Cognitive constructivism

Jean Piaget
 Cognitive constructivism
• Schema – a concept or framework for
organizing information
• Cognitive dissonance – discomfort felt
when holding two conflicting thoughts
• Assimilation – maintaining your schema;
forcing new experience into the existing
schema
• Accommodation – changing your schema
to incorporate new experience
 Cognitive constructivism
• Schema – gravity will pull the hammer
down because it is heavy
• New experience – hammer balances
– Causes cognitive dissonance
• Assimilate – “it’s an illusion”, “she used
magnets”, “she’s a witch”
• Accommodate – if balanced properly, the
hammer can be supported
 According to Piaget…
• Children are little scientists who develop
cognitively by acquiring schemas about
the world through discovery learning
– Schemas are like hypotheses.
– Play is the experiment
– Assimilation = fail to reject the null
– Accommodation = reject the null
• To what extent do you agree with this
view?
 Lev Vygotsky
• Russian psychologist,
contemporary of
Piaget but his work
not published in
English until much
later (1970’s)
• Focused on the role
of culture and
language on cognitive
development
 Vygotsky’s Theory
• Cognitive development = active internalization of
problem-solving processes as a result of
interaction with others (“social constructivism”)
– ie, learning is ACTIVE, SOCIAL, and CREATIVE
(ASC, sound familiar?)
• Children learn how to think through their
interactions with others
• Where Piaget saw the child as a scientist,
Vygotsky saw the child as an apprentice
 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• The gap between what a child can do on their own and what is totally beyond his
or her reach; this is where learning occurs.
• Support from a more knowledgeable other within this zone is known as
scaffolding and is seen as the main role of adults/teachers
• Do you learn more when you discover or when you are scaffolded?
ZPD
ZPD
 Quotes
• Vygotsky’s view:
“…what a child can do with assistance today
she will be able to do by herself tomorrow.”
(Vygotsky, 1978)
• Contrast with Piaget:
“Every time we teach a child something, we
keep him from inventing it himself. On the
other hand, that which we allow him to
discover for himself will remain with him
visible for the rest of his life.” (Piaget, in Piers,
1972)