Piaget describes development in
four stages. The sensory motor stage takes place from birth to about age 2 when
infants develop everything through sensory experiences and movements. A major
milestone for this stage is the development of object permanence, or the
knowledge that just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t
exist. The next stage is pre-operational where toddlers and young children are
egocentric, and develop semiotic functions. This means that they can represent
something with a sign or symbol. Children in this stage have one way thinking
and have not mastered the idea of conservation. The next stage is the concrete
operational where children are about to engage in two way thinking. They have
also developed conservation at this point in time. The final stage is formal
operational where abstract thinking can be done.
Vygotsky’s theory involves the Zone
of Proximal Development, which is the difference between actual developmental
level and the potential level. Vygotsky believed that you can scaffold a
child’s thinking to help them develop and advance.
One question I had while reading
this chapter was what are theories involve constructivism?
According to Piaget, development is
acquiring concepts spontaneously through natural experiences. Learning is
applying newly developed structures to new situations. This is different from a brain
researcher who would say. A brain scientist would say development is based
mainly on genetic factors and learning is more a cause of environmental
factors.
According to Piaget, development
precedes learning so therefore; critical thinking would not push development. A
person must be developed before learning can happen.
Are you asking what constructivism is or what theories fall under the category? Broadly, constructivists believe you construct knowledge in particular mental structures. It's a pretty broad theory, and much older than Piaget, with many learning theorists fitting into the camp. This is actually helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(learning_theory)
ReplyDeleteI like your description of the brain research learning/development distinctions.... You do learn from experience, and then myelination occurs based upon that. I'm not sure how you're distinguishing the Piaget concepts. "Development is acquiring concepts spontaneously through natural experiences. Learning is applying newly developed structures to new situations." I'm not sure what you mean by this--but since the same language was in a few other posts, I imagine this is out of the book. I don't think Piaget would say you can acquire a concept spontaneously--without constructing or changing your schema in some way. He thought it all required active exploration and then construction of schema. All of that is considered learning. Applying a concept to a new situation may cause disequilibrium, followed by modification of schema (accommodation or assimilation) which would also be an instance of learning.