Comparing and Contrasting Vygotsky Versus Piaget

¶ … Vygotsky vs. Piaget The French developmental theorist Jean Piaget is notable because of his biologically-oriented, developmentally-driven concept of how children learn. Rather than viewing children merely as small, less intelligent adults, Piaget was the first theorist to stress that children conceptualized the world in a very different way than adults -- in his view, due to biological limitations inherent to a child's brain.

" He was more interested in was the way in which fundamental concepts like the very idea of 'number', 'time,' 'quantity', 'causality', 'justice' and so on emerged" (McLeod 2015). In Piaget's view, these were not concepts which were taught but rather emerged as part of maturation, just as a child grew taller and stronger with age. A child in the sensorimotor stage eventually achieves object permanence, according to Piaget, around 9 months, the child will look for a toy taken out of his or her viewing framework (McLeod 2015).

Conservation of liquid tasks and spatial awareness developed around age five to seven (McLeod 2015). Another critical component of Piaget's theory was that of schemas, "a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations" (McLeod 2015). In contrast to Piaget, the Russian developmental theorist Lev Vygotsky did not view learning as triggered by specific developmental milestones but was rather as a social product of the child's interactions with his or her environment.

Rather than viewing learning as existing as a series of stages, "the child's learning always occurs in a social context in co-operation with someone more skillful (MKO). This social interaction provides language opportunities and language is the foundation of thought" (McLeod 2014). Vygotsky viewed children's learning as a product of cultural dialogue with peers and adults (more knowledgeable others, abbreviated as MKO). There is evidence to support this concept, given that anthropological research suggests that Piaget's age progression is far from universal.

Studies of aboriginal children found "the ability to conserve came later .. between [children] aged 10 and 13" but "spatial awareness abilities developed earlier amongst the Aboriginal children than the Swiss children" Piaget used in his research (McLeod 2015). Furthermore, not even all educated adults pass Piaget's test to determine they have reached the most mature formal operations stage of cognitive development: other theorists using Piaget's same tests have found "40-60% of college students fail at formal operation tasks .. only one-third of adults ever reach the formal operational stage" (McLeod 2015).

Vygotsky viewed children's development as limited by the abilities of the adults around them: "Adults are an important source of cognitive development. Adults transmit their culture's tools of intellectual adaptation that children internalize" (McLeod 2014). However, this also meant that children in the appropriately stimulating environment could progress at a more rapid rate.

Rather than schemas, a critical component of Vygotsky's theory was the concept of scaffolding: "in which a teacher or more advanced peer helps to structure or arrange a task so that a novice can work on it successfully," building upon the student's existing knowledge and frameworks of learning (McLeod.