Applications of Piaget and Vygostsky’s cognitive developmental theories in a practical classroom environment
Piaget and Vygotsky have antonymous beliefs when dealing with the concepts of cognitive development. Vygotsky believes in development through social behaviour whilst Piaget believes in individuals acquiring knowledge on their own. Both however, believe that the interaction between development and learning hold significant implications for a child’s growth. This essay discusses some of the philosophical beliefs of each theorist in regards to a scenario based in the classroom of a year five teacher named Ann. Ann reinforces classroom lessons through the outdoor environment, exemplifying Piaget’s theories of constructivist based
Bunch (2003) explains that cognitive, emotional and social benefits have been suggested to occur through the zone of proximal development and collaborative activities, making for teacher-peer and peer-peer scaffolding an appropriate teaching methodology for the class. Ann has her year five class using a cooperative learning approach, which highlights the zone of proximal learning through peer to peer and teacher-peer scaffolding to help encourage learning. Ann is giving the students information and clear objectives in the classroom, and then integrating the outdoor environment with group work to display Vygotsky’s theories of peer to peer scaffolding, the zone of proximal development and interpersonal development. Gross (2005), stated that Vygotsky’s biggest impact came at the interpersonal level and his ideas around social processes helping to build and develop thought and reason for the child’s self. These collaborative classes help to develop these interpersonal processes.

Wood, Ross and Bruner have found a potential problem with the collaborative learning approach, where a more capable student may dominate a less able student and the lesser student may lose ownership over their learning (Duchense & Bochner, 2010). To counter this Ann would need to make sure she is supplying adequate support through Teacher-peer scaffolding and making class adjustments where