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Piaget's and Vygotsky's Theories

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(1) Describe educational principals derived from Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories. In your opinion, which would be more applicable in an educational setting and why?
(2) Describe the impact of child-rearing styles on child development, note cultural variations in child-rearing beliefs and practices.

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Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories are examined.

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It's my pleasure to help you again.

Here's a great comparison:
http://www.education.uiowa.edu/html/eportfolio/tep/07p075folder/Piaget_Vygotsky.htm

It's pretty clear that Piaget is far easier to grasp than Vygotsky. So take more care with the latter than the former.

Piaget - 4 basic developmental stages:

Movement and senses (this is all infants really do)
Pre-operational stage (between 4-9 years, simple logic only: belief in magic)
Concrete operational stage (basic tasks, around 10 years old)
Formal (abstract) reasoning

Hence, dealing with education here is simple. As children grow, the nature of the curriculum needs to get more abstract.

This means that concrete operations are stressed (like building, lots of physical examples) around 3-5th grade.
5th grade on, things get more abstract and less connected with actual operation. Children here begin to take general concepts from their senses. They think gradually in universal terms - hence, such terms can be sprinkled in the curriculum in 5th grade, getting more intense and common by 8th.

Also, around 5th grade, there is lots of cooperation. Part of Piaget's approach is that as the mind gets more abstract and less concrete, the child begins to see the world from other's point of view. Young children are incapable of that.

Teachers begin with physical actions and props. Only older children can hear lectures. Lectures use few actions, products or props.

Vygotsky:
http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html (good ...

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