Application Of Piaget’s And Vygotsky Theories Of Learning

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Discuss about the Application of Piaget’s and Vygotsky Theories of Learning.

Learning takes different forms that teachers need to apply in the classroom. When learning takes place, experience and interaction are key concepts that the learner uses to internalize what is taught in class. Hedden, Ketay, Aron, Markus, & Gabrieli (2008) suggest that tthrough learning, the students is supposed to relate concepts learned in class to other life activities that take place within the environment that they stay in. learning theorists have argued that learning takes place through nurture and nature which entail conspicuous efforts exerted on the individual and activities that take place in the external environment respectively.  According to Eggen & Kauchak (2000) Piaget postulates that every interaction in an individuals’ life is based on cognitive structure that have slowly developed over time. Cognitive development theory deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how human beings slowly come to acquire, construct, and use knowledge. This essay focusses on the application of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is based on understand development in the mental process of an individual. According to him, minors construct the world around them, understand it through experience and later discover the differences between what they know and what they don’t know to adjust ideas accordingly (Ojose, 2008). This leads to the development of an adaptive human intelligence with functions to represent transformational and static aspects of reality. When children grow up, they develop operative intelligence used for representation and manipulation of transformational aspects of reality and figurative intelligence for representation of reality.

When studying the field of education, Piaget focused on assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is integrating external elements into the individual’s life and environment or those activities that people experience. This is based on how humans perceive and adapt to new information and environments. This enables them to fit new information to their pre-existing cognitive schemas and interpreting new experiences (Ojose, 2008). Accommodation is based on taking new information that exists in the environment and altering the preexisting schemas to fit the new information. As times goes on and as individuals experience new things in life, the need for replacing the existing information with new information leads to accommodation (Bialystok, 2015). People will continue to interpret the information that they attain based on new concepts, schemas, and frameworks, among others. This led to the conclusion by Piaget that human brains are programmed through evolution which leads to equilibrium. This influences the structures in the minds of people through external and internal process of assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation and Accommodation

When applying Paget’s theory in the classroom he suggests six steps that can be used to prepare and develop learners. The teacher needs to develop a stimulating environment that can allow learners to accommodate and assimilate new information that they get exposed to (Ormrod, 2012). Through use of concrete props and visual aids to improve learning and memorization the teacher ensures that students increase their memory an understanding of class concepts through using visual and concrete props. Students learn easily when different elements are used in the classroom set up rather than only the textbook like what Mr. Gino was using.  Through introducing new ideas in teaching like a large board to celebrate results from outstanding students and learning centers for independent learning. Students could explore different learning options which would later increase their grades. Further, using visual adds made learning more stimulating which increased the grades and the ability for students to increase their abilities in reading, writing, speaking, listening and critical thinking. Further, Baek & Hye-Jeong (2002) state that students have different learning abilities and memory levels, and thus the instructor needs to use short instructions to increase the comprehension levels of students. Some students have short memories while others have long memorize that can comprehend more. People memorize information in chunks and small amounts to make them remember the whole task. For example when memorizing mobile numbers, the memory can take two digits, three digits or four digits. This shows that people have different memories and thus breaking down instructions makes it easy for students to memorize what they learn.

Through providing a wide range of experiences to build a foundation for concept learning and language Mr. Gino changed the perception that he was using to teach the students and make the class more stimulating. Students need to be challenged through different ways that can make them see the reason why they need to work hard in class. Motivation theorists suggests that rewards can be used to increase to increase individual output levels as a way of  making them perform better. Learning theorists like classical conditioning are based changing the cognitive abilities of students through use of a stimuli that exposes different behaviors in students (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). Through display boards and an education al area for early finishers, students were motivated to compete as a way of making them perform better. This also allowed reluctant to be motivated and develop interests in learning.

Application of Piaget’s Theory in the Classroom

Lastly Paget’s theory is based on the fact that students have different meanings and understanding for the world around them thus the need to allow students to understand the world from their own point of view. Hsu & Hwang (2014) suggest that reorganizing the classroom created a new quality learning environment that through different range of methodologies that allow students to learn and understand the world around them in different ways. Creating different learning methodologies ensured that the class always created a learning environment that made students immersed in learning every time they are in class. The initial class that Mr. Gino had concentrated so much on the text book which lacked stimulation for the learners.

Vygotsky theory is based on the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognitive abilities of students. The theory is based on the belief that the community plays an important role in the learning process of the individual when trying to make meaning out of learning. Learning is a necessary and universal process that takes place in people’s life to enable them develop universal cultural and human psychological function (Hsu & Hwang, 2014). He argued that social learning precedes development, thus in a learning environment, development is a result of activities that the student goes through rather than the information that they acquire. In a learning environment, the way the teacher delivers the concepts to increase determines how the student’s capture the concepts and understand them. In a learning environment, the teacher needs to ensure that students are able to work together as teams through group wok and ways of helping each other in understanding learning (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996).

The social cultural context of the individual affects their learning abilities and the way students interact with each other determines how they contribute to the cognitive development of the individual. Yasnitsky (2010) adds that by using guided learning, students develop language patterns increases their cognitive development after internalization of the language. The role of the tutor is to model behaviors by providing verbal instructions through cooperative or collaborative dialogue. On the other hand, students seek to understand the actions provided by their instructors to internalize information using two principles More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Vygotsky suggests that someone who has better understanding can enable a learner to develop new abilities through interaction. Phan, (2012) suggests that Zone of Proximal Development differentiates how an individual achieves alone and with the help and presence of others. Through the presence of peers or guidance of an instructor guidance is given to the students allowing them to develop skills that will use on their own after developing mental functions. Here leaning awakens an internal developmental processes that the learner operates in when in the presence of others. Once the learners have internalized all the processes of learning, the processes become part of the learner’s independent developmental achievement. The instructor and peers offer instruction and developmental that directly interact in a complex interrelationship.

Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Interaction

Therefore Vygotsky’s believed that learning takes place through the presence of others and an environment that is created by peers. The role of the teacher is to provide instructions and guidance to students to enable them learn and develop new ideas (Ellis, 2000). The difference between Mr. Gino’s classes and Mrs. Van was that Mr. Gino based so much on the text rather than creating an environment that increased learning of students. However, Baek & Hye-Jeong (2002) suggests that when new concepts like research centers with different activities that enabled students to interact, learning became interesting for learners since they had many opportunities to interact and connect with each other. This made students immersed in learning all the time. The most important aspect of learning according to the theory is supporting learners through peers or instruction. The new environment that was created fostered learners support to achieve intentional learning.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Vygotsky theory of social cultural development differ in several ways. Vygotsky theory suggests that cognitive approaches ascribe to language learning in different internal processes which are based on instruction that is a crucial element of learning. Through collaboration with others students develop modified interaction and negotiation of meaning of the environment around them. On the other hand, Paget’s theory focusses on developing cognitive abilities of students through on assimilation and accommodation as a way of improving their learning (Eggen & Kauchak, 2000). Learning environment should have different approaches for increasing cognitive development as way of developing operative intelligence for representation and manipulation of transformational aspects of reality and figurative intelligence for representation of reality. However, the two theories present a way of improving the learning environment by creating conditions that make learners easily internalize the concepts that they learn in class.

References

Baek, S.-G., & Hye-Jeong, C. (2002). The relationship between students’ perceptions of classroom environment and their academic achievement in Korea. Asia Pacific Education, 3(1), 135-145.

Bialystok, E. “. (2015). Bilingualism And The Development Of Executive Function: The Role Of Attention. Child Development Perspectives, 9(2), 17-121.

Eggen, P. D., & Kauchak, D. P. (2000). Educational psychology:Windows on classrooms. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Ellis, R. (2000). Task-based research and language pedagogy. Language Teaching Research, 4(3), 193-220.

Hedden, T., Ketay, S., Aron, A., Markus, H. R., & Gabrieli, J. D. (2008). Cultural influences on neural substrates of attentional control. Psychological Science, 19(1), 12-17.

Hsu, G., & Hwang, W. (2014). The effect of intrapsychology learning before and after interpsychology activities with a web. Journal of Educational Technology & Society,, 17(1), 231-233.

John-Steiner, V., & Mahn, H. (1996). Sociocultural Approaches to Learning and Development A Vygotskian Framework. Educational Psychologist, 31(3), 191-206.

Lantolf, J., & Thorne, S. (2006). Socio-cultural theory and the genesis of second language development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ojose, B. (2008). Applying Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development to Mathematics Instruction. The Mathematics Educator, 18(1), 26–30.

Ormrod, J. (2012). Essentials of Educational Psychology: Big Ideas to Guide Effective Teaching. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Phan, H. P. (2012). A sociocultural perspective of learning: Developing a new theoretical tenet. Joint AARE APERA International Conference, (pp. 1-14). Sydney.

Yasnitsky, A. (2010). Archival revolution” in Vygotskian studies? Uncovering Vygotsky’s archives. Journal of Russian & East European Psychology, 48(1), 3-13.