Cognitive Theory And Socio-Cultural Theory

Student Name: Yan Wang

Theory Critique between Cognitive Theory and Socio-cultural Theory
For this assignment, I have selected two theories, cognitive theory and socio-cultural theory, to compare and contrast for further understanding children development and both theories’ implication in current education. Cognitive theory studies how people think, what’s going on within people’s mind. Social-cultural theory studies how the society, the culture, other people or external environment impact individual development. This paper would firstly respectively demonstrate both theories’ basic philosophy, representative persons and their claims. In the part

It stresses on learning through thinking. It studies how people treat, organize, and transform information to affect their behavior. The most representative theorist of cognitive theory is Jean Piaget (1896-1980). He was born in Switzerland, and he has three children. It is impressive that most of his research is based on observation and studying of his own children. Cognitive development stages are the central part of Piaget’s theory, which demonstrate the development stages of children’s ability to think from infancy to adolescence, how to gain knowledge, self-awareness, awareness of the others and the environment. These stages are respectively relative to 4 ranges of age. It consists of characteristics of each stage and phenomena of each. The first stage between birth to 2 years old, children learn the external through senses and action, instinctively. They sense object permanently and they usually show anxiety to strangers. The second stage is between age of 2 to 6 years old, children form ideas with words and images, which is tend to be over generalizing. Developmental phenomena of this stage include pretending play, egocentrism and language development. And then the third stage from 7 to 11 years old, children think logically about concrete events and understand similar events. In this period, abilities of conversation and mathematical transformation get to be developed. Last stage, 12

Most of this theory is started by Lev Vygotsky, who was born in Russia in 1896, but unfortunately he died at early age of only thirty-eight. He graduated from University of Moscow, after graduation, he taught literature in secondary school, which experience intensified his interest in how children learn. Most of important parts of Vygotsky theory consist of Scaffolding, MKO (more knowledgeable others), ZPD (zone of proximal development) and Role of Language. Scaffolding means to learn with help and support of others, like parents, tutors, or even peers who know more. These helpful people are called MKO, more knowledgeable others. ZPD is zone of the proximal development. Vygotsky divided children’s knowledge into three sections, respectively are what they can do, what they cannot do and ZPD. Here ZPD is the linking between “can do” and “cannot do”. I t means the potential learning area where children and reach with scaffolding of MKO. The significant part of Vygotsky theory is that he consider not only about children’s mental development, but also the external affection on mental function, which Piaget had missed out. Besides the above concepts, Vygotsky points out that language plays a key role in children’s thought forming. He believes thought is result of language