apply logical thinking to concrete problems

• understand relationship between: time, speed, & distance

Decentering

Concrete Operational

• ability to take on other peoples’ POVs

Reversibility

Concrete Operational

• idea that something that has been changes can return to its original state

  • ex) 2+5 = 7, then 7-5=2

Formal Operational Stage

abstract thinking emerges & logic to solve problems

Hypotheodeductive Reasoning

Formal Operational

• start w/.a general theory to create explanations

Propositional Thought

Formal Operational

• using abstract logic in absence of concrete examples

• ex) forming own political views, values

Viewed cognitive development development as a product of social interactions

Vygotsky

social constructivism

• learning is collaborative

• knowledge is constructed through interactions w/ others

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• ability for a child to complete a task independently, but also rely on assistance from others

  • aid allows children to improve their cognitive development

Scaffolding

• support for learning & problem solving that encourages independence + growth

  • teachers gradually reduce support as learners become more proficient

sociocultural theory

learning is shaped through interactions w/ others & cultural context