Cognitive Development: Piaget’s Theory and

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Viewpoint

PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Genetic epistemology is the experimental study of the development of knowledge, developed by Piaget

What is Intelligence? According to Piaget, it is a basic life

function that enables an organism to adapt to its environment. All intellectual activity is undertaken

with one goal in mind-cognitive equilibrium

Piaget described children as constructivist

Cognitive Schemes:Cognitive Schemes: the structure of intelligence the structure of intelligence

Scheme is a term used by Piaget to describe the models, or mental structures, that we create to represent ,organize, and interpret our experiences. There are 3 kinds of intellectual structures:

1.Behavioral schemes First intellectual structures to emerge

2.Symbolic schemes Appears ~2 year of life

3.Operational schemes 7 years+

How we gain knowledge: How we gain knowledge: Piaget’s Cognitive Processes Piaget’s Cognitive Processes

Organization is the process by which children combine existing schemes into new and more complex intellectual structures.

Adaptation is an inborn tendency to adjust to the demands of the environment. The goal of adaptation is to adjust to the

environment; this occurs through assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation is the process of interpreting new experiences by incorporating them into existing schemes.

Accommodation is the process of modifying existing schemes in order to incorporate or adapt to new experiences.

Piagetian ConceptPiagetian Concept ExampleExample

EquilibriumEquilibrium Toddler who has never seen anything Toddler who has never seen anything fly but birds thinks that all flying fly but birds thinks that all flying objects are birdsobjects are birds

AssimilationAssimilation

StartStart

Seeing an airplane flying prompts the Seeing an airplane flying prompts the child to call it a birdiechild to call it a birdie

AccommodationAccommodation Child experiences conflict upon Child experiences conflict upon realizing that the new birdie has no realizing that the new birdie has no feathers. Concludes it is not a bird and feathers. Concludes it is not a bird and asks for the proper term or invents a asks for the proper term or invents a name. Equilibrium restoredname. Equilibrium restored

OrganizationOrganization

FinishFinish

Forms hierarchal scheme consisting of Forms hierarchal scheme consisting of a superordinate class (flying objects) a superordinate class (flying objects) and two subordinate classes (birdies and two subordinate classes (birdies and airplanes).and airplanes).

Piaget’s Stages of Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive DevelopmentCognitive Development

According to Piaget, a child’s development progresses through 4 qualitative stages and an invariant developmental sequence or universal pattern of development, which are:

The Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 Years)

The Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 Years) The Concrete-Operational Stage (7 to 11

Years) The Formal-Operational Stage (11-12

Years and Beyond)

The sensorimotor stage The sensorimotor stage (Birth-2 (Birth-2

years)years)

The 6 Developmental stages of Problem-Solving abilities:

1. Reflex activity (0-1mon.) exercising and accommodation of inborn reflexes

2. Primary circular reactions (1-4 mon.) repeating acts centered on ones own body

3. Secondary circular reactions (4-8 mon.) repeating acts toward external objects

Sensorimotor stage Sensorimotor stage cont’dcont’d

4. Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 mon.) combining acts to solve simple problems.

5. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 mon.) experimenting to find new ways of to solve problems

6. Symbolic problem solving (18-24 mon.) inner experimentation without relaying on trial-and-error experimentation

•Development of imitationDevelopment of imitation

Deferred imitation (18-24 mo.) is the ability to reproduce the behavior of an absent model.

Development of Object Permanence (8-12 mo) is the idea that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or detectable through the other senses. A-not-B error: tendency of 8-12- month olds to search for a

hidden object where they previously found it even after they have seen it moved to a different location.

Challenges to Piaget’s account Challenges to Piaget’s account

of sensorimotor development:of sensorimotor development:

Neo-nativism: idea that cognitive knowledge is innate and subject to biological constraints

“theory” theories: theories of cognitive development that combine neo-nativism and constructivism

Preoperational stage Preoperational stage (2-7 yrs)(2-7 yrs)

There is an increase in their use of mental symbols to represent objects and events they encounter The Preconceptual Period is the early

substage of preoperations, from age 2 to age 4, characterized by the appearance of primitive ideas, concepts, and methods of reasoning. Marked by the appearance of symbolic function and play.

The Intuitive Period is the later substage of preoperations, from age 4 to age 7, when the child’s thinking about objects and events is dominated by salient perceptual features.

The Preconceptual The Preconceptual Period: Period:

Emergence of Symbolic thought

Symbolic function

Ability to use symbols to represent objects or experiences

Symbolic play Play where one object, action, or actor symbolizes another

Deficits in preconceptual Deficits in preconceptual reasoning:reasoning:

Animism- attributing lifelike qualities to inanimate objects

Egocentrism- viewing the world from only one’s perspective

Appearance/Reality distinction- inability to distinguish deceptive appearances from reality

The intuitive period:The intuitive period:

Here cognition is described as:

Centered a tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation and not on others due to their inability to understand: Conservation- recognition that the properties of

an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial way.

Reversibility- ability to reverse or negate an action by mentally performing the opposite action

The Concrete-The Concrete-Operational Stage Operational Stage (7 (7

to 11 Years)to 11 Years)

Here children are said to think more logically about real objects and experiences Some examples of operational thought

Conservation Reversibility Logic

Classification ability to create relationships between things.

Relational Logic Mental seriation Transitivity

The sequencing of concrete operations Horizontal decalage- different levels of understanding

conservation tasks that seem to require the same mental operations

The Formal-Operational The Formal-Operational Stage Stage (11-12 Years and Beyond)(11-12 Years and Beyond)

Ability to reason logically about hypothetical process and events that may have no basis in reality

Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning a formal operational ability to think hypothetically.

Thinking Like a Scientist Inductive reasoning- type of thinking where hypotheses are

generated and then systematically tested in experiments.

Personal and Social Implications The formal operation stage paves the way for:

Identity formation Richer understanding of other peoples psychological perspectives The ability to way options in decision making

An Evaluation of Piaget’s An Evaluation of Piaget’s TheoryTheory

Convinced us that children are curious, active explorers who play an important role in their own development.

His theory was one of the first to explain, and not just describe, the process of development.

His description of broad sequences of intellectual development provides a reasonably accurate overview of how children of different ages think.

Piaget’s ideas have had a major influence on thinking about social and emotional development as well as many practical implications for educators.

Piaget asked important questions and drew literally thousands of researchers to the study of cognitive development.

Challenges to Piaget’s Challenges to Piaget’s cognitive developmental cognitive developmental theory:theory:

Underestimated developing minds

Failed to distinguish competence from performance

It is believed by some that Cognitive development does not evolve in a qualitative and stage like manner- it tends to develop gradually

Provides a vague explanation on cognitive maturation

Devoted little attention to social and cultural influences

STOP HERESTOP HERE!!!

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Vygotsky’s Sociocultural PerspectivePerspective

Sociocultural theory states that:

– Cognitive development occurs in a sociocultural context that influences the form it takes

– Most of a child’s cognitive skills evolve from social interactions with parents, teachers, and other more competent associates

The role of culture in The role of culture in intellectual development:intellectual development:

Vygotsky proposed that we should evaluate human development from four interrelated perspectives:

Microgenetic-changes that occur over brief periods of time-minutes and seconds

Ontogenetic-development over a lifetime Phylogenetic-development over evolutionary time Sociohistorical- changes that have occurred in one's culture

and the values, norms and technologies such a history has generated

Tools of intellectual Tools of intellectual adaptation adaptation

Vygotsky (1930-1935/1978) proposed that infants are born with a few elementary mental functions – attention, sensation, perception and memory – that are eventually transformed by the culture into new and more sophisticated mental processes he called higher mental functions.

The Social Origins of Early The Social Origins of Early Cognitive Competencies:Cognitive Competencies:

Zone of Proximal Development range of tasks that are too complex to be mastered alone but can be accomplished with guidance and encouragement from a more skillful partner

Scaffolding- the expert participant carefully tailors their support to the novice learner to assure their understanding

Apprenticeship in Thinking Apprenticeship in Thinking and Guided Participation:and Guided Participation:

guided participation, adult-child interactions in which children’s cognitions and modes of thinking are shaped as they participate with or observe adults engaged in culturally relevant activities.

Our culture is one that uses what Vygotsky termed context-independent learning

Implications for Implications for Education:Education:

Children are seen as active participants in their education

teachers in Vygotsky’s classroom would favor guided participation in which they:

structure the learning activity provide helpful hints or instructions that are carefully tailored to the child’s current abilities monitor the learner’s progress gradually turning over more of the mental activity to their pupils Promote cooperative learning exercises

The role of language in The role of language in cognitive development:cognitive development:

According to Piaget: Children partake in egocentric speech, utterances neither

directed to others nor expressed in ways that the listeners might understand

Egocentric speech played a little role in cognitive development

Speech tended to become more social as the child matures-less egocentric

The role of language in The role of language in cognitive development cont’dcognitive development cont’d

According to Vygotsky: Thought and language eventually emerge A child’s nonsocial utterances, which he termed

private speech, illustrate the transition from paralinguistic to verbal reasoning

Private speech plays a major role in cognitive development by serving as a cognitive self-guidance system, allowing children to become more organized and good problem solvers

As individuals develop, private speech becomes inner speech

To consider… To consider…

According to contemporary research:

Children rely heavily on private speech when facing difficult problems

There is a correlation between “self-talk” and competence

Private speech does eventually become inner speech and facilitates cognitive development

Theories of Cognitive Theories of Cognitive Development:Development:

Vygotsky vs. PiagetVygotsky vs. PiagetVygotsky’s Vygotsky’s

sociocultural theorysociocultural theoryPiaget’s cognitive Piaget’s cognitive developmental theorydevelopmental theory

Cognitive development varies Cognitive development varies across culturesacross cultures

Cognitive development is Cognitive development is mostly universal across mostly universal across culturescultures

Stems from social interactionsStems from social interactions Stems from independent Stems from independent explorationsexplorations

Social processes become Social processes become individual-physiological individual-physiological processesprocesses

Individual (egocentric) Individual (egocentric) processes become social processes become social processes processes

Adults are important as Adults are important as change agentschange agents

Peers are important as change Peers are important as change agentsagents