Advantages And Disadvantages Of Piaget's Theory

1). The major theorist for Piaget’s theory is pretty obvious. Jean Piaget. He was born in 1896 and died in 1980. making him a pretty contemporary theorist. The main idea behind his theory was that cognitive learning goes in stages of development. So essentially you get to the max of one stage and then move on to the next, they are not connected. Think of it like steps on a staircase, you have to go to one before you can move onto the next. The two major weaknesses for this theory is that a lot of Piaget’s research was done based on bias’s and that Piaget underestimated the knowledge children. So while one of the pros is it gives a good base of how we can teach children, some of these might actually be developmentally too low. Again while a

The second developmental theory is the sociocultural theory. The major theorist for this theory is Lev Vygotsky. Who was born in 1896 and died in 1934. He was a Russian theorist whose work didn’t actually get out until after his death because of the communist nature of Russia. The biggest part of this theory is that it’s less trial and error learning and more a person with more knowledge teaching the child. It really puts an emphasis on the teacher. He does say though that a peer with more knowledge can teach the child too. The weakness of this theory is he basically ignores the biological side of development. Also he makes it seem like the child has no control over their own future. The biggest pro is that it shows adults, primarily educators, that the world around them heavily effects the child’s education and life. That pro is also affecting the way we use it from an education stand point. We have to realize that each kid has a different upbringing and different culture outside the classroom. While I am not saying make a lesson plan for each kid. just try to be more individual with each

Social learning theory is up to bat next. This theory’s primary theorist is Albert Bandura. He was born in 1925 and he is still kicking to this day. which makes him. by default, the most modern theorist we have. The main point to this theory is that you don’t have to directly tell the child what he or she should be doing. They can observe what Mom. Dad. Sister. or anyone and copy that behavior. Which this is a great thing, it truly shows the capabilities of children, and shows they are more observant than a lot of people think. They are just like little sponges. The bad side to this is that they see the good behaviors as well as the bad ones. In a home with bad examples the problem occurs of an endless cycle of bad habits. The pros to this one is it shows the influence society. It shows that society is one of the biggest influences so whe have to start putting more energy into child’s wellbeing. It also explains some behaviors that seem out of place or unexplainable, the child learned them from something they saw. Another cons to this theory are that it puts its primary focus on learning behaviors from others as opposed to genetics or other factors. How to use this in the classroom is fairly simple if you ask me, be a good role model. Not only in the classroom but in all aspects of your life that kids are involved. They are always watching soaking up