Piaget found, through interviewing and observing children as they completed exercises

that he had created, that children cannot understand certain things until their brains reach a
certain point of development. The stages of cognitive development include sensori-motor, pre-
operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Sensori-motor occurs from birth to two
years of age. This is the stage where children begin to act intentionally and realize that objects
are still present even when they are no longer visible. From two to seven years old children
experience the pre-operational stage. In this stage children learn how to use language, classify
objects by a single feature, and have a hard time seeing other points of view. Children can
classify objects using multiple features and can think logically from seven to eleven years of age.
This is referred to as the concrete operational stage. From age eleven and up children go through
the formal operational stage. In this stage kids think about the future and the hypothetical. They
also can think logically about the abstract. Piagets work has been used to determine at what age
school curriculum could be caught.
Without being able to code information in our brain, we would have no memory.
Bruners work describes the stage of how information is coded into our brains. The three modes
of representation do not occur at certain ages. Enactive is the first mode and involves action
memory. The action memory can turn into muscle memory. The next mode is Iconic. In this
mode information can be coded as images in the brain. The last of the three is symbolic.
Information can now be stored as a symbol, this includes language. Bruners constructivist
theory suggests that children can learn any material if it is presented in the correct format.
Teachers can use this information at all grade levels.
Vygotzk focused his research on the role that social interaction plays on child
development. His theory came to be known as the Social Development Theory. This theory
states that society and social interaction have an important impact on learning. One example of
this is that actions do not have meaning until peoples reactions give it meaning, like shaking
someones hand. In the US this is done as a sign of respect, in other countries this is considered
an insult. Vygotzk believed that learning from social interactions happens before development,
this contradicts Piagets theories.


Piaget: Stages of
Cognitive
Development
Sensori-motor
(birth-2)
Pre-operational
(2-7)
Concrete
operational (7-
11)
Formal
Operational
(11+)
Bruner: Three
Modes of
Representation
Enactive Iconic Symbolic
Vygotzk
Social
Learning
Development