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What does Piaget tell us about how children’s cognitive abilities develop?

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According to Piaget

• Children are little scientists who develop cognitively by acquiring schemas about the world through discovery learning

• To what extent do you agree with this view?

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• Are there things a child needs to learn about the world that cannot simply be discovered?

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Today you will…

• Outline the main points of Vygotsky’s theory of Cognitive Development

• Define and explain the concepts of scaffolding and the zone of proximal development (ZPD)

• Consider the role of socialisation on cognitive development

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Lev Vygotsky

• Russian psychologist, contemporary of Piaget but his work not published in English until after his death in 1934

• Believed that Piaget ignored the role of culture on cognitive development

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Vygotsky’s Theory

• Cognitive development involves the active internalisation of problem-solving processes as a result of mutual interaction between children and others

• Children learn how to think through their interactions with others

• Where Piaget saw the child as a scientist, Vygotsky saw the child as an apprentice

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Zone of Proximal Development

• In one of your subjects/hobbies/interests, think of…– One thing you can do well on your own– One thing you can do if someone helps you– One thing you can’t do at all

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Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• The gap between what a child can do on their own and what a child can do with support

• The child will not be able to take the next step in their development unless they are supported in the ZPD

• This support is known as scaffolding and is seen as the main role of adults/teachers

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Zone of Proximal Development

• Vygotsky’s view:“…what a child can do with assistance today

she will be able to do by herself tomorrow.” (Vygotsky, 1978)

• Contrast with Piaget:“Every time we teach a child something, we

keep him from inventing it himself. On the other hand, that which we allow him to discover for himself will remain with him visible for the rest of his life.” (Piaget, in Piers, 1972)

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In groups of three…

• Assign yourselves the roles of child, parent and psychologist

• The child will be given a toy to play with for three minutes

• Parents should get involved with their child’s play in any way they feel appropriate

• Psychologists need to observe interactions and record details of how the parent supports the child’s play

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• Is there a ‘best’ way for parents to provide support to their children when they are learning something new?

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Levels of Parental Support (Wood & Middleton, 1975)

• 4 yr olds give wooden blocks to fit together• Building task too difficult for child to complete

alone• Interactions between children and parents

observed in different levels of support:– Parent demonstrates– Parent prepares– Parent indicates– Parent gives specific instructions– Parent gives verbal prompt

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Support for Vygotsky?

• Do Wood & Middleton’s results support the idea that children learn cognitive concepts through the support of more advanced others

• Were children in this study actually acquiring a new concept?

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Hatano & Inigaki (1992)

• Suggested a distinction between:

• routine knowledge– learning of a context-specific skill

• conceptual knowledge– acquisition of general cognitive principles

which are transferable to a range of different contexts

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• According to Vygotsky, what factors do you think might influence a child’s development and understanding of false beliefs?

• Would family structure be important?

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X-cultural support?

• Children in Crete & Cyprus (Lewis et al, 1996), Japan & England (Ruffman et al, 1998) tested on the false belief task

• If a child knows something to be true, do they understand that someone else might hold a false belief which will influence their behaviour?

• Children with larger families, and specifically older siblings are likely to develop this understanding more quickly (Lewis et al, 1996; Ruffman et al, 1998)

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Language & thinking

• Vygotsky believed that thinking is structured by language– Children acquire language through social

interaction that they then use to structure and organise their own thinking and problem solving

– Self talk eventually becomes (mostly) silent/internal

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Homework

• Looking at the top tips for teachers leaflet produced over the summer:

1) How well does it offer advice to teachers? Is it informative but accessible?

2) How does the commentary explain the advice? Is there a clear understanding and application of Piaget’s theory?

3) Are there any problems with the advice? What would Vygotsky think? Write a critique from his point of view.