Comparison of Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s Theories

Vygotsky Piaget
Sociocultural Strong emphasis Little emphasis
Context
Constructivism Social constructivist Cognitive constructivist
Stages No general stages of Have 4 stages
development proposed (sensorimotor, preoperational,
concrete, formal)
Key process Zone of proximal development, Schema, assimilation, accommodation,
language, dialogue, tools of the operations, conservation, classification,
culture hypothetical- deductive, reasoning
Role of Language A major role: language plays a Language has a minimal role; cognition
powerful role in shaping primarily directs language
thought
View of education Education plays a central role, Education merely refines the child’s
helping children learn the tools cognitive skills that have already
of the culture emerged
Teaching Establish many opportunities Provide support for children to explore
Implications for children to learn with the their world and discover knowledge
teacher and more skilled peers
Guided Learning An adult or older child assists Children learn through their individual
the child in the learning process interactions with the environment

Similarities between Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s theories

• Support discovery learning

 Noam Chomsky Language Development

• Argued that humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a

certain time and in a certain way.

• Children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD), a

biological endowment that enables the child to detect the features and
roles of language, including phonology, syntax, and semantics.

• Children are prepared by nature – ability to detect sound of language,

and to detect rules such as how to form plurals and ask questions.