Theories Of Cognitive Development

Two Theories Of Cognitive Development
By Sharon White

”Cognitive development is the development of the mind - the part of the brain that is used for recognizing, reasoning, knowing and understanding” Many specialists have studied this area of development over the years, including, Piaget, Bruner, Vygotsky and Skinner. There are also approaches to cognitive development which are based on comparing the human mind to a computer, rather than being based on the ideas a single theorist. The theory being, that humans break down problems into a series of small steps, in a similar way to that of a computer. As I mentioned previously, Jean Piaget, a Swiss biologist and Lev Vygotsky, a Russian schoolteacher and psychology lecturer are two specialists who developed theories in this area, both of which have had an impact on teaching and learning in the early years. However, although both were constructivists, that is they shared the view that the child is an active learner; there were differences in their ideas.

Jean Piaget (1886-1980) is one of the most influential theorists on cognitive development. Originally he based his observations on his own children and came to the conclusion that children develop through a series of stages. These stages, he felt, are invariant, that is, all children pass through them in the same sequence without skipping any, and, except in the case of brain damage, regressing to earlier stages. Piaget stated that these stages are the same for everybody, irrespective of their culture. According to Piaget development proceeds through maturation, which are the changes related to biological development, which the environment has little influence over, and, adaptation which is the term used to describe the ways the child is influenced by its environment. He also stated that these structures consist of schemas, which are ways in which our knowledge is stored, rather like mental files, in which store the information we know about aspects of the world (Walkup, 2004). These schemas adapt through a continuous process of assimilation, which involves the taking in and absorbing of information gained from experiences, into existing schemas. Followed by, accommodation, when the child changes an existing schema as a result of assimilation in an endeavor to attain equilibrium, which is essentially balance.