Piaget and Vygotsky

WHAT"

• Piaget: (major criticism – ages aren’t right / how kids interpret the test, etc/the way we ask the questions matters a lot)
  Cognitive Constructivism
  Constructing knowledge through experience / environment
  PG 29-basic assumption
  Children are active learners
  Children construct knowledge through experience – not by being told them
  Change schemes in order to understand them
  Through interaction with the environment
  Hands on learning – student centered experiences
  Proposed that new experience created disequilibrium – brain feels off balance
  To fix –
  assimilate - become one with- fit it in with existing schemes
  Learn a new letter in typing – already know how to put the finger to the key
  Accommodation – change scheme because the info doesn’t fit.
  A child learns that a long slithery thing is a snake, now finds a long slithery thing with legs – accommodation has to modify what she knows about snakes
  Assimilating – snakes have legs
  Accommodation – not a snake but a salamander
  Sometimes kids assimilate when they should accommodate
  Errors happen – dribble a soccer ball because learned basketball first
  End result that you want – equilibrium
  At secondary level – present info contrary to earlier belief (in this culture example evolution)
  Assimilate – God used evolution as a process for creationism
  Accommodation – two separate theories – creationism and evolution
  Piaget – four stages
  Sensory motor – has to touch
  Preoperational (2 to 6/7)
  Egocentric perspective
  Lack of inclusion
  Lack of conservation
  Irreversibility
  Inability to reason about transformations
  Transductive reasoning
  Concrete operational (6/7 to 11/12)
  Differentiation of one’s own perspective from the perspective of others
  Class inclusion
  Conservation
  Reversibility
  Ability to reason about transformations
  Deductive reasoning
  Dependence of concrete reality
  Inability to formulate and test multiple hypotheses
  Inability to separate and control variables
  Lack of proportional reasoning
  Formal operational (11/12 to adulthood)
  Ability to reason about abstract, hypothetical, contrary – to – fact ideas
  Formulation and testing of multiple hypotheses
  Separation and control of variables
  Proportional reasoning

For different levels in classroom
Instructions:
Clarity
Differentiate
Explain reasoning (get accommodation)
Deductive / abstract (problem based learning – trying to figure out solutions)
Questioning techniques / control for variables
Hands on experiences


Lev Vygotsky - did bulk of experiments on own children – dies at age 37
Social Constructivism
Interaction with other people / sociocultural learning (learn from culture)
Strong proponent of group play with focus on adult tasks
Guided participation – walk kids thru process
Cognitive apprenticeship – guide thru thought process as well
Development of speech (and any higher level thought process)
Listening (watch)
Self talk (practice)
Inner speech (internalize)

We discussed Zone of Proximal (near to or next) Development with the idea that too hard or too easy isn't effective

We learn best when things are not too hard or not too easy but where someone can help us get through it.

NOW WHAT:

Knowing the different ideas of Piaget and Vygotsky helps me as a teacher to understand the stages of development of my students and be able to develop lesson strategies that can help me educate my students with appropriate activites. This ties into Zone of Proximal Development. I need to make sure that my expections of my students fall into that Zone. This also bears to mind the need for approriate scaffolding. The idea of accomodation and assimilation was especailly interesting in the learning process.

SO WHAT: As a teacher I'm going to use this information as a guide in setting up appropriate lesson plans and teaching methods and not expect my students to perform in a way that is impossible for them because of their stage of development.