1. Jean Piaget,is the most influential developmental psychologist in the history of psychology.Piaget’s theory of cognitive development purposes that a child’s intellect or cognitive ability,progresses through four distinct stages. Piaget believed that all children are born with an innate tendency to interactwith and make sense of their environment.
Vygotsky’s theory ( 1978) believed that learning takes place most effectively when children are working within zone of proiximal development.The zone of proximal development describes tasks that a child has not yet learned but is capable of learning at a given time.
Bronfenbrenner; believed that a child’s development is affected by social and institutional influences from family,schools,places of worship and neighborhood,to broader social and political influences such as mass media and government.Bioecological theory of the human development (Bronfenbrenner+Morris,2006)
2. Here is a brief description of Piaget, Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner Theories
Piaget: Piaget theory is what is the main goal of education. Children only capable of learning what is already learned. We should try to develop innovative minds the first 2 years of life which is the sensorimotor stage where the children understand their surroundings by actions and sensations.
Vygotsky: Vygotsky theory is that environmental conditions is how children learn. He says what is learned is based on environment and he believes we were born with an elementary mentality, attention, sensation perception and memory.
Bronfenbrenner- Bronfenbrenners theory focuses on quality and context of a child’s environment. His theory had ecological theory. His theory is social and institutional development from family, schools, churches and communities.
Bronfenbrenners theory is the one theory that is still continuous. The difference in these 3 theories are, Piaget theory focuses on cognitive development, Vygotskys theory is how social processes is the main reason for the development of high thinking skills and Bronfenbrenners theory focuses more on the environment.
I believe that Bronfenbrenner theory has the greastes impact on intentional teaching. This theory reminds me of my math instructor Dr. Murray and how she interacted with each student. By doing this she was learning about each student, their lifestyle and the evironment that we all came from.
Piaget’s theory has an important implications for education,Vygotsky viewed cognitive development as an outgrowth of social development through interaction with others and the environment.Bronfenbrenner created a bioecological model to describe how family’s,schools,community and cultural factor impact a child’s development.Piaget’s cognitive development theory is a discontinuous theory that identifies distinct stages of cognitive growth. Vygotsky’s theory is continuous because is suggests that sociocultural interacts.Interactions always exert influence on a child leading to continuous learning. Bronfenbrenner’s theory is also continuous since an individual is always learning under the influence of ecologial factors.Piaget’s,Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner ‘s theory are all theorists whose work is still studied and used in some classrooms today. Bronfenbrenner’s theory has the biggest impact on intentional learning, Bronfenbrenner’s theory can make learning more intentional and therefore,more productive.
