Piaget and Vygotsky

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, two important theorists in the developmental psychology have both differences and similarities in their theories. However, both Piaget and Vygotsky made a lot of contribution towards the field of children’s cognitive development.

Vygotsky and Piaget both believed that children are active seekers of knowledge. While Vygotsky believed that children were greatly impacted by rich social and cultural environment, Piaget believed that children are impacted by their own personal experiences. For example, Piaget suggests that children through activities which they experience such as cooking and water play eventually start to develop certain mathematical concepts through their explorations. In fact, Piaget describes the child as a “little scientist”. Both Piaget and Vygotsky believe in the discovery of learning. However, while Piaget value self exploration, Vygotsky emphasizes the fact that a child need support throughout the activity. Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed that there were some problems out of a child's range of understanding. However, in contrast, Vygotsky believed that given proper help and assistance, children could perform a problem that Piaget would consider to be out of the child's mental capabilities. The zone is the area at which a child can perform a challenging task, given appropriate help. Piaget and Vygotsky also differ in how they approach discovery learning. Piaget advocated for discovery learning with little teacher intervention, while Vygotsky promoted guided discovery in the classroom. Guided discovery involves the teacher offering intriguing questions to students and having them discover the answers through testing hypotheses. The students are engaged in the discovery process; however, they are still receiving assistance from a more knowledgeable source. Piagetian and Vygotskian classrooms both accept the individual differences and also provide opportunities for children’s a lot of opportunities for children’s active participation. However the Vygotskian classroom goes beyond independent discovery as it promotes assisted discovery where the teachers guide children’s learning, tailoring their interventions to each child’s zone of proximal development.

Both Piaget and Vygotsky presented theories which contrasted with behaviorism, describing cognitive development as the result of the child’s active construction of their knowledge. However, Vygotsky’s views differ from Piaget’s in their emphasis on social or cultural influences, especially language, as the driving force behind cognitive development. Basically, Piaget felt that language developed naturally in all children during a series of stages while Vygotsky believed that thought and language developed separately during numerous social interactions with parents and peers.

Piaget believed that language and speech began to develop during what he called the "preoperational stage," which begins at around two years of age. At this stage, he felt that children were still very egocentric in their thinking, which was also reflected in their speech patterns. Piaget used the term egocentric speech to describe the tendency of children in this age group to vocalize frequently for no specific purpose other than to hear themselves speak. Additionally, Piaget felt that thought allowed for the development of language, and that language developed in direct proportion to a child’s cognitive progress.

Vygotsky