Film Analysis Of The Film 'Akeelah And The Bee'

In current educational psychology, both the works of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky have become prominent in an understanding of developmental cognition in childhood (Duchesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Karuse, 2013, p. 56). Their theories are complimentary and provide a more rigorous comprehension of childhood development (Shayer, M., 2003, p. 465). Their varying principles are applicable to many situations concerning the development of children. The focuses of Piaget and Vygotsky on the ways of childhood development differ. Piaget was focused on the four developmental stages of cognitive growth in his Theory of Cognitive Development, whilst Vygotsky’s principles were based on development in a societal manner with his

In the movies we watched in class, we witnessed the issues of diversity loss in the case of amphibians and bee populations in North America. The issue with the bee population in the film “Silence of the Bees” is centered on colony collapse disorder, the possible reasons as to why it is happening, and how bee enthusiasts are trying to combat the issue. The two amphibian films I watched included the documentary in class and the lecture entitled “The Evolution and Diversity of Amphibians” which explains why so many amphibians are becoming extinct, the possible reasons for this, and ways they are trying to reduce the loss of these creatures. This essay will expand on the issues presented.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. It just matters that you get up one more time than you were knocked down.” -(Roy T. Bennett) Never giving up on something can lead you to bigger things in life and excel you to new goals you have never probably thought about before.

Vygotsky may have overplayed importance on social influences because he suggests that child’s cognitive development occurs through social interactions, for example children do internalisation of problem solving via mutual interactions. However, if social learning is the essence of cognitive development then learning would be a lot faster than it is. Thus Vygotsky ignores the biological aspects that aid or restricts the cognitive development such as the development of brain and maturation. Therefore Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is different to

Lev Vygotsky believed that social and cognitive development work simultaneously to build and evolve on one another. He believed that social, cultural and personal experience cannot be detached from each other and many things influence the way children learn and develop, not just their own experiences, thus Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory. Vygotsky’s ideas were and remain controversial as he had no specific training in psychology or children’s development. His preeminent contribution to children’s development is his recognition of the value of progressing knowledge by means of interaction with educators, peers and family (Mooney, 2000, p. 83). The major ideas of Vygotsky’s theory are scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Scaffolding is a process Vygotsky described as the framework or temporary support for children’s learning. In order for scaffolding to be beneficial, it must be responsive to the child’s needs (Coon & Mitterer, 2013, pp. 106-107).

In this domain Piaget stated that the child who is still in the preoperational stage can’t conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. They can’t mentally manipulate information. The child is able to form stable concepts as well as magical beliefs and their thinking is still egocentric, which means that the child has difficulty seeing the viewpoint of others. Piaget split this stage into the symbolic and intuitive thought substage. In the symbolic function stage children are able to understand, represent, remember, and picture objects in their mind without having the object in front of them. Vygotsky stated that children learn cognitive tasks through their interactions with older peers and adults. Not only do younger children watch and imitate older people or peers as they complete tasks, but these older guides also help younger children accomplish tasks they couldn’t accomplish on their own. He calls this the zone of proximal development which he describes what children can do alone and what they can do with assistance. Another theorist named Bandura coined the term observational learning which means people learn appropriate social behaviors by observing and modeling others. This type of learning is most effective during childhood. Vygotsky believed that the important part of the cognitive development is language. He observed that very young

The Bee Movie is a film that shows the never ending struggle between good and evil. After Barry Benson leaves the hive and begins to talk to humans, he sees that the humans have been harvesting and eating honey without the bees’ knowledge. He finds out that bee farms exist and their only purpose is to make bees work and to take the honey from them; from Barry’s eyes humans are grossly mistreating the bees. When he first gets to the farm, Barry overhears two beekeepers talking: “They make the honey and we make the money” (Hickner, Bee Movie). The bees work extremely hard to make honey, so Barry is appalled that humans are greedily taking their entire life’s work. Because of this, Barry decides to file a lawsuit against all humans. The case is set up in a way that presents the humans as bullies and the bees as defenseless, harmless creatures. As Barry explains in his opening statement, the honey companies are “exploiting tiny helpless bees,” and back in the hive bee news anchors tell the public that humans are “packing [honey] and profiting from it illegally” (Hickner, Bee Movie). It becomes very clear that humans are evil and bees are inherently good. Also, during the trial, Ray Liotta suggests that “someone just step on [Barry] and [the people involved in the lawsuit] could all go home,” proving that humans do not care about bees (Hickner, Bee Movie). The theme of good versus evil is supported through the fact that the bees use honey, one of the movies motifs, for everything. They use it as antenna gel, soap, toothpaste, food, and they even fill pools with it; honey is an integral part of their daily life. It is everything they know and humans are taking it without their consent. As soon as bees are eligible, they start to make honey and they work until they die. Honey is literally their life’s work and the bees want a say in who gets to use it.

4. I relate most with cognitive theories of development. Piaget provides the foundation by explaining the distinct stages of development. His insights allow teachers and parents to have a basis of what children are capable of during each stage. If the child drastically strays from these stages, it allows the caring adults to take action to help the child to reach the appropriate stage. With an understanding of these stages, the theories of Vygotsky can then be successfully utilized. Vygotsky stresses that with the

Burman, E. (2008). Deconstructing Developmental Psychology: Piaget, Vygotsky and developmental psychology (2nd Ed). London: Routledge.

From birth to the toddler stage a child changes significantly from facial features, to walking and sleeping much less during the day. At the age of four his vocabulary increases significantly, the child can even put together sentences. They are like little people twith some sense of independence. This paper will focus on the observation of a four year old male N.B conducted on March 6, 2015 from 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm and March 7, 2015 from 4:00 pm to 4:30. The paper will provide examples of Piaget’s theory, Vygotsky’s theory as well as apply these examples to the cognitive and development of the child.

The essay is going to introduce short overviews of Piaget (1926) and Vygotsky’s (1978) theories to indicate their different approaches when considering cognitive development. Piaget (1926) developed a constructivist theory which is the basis for the other cognitive development theories that followed. He proposed the definition of schema which refers to children’s construction of shaping their thought and actions through the set of cognitive processes as assimilation, disequilibriums and accommodation. When encountering new experiences, children try to interpret them in terms of known cognitive schemas. In case of failing, they need to adjust their interpretation to the reality (Schaffter & Kipp,8th ed). Based on his assumptions, Piaget (1926) proposed that child as a lone individual progress through four main stages of cognitive development. On the other hand, Vygotsky (1978) presented sociocultural theory. Vygotsky (1978) concentrated on the social interaction between child and adult considering

In Vygotsky's theory, it provides an alternative view on infant and child development. The main strength of

Justification of this critique was also provided by Vygotsky theory of development .Vygotsky (1929) believes that adults and child’s peers are involved in shaping cognitive development of the

In order to support children’s growth educators try to provide a stimulating classroom environment. They implement different strategies, tools and practices to help achieve this goal. Since educators play an important role in children’s development they should be familiar with developmental psychology and know of its educational implications in the classroom. There are two major approaches of developmental psychology: (1) Cognitive development as it relates to Piaget and (2) social development as it relates to Vygotsky. An educator may find it useful to study Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to help children build on their own knowledge.

Lev Vygotsky believed that children learn from their own experience. As a teacher I have grown to learn that Vygotsky’s findings are true in so many ways. Just from watching the children in my classroom I see that the Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding play a huge part in the development of a child.