Compare and Contrast the Theories of Piaget and Vygotsky

Provide a brief overview of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s child and adolescent cognitive
developmental theories.

Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Jean Piaget’s stage theory represent two major
theories of cognitive development, and they both believe in constructivism. Piaget introduced the
idea of a schema, which is a cognitive structure, where experiences are organized. Cognitive
growth in children takes place through accommodation and assimilation processes. Children
strive to strike a balance between these two processes through a process known as cognitive
equilibrium (Mossler, 2014). The first of Piagetian stages of cognitive development is
sensorimotor development, which states that children gain more knowledge about themselves
and how the world around them through relying on their actions and senses. Piaget divided this
phase into six sub-stages of development, and each explains how a child’s behavior changes to
represent different capacities of how their thinking develops.

The growth of mental representation dominates a child’s thoughts during the
preoperational stage. Reliance on egocentrism and appearance tends to limit children, and this is
reflected in a child’s immature classification skills. Children reach the stage of concrete
operations when they begin to decenter (Mossler, 2014). Reversibility and seriation coincide
with this stage of development. Formal operations are the final stage explained by Piaget, which
begins at adolescence. The stage is characterized by abstract thought.

Vygotsky’s developed the idea that social interaction mediates cognitive development.
As children participate through different activities, they internalize their culture. Children grow

through learning. The theorist held that the zone of proximal development lays emphasis on
activities that a child is not able to do on his or her own, but would be able to if accorded little
assistance (Mossler, 2014). The focus is usually on the potential of a child as opposed to what he
or she already knows. Therefore, Vygotsky’s theory holds that children’s cognitive development
takes place through cultural and social settings.

Compare and contrast these theories as they relate to child and adolescent development by
identifying at least one commonality in the two theories and two major conceptual
differences.

Both Piaget and Vygotsky believed that children develop knowledge through interacting
with or experiencing the world. However, the two theories differ in that Piaget held that as
children learn and develop, they naturally search for knowledge and that they are independent.
On the other hand, Vygotsky believed that children develop through social constructivism; they
depend largely on their cultural and social settings to learn. Another major disparity between the
two is that Piaget felt that cognitive development is provided for by nature. however, Vygotsky
had a different opinion as he held that cognitive development is nurtured through a child’s social
interactions.

Determine which of the two theories you most support and provide a rationale for your
choice.

I support Vygotsky’s theory because I believe that cognitive development is nurtured.
Children are directly involved in constructing their world, but social interaction is vital in normal
cognitive development. They actively take part in the development of their cognition through

interacting with and learning from cultural and social tools such as language. A child’s cognitive
development is largely influenced by what he or she is exposed to in the environment. Thus,
cognitive development is largely nurtured as opposed to being natural. For instance, I believe
that a child only learns how to talk and read after he or she is exposed to cultural tools of
instruction. In the event that a child is not exposed to such, he or she will not learn how to read
and write. The environment either fosters or hinders a child’s cognitive development.

References

Mossler, R. A. (2014). Child and adolescent development (2nd ed). Retrieved from
https://content.ashford.edu/