Comparing Piaget And Vygotsky's Zone Of Proximal Development

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

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

Both Vygotsky and Piaget thought that language had some effect on childhood development. Both Piaget and Vygotsky highly contributed to the field of education and how their theories apply to the teaching and learning environment. In Berk (2014), Piaget gave a basic framework for teachers to follow by elaborating on “discovery learning, sensitivity to children’s readiness to learn, and acceptance of individual differences” (p. 233). Following Piaget’s guidelines, teachers allow children to learn by exploring their environment and in turn, finding new problems and tasks to solve. They also incorporate activities that are applicable to all children and

B. Blake & T. Pope. (2008). Developmental Psychology: Incorporating Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s Theories in. Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education, Vol. 1, No 1,, 59-67. Retrieved from http://jcpe.wmwikis.net/file/view/blake.pdf

Vygotsky emphasized that in order for the ZPD to be successful, it must have two features. The first feature is subjectivity. Subjectivity describes the process of two individuals beginning a task with different understanding and eventually achieve a shared understanding. The second feature is called scaffolding, which refers to a change in the social support over the course of a teaching session. When scaffolding is successful, a child's level of mastery performance can change. That means that it can increase a child's performance on a particular task.

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

Lev Vygotsky founded the social development theory. He is seen as one of the leading psychologists in education. The social development theory basically says that the potential for cognitive development relies mainly on the zone of proximal development, or what we know as ZPD. The ZPD places emphasis on what social interaction and how important it is for the developing child. This paper will go into more depth of what ZPD is, how it benefits children, and opinions on the theory.

are already learning at birth, and they build up and learn at a rapid pace in their early years when

For Vygotsky, children begin their development by first thinking with others or at the prompting of others before they are capable to think independently. Therefore, from Vygotsky’s approach, cognitive development essentially occurs through scaffolding where the child first interacts with the teacher (as the competent adult) who helps identify their zone of proximal development and gradually, through guided discovery, withdraws this guidance and support to enable the child think independently. The teacher identifies the zone of proximal development or the area where the child

Piaget *Missing Works Cited* Piaget work has received world wide acclaim and recognition , as well as having a positive impact in areas such as education and social curricula. Though he had made an impact on understanding of the child cognitive development , his theory of cognitive development has suffered a great deal of critics that it neglects the social nature of human development.(Hook, Watts and Cockroft ,2002).So the following essay will discuss on whether this critic is valid or not based on detail discussion of Piaget theory. The theory of Vygotsky shall also be discussed to prove that indeed social factors play a role .

A key concept of Lev Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is the Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky asserts that children have limited ability to learn independently, and this limit is extended with support and guidance from a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO). The MKO may be a parent, caregiver, teacher, or even technology. The Zone of Proximal Development describes the potential ability of a child, supported with guidance from a MKO. According to Vygotsky, cognitive development and learning occur when a child is challenged within the Zone of Proximal Development, initially with support of a MKO, gradually reducing the assistance, until the child achieves independence. “What the child is able to do in collaboration today, he will be able to do independently tomorrow” (Vygotsky, as cited in Vygotsky Lives, n.d.).

In order for the ZPD to be such a success, it must contain two features. The first is called subjectivity. This term describes the process of two individuals begin a task with different understanding and eventually arrive at a shared understanding. The second feature is scaffolding, which refers to a change in the social support over the course of a teaching session. If scaffolding is successful, a child's mastery level of performance can change, which means that it can increase a child's performance on a particular task.

In the world of psychology, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are considered to be very prominent figures in the area of cognitive development. Both of these men considered themselves a constructivist, which entails a viewpoint that is concerned with the nature of knowledge. In their lifetime, both of them made contributions in the area of education and even after death, their theories still influence teaching methods. The purpose of this paper is to show some similarities as well as differences in the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky and what can be gained by having a better understanding of their theories.

Scaffolding is defined by Educational Psychology, 8th edition as: “Support for learning and problem solving; might include clues, reminders, encouragement, breaking the problem down into steps, providing an example, or anything else that allows the student to grow in independence as a learner (45).” The key concepts of scaffolding in the zone of proximal development is how Vygotsky believed the most learning can take place as the students are amongst peers whose “private speech” can be discussed among one another to come to new conclusions. (aka learning.) private speech Children 's self-talk, which guides their thinking and action; eventually internalized as silent inner speech. For example, a teacher could introduce a concept requiring prompting,

306). This creates what Vygotsky calls the “Zone of Proximal Development;” ZPD is the distance between the actual capability of problem solving and their potential determined by those