Module 1

Piaget vs. Vygotsky 

Research on the brain has always fascinated me because there have been so many scientific breakthroughs, yet there’s still much mystery regarding the functions of the brain. We now know that young brains have more plasticity that adult brains allowing the areas that are stimulated to change and grow (Woolfolk, p. 38). Likewise, the parts of the brain not being stimulated will be less developed. There are also many misconceptions about brain development. For example, a study done by Rauscher and Shaw, in 1998, concluded that an adult that listening to Mozart for ten minutes could briefly improve spatial reasoning (Woolfolk, p. 40). This study was taken so out of context that it lead to a trend of babies listening to classical music and line of educational toys and games that allegedly boosted infant brain development.

Piaget and Vygotsky brought some insight to this subject by observing the way children learn and develop. I find Piaget’s conservation tasks very enlightening as I observe the way children process information.  I have a three-year-old daughter who is in the preoperational stage (Woolfolk, p. 47). She definitely has difficulty with the past and future and thinks mostly in the present. We have been planning a trip to Disney World for six months but we have not told her about it yet for this very reason. I know that if I told her about the trip she would have no concept the distant future would ask me every day for six months when we were going to Disney World. She can understand when I say something is going to happen tomorrow but not much past that. I also see many egocentric attributes in my daughter. She wanted to get her adult babysitter a doll, the toy she really wanted, for her birthday. I also work and childcare center and a regular basis toddlers will give their favorite toys to the babies who don’t even have the ability to grasp the toy yet. Piaget’s observations are not an exhaustive explanation of child development but they do offer insight and encourage teachers and parents to do some observations of their own.

My most practical take away from Piaget’s research that I can use in my classroom is the importance of giving students hands-on materials and visual aids. For example, the conservation of volume experiment in which children believe the volume of the liquid to increase as they do not take into account the width of the cylinder (Woolfolk, p. 50). For students to grasp these principals hands-on learning is essential. Children can learn about the basic physical properties of objects by conducting their own experiments with pouring water, stacking blocks, and manipulating clay (Woolfolk, p. 51).  To quote Maria Montessori, “Play is children’s work” Woolfolk, p. 76). It is through hands-on interaction with the world around them that children make the most important discoveries.

Vygotsky believed we could better understand child development if looked at in the context of culture (Woolfolk, p. 57). He believed cultural tools, which for our culture would be modern technology, played an important part in development (Woolfolk, p. 58). He had some interesting insight on how private speech, talking to one's self, is an important part of developing language and personal thought. Piaget, on the other hand, called this egocentric speech and saw it an as an inability for children to see the world from any point of view but their own, a necessary hurdle on the way to developed language.  Vygotsky thought since we think in words that language was a big part of cognitive development.

Testing children’s cognitive abilities through Piagetian conservation task can very revealing but Woolfolk gives us a great example, on page 56, of some limitations of these analyses.  Brazilian street children who sold candy failed some Piagetian conservation tasks when the items being counted were everyday items. When the items were then replaced with candy they did better on the tasks than their educated counterparts. In this instance, culture plays a role in their understanding. Further research of Piaget’s findings reveals that children may have better cognition skills than he realized. As with the candy test, there are other factors such as culture and understanding to take into account.

No one scientist has completely cracked the case on brain development but some have made incredible progress. We can begin with the observations of Piaget and Vygotsky and build on those to best understand these beautiful minds.