In today's education, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are widely known in the area of

cognitive development. Cognitive development also is defined as the development of

knowledge, skills and problem solving which can help them to understand the world they are

living. Both of them bring out some viewpoints regarding knowledge and education. Although

they are already passed away, but their theories still influence in teaching methods until

today. This essay will compare Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development in

children. Also, highlight the differences and similarities between these two theories. Finally,

taking all the points into a conclusion.

Piaget developed a theory which the individual can build their knowledge individually,

meanwhile, Vygotsky believed that children develop as they interact with other individuals

such as socializing. In Piaget's theory, he focussed more on human should take our

experiences and ideas and determine how the relationship means to us. Piaget prioritizes

human development more than development which influenced by others. He also suggests

that a child's surroundings could affect the way they learn. He is more interested in finding

the fundamental concept in children such as the way they develop instead of measuring how

they can count, memorize or spell (Sawada Daiyo, 1972). Piaget's assumptions about

cognitive development are, children view the world different from adults and they keep on

building knowledge about the world instead of waiting for someone to feed them with

knowledge (Labouvie-vief, 1992).

Meanwhile, Vygotsky's theory focused on social development because he believed

that social development could lead up to cognitive development. He also stated that students

learn through social interactions and culture (Woolfolk, 2004). Furthermore, he concludes

that social development must come after the children's social learning. In this case, our

culture actually can give a great help in shaping our understanding. When he believed that

learning was a social process, he thought that children will improve their cognitive growth

when they become more fluent in a language. Children who can speaks up for themselves,
manage their own problems and having social contact tends to develop more personalised

thinking.

Next, Piaget created four critical stages of development. These stages are

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. The sensorimotor

stage starts from birth to 24 months. The preoperational stage is from 24 months to 7 years

old. Meanwhile, concrete operational is from 7 years old until 12 and the formal operational

stage started from adolescence until adulthood (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). He believed that

each stage provides experiences for the children, but no stage can be skipped. The second

stage, the preoperational stage is where kindergarten children entered. According to him,

these kindergarten children did not have the ability to reason rationally yet. Through this

time, they will start to learn about language and would not be able to solve their problems

through words. Furthermore, he also believed that human thinking is organised into schemes

and have two principles that explained the way children understand the world which are

Assimilation and Accommodation (Huitt & Hummel,2003).

Meanwhile, Vygotsky has two key components which are the proximal development

zone and scaffolding. The proximal development zone is a developmental period between

children's capacity to finish the task alone or doing a harder job with assistance without

feeling frustrated (Wertesch, 1984). Next, scaffolding is the second component. He defined

scaffolding as a method that teachers used which is offering support to students when they

learn and develop new concept or skill. Through this model, teachers also share new

knowledge and demonstrate ways to solve the problems (What is scaffolding in education,

2020). Vygotsky felt that more interaction with adults could increase the children's cognitive

process, and this is crucial in the classroom. To be clear, students can improve their learning

process because their teachers are more aware of their prior knowledge, and they would be

able to connect new learning to an existing notion (Vygotsky, 1986).

In short, Piaget also believed that children's development must take place before

children can learn. Meanwhile according to Vygotsky, learning is important aspect of the
process of developing human psychological functions (Vygotsky, 1978). Next, Piaget views

inner speech as egocentric and immature (Comparing Piaget and Vygotsky, 2000).

Meanwhile Vygotsky believed that inner speech was an important part of the process of

thinking and learning (Powell & Kalina, 2009). Even though both of the theorist agreed on

the importance of the roles of adults and peers in a child's development, but it is different in

their views. For example, Piaget believed that they must be from the same status if they

want to interact and improve the cognitive development. Meanwhile, in Vygotsky's point of

view, their inequality related to skills and understanding rather than power (Rogoff, 1999).

Lourenco (2012) states that both theorists share a developmental perspective which

are noni reductionist view and a non- dualistic view. Noni reductionist view is about

intelligence and consciousness are not automatic process. Meanwhile, non-dualistic view is

human beings are interdependent of their physical and social surroundings. Both of them

share the same dialectical approach which is, psychological development will occur when

the child involve in processes such as assimilation and accommodation (Lourenco.2012).

They also share the same developmental perspective which is children will move through

stages. Both Piaget and Vygotsky have the same concern regarding factor that drives

development. For Piaget, he stated that assimilation and accommodation process that

develop individual's maturity. Meanwhile, Vygotsky believe that it is the enjoyment

environment experience who could motivate learning among children. But in order to find the

real factor of cognition, both of them take a closer look at child self-role. Piaget equalizes

children as a little scientist who are exploring the world. They have to passed from one stage

to another. As for Vygotsky, he focusses on developing understanding knowledge through

interaction with their environment such as friends and parents. This shown in the Zone of

Proximal Development by Vygotsky.

Next, the role of language also was important to Piaget and Vygotsky. This is

because, Piaget concludes that it was thought that drove language. He considered that as

the children's private speech, and it was egocentric. But it is different to Vygotsky as he
thinks that it was language that can drove the thinking process and through this, the children

can develop their learning and problem solving (Martin et al., 2009). Regarding learning,

both of them also believed that children need to be guided by adults when they are trying to

understand the knowledge that are being taught (Powell & Kalina, 2009). In addition,

cognitive development also has connection with social factors and these researchers

suggest that there is an overlooked similarity between Piaget and Vygotsky (Matusov &

Hayes, 2000). Furthermore, although Piaget and Vygotsky have developmental stages in

their theories, but the level of the stages are totally different. This is because, in Piaget's

theory, when the child lack of ability, they still remain and getting fixed at the same stage

until the new phase come. It is different according to Vygotsky because his theory influenced

by peers and environmental factors which does not go the exact way to Piaget's rules.

Because to him, the age is not the factor of such change, but it is gaining new skills.

Taking all into account, I have learned that even Piaget and Vygotsky shares

similarities and differences, they have one common goal which is to determine the

development of children. They also stated that all of us were born with ability, and we just

need to develop intellectually. Both of them made a good research and theories which we

still can use them in our education until today. Lastly, It is also important for future teachers

to learn about the child's development so that they can notice if their students have any

learning problems and need any support and guidance from their teacher.
 REFERENCE

Comparing Piaget and Vygotsky. (2000, October). Retrieved from

https://www2.education.uiowa.edu/html/eportfolio/tep/07p075folder/
piaget_vygotsky.htm

Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Educational

psychology interactive, 3(2), 1-5.

Kalina, C., & Powell, K. C. (2009). Cognitive and social constructivism: Developing tools for
an effective classroom. Education, 130(2), 241-250.

Labouvie-Vief, G. (1992). A neo-Piagetian perspective on adult cognitive

development. Intellectual development, 197-228.

Lourenço, O. (2012). Piaget and Vygotsky: Many resemblances, and a crucial

difference. New ideas in psychology, 30(3), 281-295.

Martin, G.N., Carlson, N.R., & Buskist, W. (2009). Psychology: fourth Edition. Pearson. (pp.
61-69)

Matusov, E., & Hayes, R. (2000). Sociocultural critique of Piaget and Vygotsky. New Ideas
in Psychology, 18(2-3), 215-239.
Rogoff, B. (1999). Cognitive development through social interaction: Vygotsky and
Piaget. Learners, learning and assessment, 69-82.

Sawada, D. (1972). Piaget and pedagogy: Fundamental relationships. The Arithmetic

Teacher, 19(4), 293-298.

Wertsch, J. V. (1984). The zone of proximal development: Some conceptual issues. New

Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1984(23), 7-18.

What is scaffolding in education?. (2020, December). Retrieved from

https://www.gcu.edu/blog/teaching-school-administration/what-scaffolding-education

Woolfolk, A., & Shaughnessy, M. F. (2004). An interview with Anita Woolfolk: The
educational psychology of teacher efficacy. Educational psychology review, 16(2),
153-176.