Comparing Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky :: Educational Psychology, cognitive development

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 chelarens cognitive learning styles and abilities. While Piaget and Vygotsky may differ on how they view cognitive development in children, both offer educators uncorrupted suggestions on how to teach certain material in a developmentally appropriate manner.Piaget proposed that cognitive development from infant to young adult occurs in four universal and consecutive coifs sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete trading operations, and formal operations (Woolfolk, A., 2004). amidst the ages of zero and two years of age, the child is in the sensorimotor stage. It is during this stage the child experiences his or her own world by means of the senses and through movement. During the last mentioned part of the sensorimotor stage, the child develops object permanence, which is an substantiateing t hat an object exists evening if it is not within the field of vision (Woolfolk, A., 2004). The child also begins to understand that his or her actions could cause another action, for example, kicking a mobile to submit the mobile move. This is an example of goal-directed behavior. Children in the sensorimotor stage dirty dog reverse actions, but cannot yet reverse thinking (Woolfolk, A., 2004).During a childs punt and seventh year, he or she is considered to be in the preoperational stage. Piaget stated that during this stage, the child has not yet mastered the ability of mental operations. The child in the preoperational stage still does not have the ability to think through actions (Woolfolk, A., 2004). Children in this stage are considered to be egocentric, meaning they assume others distribute their points of view (Woolfolk, A. 2004). Because of egocentricism, children in this stage engage in collective monologues, in which each child is talking, but not interacting with th e other children (Woolfolk, A. 2004). Another consequential aspect of the preoperational stage is the acquisition of the skill of preservation. Children understand that the amount of something trunk the same even if its appearance changes (Woolfolk, A., 2004). A child in the preoperational stage would not be able to perform the famous Piagetian conservation problem of liquid and volume, because he or she has not yet highly-developed reversible thinking thinking backward, from the end to the beginning (Woolfolk, A., 33).Concrete operations occurs between the ages of seven to eleven years. Students in the later elementary years, match to Piaget, learn best through hands-on discovery learning, while operative with tangible objects.