How Did Piaget And Vygotsky Contribute To The Classroom

Above all else, a teacher’s objective is to help students recognise their potential and maximise their learning ability. The research and theories of developmental psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vgotsky have influenced much of the teaching practices used today, and the implementation of their learning models in schools have been shown to benefit both students and teachers. While the theories of these psychologists are vastly different, both Piaget and Vygotsky had a special interest in the development of children. Vygotsky especially believed that in environments such as the classroom you can observe cognitive processes “undergoing change right before your eyes” (Brown, Metz and Campione, 1996, p. 145). Their contributions to psychology have a large role in the way teachers form relationships with their students and achieve the goal of helping children construct their knowledge.

This ability to adjust is known as the conservation of constancy, and it is described by Garner (2007) as the “Ability to see how some attributes of a thing can change while the others stay the same.” This ability is essential for many aspects within the education system such as maths, science, reading and writing. Blake and Pope (2008) suggest that placing focus on developing this skill can greatly improve teacher-student relationships. The teacher can gain a better understanding of how each individual student learns, allowing them to align their strategies to accommodate each student’s cognitive