People are not born as smart as they become when they reach their adolescence. At the same time, every infant has to be put in a specific environment to have an opportunity to acquire knowledge and develop his or her intelligence.
The basic premises of cognitive development theory lie in the development of a person as he or she grows in terms of intellectual, analytical, learning, and other skills. Many outstanding researchers contributed to the analysis and application of cognitive theories to educational domains and development of an individual. As such, cognition of the world is developed while a person grows while it can be clearly seen only when a person passes through the stages outlined by researchers.
As suggested in the study by Taylor (2005), “it is obvious that newborn infants are not capable of complex thought patterns but also that they are born with the capacity to develop the ability for complex thought” (p. 8). As such, the cognition of the world is closely related to the development of skills and complex thought in infants while it also progresses with aging. Cognitive development can be clearly understood from theories presented by such outstanding researchers as Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget.
Development of intelligence is one of the aspects that can be seen from the theory of cognitive development. Intelligence is believed to be an integral part of human nature by both theorists under discussion. For instance, Vygotsky thought game an important component of learning because he understood that developing intelligence it is necessary to take into account the preferences and behavioral peculiarities of the age. As such, children should be approached in a different way than adolescents.
At the same time, Piaget believed that children could alter their knowledge with regard to the new knowledge they acquire. For example, “children begin to construct knowledge in new ways at a few critical points in development. When this happens, they revise their theories radically” (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008, p. 14). In other words, when a child comes to know that some features can be applied to more than one object or even to a group of objects, this would reshape the understanding of certain properties of objects or a group of objects.
Development of intelligence is seen similarly by Vygotsky and Piaget though we still can notice some differences in their interpretation of cognitive development theory. One of the reasons for such controversies is that the theory promoted by Piaget was widely acclaimed opposed to the theory by Vygotsky.
In other words, stages of development presented by Vygotsky and Piaget coincide in some way though Piaget labeled those as stages of cognitive development while Vygotsky introduced those as stages of language development where speech is classified as the one spoken aloud and inner speech a person has inside to guide some actions in the age of seven years and older (Oakley, 2004, pp. 39-40).
On the other hand, Vygotsky introduced a classification he labeled ‘stage model of concept formation’ (Oakley, 2004, p. 43) where certain intelligence development is presented on the example of the way children treat wooden blocks when they are assigned to use them for building in their games.
Conceptualization can be treated as one of the integral parts of the intelligence development while analysis of theories shows that a concept is a small component compared to the stages of development of an individual with regard to certain achievements and skills.
Stages of development can concern a period of time and the progress a child makes in acquiring certain knowledge. At the same time, cognitive development theorists Vygotsky and Piaget introduce stages of development when an individual is analyzed and assessed in terms of skills, preferences, and capabilities with regard to the different periods of his or her life.
In other words, an individual is developing his or her skills and gains more knowledge on different concepts with regard to the experience and information received from outside including environment, cultural setting, and people.
There is the main thing in common between theories by Vygotsky and Piaget: Piaget calls it stages of development applied more to learning capabilities while Vygotsky applies more to language development and refers to language and inner speech.
For instance, infants of the age 0-2 and 0-3 have social speech according to Vygotsky (Oakley, 2004, p. 39) and find themselves in sensorimotor stage of development according to the theory by Piaget (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008, p. 14). When infants grow, their language patterns change as well when they pass through another stage of development. Language and other skills as well as intelligence of an individual are closely connected and should be analyzed in complex.
Differences between cognitive development theories by Vygotsky and Piaget concerning stages of development from birth through adolescence consist in different application of theories in practice.
Though Vygotsky suggested that children can talk to themselves (Taylor, 2005, p. 131), it only shows that he focused more on language and it functions in development of intelligence in other words, language development can be considered as a factor or visualization aimed at pointing out when an individual starts to perceive the world in a different way and when the next stage of development starts.
Piaget’s perspective includes a more complex approach as he analyzes senses and motor functions of the human organism with regard to the stages of development not focusing only on language as a pointer of changes. As such, Piaget also has divided the stages of development for infants when language cannot be used as a pointer per se. For instance, when a newborn infant starts to use some patterns, it can be understood and seen only from observation and analysis rather than from assessment of speech patterns.
Each theorist’s views are interesting for classroom application on cognitive development while it is easier to implement Piaget’s theory as it is wider known and has more practical value rather than the one introduced by Vygotsky. At the same time, Vygotsky has presented such concept as game that is called to facilitate the learning process for children.
For instance, it is possible to introduce a few games (they should be short enough to involve many children and manageable at the same time so that an educator can cease the game for the purpose of learning) in order to make the process of learning more interesting for children in certain age.
When we talk about games, this means that theory of Vygotsky is in action while Piaget’s theory is more important for educators that need to focus on analytical and logical operations performed by students. At the same time, certain language patterns used by students can be assessed to identify if they face certain problems in intelligence development.
Piaget’s theory is interesting from the perspective of a student who does not know what he or she can do and what skills can be developed. In this respect, an educator can introduce analytical tasks or those aimed at classifying objects. Every age group has certain skills that can be developed effectively in a specific period of time.
For instance, Piaget insists that in the stage of concrete operational though that lasts from seven years through the adolescence “child understands and applies logical operations to experiences provided they are focus on the here and now” (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008, p. 14).
On the other hand, it can be considered as a recommendation that children in such age should not be assigned to make plans and build hypothetic situations but rather to focus on the actual problems. In this respect, it is easier to plan the lesson with regard to the needs of students and peculiarities of behavior and development in particular age.
To conclude, cognitive development theory can be easily applied to the classroom while different interpretations and perspectives of cognitive development theorists on the same concepts can be presented in a complex approach in order to show that they all can be implemented effectively. For instance, Piaget’s classification of stages of development coincides partially with Vygotsky’s analysis of language development patterns with regard to development of intelligence.
References
Kail, R. V., & Cavanaugh, J. C. (2008). Human development: A life-span view (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
Oakley, L. (2004). Cognitive development. Hove, East Sussex: Routledge.
Taylor, L. M. (2005). Introducing cognitive development. Hove, East Sussex: Psychology Press.