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Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
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Language plays an important in our lives, for children this is a critical time for them to learn how they can use language to communicate effectively from the when they learn through school and into adulthood. While a child goes through school they are exposed to Standard English, but there are diversities that appear in the classroom for example culture plays a part in language development. Gee and Hayes (2011) stated that there are many things that language can be including; a set of rules, a cognitive experience, a social tool or an object, but overall language is something that changed based on culture and social context. Acknowledging and accepting diversity in the classroom in relation to language and language learning is important
McInerney (2014) explores Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, explaining that language is used as a communication instrument and a way to organize our own thoughts. Vygotsky believed that children develop a tool called self-talk or private speech as a way for them to make sense of their own actions and thoughts. This then develops to then internalizing their thoughts and further to public speech, Vygotsky’s belief was that children develop cognitively with exposure to their surroundings and social situations. Learning how to process, project and receive language at a young age is important in the development of higher mental processes including; planning and evaluating, memory and reason, which are important in the functioning in society as adults. According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, language is the basis for learning the skill of internalizing problems instead of using objects and increasing their mental capacity (McInerney, 2014). At young ages not being able to develop and maintain language skills, for example having Specific Language Impairment, which restricts the ability to retain language skills to memory. This is problematic as it can impact children academically and psychosocially, and can extend to mathematical concepts, attention capacity and motor skills. If a child has issues absorbing these concepts it can lead to other problems in cognitive applications including problem solving, working memory and logical thinking (Reichenbach, Bastian, Rohrbach, Gross, & Sarrar, 2016). Piaget’s theory states that between the ages of 2-7 children are in the preoperational stage of development which means they have a sense of eccentricity, when talking to a child we can hear the use of instrumental and personal language functions. As
Lisa Delpit’s book, “The Skin We Speak”, talked about language and culture, and how it relates to the classroom. How we speak gives people hits as to where we are from and what culture we are a part of. Unfortunately there are also negative stereotypes that come with certain language variations. There is an “unfounded belief that the language of low income groups in rural or urban industrial areas is somehow structurally “impoverished” or “simpler” than Standard English” (Delpit 71). The United States is made of people from various cultures and speak many different variations of languages. As teachers we must be aware of some of the prejudices we may have about language and culture.
Vygotsky believes that a child’s cognitive development originates in socialization activities, and then goes through a process of increasing individuation. He argued that self-directed speech did not show any cognitive immaturity, but did show some form of development. He claims that private speech represents a functional differentiation in the speech of a child, or that a child begins to differentiate between speech that is directed towards the others and speech that is self-directed.
The stages are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The phase that applies to these children at the age of 4 years old is the preoperational stage, which covers approximately ages 2 to 7 years old. During this stage, “ preschool children use symbols to represent their earlier sensorimotor discoveries,” (Berk, 2010) and the use of language. In this preoperational stage, children do not yet understand concrete logic, and cannot mentally manipulate information . Piaget and Vygotsky had different ways to explain cognitive development. Piaget’s roots were in biology and the evolutionary adaptation of humans, and Vygotsky in theory that focus on how people transform their world rather than adapt to it (Vianna, 2006). Vygotsky focused on the importance on the psychosocial aspect of cognitive development. Piaget believed cognition was a result of the of the child 's maturity. Vygotsky felt that learning was only as strong and powerful as the environment surrounding the child. Piaget’s felt that one stage of devlopment must be completed prior to moving forward, whereas Vygotsky’s cognitive development perspective has little dependence on time, but more emphasize on social
This case study is based on Piaget’s theory of Cognitive development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence that is based mainly off of age, and was first developed by Jean Piaget. I will be testing this theory out on a six year old boy who I will call “Jordan.” I will be checking to see if Jordan falls in to the Preoperational stage of Cognitive development which ranges from age 2 until approximately age 7 and if he is in transition to Concrete Operational stage which ranges from age 7 until about 11 years. The following questions will be answered: Does he interpret language literally? Does he understand conservation? Does he think of things in terms of his own activities? Does he solve problems by pretending or imitating? Does Jordan have approximately 2000 words in his vocabulary?
Methods and approaches to teaching have been greatly influenced by the research of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Both have contributed to the field of education by offering explanations for children's cognitive learning styles and abilities. While Piaget and Vygotsky may differ on how they view cognitive development in children, both offer educators good suggestions on how to teach certain material in a developmentally appropriate manner.
Lev Vygotsky stages of development were not defined by age or biology. Social and cultural experiences were the basis for his theory. Consciousness was an end product of social interactions (Kearsley, 1994-2010). The history of the child’s society and his own personal history determine how the child thinks. Language is crucial for development as it is with words that a child conceptualizes and makes sense of the world (Schütz, 2004). A precept of Vygotsky’s theory wa...
Cognition is the process involved in thinking and mental activity, such as attention, memory and problem solving. In this essay on cognitive development I will compare and contrast the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, who were both influential in forming a more scientific approach to analyzing the cognitive development process of the child active construction of knowledge. (Flanagan 1996 P.72). I will then evaluate the usefulness of these theories in understanding a child's development.
There are five ways in which Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development. The very first way that teachers can use these theories to teach constructively is by providing scaffolded instruction within the ZPD for their students (292). In other words, a teacher must be able to assist children in achieving a goal that may be slightly too difficult for them to reach alone. An example of this would be if a teacher had decided that her class should do an experiment on how well plants grow based on the amount of water they receive, she could challenge her students to make a hypothesis about what they think will happen. This teacher could allow her students to individually plant their seeds and then guiding her students to predict or hypothesize what they believe will happen if one plant gets more water than another. This example directly correlates with Vygotsky’s idea of ZPD because
Social and environmental variables affect cognitive development. Cognitive development focuses on the person’s ability to intellectually, perceive and process information. (35589) defined the cognitive ability as the process in which people learn, think and use language; it is the progression of their mental capacity from being irrational to rational (35589). Piaget and Vygotsky are two cognitive theorists who are interested in the cognitive development of a person across their life span and its relation with social and environmental factors. Piaget is the most known cognitive theorist who affected the world of psychology greatly, and was a great influence to many psychologists out there; however his main intention was the innate maturity process and, unlike Vygotsky, he underestimated the role of language and social interaction and his theory wasn’t useful in the teaching field.
Piaget believed that language development is associated with cognitive development or one’s own thought processes. Children ages 2-7 years old classify in Piaget’s preoperational cognitive stage. In this stage children use their well-developed ability to symbolize events or objects that are absent. Although children can represent the absent objects, they do not permit the child to think about the reversible cost of actions. According to Piaget, comprehending at this stage is based on appearances rather than main beliefs (Gray, 1991). For instance, one child playing with a ball of play dough may say they have less than the child playing with a flat piece of play dough simply because it is shaped differently. Also during the preoperational stage children are able to expand their vocabulary from 3,000 words to 8,000 words. Their sentences grow in length and complexity. They commonly use grammatically correct sentences and learn the basics of writing and reading (Cooter & Reutzel, 2008).
Piaget versus Vygotsky: Similarities and Differences This paper explores the ideas of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Exploring their philosophies and how they impact us today. The two scholarly articles show similarities and differences in their works and explore what they each mean. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two of the most influential philosophers in the field of cognitive development.
For Vygotsky, children are seen as active beings on their development through social interactions with parents, teachers, and other adults, as well as by participating in their cultural activities. The interactions they have with other individuals and their culture opens their minds to new information and helps develop skills not previously attained. To further understand cognitive development in Piaget and Vygotsky’s theory, we must first look at the processes involved.
Cognitive Development and Language Skills Development “Cognitive development underpins all the other aspects of development as children start to explore and make sense of the world around them. It is closely linked to the development of language and communication skills as children interact with the people around them.” There are many theories written on the subjects of cognitive development and language and communication. These theories vary in several ways, but they all seem to make the link between the too subjects. Childcare settings put these theories into practise in a lot of ways, sometimes without even realising it, just through conversation.
The aim of this essay is to explore language acquisition and compare and contrast different theories of language acquisition and language development. Language in its most basic form is used to communicate our needs and wants. It encompasses a range of modes of delivery including signing, spoken and written words, posture, eye contact, facial expressions and gestures. So how do we learn ‘language’? Are we born with the skills for communication, or is it something that we have to learn or have taught to us? Four theories are looked at in this essay to determine how children acquire and then develop language. These theories include behaviourist, nativist, cognitivist and sociocultural. This essay will highlight some similarities and differences in each theory and what impact these have on a child’s acquisition and development of language. Lastly we will look at the implications of these theories when working with children. Can a classroom teacher deliver a quality literacy program based on just one of these theories or does it need to incorporate components of all four? Sims, (2012) pp. 21 states ‘’High-quality learning experiences in the early years of life enhance children’s cognitive and language skills’’. This places a great responsibility on educators and teachers alike to provide an environment which is rich in learning opportunities that will encourage both the acquisition and development of language.
Piaget believes functions of language develops over four stages which are, the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. To briefly explain each of these children develop the sensorimotor stage from ages 0 – 2 years, Piaget sees language at this stage as more physical where children experiment with their mouths and learn to repeat parents sounds. The pre-operational stage from ages 2 – 7 years, is when children talk more and have the ability to solve problems about stories on specific and concrete facts. The concrete operational stage begins at about age 6 or 7 when children can work things out in their mind and explain their reasoning. The formal operational stage begins at 11 or 12 years when children use abstract reason and can use language to express and discuss things found in subjects such as mathematics or philosophy. Piaget highlights the roles of language in children’s lives by describing the functions of language. (McDevitt, Ormrod, Cupit, Chandler and Aloa, 2013, p. 209 –