Compare And Contrast Two Educational Theorist

Effective teachers are aware of the various ways children grow and develop. Growth and development can be described from several theoretical points of view. Teachers who understand and form an opinion about the various theories consciously create environments, plan activities, and manage behaviors in ways that nurture children according to their beliefs. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky each developed theories of child development which can be used in an educational setting.
Jean Piaget, a Swiss epistemologist, was the most prominent in the field of cognitive psychology in his time and the most important contributor to the constructivist education theory. His theory of cognitive development was based on the notion that cognitive abilities, one’s ability to think, are developed as individuals mature physiologically and have opportunities to interact with their environment. He describes interactions as the equilibration of accommodation and assimilation. According to Piaget, individuals are endowed with cognitive dispositions and capabilities. When an individual encounters new information or stimuli, he is brought into a state of disequilibrium. Through the complimentary process of accommodation (adjusting prior knowledge gained through experiences) and assimilation (fitting new information with what was previously understood) individuals return to a state of equilibrium. According to Piaget, this is how learning takes place. Piagetian theory describes learning is discrete and predictable stages. The stages of development are sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operations. In the sensorimotor stage, the child’s age is from zero to two years old. During this first stage the child learns from the environment and through their senses. The second stage of development is preoperational stage. In this stage, the child is between the age of two years old and seven years old. This stage is the relevant to the elementary years. It is also when the child begins to learn mathematical operations however mathematical concepts still need manipulative referent. Learning takes place exclusively through discovery at this point in development. The third stage is the concrete operational stage. At this stage the child is seven years old to eleven years old. This is the stage that the child begins to decenter and takes into consideration of other people’s viewpoints, understand reversibility, inversion, and conversation. They also begin to group items into categories. The last stage of development is the formal operation stage. This is the ultimate stage of development, where the child is eleven through adulthood. During this stage the child begins abstract, logical, and hypothetical thinking. They also begin to used scientific method and formulate cause and effect relationship.
Teachers who understand Piaget’s theory will provide students with learning environment that will support the activities for children according to their developmental stages. The classroom will also consist of active learning which will include hands on activities, discovery opportunities, and manipulatives. Interactions with peers, or cooperative learning, are an important part of cognitive development.
Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, describe learning as a construction of knowledge within a social context. He believed development could not be separated from its social context and learning could lead to development. Vygotsky viewed the learner as an active participant of constructing his own learning through interactions with caregivers, family, or more competent peers with the context of his society. This phenomena is called the Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky describes it as “the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978). In other words, a student can perform a task under adult guidance or peer collaboration that can not be achieved alone. The Zone of Proximal Development bridges the gap between what is known and what can be known. Vygotsky claim learning occurred in this zone. 
Teachers who understand Vygotsky’s theory will scaffold new learning either through formal or informal instruction or through shared activities in mixed ability groups. They understand that experiences, language and social interaction all help students’ cognitive development. The classroom becomes a community of learning.
Although Piaget and Vygotsky were both constructivist, they approached development differently. Piaget believed that cognitive development consist of four main periods of cognitive growth. His theory suggests that development has an endpoint in goal. Vygotsky, in contrast, believed development is a process that should be analyzed, instead of a product to be obtained. According to Vygotsky, the development process that begins at birth and continues until death is too complex to be defined by stages.
Methods and approaches to teaching have been greatly influenced by the research of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Jean Piaget proposed that cognitive development from infant to young adult occurs in four universal and consecutive stages. Lev Vygotsky offered an alternative to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. His theory of social development states that students learn through social interactions and their culture. Piaget’s theory states that children act on their environment to learn. Both have contributed to the field of education by offering explanations for children’s cognitive learning styles and abilities.