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... current and potential abilities to do something. (Flanagan 1999 P. 72). He believed that problem-solving tasks could be placed into three categories, which were as follows: (a) those performed independently by the student independent performance (b) those that could not be performed even with help; and (c) those that fall between the two, the tasks that can be performed with help from others assisted performance. (www. teachers info site). Vygotsky believed the concept of ZPD recommended a better move towards to education and allowed a better understanding of the learning process. (Flanagan 1999 P. 73) Bruner built on Vygotsky's idea of the ZPD, by introducing what he described as scaffolding.
Scaffolding is the help, which is given to a child that supports the child's learning. Scaffolding is similar to scaffolding around a building; it can be taken away after the need for it has ended. When a child is shown how to do something he can now accomplish this task on its own. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 154). Vygotsky believed that the history of the child and the history of the childs culture needed to be understood because it overrides the cognitive schema process that Piaget described. (www. Teachers info site).
Piaget believed that the sequence of how children experience the stages was universal, but acknowledged the rate at which each child moved through these stages was flexible and relative upon factors such as maturity, social influences, and other factors. Because of the difference in the skills needed for each level, Piaget believed that children should not be forced into learning 4 the knowledge of the next stage until the child was cognitively ready. (Flanagan 1999 P. 57) However, Vygotsky believed that instruction came before development and that instruction lead the learner into ZPD. Piaget and Vygotsky had many contrasting views which included Piaget believing that cognitive changes precede linguistic advances, unlike Vygotsky who proposed that language allowed the child a far greater freedom of thought and lead to further cognitive development. (Flanagan 1999 P. 59) Piaget believed in the development of thinking and that language moved from individual too social. (Ginsburg, Opper 1979 P. 84). However, Vygotsky believed that language moved from the social to the individual. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 150). For Vygotsky speech moved from social speech (communicative) to inner egocentric speech. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 150) He believed that children began by voicing a personal dialogue and then moved to social speech. He argued that it became internalized as an adult.
In contrast, Piaget claimed that egocentric Speech was simply an accompaniment to a childs actions (Ginsburg, Opper 1979 P. 84) and that egocentric speech went away with maturity. However, even though they both had different opinions on the purpose of egocentric speech both agreed on the importance that it played in cognitive development. Vygotsky, like Piaget, believed the relationship between the individual and the social as being a necessary relational. However, Vygotsky believed that it was adults and the Childs peers, which had the responsibility in sharing their greater collective knowledge with the younger generations. He did not believe it was possible for a child to learn and to grow individually and the culture and the environment around the child played a big part in their Cognitive Development. (Flanagan 2001 P. 72). He also believed a child was unable to develop the way he or she had without learning from others in the environment in which they were raised.
In contrast, Piaget maintained that children were naturally inquisitive about their own abilities and about their environment (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 129) and that children advanced their knowledge because of biologically regulated cognitive changes. (Flanagan 2001 P. 57). Whereas, Piaget believed that a child was only possible of learning the processes in each stage at any time (Flanagan 1999 P. 60) and overlooked the role of the child's activity with relation to thought processes. For Piaget, children construct knowledge through their actions on the world. By contrast, Vygotsky's stages, unlike Piaget's, were that of a smooth and gradual process.
That understanding is social in origin. For Vygotsky the cultural and social aspects took on a special importance which is much less symmetrical than Piaget's theories. In summary, Vygotsky was critical of Piaget's assumption that developmental growth was independent of experience and based on a universal characteristic of stages. Vygotsky believed that characteristics did not cease at a certain point as Piaget did. When one thing was learned, it was used from then on. It did not stop just because a child entered another stage of development.
Everything was progressive. Vygotsky also disagreed with Piaget's assumption that development could not be impeded or accelerated through instruction. (Flanagan 1999 P. 57) Vygotsky believed that intellectual development was continually evolving without an end point and not completed in stages as Piaget theorized. Piaget's stages only approach up to, and end with, approximately age fifteen. This theory does not seem to have any major factors after approximately age fifteen. There are factors that can disrupt the Stage theory or the Constructivist theory. A child with autism, brain dysfunction or special needs would not be capable of going through all of Piaget's development stages as a number of studies have shown (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 137).
Not all adults in all cultures reach the formal operational stage of development and are non the less able to live a fulfilling life without doing so. Due to experiences Piaget had over the years he changed the way he thought and modified his techniques of research to include a greater emphasis of the role of the child's activity. Vygotsky although critical of Piaget, realised the importance of the information that Piaget had gathered and in spite of his criticisms, Vygotsky built his educational theories on the strengths of Piaget's theories. After evaluating Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories on cognitive development I believe there still more which we can continue to learn and build on with both Piaget's and Vygotsky's ideas and theories, especially when applied in education. Bibliography Flanagan, C. (1999). Applying Child Psychology to Early Child Development.
Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Limited Ginsburg, H. Opper, S. (1979). Piaget's Theory of Intellectual Development. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc.
Hayes, N. (1999). a Access to Psychology. 5 th ed. London: Hodder & Stoughton Educational. Hayes, N. (1991). b Psychology. London: British Psychological Society.
Jarvis, M. Chandler, E (2001). Angles on Psychology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Limited Thomson, H. Merit, C. (1997). Human Growth and Development.
Abingdon: Book point Limited Sources of Reference web Accessed 10 / 12 / 01 web Accessed 10 / 12 / 01
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