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Developmental Psychology: Incorporating Piaget's and Vygotsky's Theories in Classrooms

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Developmental Psychology: Incorporating Piaget's and Vygotsky's Theories in Classrooms Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 2008) 59 - 67 Developmental Psychology: Incorporating Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s Theories in Classrooms Barbara Blake and Tambra Pope In today’s society, there is disagreement of their students’ cognitive development, which will among researchers and educators as to the role of lead to the needs of the whole child being satisfied. developmental psychology and its application in the Cognitive psychology 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 learning 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 humans 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 personality Jean Piaget development, from birth to death. Also, it In 1896, Jean Piaget was born in investigates the processes that lead to age-related Switzerland. He was “…a psychologist 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 knowledge and experience, finding patterns studied the entire life span of individuals. By and relationships, identifying rules, and generating understanding 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 Alfred Binet’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 59 Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 2008) 59 - 67 “belongs to the constructivism perspective that sees The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) requires learning as construction (Dahl, 1996, p. 2). adults 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 senses, object permanence, and in this zone, they can be successful with actions that are goal-directed. Infants and children instructional help. do not think the way adults do. Young children experience egocentrism because they fail to Vygotsky died suddenly from Tuberculosis. 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 logic Vygotsky had similarities and differences. Both problems, develop language, 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 thought 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 Lev Vygotsky 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 parents 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 history and philosophy 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 human 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 socialization, but rather social structures and social their theories can be made. Piaget advocates relations lead to the development of mental learning as construction, whereas Vygotsky functions” (Huitt, 2000, slide 22). believed in the “activity theory perspective that sees Vygotsky developed concepts 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 attention to knowledge that is 60 Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 2008) 59 - 67 created in a negotiation/interaction among people underestimates children’s knowledge. Complex 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
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