The big picture is that two theorists, Piaget and Vygotsky, had different ideas regarding the cognitive development of children. The two different types of constructivism are individual and social. Individual describes when a person acquires knowledge through experiences, whereas in social constructivism, people acquire knowledge through importance of play and language in logical thinking. Their are many ways to apply the research to teaching: 1) Encourage students to be active in their learning, 2) Consider each individual's background and ability when planning lessons, 3) Bridge the gap between student's previous knowledge and your new lessons, and 4) understand the individual cultural background when teaching.
How exactly did Piaget and Vygotsky do their research?
Piaget thinks development must drive learning because a child must be developmentally ready in order to learn. The two are related because through living, one both develops and learns, so drawing a line between the two is difficult. Piaget believes you must know an individual's stage of development before you can successfully teach them. Through living, individuals both learn and develop, hence moving through stages.
I think that a lot of the summary you give is still in book language, rather than your own words or descriptions of what the chapter means to you. I'm taking out the 'big picture' prompt because it seemed like too many of you did the same thing.... I encourage you to just sit back after reading and think about what the most important concepts seem to be, how they relate to each other, and how you could use them in teaching.
ReplyDeletePiaget actually did observations of his own children (little Swiss children aren't exactly a random sample!) It's shocking that he was able to create these descriptions that are still used today. Vygotsky had better observation methods of learning and play, but he doesn't write about them in much of his work that got to the US in the 1970s (he did his work in the 30s, but it didn't get to other parts of the world because of the cold war).
Piaget believes that DEVELOPMENT happens naturally, but not learning. If you mean 'through living' as exploring and encountering things that cause disequilibrium, THEN, yes, living causes learning. The disequilibrium and following accomodation/assimilation is learning, according to Piaget. These must happen within stage appropriate tasks. The stages change naturally with age.
I wonder how different Piaget's and Vygotsky's results from research was if he did research through different culture's children also instead of only his own Swiss children. I find it facinating how Piaget is so highly regarded for his research, but so highly criticized for his theories also.
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