Theories
Jean Piaget
Piaget created four stages of cognitive development. He believed that adults and children think very differently. Each of the four stages builds on one another and no stage can be skipped. This also means that once a child reaches a stage, he or she cannot go back to the previous one.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Piaget created four stages of cognitive development. He believed that adults and children think very differently. Each of the four stages builds on one another and no stage can be skipped. This also means that once a child reaches a stage, he or she cannot go back to the previous one.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
- Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years)
From the body to the outside world
Development of object permanence
From action to mental representation
- Preoperational stage (2-7 years)
Transductive reasoning and magical explanations
Egocentrism
Animism
Lack of conservation
- Concrete operational stage (7-12 years)
Reversibility
Classification
Not capable of thinking abstractly
- Formal operational stage (12 years and older)
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: The ability to form hypotheses about how the world works and to reason logically about
Lev Vygotsky
For Vgotsky all learning and ideas begin in the interaction between a child and those with whom he has contact. As a result, all learning is culturally based because all people are situated within their own culture. Instead of stages, Vgotsky developed three ways that ideas are passed from older people to children.
Zone of Proximal Development
He called the abilities that were in the process of forming and that the child would demonstrate with just a little help the zone of proximal development, or ZPD. He believed that when testing a child's mental ability, he or she should be tested twice. The first time the child would need to be tested on his or her own and the
second time he or she could receive a small amount of help from an adult. He believed that the second testing showed which intellectual abilities the children were in the process of forming.
He called the abilities that were in the process of forming and that the child would demonstrate with just a little help the zone of proximal development, or ZPD. He believed that when testing a child's mental ability, he or she should be tested twice. The first time the child would need to be tested on his or her own and the
second time he or she could receive a small amount of help from an adult. He believed that the second testing showed which intellectual abilities the children were in the process of forming.
Scaffolding
Scaffolding is what an adult does to move the child through the ZPD to full independent achievement. When the child can finally perform the given task on their own, scaffolding is not needed anymore. An example is tying shoes. Adults would do it for infants, help young children, teach older children, and then children will be able to do it themselves.
Scaffolding is what an adult does to move the child through the ZPD to full independent achievement. When the child can finally perform the given task on their own, scaffolding is not needed anymore. An example is tying shoes. Adults would do it for infants, help young children, teach older children, and then children will be able to do it themselves.
Private Speech
Private speech is what children do and is used to change external interactions into internal thoughts. Defined as, "talking to oneself, often out loud, in order to guide one's own actions. Children carry out tasks more successfully when they use private speech.
Private speech is what children do and is used to change external interactions into internal thoughts. Defined as, "talking to oneself, often out loud, in order to guide one's own actions. Children carry out tasks more successfully when they use private speech.