Aristotle Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed knowledge was gained through the environment (Noel, 1993). Aristotle 's reality, founded in concrete knowledge gathering and experience, which is incorrelation with a rationalistic pedagogical paradigm Cantu and Warren, 2003). This is in contrast to Plato 's concept of truth and Piaget 's concept of schemata which are part of a constructivist pedagogical paradigm (Cantu and Warren, 2003). He saw knowledge to be associative, as one idea triggers the memory of another. Aristotle saw practical reasoning as an important aspect of teaching as a moral activity (Noel, 1993). In the practical reasoning account, a teacher must choose the best possible goals and achievements for their students while also highlighting …show more content…
He described four stages, Sensorimotor Stage, Pre-operational Stage, Concrete Operational Stage and Formal Operational Stage, beginning in infancy and ending in adulthood. According to Piaget, we use the cognitive abilities we have at each stage to construct meaning drawn from our own environment (Ornstein and Scarpaci, 2012). He believed that there are two ways to approach constructivist theory: the developmental and the environment. The developmental theory of cognition describes the structures of knowledge as pre-logical, concrete and abstract operations (Ornstein and Scarpaci, 2012). According to Piaget, children learn concepts through different stages of cognitive development, this occurs before learning occurs and concepts are internalised (Ornstein and Scarpaci, 2012). Environmental theory which may also be called sociocultural theory of cognition, states that children learn through an active involvement with their environment. For effective education, it should include child-centred learning and should focus on the learner rather than the methods of teaching (Ornstein and Scarpaci, …show more content…
He believes that their are three levels of knowing. The lower level of the ZPD represents tasks that the learner can do independently without any assistance (Martin, 2011). The middle level are tasks one does not fully understand but can with assistance of a more knowledgable other (Foote, Vermette and Battaglia, 2001). The upper level represents tasks that are beyond the cognitive capacity of the individual and can only be completed with assistance (Martin, 2011). The ZPD represents the difference between the learner 's ability to solve problems on his or her own and the learner 's ability to solve them with assistance (Martin, 2011). The ZPD varies according to culture, experience and innate ability (Martin,