This module is about Cognitive development and the different theories that are suggested by Jean Piaget and Lev Semenovich Vygotsky about how a child begins to process new information and other features of brain development. This chapter explains how Paiget and Vygotsky's learning are similar and different. Constructivism is the process in how knowledge is constructed by how individuals process new information. They can do this by selecting, organizing and integrating information with other pieces of knowledge. Both Paiget and Vygotsky agree that learning happens when individual interact with environment and social interactions. There are two kinds of constructivism; individual and social constructivism. Individual constructivism is when a person learns new information from an experience rather than being lectured about the information from others. (So would this mean an indivdual learns better when they are experiencing the information through hands on activities rather than reading the infromation from a textbook? This is kind of how I interpreted it.) Social constructivism is when a person combines the information they already know and the knowledge they are learning from the social experience. (?) Paiget leans more towards individual constructism and Vygotsky is more of a social construstivist.
Piaget's Theory:
Piaget suggests a theory of genetic epistemology in which knowledge develops from interaction from nature and nurture. Piaget suggests that knowledge happens in four stages; Sensorimotor, pre- operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage occurs from when a child is born to the age of 2. When a child is an infant they do not realize objects or people exist even when they can not see them. When the infant becomes older they start to realize that objects and people do exist when they are not in sight and that is called object permanence. This gives them the capability to create memories that associates with an object or person. Would this be when an infant starts to recognize their mother or father and knows when they are not around? The next stage is the pre- operational stage and this occurs 2- 7 years of age. In this stage children develop semiotic functions which is when a child starts to associate an object with signs and symbols. Children are only able to take part in one- way thinking. In the example in the book, the child is only associating the objects by color or size but not both. This is called centration, the incapability to concentrate on two apects of an object at the same time. Children of the ages of 7-11, are in the concrete operational stage and are able to reverse an operation which requires two way thinking. The final stage is formal operational and this where children can think without having physical evidence. They are able to come up with hypothesis and come up with solutions to a problem before needing to test them first. Overall Piaget believes that developement within these stages occur first before learning.
Vygotsky's Theory:
Vygotsky suggest that learning happens first and then they develop and take in the new information. This is explained from his Zone of Proximal Development. ZPD is when new skills are performed through the help of an adult, technology, or more advanced peers. At the bottom of the zone is what the child already knows and at the top is what the child can learn with help. In ZPD, learning happens through social interaction. This creates temporary platforms that are characterized by scaffolding. These platforms are used to reach the child's possibilty of devolpment.
Questions:
In the part under Role of Language in Cognitive Development it states that Piaget believes thinking comes first before language. It is hard for me to imagine this because when I think, I am thinking in English. How do children think when they don't fully know a language?
Considering what Piaget and Vygotsky say about development and learning, why might play be beneficial? (How could it promote development, learning, or both?) Describe the (separate) reasons for each theorist. DO NOT regurgitate the book. Give a new example.
The role of play in cognitive development can be beneficial for learning because it allows children to think outside the box. If children were to play house they could build a fort to depict a house. This illustrates Piaget's development of semiotic functions and how they are using the shape of a house and showing what goes on in a house. Vygotsky feels that play is beneficial for learning because it allows for social interactions between others creates a ZPD. One child might have a parent who cooks all the time and the other child might never have home cooked meals. The child who doesn't know a lot about cooking or cooking utinsels will learn from the child that does. The next time they see that utinsel, they will be able to associate it with the time they used it in when they were playing house.
The way that children (mainly babies)think is completely different from the way that adults think. We learned that when humans are born, their brains are filled with neurons. A lot of times, you will see a pre-verbal human simply imitate an action, without fulling understanding what he/she is doing. An infant will participate in the process of categorization, a concept that explains how they experience sensations without words. The mind automatically categorizes information and this process helps the mind to deal with too much information. The problem with infants is that they have a limited amount of memory and attention. Children have different categories in their mind and they group information differently than how adults do. I still find it so interesting to think about how human adults will never fully be able to understand what is going on in an infants mind, because we are not able to communicate with the infants. We can only simply watch them and observe how they react to certain things.
ReplyDeleteThe way children begin to develop starts with language aquistion, which is how children learn a new language. As Megan stated learning a new language for a child is very different than an adult because adults "thinking" mind is much more developed. Aquiring a new language is a very lenghty process. Children are able to think before language because they make up their own kind of code and way of thinking. But as they go through acquisition they learn how to put an object with a word, and their thinking changes. Children will also be influenced by their surrondings and culture which Piaget and Vytosky which was explained in the chapter. They will learn how to use a language which they are talked to and are surronded around. So, as they go through acquisiton children are able to put their own thoughts with real words, and their thinking is transformed over time.
ReplyDeleteIndividual constructivism CAN happen when reading from a textbook, if the textbook information causes disequilibrium and the student/reader has to reconstruct or reorganize their current schemas based on the new information. It can also happen in discovery within the environment. Does that make sense? The good model of this is Piaget's disequilibrium, then assimilation/accomodation (this is learning, according to Piaget).
ReplyDeleteIt's not very important that you can describe the distinction, but more that you know both kinds are possible, and how they happen.
Social constructivism is different in that it involves other people or socially constructed information in the environment (like language). For example, a child growing up within a particular culture will eventually internalize the cultural rules and customs (construct them within his mind). These are moving from the social world into the individual mind (movement from external to internal). The child may eventually contribute to new rules or customs within their life, contributing (internal to external) to the social world. Alternatively, a child may learn self regulation by talking aloud to themselves as they are completing a task. Eventually, this external kind of regulation using language will become internal speech (thinking 'Ok, now be careful as I get up on the chair to reach the top shelf, etc').
In addition to the nice example you give of learning from others with different experiences, play can also help with internalization (this is consistent with both Piaget and Vygotsky). Children can 'play out' the rules of playing house (including rules of what a mother does, what a father does, what children do, etc). By experimenting with these roles that exist in their world, they're internalizing their own understanding of them. Also, by playing with them, they externalize their current understanding of them and test that out with others.... (so the concept can go from internal to external and vice versa as the children are learning more about their world)
You have a good (very well debated) question about language. You skim/read Module 8 if that helps you. Think about what we know about the brain. There are LOTS of ways to 'think'. There's emotion, language, sensory information, etc, that we experience. So, in that way, of COURSE you can think without language. I know you're asking about something else, something that seems like more conscious thought. Once again, a potential answer may be in how we learn language. Remember the phrase 'cells that fire together wire together'. When you were very young (younger than you can remember) you first heard the word 'mother' or 'mom' or 'mama' when you were near your mother, heard her, felt loved by her, felt her touch, smelled her, etc. All of the other ways that you COULD think of your mother were associated with the word 'mother'. So, eventually, that word took on all of the meanings that other information carried. The word you hear is just a series of symbols without that meaning. You think in meaning, and you were taught to associate the meaning with words, so you think in words (of the language you speak). I imagine that babies who don't yet know language would still think in meanings or concepts of some sort, but not words.
There are a lot of philosophers and psychologies that look into this very question. :)