Both Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories have a common field, the cognitive development in children. Cognitive development refers to the study of development in children in parts of language learning, speech, processing information plus other brain development aspects. It compares children’s cognitive psychology from the point of view of an adult. The two theories try to explain how children develop using cognitive development.
Comparing the two theories, their similarity only lies on the fact that they both explain that social interaction is the underlying factor in cognitive development in children, but then different methods and factors are used to further explain it. Vygotsky’s theory is based on the view that social interaction among community plays a major role in cognition development by way of making a meaning. Piaget believed that there are four stages in which children pass through in cognitive development. He used a more biological perspective primarily to explain cognitive development, which differs from Vygotsky who dwelt more on social and historical factors of how humans behave.
According to Piaget’s theory, there are four stages that children go through in cognitive development and are as follows: Sensorimotor stage which is from a child’s birth to the age of two, preoperational stage follows to the age of seven, the stage of concrete operational follows to the age of eleven and finally the stage of formal operational which then follows to adulthood. The sensorimotor stage involves moving, touching, seeing and others, at this phase children move to goal oriented actions from reflex type activities. The following stage then records language development and the use of symbols. Concrete operational phase is where a child thinks hands on and in the final phase, formal operational, a child can then think abstractly, thinking of outside issues other than themselves.
Vygotsky’s theory explains the connection between thinking development and learning language. It states that cultural factors as well as social, influence intelligence development. Learning is influenced by what the learner already knows through social interaction, and what the learner is not ready to learn, which is explained in the proximal learning zone. This theory does not use fixed development stages but explains activities of certain periods of age where there is organized intellectual development.
Learning and development is addressed in Piaget’s theory through the use of schemas, which is used to categorize knowledge thus helping us to understand and interpret the world. He also used concepts like assimilation, accommodation and equilibration to explain the process of learning and developing. It explains how a child uses the information he/she already has to assimilate new information and accommodate them in light of the old information, and then how they try to strike a balance in them. Vygotsky argued that in order for development of physical function, learning is an important factor, meaning social learning comes before development.
Vygotsky’s view on speech and thought was that speech is a tool, for thought. He explains that speech store social experience history and thus it carries culture. He believed that as a child reaches competency and internalizes information, language is then represented as thought in the mind. Piaget reasoned that thought drives the language.
Both of these psychologists have contributed majorly to today’s thoughts on constructivist learning. Though Vygotsky’s theory dwells more on how social interaction influences the whole cognitive development while Piaget focuses more on how development of intelligence is through a continuous interaction with the environment.
References
Freund, L. S. (1990). ‘Maternal regulation of children's problem-solving behavior and its impact on children's performance’. Child Development, 61, 113-126.
Kendra C. (2010). ‘Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development’. Retrieved From http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.htm
McLeod, S. A. (2007). ‘Lev Vygotsky’. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html
