EMMANUEL KANTKNOWLEDGE AND

MEANING ARE CONSTRUCTED BY THE

INDIVIDUAL

INDIVIDUALS INTERPRET SENSORY INFORMATION AND CONSTRUCT PERSONAL,

SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL MEANING

IT IS THE MEANING OF OUR EXPERIENCES, AND NOT THE ONTOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE

OBJECTS, WHICH CONSTITUTES REALITY

CONSTRUCTIVISM

JEAN PIAGET

COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL

THEORY

“A STUDENT WHO ACHIEVES KNOWLEDGE THROUGH FREE INVESTIGATION AND SPONTANEOUS EFFORT WILL BE ABLE TO RETAIN THAT KNOWLEDGE AND WILL HAVE

ACQUIRED A METHODOLOGY THAT CAN SERVE FOR A LIFETIME.”

“The central fact about psychology is the fact of mediation.”

Lev Vygotsky

ACTIVE AGENCY

Adaptation

Disequilibrium

Biological Factors Environmental Factors

BEHAVIORCognitive Development

MEDIATING MECHANISMS

Individual as active agent -emphasis on interpretation of information and on construction of meaning

Developmental stagesCOGNITIVE

CONFLICT

WHAT CRITICAL ELEMENTS SEEM TO BE DE-EMPHASIZED

IN PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT?

2. CRITICAL ROLE OF LANGUAGE

3. IMPORTANCE OF ASSISTED LEARNING

1. HUMAN LEARNING CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD

INDEPENDENT OF THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FORCES THAT

INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS**

The development of mind is the interweaving of biological

development of the human body and the appropriation of the cultural/ideal/material

heritage which exists in the present to coordinate people with each other and with

the physical world.Lev Vygotsky

from: Beyond the Individual-Social Antimony in Discussions of Piaget and Vygotsky, by Michael Cole and James Wertsch

LEV VYGOTSKY

SOCIAL-HISTORICAL THEORY OF COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT

• SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INTERACTIONS ARE CRITICAL TO LEARNING

• INDIVIDUALS CREATE PSYCHOLOGICAL TOOLS TO LEARN AND TO MASTER THEIR BEHAVIOR

Cultural influences - Tools and signs

- Cultural artifacts

- Language

Mediating mechanismsSocial Process

Instruction (Zone of Proximal Development)

Biological Factors Environmental Factors with emphasis on Sociocultural factors

BEHAVIORDevelopment

THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

“ . . . is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determinedthrough problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers”

Lev Vygotsky, 1935

POTENTIAL LEVEL

ACTUAL LEVEL

INSTRUCTION

LEARNING

ZPD

POTENTIAL LEVEL

ACTUAL LEVEL

ZPD

SOCIAL (Cultural) MEDIATION

Biological Factors Environmental Factors with emphasis on Sociocultural factors

BEHAVIORDevelopment

Cultural influences

- Tools and signs

Mediating mechanisms

Social Process

Instruction (Zone of Proximal Development)

CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES

BETWEENVYGOTSKY PIAGETand

1. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IS PRIMARILY A FUNCTION OF

SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERACTION Adult-child interaction

INDIVIDUAL CONSTRUCTION

Active agency

. . . but see Cole and Wertsch’s Beyond the Individual-Social Antimony in Discussions of Piaget and Vygotsky

CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES

BETWEENVYGOTSKY PIAGETand

2. ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND PRIVATE SPEECH

LANGUAGE CRITICAL - EGOCENTRIC SPEECH BECOMES THOUGHT THAT IS SELF-REGULATING

COGNITION CRITICAL -EGOCENTRIC SPEECH

DISAPPEARS AS SOCIAL SPEECH DEVELOPS

ONCE LANGUAGE DEVELOPS, COGNITION IS LANGUAGE

COGNITION MEDIATES LANGUAGE

HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT I THINK UNLESS I HEAR

WHAT I SAY?Dean Acheson

CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES

BETWEENVYGOTSKY PIAGETand

3. HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN BEST?

SOCIAL INTERACTION

• INSTRUCTION DEPENDENT

• ASSISTED LEARNING (ZPD)

• SCAFFOLDING

• COGNITIVE SELF-INSTRUCTION - guided by inner speech

INDIVIDUAL CONSTRUCTION

• STAGE DEPENDENT

• SELF-DIRECTED, SELF-INITIATED**

• EXPERIMENTATION

• INDEPENDENT MASTERY

• EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY

INTERNAL SELF-REGULATION

CONCEPTUAL SIMILARITIES

BETWEEN

VYGOTSKY PIAGETand

1. PARADIGMATIC CONSISTENCY

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM with an ever so slight lean toward nurture

COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM

with an ever so slight lean toward nature

2. FOUNDATION OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

GENETIC EPISTEMOLOGY

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IS AN INTERACTION BETWEEN

BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT PRIMARILY MEDIATED BY AN

INDIVIDUAL’S ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING

SOCIOCULTURAL MEDIATION

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IS IS AN INTERMINGLING OF BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS -“THE NATURAL AND THE CULTURAL” - THAT FORM A SINGLE LINE OF SOCIOBIOLOGICAL FORMATION OF PERSONALITY

CONCEPTUAL SIMILARITIES

BETWEEN

VYGOTSKY PIAGETand

3. SOCIAL INFLUENCE ON LEARNING

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL EXCHANGE

DURING THE PROCESS OF EQUILIBRATION

THE IMPORTANCE OF ASSISTED LEARNING TO REACH THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

CONCEPTUAL SIMILARITIES

BETWEEN

VYGOTSKY PIAGETand

DeVries, R. (1997). Piaget’s Social Theory, Educational Researcher, 26(2), 4-17. Link to detail

Piaget’s Cognitive Periods and Approximate Ages

Table 2.2

1. The Sensorimotor Period-Birth to 18-24 months

2. The Preoperational Period-2 to 7 years

3. The Concrete Operational Period-7 to 11 years

4. The Formal Operational Period-over 11 years

3

Piaget on Language and ThoughtTable 2.4

1. Egocentrism2. Organization of reality by sensory and motor abilities

1. Increasing symbolic activity2. Beginnings of representation

1. Reversibility2. Conservation3. Seriation4. Classification

1. Development of logico- mathematical structures2. Hypothetico-deductive reasoning

CharacteristicsPeriod (age in years)Outstanding LanguageEquivalent

Sensorimotor (0-2)

Preoperational (2-7)

Concrete Operational (7-11)

Formal Operational (over 11)

Language absent until finalmonths of period

1. Egocentric speech2. Socialized speech

1. Beginnings of verbal understanding2. Understanding related to concrete objects

1. Language freed from the concrete2. Verbal ability to express the possible

4

Vygotsky’s Theory-Basics

Concept of development

The social origin of mind

Speech and development

5

Preintellectual speech

Naive psychology

Egocentric speech

Inner speech

Vygotsky and Stages of Language

Development

6

Key Differences Between Piaget and Vygotsky

Table 2.5Individual child constructs view of worldby forming cognitive structures -“the littlescientist”

Equilibration-child acts to regain equilib-rium between current level of cognitivestructures and external stimuli

Emerges as cognitive structures develop

Assimilation and accommodation lead toequilibration

Child independently searches for dataneeded to change cognitive structures,thus enabling child to reach solution

Perspective

Basic psychologicalmechanism

Language

Learning

Problem solving

Child’s cognitive development progressesby social interactions with others (“socialorigins of mind”)

Social interaction, which encourages devel-opment through the guidance of skillfuladults

Language begins as preintellectual speechand gradually develops into a sophisticatedform of inner speech; one of the main forces responsible for cognitive develop-ment

Learning results from the interaction of two processes; biological elementary processes (such as brain development),plus sociocultural interactions

Two aspects of problem solving: 1. Key roleof speech to guide “planful” behavior;2. Joint efforts with others

Piaget Vygotsky

7