Piaget Blog Post 1

• Constructivism is a part in psychology that explains learning as a process of actively constructing knowledge. Students can learn through individual or social constructivism. In individual a person uses their own experiences to learn and in social a person uses their experiences as well as others experiences to learn. Piaget proposed the theory of nature and nurture, including biological maturation, active exploration of physical environment, social experiences, and equilibration. Piaget also thought that children went through stages of learning including sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Going through the stages is based strictly on age. Vygotsky was the other main contributor to this module. He developed the Zone of Proximal Development. This model was based on achievements rather than age.
• I have learned the steps of the Zone of Proximal Development before, why are they not included in the module? What are the steps?
• The difference between development and learning according to Piaget is that development comes before learning, because a person must be developmentally ready to learn. People have to reach a certain developmental age before they can move on to learning more complex things. Brain researchers would not agree with this. They would say that a toddler can learn a complex thing such as learning easier than adults. Toddlers have the ability to learn multiple languages because they have such a new and open mind and can adapt to speaking different languages.
• I would most likely teach based on Vygotsky’s theory. He based his theory on achievements a child can make and does not restrict them to only learning certain things at a certain age. I feel like Piaget’s theory can potentially hold back students, because according to him they cannot process any knowledge past what they are developmentally capable of. Vygotsky believes that children are not restricted to learning only what their age allows them to learn.