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Home , Cognitive psychology, Developmental psychology, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky

Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 2008) 59 - 67

Developmental : Incorporating Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s Theories in Classrooms Barbara Blake and Tambra Pope

In today’s society, there is disagreement of their students’ , which will among researchers and educators as to the role of lead to the needs of the whole being satisfied. and its application in the is a branch of psychology elementary classrooms. It is widely accepted in the that focuses on studies mental processes, which educational field that children must go through the include how people think, perceive, remember, and process of to think and thinking to learn. learn. Its core focus is on how people acquire, Therefore, teachers, who can incorporate the process, and store information. It is advantageous theories of Piaget and Vygotsky into their teaching for teachers to understand cognitive psychology strategies, will be better able to increase student because it can help them improve their teaching and achievement. student learning. Teachers become more cognizant Developmental Psychology, the study of to how people process, learn, and remember age-related changes in behavior, examines the information, which helps them plan more effective psychological processes of development, which lessons and create positive learning environments means it describes the sequence of biological, for their students. By using appropriate cognitive, and socio-emotional changes that developmental instructional techniques, teachers undergo as they grow older. It describes the growth have been able to increase the test scores of children of humans, which consists of physical, emotional, in public schools (Black & Green, 2005). intellectual, social, perceptual, and development, from birth to death. Also, it In 1896, Jean Piaget was born in investigates the processes that lead to age-related . He was “…a with a changes and transitions between successive fundamentally biological orientation” (Campbell, developmental states. Developmental psychology 2006, p. 1). Cognitive structures, which are “basic, was initially concerned with the children, gradually interconnected psychological systems that enable expanding to adolescents and the aging individual. people to process information by connecting it with In more recent years developmental psychology has prior and experience, finding patterns studied the entire life span of individuals. By and relationships, identifying rules, and generating how and why people change and abstract principles relevant in different grow, we can help people live up to their full applications,” mattered to Piaget (Garner, 2008, p. potential. This paper will examine the application 32). He believed in operative knowledge, which the theories of two of the major scholars in implies that change and transformation produce developmental psychology, Jean Piaget and Lev knowledge. While working at ’s Vygotsky, to promote student learning in current laboratory, he became interested in studying elementary education programs. students’ wrong responses. Piaget wanted to study When No Child Left Behind’s scientifically the errors children made, and the possibility that the researched-based instructional strategies are errors were not random. His theory purports the implemented in the classroom, student achievement process of coming to know, and the stages we move increases significantly (Turnbull and et. al., 2007, p. through as we gradually acquire this ability. Piaget 21). Teachers must develop a better understanding

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“belongs to the constructivism perspective that sees The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) requires learning as construction (Dahl, 1996, p. 2). or peers to provide assistance to students, who cannot complete the assigned task without Piaget identified four stages in cognitive help. The ZPD is the gap between what learners are development: sensori-motor, pre-operational, able to do independently, and what they may need concrete, and formal. Children in the sensori-motor help in accomplishing (Daniels, 2001). Instruction stage, also called infancy, are likely to learn by and learning occurs in the ZPD. When students are using their five , , and in this zone, they can be successful with actions that are goal-directed. and children instructional help. do not think the way adults do. Young children experience because they fail to Vygotsky died suddenly from . understand how someone else's point of view might After his death, Stalin had Vygotsky’s work be different from their own--or they fail to banned. It was not until the collapse of the Soviet coordinate their point of view with that other Union that Vygotsky’s works were translated and person's (Campbell, 2006, p. 5). The preoperational read by other researchers. stage spans ages two through seven. During this The lives and works of Jean Piaget and Lev period, children are able to do one-step Vygotsky had similarities and differences. Both problems, develop , continue to be men were born in the same year, 1896. Piaget lived egocentric, and complete operations. Children in until the age of eighty-four. WhileVygotsky died at this stage, however, struggle with centering and age thirty-eight. They shared the same field of conservation. The concrete stage occurs during ages study, which was developmental psychology. Both seven through eleven. From age twelve to Piaget and Vygotsky learning is what leads adulthood, children enter the formal operations to the development of higher order thinking. stage, which allows them to think logically and However, Piaget took a more constructivist view show lingering egocentrism. and focused on the individual, while Vygotsky used an active theory approach that focused on social interaction. Teachers can use effective instructional Lev Vygotsky, who lived from 1896 until strategies, based on the developmental and 1934, was born to Jewish in Russia, present- cognitive psychology theories of Jean Piaget and day Ukraine. He enrolled in a private school named Lev Vygotsky, to increase student achievement at Sganiavsky, and majored in and the elementary level. But, before Piaget’s and (Palmer, 2001). He believed the socio-cultural Vygotsky’s theories can be implemented in environment is critical for cognitive development. classrooms, both administrators and teachers need His work was influenced by the Marxist theory of to develop an understanding of the lives and “…historical changes in society and material life theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. produce changes in nature” (Huiitt, 2000, slide 21). In his work, Vygotsky emphasized the Comparison of Theories roles of social interaction and instruction. “He Now that the backgrounds of Piaget and proposed that development does not precede Vygotsky have been examined, a comparison of , but rather social structures and social their theories can be made. Piaget advocates lead to the development of mental learning as construction, whereas Vygotsky functions” (Huitt, 2000, slide 22). believed in the “ perspective that sees Vygotsky developed of cognitive learning as appropriation” (Dahl, 1996, p. 2). learning zones. The Zone of Actual Development Piaget’s theory refers to qualitative periods or (ZAD) occurs when students can complete tasks on stages of development. Piaget’s theory encourages their own. There is nothing new for the students to hands-on learning. Vygotsky accepted, “The learn. In this zone, the students are independent. activity theory calls to knowledge that is

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created in a negotiation/interaction among people underestimates children’s knowledge. and that people appropriate knowledge” (Dahl, skills can be acquired easily once simpler 1996, p. 9). Vygotsky’s theory promotes gradual prerequisite skills have been learned (Croker, 2003). changes using social contact and language which Some have noted that the stages in his theory have gradually changes with development (Utah inconsistencies. He ignored social and cultural Education Network, 2005, p. 10). He believed the groups in his research. Piaget’s tasks learner constructed his or her own knowledge by underestimated the impact of culture by being interacting with other individuals. culturally biased. And, formal operational thinking is not universal. Piaget’s Theory Piaget believed individuals must adapt to Vygotsky’s Theory their environment. He described two processes for Social interaction plays an important role in adaptationwhich is an organism’s ability to fit in student learning. It is through social interaction that with its environment, assimilation and students learn from each other, as well as adults. accommodation (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006, Fogarty (1999) stated, “Vygotsky’s theory suggests p. 171). Assimilation is the process of using or that we learn first through person-to-person transforming the environment so that it can be interactions and then individually through an placed in preexisting cognitive structures. internalization process that leads to deep Accommodation is the process of changing understanding” (p. 77). Vygotsky explores three cognitive structures in order to accept something different types of : social, private, and from the environment. It changes the , so it internal. He refers to social speech as the can increase its efficiency (Campbell, 2006, p. 10). instructions given by adults to children. Private According to Piaget, the developmental ideal is a speech allows children to process what the has balance between assimilation and accommodation, said and try to apply it to similar situations. For which is also known as equilibrium. Piaget believed example, a teacher tells the to keep their hands when a balance between children’s mental schemas, to themselves. Self-control is an example of private which is a “… produced in response to speech because children are using for themselves a that becomes a framework or basis for the same “language that adults use to regulate analyzing or responding to other related stimuli” behavior” (Wilhelm, 2001, p. 11). So, since their and the external world has been reached, children teacher has informed to keep their hands to are in a comfortable state of equilibrium (Agnes, themselves, the students do not hit or punch each 1999, p. 1282). Thus, students have already another other in class. Both teacher and student mastered what has been taught and have confidence share the responsibility of developing students’ in their abilities to do or perform the assigned task. private speech. Internal or inner speech takes place During this time, students are not in the process of “as the student’s silent, abbreviated dialogue that acquiring new information or learning. she carries on with self that is the essence of Disequilibrium occurs when children come across conscious mental activity” (Wilhelm, 2001, p. 11). new environmental phenomena; these new In the earlier example, these students must environmental phenomena, however, often do not internalize the consequences of hitting another fit exactly into children’s mental schemas. Students student, which could lead to a disciplinary referral. are drawn towards disequilibrium because of their Thought is the result of social speech becoming . Teachers should use disequilibrium to private speech that has been internalized. When the motivate their students because it allows for cultural become internalized, humans acquire changes in students’ mental structures. the capacity for higher order thinking (Huiitt, 2000, slide 24). Piaget’s theory has not been universally accepted by all. Some researchers believe Piaget

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There are fundamental differences between assignments). Their goal is to help the individual Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget believed the individual construct knowledge. Conservation of constancy, as is primary in the learning process, while Vygotsky defined by Garner (2008), “is the ability to believed that social life is primary in the learning understand how some characteristics of a thing can process. As Dimitriadis and Kamberelis (2006) change, while others stay the same” (p. 34). In other note, “Piaget grounded his developmental learning words, it is the realization that even though an theory in the individual learner and positioned object can be changed physically, some of the children as active, intelligent, creative constructors characteristics for that object remain the same. For of their own knowledge structures” (p.170). In instance, if you give students modeling clay and tell contrast, Vygotsky’s main construct of the Zone of them to mold it, the shape will change, but the color Proximal Development (ZPD) learning “depends of the modeling clay will remain the same. upon outside social forces as much as inner Conservation of constancy “identifies relationships resources” (Palmer, 2001, p. 35). Vygotsky believed and makes of physical and abstract that if students were not improving academically, information” (Garner, 2007, p. 47). Educators their instruction was inappropriate. This belief create, implement, and assess the curriculum being contradicts Piaget’s reasoning that the students may taught, assuming throughout the process that have “plateaued” in a specific developmental stage. students can conserve constancies. If students lack this ability, they will not benefit academically Developmental growth is another area of because they have limited concrete sensory data and . Piaget’s theory focuses on fixed stages literal interpretations. Thus, they will experience of development, whereas Vygotsky’s theory notes a difficulty in thinking abstractly, problem-solving, more fluid, on- going repertoire of development. So , and discerning relevance (Garner, 2008, how do administrators and teachers implement these p. 35). For example, if the student is studying theories in their schools and classrooms? fractions, he or she may not be able to recognize that one-third and three-ninths are equal. Application in Education In order for students to develop their Ivic (1989), as cited by Daniels (2001), conservation of constancy skills, teachers must stated: provide their students with opportunities to recognize similarities and differences at both the School does not always teach physical and abstract level (Garner, 2008). Many of systems of knowledge but in many us developed our conservation of constancy by cases overburdens its pupils with doing chores and playing games. Piaget believed isolated and meaningless facts; conservation is developed in students who are ages school curricula do not incorporate seven and eight. Visualization and reflective tools and intellectual techniques, all awareness are crucial to students’ understanding of too often schools do not provide a conservation of constancy. By encouraging students setting for social interaction to notice similarities and differences in objects, they conducive to knowledge construction increase their conservation of constancy. (p.98). The Use of Vygotsky’s Theory in Education The use of Piaget’s theory in Education Vygotsky’s central topic was the Zone of By using Piaget’s theory in the classroom, Proximal Development (ZPD), which uses social teachers and students benefit in several ways. interaction with more knowledgeable others to Teachers develop a better understanding of their move development forward. A more capable students’ thinking. They can also align their person, such as teacher or peer, provides assistance teaching strategies with their students’ cognitive to the student; the student is able to complete the level (e.g. motivational , modeling, and

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task with this assistance. Students, who are in the when they need to make . As they read ZPD, need active teaching. “It’s a waste of time to the story, they can pause and think about what type teach kids what they already know and what they of they need to make. Thus, students are cannot do even with assistance” (Utah Education able acquire and develop master of complex reading Network, 2005, p. 11). Therefore, Vygotsky’s skills. “Scaffolding involves simplifying the theory promotes the belief, “What is learned must learner’s role rather than the task.” (p. 107). be taught” (Wilhelm, 2001, p. 8). Teachers should Vygotsky’s model of teaching and learning be explaining, modeling, and using guided practice has significantly influenced “early-literacy” in the classroom. By modeling what they want their programs, such as Reading Recovery and Guided students to do, students will be better able to work Reading. Yet, this theory is in contradiction to what through their assigned tasks. Think-alouds, an is happening in many schools today. Too many instructional strategy that allows students to talk schools have teacher-centered classrooms. The through new steps of an endeavor aloud, can be teacher/information centered model (is)…learning used with upper elementary and middle school centered on the information possessed by the students, who are in the ZPD. This strategy assists teacher, which flows one way, from teacher to students’ thinking about how they make . student (Wilhelm, 2001, p.8). To counter this During think-alouds, students listen to a skilled prevalent view, Vygotsky maintains meaningful and reader using “strategies to comprehend text, and productive collaborative activities that need to be their teachers’ thinking become visible to them” engaged in by both students and teachers. Learning (Beers, 2003, p. 43). Students need time to try out can occur through , formal instruction, or work various strategies, so they can develop answers or between a learner and a more experienced learner. responses. At the same time, teacher questioning Teachers must actively assist and promote the techniques should guide the social interactions growth of their students, so the students can develop implicitly or explicitly. Think-alouds help teachers the skills they need to fully participate in our determine why and how students are experiencing society. difficulty in reading. In addition, students can analyze their own thinking about their reading. In today’s classrooms, teachers need to design lessons that empower students to “make When an administrator walks into a meaning through mindful manipulation of input” teacher’s classroom using Vygotsky’s theory to (Fogarty, 1999, p. 78). Thus, administrators need to guide his or her instruction, he or she should see provide teachers with the effective professional students engaged in scaffolding, small groups, development and supplies they need to be effective. learning, group problem-solving, cross- By successfully incorporating Piaget’s and age tutoring, assisted learning, and/ or alternative Vygotsky’s theories into the classroom, assessment. Scaffolding is “a form of adult developmental psychology in elementary education assistance that enables a child or novice to solve a can positively impact student achievement. “When problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which our students have the cognitive foundation to learn would be beyond his unassisted efforts” (Wood et. how to learn, they can discover what else is “out al, 1976, as cited by Daniels, 2001, p.107). The use there” in our world…” (Garner, 2008, p. 38). of language and shared experience is essential to successfully implementing scaffolding as a learning In order to apply the theories of Piaget and tool. By practicing making inferences, students are Vygotsky to present day school systems, one would able to determine what and when inferences needed need to restructure schools significantly. to be made. Teachers need to provide students, who Administrators and teachers have to work together. are in the ZPD, copies with specific sentences that As one continues reading, a model school that have been underlined in a short story. The incorporates these theories will unfold. The B & P underlined sentences will help the students realize Model School is a fictitious school that has been

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created in order to demonstrate how these theories one special (music, art, library, computer, physical could be combined and utilized to increase student education), participate in recess, and receive achievement. instruction in and social studies. Students will receive daily instruction in all subjects, rather The B & P Model School than alternating days for specific subjects. The B & P Model Elementary School The morning orientation time will consist of (BPMES) is a school with small classes, no more such routine activities as putting away their than 15 students per class. The school day is six and belongings, handing in any notes or homework, and one-half hours (8:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.). Our other paperwork, as well as a review of the schedule curriculum is based on the Virginia Standards of of activities and lessons for the day. Taking into Learning. The building administration includes a consideration Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories of principal and assistant principal. The faculty development, this orientation period will be consists of highly qualified individuals, certified in differentiated based on the developmental/grade Pre-Kindergarten through fifth grade, with level of the students. The general breakdown of specialists in physical education, music, computer classrooms is as follows: the primary level is technology, art, and library. All students are composed of students whose ages are four and five, required to attend one elective per day. One teacher the intermediate level is made up of students who and one paraprofessional will be in each classroom. are ages six and seven, and the advanced level is Both Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories are composed of students who are eight, nine, and ten demonstrated in this school. The school structure years of age. for the early years emphasizes Piaget’s In the classrooms with students ages four developmental stages more than Vygotsky’s and five, the students will be operating at the repertoires. As students develop and matriculate preoperational stage of development based on through the school, the classroom strategies are theories posited by Piaget. In the preoperational based more on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal stage, the concentration is on experiences that the Development than the stages of development children are able to repeat and therefore learn at theorized by Piaget. When assigning students to their own pace with guidance. Piaget thought classrooms, age and developmental levels will be children needed to participate in experiences in utilized to group children to better meet their order to learn. He claimed, “…the individual learner instructional needs. The school has multi-age is a little constantly constructing and classrooms in order to meet this method of reconstructing theories about the world and how it assigning students. The classrooms with the works” (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006, p. 174). younger students will be more experientially based Piaget believed, “… can develop normally with much physical activity. This includes children without language acting as a mediational mean” moving through centers that have been developed (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006, p. 174). Although and arranged to reinforce the concepts taught. As Piaget believed cognition can develop before the students move through the stages of language, the early years in the B & P model school development, the emphasis is more on small group will emphasize language in accordance with instruction, peer tutoring, and guided learning. Vygotsky’s theory that language (speech) is A Typical School Day necessary before the child is ready to learn more The daily schedule of each grade level will complex material. be similar in that all students will have an Children continue to be egocentric at this orientation to their day after breakfast, instruction stage of development but are moving to a more will take place for approximately two to three socially conscious period. According to Piaget, at hours, depending on the age group. Then, students the preoperational stage children tend to use will have lunch. After lunch, children will attend

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to problem solve and move toward a more and a rest period for the four and five year olds (the logical system as they develop. primary level). It is here that some children may This stage is similar to Vygotsky’s repertoire of sleep, look at a book, puzzle, or may work play and his belief, “The process of trying to individually with the teacher or aide to reinforce communicate with others results in the development concepts in which the child may be struggling. of word meanings that then form the structure of Later, in the afternoon, these young students would ” (Palmer, 2001, p. 36). It is this participate in another round of centers that are based consciousness that enables the child to move on social skills (language, role playing, turn-taking) through the next stages of development. and play activities. Again, the teacher and aide would rotate throughout the centers, which allow As stated earlier, the instruction in the early them to play and talk with the children. At the end years will be grounded in experiences through play of the day, there would be a group review and time with an emphasis on language. The children will be to gather materials to go home. engaged in a story time daily. The story or stories will reinforce concepts being taught to the children. The Intermediate Level Many questions by the teacher will be asked As children move to the intermediate level, throughout story time in order to engage students in (six and seven year olds), emphasis will be placed language activities that require making inferences on reading and math. Each classroom at this level and the recalling of information. After story time, will have an orientation period followed by direct the children would move to a central location instruction, with activity centers to follow. It is very (tables or desks) to be instructed in a specific area important that children have an opportunity to such as pre-reading (colors, matching, sorting, and practice what is taught during the letters) and math, (numbers, counting objects, period under the guidance of the teacher and aide. It matching, and sorting). After the initial instruction, is here that Vygotsky’s theory, the Zone of children would either be assigned a center or choose Proximal Development (ZPD), will be utilized to a a center that has been developed to explore and greater extent than in the earlier years. In the ZPD, reinforce the recent instruction in that particular the adult will control “those elements of the task academic area. These centers would be arranged that were initially beyond the learner’s capacity, and planned by the teacher and aide to engage thus allowing the learner to complete those that children in activities that are taught on a daily basis. were within existing capabilities” (Daniels, 2001, p. During this center time, the teacher and aide would 107). move throughout the classroom to facilitate activities with the materials. Children would be After a morning of direct instruction and required to move throughout the centers on a reinforcement, through activities both physical and rotational basis in order for all students to be cognitive, the children will eat lunch and attend one exposed to each center. After a certain length of of the following: music, library, physical education, time, children would be called back to a central computer, or art. When they return to their location in order to review what they had classroom, they will have another period of direct accomplished. This is similar to Nancy Vogel’s instruction in social studies and science. This would Plan, Do, and Review model that so many early be followed by activities to reinforce the concepts childhood classrooms utilize. presented. Children will also have a recess period. The Primary Level Instruction at this level continues to be based on Piaget’s preoperational stage of It is after these activities that the children development but begins to include Vygotsky’s would have lunch, and attend their assigned special theories of “leading activities typical of certain age (art, music, library, computer, physical education) periods around which intellectual development is for the day. The afternoon would consist of recess organized” (Huiitt, 2000, slide 8). Writing and

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reading will be the overall emphasis of instruction. Assessment, which is a large part of The most important thing teachers can do is to help indicating a student’s readiness to move to the next their students acquire “…strategic knowledge, a level would take the shape of a portfolio as opposed knowledge of the procedures people use to learn, to to pencil and paper or computerized standardized think, to read, and to write” (Wilhelm, 2001, p. 7). testing. The teacher would collect evidence on each Pretending allows young children to practice and child as they demonstrated accomplishment of the strengthen newly acquired representational schemes . (Berk, 2003). Various cognitive skills are increased Conclusion by make-believe play: attention, , logical reasoning, language and literacy, , By incorporating Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s , reflecting and taking on experiences. For theories into teaching strategies in elementary instance, one-way logic questions would be given to classrooms, student learning is likely to increase. small groups of students to work cooperatively to So, how do teachers use Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s solve. theories in their instruction to improve student achievement? There are various ways for teachers The Advanced Level to implement developmental psychology in Students in the upper age range for the elementary classrooms. BPMES (ages eight, nine, and ten), follow a similar Even though Piaget and Vygotsky hold schedule as the other classes. An even stronger different views concerning developmental emphasis is placed on language arts, math, science, psychology, the use of both theories in classrooms and social studies. It is in these classes that is advantageous. Teachers have a solid Vygotsky’s theory plays a larger role in teaching understanding of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories. strategies, however, Piaget’s theories continue. Students are provided with more opportunities to According to Palmer (2001), “Piaget was explicit in play and learn with their peers. The B and P Model recommending group learning as a standard means School, our example of a model school, of classroom learning” (p. 41). Vygotsky’s theory demonstrates the positive effects of the theories of of scaffolding becomes an important technique in Piaget and Vygotsky could have at the elementary these classes as well as peer tutoring, small group school level. Garner (2008) states, “It is truly more activities and discussion, and guided learning. efficient…to equip students for ongoing learning by The time periods set aside for language arts using the everyday curriculum (in order) to fortify and math instruction would include direct cognitive structures” (p. 38). instruction alternating with independent work, group activity, and use of technology for reinforcement of concepts. Students would be able References to discover their individual style of learning. Too Agnes, M.(Ed). (1999). Webster’s new world often, we give students preprinted graphic college dictionary (4th ed.). New York: organizers or preset criteria to classify information Macmillan. rather than letting them discover patterns based on criteria of their own (Garner, 2008, p. 35). Social Beers, K. (2003). When kids can’t read: What studies would include direct instruction, role teachers can do. Portsmouth, NH: playing, computer technology, and small and large Heinemann. group activities. Science would be replicating Berk, E. L. (2003). Development through the in small groups after large group lifespan. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. demonstration, and discussion in small and large group. Campbell, R. L. (2006). Jean Piaget's Genetic : Appreciation and Critique.

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Clemson, SC: Department of Psychology. Retrieved Utah Education Network (2005). Chapter One: on March 04, 2008 from Young Children Growing, Thinking and http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/piaget. Learning DAP and theorists. Morgan, UT: html. Utah Education Network. Croker, S. (2003). Children’s cognitive development: Alternatives to Piaget. Derby, England: Derby University- School of Psychology. Dahl, B. (1996). A synthesis of different psychological learning theories? Piaget and Vygotsky. Trondheim, Norway: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norwegian Center for . Daniels, H. (2001). Vygotsky and . New York: Routledge Falmer Dimitriadis, G. and Kamberelis, G. (2006). Theory for Education. London: Routledge Publishing. Egan, K. and Judson, G. (2008). Of whales and wonder: By using cognitive tools to shape instruction, we can make the curriculum more imaginatively engaging. Educational 65(6), 20-25. Garner, B.K. (2007). Getting to got it. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Garner, B.K. (2008). When students seem stalled: The missing link for too many kids who don’t “get it?” cognitive structures. Educational Leadership 65(6), 32-38. Fogarty, R. (1999). Architects of the intellect. Educational Leadership, 57(3), 76-78. Huitt, W.G. (2000). A constructivistic approach to learning [PowerPoint]. CA: Valdosta State University. Palmer, J.A, (2001). Fifty modern thinkers of education. Routledge: New York. Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R., and Wehmeyer, M.L. (2007). Exceptional Lives: Special education in today’s schools. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

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