Assignment:
Discussion
Compare and Contrast the Theories of Piaget and Vygotsky
Prior to completing this discussion, read your textbook and Piaget's Enduring Contribution to Developmental Psychology article, and watch the Play: A Vygotskian approach and Piaget's Stages of Development.
Jean Piaget is probably the most influential theorist in the cognitive development realm. His work has informed American educational practices since the early 1900s. Another key cognitive theorist in the realm is Lev Vygotsky. Interestingly, Vygotsky and Piaget were contemporaries (both were born in 1896), but for many years, Piaget's theory dominated. The fact that Vygotsky died at age 37, while Piaget lived to be 84, might be part of that explanation. But Vygotsky's ideas gained traction in the 1980s when educators began to question long held Piagetian ideas. Nevertheless, both theories are important to the study of cognitive development. In your initial post of 300 words minimum,
• Provide a brief overview of Piaget's and Vygotsky's child and adolescent cognitive developmental theories.
• Compare and contrast these theories as they relate to child and adolescent development by identifying at least one commonality in the two theories and two major conceptual differences (Table 7.2 in your textbook will be useful here).
• Determine which of the two theories you most support and provide a rationale for your choice.
Your discussion post must use at least one credible source.
Assignment
Cognitive Development Activities
Prior to completing this assignment, read your textbook and read the Piaget's Enduring Contribution to Developmental Psychology, On Major Developments in Preschoolers' Imagination, and The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture: Working Paper No. 5 articles. Also, review the Week 5 Final Project instructions for creating the proposal, and review the videos: Play: A Vygotskian approach and Piaget's Stages of Development.
The purpose of this assignment is for you to continue working on elements that will become part of your Community Center Proposal Final Project. This week you will be creating three activities that address cognitive development in the age groups assigned. These will become part of the infant room, early childhood room, and adolescent room of your center.
Using Piaget's, Vygotsy's, and/or Information processing theories of cognitive development, you will continue to build your Community Center Proposal by identifying activities for the assigned rooms that promotes cognitive development for children and adolescents. The activity must be focused on the cognitive milestones of the age group and must be clearly tied to specific theory. You must use at least one credible source. Your activities might be focused on object permanence for infants, conservation, egocentrism, or conservation for early childhood, or deductive reasoning for adolescence. Table 7.1 in your textbook will be useful in completing this activity.
Focus on the primary developmental tasks of each age period. For each of the three activities, write a paragraph that addresses the following:
• Describe the activity in some detail (provide more than just the name of the activity).
• Identify the specific concept from cognitive development theory that supports the use of this activity.
• Identify how the activity enhances cognitive development in the specific age group.
Here are two examples providing you a model of how to approach this assignment and how to build the elements of the rooms in your community center.
Examples of Activities:
Example 1: Cognitive Development Activity for Infant Room: Peekaboo.
One of the activities we will incorporate into the infant room is peekaboo. This is a game where the caregiver hides himself from the child (covering the child's eyes or hiding behind a chair, etc.) and then appears again by uncovering the child's eyes or coming out from behind the chair. Another variation of this would be hiding a treasured object under a scarf and then revealing it again. One of the milestones of the first year of life is the development of object permanence. Object permanence occurs when an infant grasps that something (an object, a person) still exists even when the infant cannot see it. This is a concept from Piaget's theory of cognitive development and is one of the developmental tasks of the sensorimotor stage.
Newborns do not have a sense of permanence. When they cannot see you, you do not exist for them. During the first year of life, they slowing learn that objects and people continue to exist even with they cannot be seen (Mossler, 2014). Playing peekaboo is one way to foster the development of object permanence. Infants usually delight in seeing someone appear and then hide, only to reappear. This activity will support the cognitive development domain and also the psychosocial domain because of its interactive nature.
Mossler, R. A. (2014). Child and adolescent development (2nd ed.).
Example 2: Cognitive Development Activity for Adolescent Room: Board Games Involving Strategy and Problem Solving.
In the adolescent room, we propose having a collection of board games that require logical thinking and problem solving. Adolescence is the beginning of more sophisticated thinking. Children in this age group move from concrete operations to what Piaget calls formal operations. They are becoming capable of deductive and hypothetical reasoning (Mossler, 2014). Games like chess, Battleship, and checkers all require players to engage in this kind of thinking. Another game that can be used is the game of Clue. This game supports the development of prepositional logic and requires players to think hypothetically (Neller, Markov, and Russell, 2006). These games will not only promote cognitive development but will further support psychosocial development because of the required interactions.
Mossler, R. A. (2014). Child and adolescent development (2nd ed.).
Neller, T. W., Markov, Z., & Russell, I. (2006). Clue deduction: Professor Plum teaches logic.
The Cognitive Development Activities paper
• Must be two to three double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center's APA Style.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
• Title of paper
• Student's name
• Course name and number
• Instructor's name
• Date submitted
• For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013.
• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
• For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions as well as Writing a Thesis Statement, refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least one credible source in addition to the course text.
o The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center's Citing Within Your Paper.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.