Module 5

Q1:

            After viewing this week’s powerpoint, it is evident that there are both similarities and differences in Vygotsky and Piaget’s views on constructivism.  Where Piaget stressed the individual learning process in which children construct their own knowledge, Vygotsky highlighted the influence of society and culture on learning.  Additionally, Piaget created different stages of development that he believed all children progress through, whereas Vygotsky discussed the differences between children and their abilities and how individual differences in ability need to be taken into account during instruction.  While there are differences between the two theorists, there are similarities in how they describe the process of learning.  Both significantly differ from behaviorist theories in that they describe learning as an internal process that is the responsibility of the learner, versus the teacher.  Additionally, both described learning in terms of student’s constructing their own knowledge.

            One question my partner and I had after discussing the readings for this week was concerning how Vygotsky and Piaget would view Free Will and if they would have similar thoughts?

Q2:

            There were several connections that could be made between the NPR recording and our reading by Vygotsky this week.  One connection was the differing opinions presented in the two readings concerning play in young children.  The NPR recording suggested that providing too much assistance to children during imaginative play can potentially hinder their imagination and creativity.  This connection potentially points to a flaw of Vygotsky’s ideas pertaining to assisting students to promote development of new abilities; however, I think that Vygotsky mainly related this idea to children’s development in learning of difficult constructs.  Further, Vygotsky encouraged student exploration and intended teachers to assist students only when needed to determine what they can do independently.

            Another connection from these two opinions concerned the internalization of language and how the attainment of this skill can help children to self-regulate their thoughts and mental processes.  Both authors discussed the importance of this for a child’s development and described how important internal language is for their ability to think through problems and make decisions.

Q3:

            There were many similarities between the readings on Bruner’s theories of category formation and Piaget’s theories concerning schema development.  Bruner’s categories are very similar to Piaget’s ideas concerning schemas via a coding system and description of establishing the parameters of a certain schema based on your previous experiences.  Additionally, Bruner’s idea of concept attainment appeared similar to Piaget’s ideas of assimilation and accommodation.  Through these processes, individuals acquire new knowledge or information.  This acquirement process necessitates that the individual connect it to or make adjustments to their existing information.  Finally, another connection I made between Bruner’s theories and that of Piaget’s was the idea of student’s discovery process of learning.  The description of this process sounded very similar to the idea of Piaget’s active construction of their knowledge.

            Another connection I made with the reading on Bruner’s theories was that of the representation of language.  This concept sounded familiar to Vygotsky’s ideas concerning the internalization of language and structure of language.  Both theorists discussed the importance of internalizing language so that you are capable of thinking to yourself before saying or doing something, highlighting the importance of planning and other skills related to executive functioning.