For the purpose of this essay we will look at the works of Jean Piaget and Liv Vygotsky. Both theorists have had been a major influence on child development to date, while this is true they have some conflicting views. We will compare and contrast their theories and look at how they impact directly on the children in the classroom today. To begin we will take a brief look at their background and where the theorists came from, then move onto their theories and tie it together with a conclusion.
Jean Piaget 9th August 1896 – 17th September 1980, born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was the first born to a two-parent family, Piaget’s father was a lecturer in medieval literature. By the time he was a young teen he had many papers published on Molluscs, with people presuming that he was a professor. When in college studying zoology, he studied a semester of psychology under another well know Professor Carl Jung. This is where Piaget’s love for psychology seems to have grown. “Over the course of the next year, he studied abnormal psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1920, working in collaboration with Théodore Simon at the Alfred Binet Laboratory in Paris, Piaget evaluated the results of standardized reasoning tests that Simon had designed. The tests were …show more content…
Vygotsky was the second oldest of 12 children in a two-parent family. His parents were well educated, his father being a banker and his mother being a trained teacher turned stay at home mother. Vygotsky was home schooled then went onto study medicine. He wanted to study teaching but was restricted in what he could do being a Jew outside the ‘Pale’ in Russia. Vygotsky graduated in 1917 with a law degree. Vygotsky’s first big psychology project was in 1925 Psychology of Art, after this it seems his fascination with psychology took hold. Vygotsky died in 1934 and it wasn’t until after the cold war were his papers released. (Gallagher,
Jean Piaget 9th August 1896 – 17th September 1980, born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was the first born to a two-parent family, Piaget’s father was a lecturer in medieval literature. By the time he was a young teen he had many papers published on Molluscs, with people presuming that he was a professor. When in college studying zoology, he studied a semester of psychology under another well know Professor Carl Jung. This is where Piaget’s love for psychology seems to have grown. “Over the course of the next year, he studied abnormal psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1920, working in collaboration with Théodore Simon at the Alfred Binet Laboratory in Paris, Piaget evaluated the results of standardized reasoning tests that Simon had designed. The tests were …show more content…
Vygotsky was the second oldest of 12 children in a two-parent family. His parents were well educated, his father being a banker and his mother being a trained teacher turned stay at home mother. Vygotsky was home schooled then went onto study medicine. He wanted to study teaching but was restricted in what he could do being a Jew outside the ‘Pale’ in Russia. Vygotsky graduated in 1917 with a law degree. Vygotsky’s first big psychology project was in 1925 Psychology of Art, after this it seems his fascination with psychology took hold. Vygotsky died in 1934 and it wasn’t until after the cold war were his papers released. (Gallagher,