PIAGET’S THEORY

 Sensorimotor (birth – 2 years

old)
 Pre operational (2-6 years old)
 Concrete operational (7-11
years old)
 Formal operational ( 11 above)
 Children use their senses & motor capacities
to make sense of the world.
 They develop their schemes based on their
physical interactions with their environments.
 They also develop the ability to imitate, an
important skill that allows them to learn by
observing others.
 Egocentrism
– entirely centered on self
– unaware of any other viewpoint
 Object permanence
– an object or person removed
from an infant’s vision ceases to
exist
 Perception dominates children’s thinking.
 Enormous progress in language development.
 They also learn huge numbers of concept.
 Egocentrism – the inability to interpret an
event from someone else’ view.
 Centration – the tendency to focus on the
most perceptually obvious aspect of an
object.
 Irreversibility – inability to reverse one’s
thinking
 The ability to think logically about concrete
objects.
 Seriation – the ability to order objects
according to increasing or decreasing length,
weight or volume.
 Classification – the process of grouping
objects on the basis of a common
characteristic.
 Conservation – the realization that the
essence of something remains constant
although surface features may change
 The individual can examine abstract problems
systematically & generalize about the results.
 3 characteristics:
1. thinking abstractly
2. thinking systematically
3. thinking hypothetically
Stage Characteristics

Sensorimotor Goal-directed behavior

(0-2 years old) Object permanence

Preoperational Rapid increase in language ability

(2-7 years old) Symbolic thought
Dominated by perception
Concrete Operates logically with concrete materials
operational Classifies and serial orders
(7-11 years old)
Formal operational Solves abstract and hypothetical problems
(11-adult) Thinks combinatorially
 Focus on what children at each stage can do
and avoid what they cannot meaningfully
understand.
 Begins lesson with concrete objects or
materials and gradually shifts to more
abstract level.
 Point out how new ideas relate to their old
ideas and try to avoid memorization.
 Lesson plans should include opportunities for
activity, manipulation, exploration, discussion
and application of information.
 Instructional lessons and materials should
provoke interest and curiosity.
 Arrange situations to permit social
interaction so that children can learn from
one another.
Vygotsky’s Theory
 Known as socio-cultural theory
 Views learning and development as arising
directly from social interactions & language,
embedded within a cultural context.
 Adults should explain, give directions, provide
feedback and guide communication.
 Children use conversation to collaborate when
solving problems, both in play & in classrooms.
 Vygotsky stressed the role that culture plays
in development.
 A child’s cognitive development does not
occur in a social vacuum – the child learns
through social interaction and his culture.
 Adults in the child’s social world foster the
development of cognitive skills through:
◦ Both formal and informal conversations
◦ Formal schooling
 Adults convey to children the ways in which
their culture interprets and responds to the
world culture helps shape cognition
 he assumed that every function in a child’s
cultural development appears twice.
 First, on the social level which is between
people ( interpsycological ).
 Second, on the individual level which inside
the child ( intrapsycological ).
 He mentioned that higher mental processes
appear first between people as they are co-
constructed during shared activities.
 Then, the processes are internalized by the
child and become part of the child’s
cognitive development.
 For him, social interaction was more than
influence it was origin of higher mental
processes.
 Example: A six years old has lost a toy and
asks her father for help. The father ask her
where she last saw the toy, then the child
says “ I can’t remember”. Then he asks a
series of questions – did you have it in your
room? Outside? Next door? To each question
the child answers “no”. When he says “in the
car?” she says, “I think so” and goes to
retrieve the toy.
 He believed that cultural tools, including real
tools such as ( printing presses, rulers,
internet, computers ) and symbolic tools such
as ( numbers and mathematical systems,
language, maps ) play very important roles in
cognitive development.
 He suggested that private speech play an
important role in cognitive development by
moving children towards self regulation.
 He believed that self regulation develop in a
series of stages.
 Adults give instructions to children (social
speech)
 Children start to use parent’s instructions to
direct their own behavior (private speech).
 Private speech becomes internalized as
thought processes (silent statements)
Thinking out loud whisper silent thought

 Children use this ‘internalized’ speech to plan

and organize behavior Cognitive
Development
1. The child’s behavior regulated by others :
- The parents say “no” when the child reaches towards a
candle flame.
2. The child learn to regulate the behavior of others using the
same language
tools :
- The child says “no” to another child who is trying to take
away a toy.
3. The child begins to use Private Speech to regulate his own
behavior:
- The child says “no” quietly to himself as he is tempted to
touch the flame.

 This series of step is another example of how higher mental

function appear first between people as they communicate
and regulate each others behavior and then emerge again
within the individual as cognitive development.
 Vygotsky viewed language as the foundation
for all complex mental activities.
◦ Language is a way of thinking
◦ The thinking tools of a language are imparted by
significant adults
◦ The varied use of language can influence cognitive
development
◦ The type of discourse changes one way of thinking
into another.
 The role of language is central to Vygotsky’s
theory.
 Through social interaction, language gives
learners access to knowledge others already
have.
 Language provides learners with cognitive
tools that allow them to think about the world
& solve problems.
 Language also serves as an individual function;
it gives us a means for regulating & reflecting
on our thinking.
 Zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the
difference between what a child can do on his own
and what can be accomplished with some assistance.
 Scaffolding is a technique to help students answer
difficult questions or solve problems by giving them
hints or asking leading questions
 Types of instructional scaffolding:
1. modeling
2. think aloud
3. questions
4. prompts and cues
 Provide practice within students ‘ZPD’
Active participants in the learning process
Importance of individual differences
 Tailor scaffolding to the need of students:
graduated intervention by teachers and
more-skilled peers through explanations,
demonstration and verbal prompts
 Make sure students have access to powerful
tools that support thinking
e.g: teach students to use learning
strategies
 Create learning activities that involve
students in social interactions.
 Encourage students to use language to
describe their developing understandings.
 Create learning activities that are in learners’
zones of proximal development
 Provide instructional assistance to promote
learning & development.
 Piaget Vygotsky
Developmental Represents an inability to Represents
Significance take the perspective of externalized
another & engage in thought; its function
reciprocal is to communicate
communication. with the self for the
purpose of self-
guidance & self-
direction.
Course of Declines with age. Increases at younger
Development ages and then
gradually loses its
audible quality to
become internal
verbal thought.
 Piaget Vygotsky
Relationship to Negative; least socially Positive; private
Social Speech and cognitively mature speech develops out
children use more of social interaction
egocentric speech. with others.
Relationship to - Increases with task
Environmental difficulty. Private
Contexts speech serves a
helpful self-guiding
function in
situations where
more cognitive effort
is needed to reach a
solution.
 Vygotsky’s Ideas:
Piagetian Ideas: - Continuous
- Four discrete stages development (no
stages)
- Cognitive Development
is limited by stages
•Both ways - ZPD
constructivist
s - Socially
- Young children are
schematic •Both transmitted
believed that knowledge
- Motivation to maintain social forces
set the limits (cooperative
cognitive equilibrium or learning and
development
- Development occurs scaffolding)
when assimilation is not - Private speech
possible (adaptation) helps internalize
knowledge
 Discuss the 4 stages in Piaget’s Theory.
 Discuss teacher’s implications on Piaget’s Theory.
 Discuss the cognitive development according to
Vygotsky (including Zone Proximal Development).
 Discuss teacher’s implications on Vygotsky
Theory.
 Explain how a child develop language.
 Compare and contrast between egocentric speech
and private speech.