Module 7: Blog Post #1

1. Constructivism characterizes learning as a process of building knowledge where individuals create meaning of new information by integrating information with previous knowledge. They usually select certain information based on social interactions. The two different types of constructivism: individual and social both include either one person or a group of people composing knowledge to gain more knowledge from a certain experience. Piaget was mostly interested in individual constructivism, while Vygotsky was interesting in social.

Piaget’s theory on cognitive development was based on his idea of nature versus nurture. Nature meaning that some individuals use prior knowledge based on biology compared to nurture which describes how an individual learns from the environment that it is surrounded and brought up in. In young children, schemes are the basis of further development cognitively. Piaget also firmly believed in equilibration, the balance between our existing knowledge and new experiences. Assimilation and accommodation work together in order to help individuals maintain this equilibration. The main experiement that Piaget was known for was his stages of cognitive development: Sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational.

Vygotsky, on the other hand, argued that cognitive development resulted from an interaction between heredity and environment. He stated that one needs to know how the individual is “built” and how ready it is to undergo certain social and intellectual situations. The Zone of Proximal Development includes all the possible skills that children are on the verge of developing and can perform only with help from someone more intelligent than them.

Both Piaget and Vygotsky made significant scientific contributions to cognitive developmental research and both have very important standpoints on certain topics. There are many opinions still standing on both of these intelligent scientists, but there is no right answer.

2. I would like to know about some experiments that both Piaget and Vygotsky did that proved each of their theories “right”.

3. Piaget said that development precedes learning because an individual must be developmentally ready to actually learn. Each child undergoes a different level of development, some slower than others, in which some aren’t ready for certain intellectual endeavors as the next child. The constraint that is held from individual to individual is mostly based on what and how much he or she can learn from instruction. He believed that in order for a child to develop fully into an adult, he or she needs to go through four stages: Sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational. In order for an infant to move from the first stage to the second, object permanence, an awareness that objects and people continue to exist even when not seen, needs to occur. After moving onto the second stage, the development of actual concepts needs to happen in order to move onto the third stage. An example would be that children usually play with blocks and sort by certain categories such as color or shape. the children start thinking on a higher level and think about their own life. They typically begin to engage in egocentric speech, talking aloud about things that interest them without much thought of their listeners’ opinions.

After concepts are developed, the children start forming mental representations that reflect possible actions or events in the real world. They also begin to engage in conversations with other people with actual thought of the listener’s opinions and reactions. They then move onto the last stage, which Piaget thought that cognitive development culminated and which individuals now have developed all the processes needed for thinking. This stage is shown to happen with extensive schooling.