Q2 PIAGET & VYGOTSKY

Googling Constructivist Theory of Education 2006 got me to today. The top of the list was an abstract of a paper describing a 2hr workshop designed to introduce pre service teachers to digital video. The application of technology in every subject area is considered a requirement of education today. More is expected of the teacher than just traditional instructional skills; a creative capacity to facilitate the student’s ability to build their own knowledge is essential.

The culture of technology is global = the world wide web.

Describing how Piaget and Vygotskys’ theories compliment each other to provide the underpinning of Constructivist theory education requires a basic overview of who they were and how their culture and background influenced the way they constructed knowledge.

“In Piaget’s theory of cognition there are two levels of adaptation. On the practical level of survival, it is a matter of devising schemes of action that circumvent the obstacles and perturbations the environment places in the organism’s path. On the conceptual level of theories and explanations it is a matter of achieving a coherent balance that avoids internal contradictions.”
http://www.oikos.org/Piagethom.htm

Piaget studied his children in his home, one assumes a stable family environment. By contrast Vygotsky’s world was full of dramatic social change and upheaval.

“Lev Vygotsky lived during the Russian Revolution, a time of great change in his culture. If Vygotsky’s assertion that biological and cognitive developmental do not occur in isolation, then his environment of change greatly influenced his own cognitive processes.”
http://www.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/KeyTheorists/Vygotsky.htm

I perceive Vygotsky as a more subjective inter personal individual cited as “relying on the concept of social representation while Piaget’s more objective and intra personal means of research led him to regard social representations as ideological reflection.”
MOSCOVICI, Serge
WHO IS THE MOST MARXIST OF THE TWO?
Swiss Journal of Psychology 2/3, 1996, © Verlag Hans Huber AG, Bern

Constructivist theory of education places much emphasis on social and interactive learning, where through collaboration multiple points of view are brought together thus more can be learnt through the focus of the group than just the individual.

I consider the use of computers to be a more isolated means of learning and not social and warm in a physical sense, though extremely interactive.
(see my previous blog)

Both the social skills of communicating and resolving conflict are necessary in virtual and physical environments. We need to understand our own learning mechanism. I like to talk to people and learn from their knowledge and experiences, the computer tends to put me into the too much information overload zone, I need peer support.

Without Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development, not much can be achieved. However being in this zone for extended periods of time does seem to create anxiety especially if one is motivated by high achievement drivers. Vygotsky did live a much shorter life than Piaget.

There is something about the way Piaget steps back figuratively, detaching himself and seeing social representations as mere ideological reflection as somewhat impersonal. However there comes a time when asking and interrelating with others leads to too much information also and one has to decide for oneself what one thinks. That is important.

Personal and impersonal ways of making meaning and building knowledge are complimentary. Understanding our own process helps us to work more creatively with knowledge. Understanding how other people make meaning is vital if we are going to live in a tolerant and harmonious world.

Technology takes learning far beyond the linguistic (Vygotsky) and mathematical (Piaget) – it encourages so many more of the senses to be engaged – auditory and visual to name two. Constructivist Theory of Education is inseparable from the use of technology. How we use and apply technology to learn is supported by Vygotsky and Piagets complimentary ways of researching and making meaning.