Introduction

Piaget and Vygotsky play an essential role in the South African education system. These two
theorists have provided us with frameworks that enable us to have a better understanding of the
cognitive development of children and have provided us with the tools necessary to implement
these guidelines. This essay aims to critically compare these two world-renowned theorists, their
ideas and concepts, and explain how we can use these to shape and improve the South African
education system.

Theoretical Knowledge of Piaget

Jean Piaget was a Swiss-born psychologist who developed the theory of cognitive development.
This theory is one that aims to understand how children develop intellectually, as well as
physically, throughout their course of childhood. Piaget led with the belief that the manner in
which children learnt occurred independently of others. This suggested that children learn and
develop on their own and come to their own understanding of themselves and the world around
them independently from the environment around them. Piaget placed a large importance on the
idea that children develop and learn through their experiences of their environment. Piaget
placed a high importance on the fact that children move through four development stages which
were: Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational Stage, Concrete Operational Stage and the Formal
Operational Stage. This essay will go into more depth in the next paragraphs about the
importance placed on these stages and their functions. Piaget also theorized that children learn
through assimilation and accommodation, which increase their knowledge on their already
existing schemas.

Concept of Assimilation and Accommodation by Piaget.

According to Piaget, assimilation refers to the child taking in information that is aligned and
follows what they already know. This refers to how the child is influenced within their
environment. Assimilation allows for the child to be able to adapt and access a wide range of
objects in their environment. This means that the child is able to be able to build up on what they
already know. This is very important because,” when a new object is assimilated into an old
schema, the schema gets enriched and renewed.” (Zhang, Zhiqing, 2015) An example of
assimilation would be when a child sees a horse, they might align this image with that horse
being a cat. According to Piaget, accommodation refers to changing knowledge that already
exists based on what you already know in order to accommodate new knowledge.
Accommodation refers to the,” process of how the subject under the influence of the object is
modified and transformed.” (Zhang, Zhiqing, 2015) According to Piaget, accommodation and
assimilation refer to the relationship between the child and how it interprets and understands the
objects around it.

Piaget’s Stages Of Cognitive Development.

According to Piaget, changes in infants occur in different stages of their lifespan. These are the
stages mentioned above. These stages aim to provide a framework that will guide and promote a
better understanding of the child’s development. The first stage that occurs is the Sensorimotor
Stage, which is between the ages of 0-2 years. In this stage, the child is working to improve their
understanding by,” constructing action schemes and accurate representations of features of the
physical world,” (Feldman, 2004) The child is using these representations to understand the
world around them by putting these into smaller, more palatable structures in order to experience
the world around them. The second stage of cognitive development is the Preoperational Stage,
which is between the ages of 2-7. During this stage, the child will be able to start to master
language but won’t be able to perform mental functions. In this stage children are egocentric,
meaning that they are unable to see the world from outside their viewpoints. This will gradually
begin to change as the children grow and they will develop theory of mind. This refers to the
ability to recognize people’s intentions. They can begin to,” understand why somebody did
something, and how the feelings, perceptions and thoughts of others may result in another’s
behavior.” (Huang 2021) The next stage is the Concrete Operational Stage, which is between the
ages of 7-11. During this stage, children are able to reason properly, and they are able to
understand conversation. The skill that they develop during this stage is reversibility, which
relates to the ability to understand what can be done or undone. The final stage is the Formal
Operational Stage, which is during the ages of 8- adulthood. This is when adolescents begin to
think abstractly and now have high-level reasoning abilities.

Theoretical Knowledge of Vygotsky.

Vygotsky was a Russian born psychologist who emphasized the idea that children can only
develop with the help of others who are more experienced than themselves. This is from the
believe that children fail to develop as quickly and properly as they should when they are
expected to experience life individually, they need to collaborate withy others who are more
skilled. Vygotsky expressed that this could be done by the idea of guided participation. This
refers to older, more skilled individuals working hand-in-hand with children to help them
develop an understanding of the world and the experiences around them. This is essential
because it means that the child isn’t left to figure out the environment gtg around them on their
own, which can help speed up development.

Theories, Concepts and Ideas of Vygotsky.

Vygotsky came up with the concept of The Zone of Proximal Development. This concept is one
that aims to describe the differences between what children can do one they’re versus what they
can do when they have assistance. An example of this could be that when a child tries to build a
sandcastle by themselves, they tend to struggle, but with the help of a parent they can build one.
This is a reflection of Vygotsky’s idea that the level of performance when is child is being
assisted is much higher than when they are doing something on their own. This also reflects
Vygotsky’s idea that a child’s development and understanding of the world can be guided by
their social and cultural environment and interactions. We can also see this in how,” When a
school child solves a problem at home on the basis of a model that he has been shown in the
class, he continues to act in collaboration, though at the moment the teacher is not standing near
him.” (Hakkarainen & Bredikyte, 2008) This reflects the importance of the zone of proximal
development. When the child is taught how to perform a certain task by someone with more
experience, they are able to continue with the task on their own and perform it well. Another
example of when the zone of proximal development can be used is in the classroom with
activities such as writing and reading. This relates to when,” the focus is on the appropriation and
mastery of mediational means, such as writing, assessed not only or necessarily through
independent performance after guided practice, but by the ability of children to participate in
qualitatively new collaborative activities.” (Moll 1990)

The second of Vygotsky’s concepts is that of scaffolding. This refers to the manner in which
teachers observe the amount of assistance they can offer a student in relation to their needs. This
is essentially, giving the child the help they need, but enough so that they can still figure it out on
their own. The more the scaffolding continues, the more the child can develop and grow. The
more experienced other,” provides the scaffolds so that the learner can accomplish (with
assistance) the tasks that he or she could otherwise not complete, thus helping the learner through
the Zone of Proximal Development.” (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). Scaffolding is
essential because it helps the child gain a sense of independence and competent in their skills.

Comparing Piaget and Vygotsky.

Both these theorists play an essential role in the cognitive development of children. They are
extremely influential and have made massive contributions to psychology. For us to fully
understand their roles, we need to compare and contrast the two and reflect on how their
differences don’t mean that they both aren’t essential. A similarity between these two theorists is
that although they approached it differently, they both share an interest in understanding what it
takes for children to develop cognitively, and how they can express this in their own individual
ways. Another similarity that both Piaget and Vygotsky share is that they both placed importance
on how the children interact with their environment. One of the similarities that these two
theorists share is that they both consider a developmental perspective to be essential in
understanding phenomena and processes. We can see this in,” Piaget’s mental operations, formal
operations, for instance, and of Vygotsky’s symbolic operations.” (Lourenco 2012). Both these
theorists also share the idea that children play an active role in their development and their
understanding of the world. Piaget and Vygotsky also share the similarity that they both place a
focus on changes that are qualitative rather than quantitative. We can see this in how Piaget and
Vygotsky work by examining the changes in behavior, and how individuals think and see the
world rather than the changes in the amount of how those changes have developed.

One of the main differences between Piaget and Vygotsky is the fact that Piaget’s ideas of
cognitive development rely on the concept that of how the child interacts with the environment,
also know as the Constructivist approach. This suggests that” children will actively construct and
create schemas (cognitive frameworks that organize and interpret information) which strive in
order to make sense of the world around us.” (Huang 2021) This doesn’t align with Vygotsky’s
Sociocultural Theory of Development. This theory is one that offers up the idea that a child
learns by interacting socially and culturally with its environment. Vygotsky also emphasizes this
with the idea that children’s ability to communicate and connect with their peers is what leads
them to acquiring their cultural values in society. Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky places a large
importance on language as an important factor in cognitive development. Vygotsky viewed
language as a tool were knowledge and culture was being passed down to young children.
Vygotsky placed importance on the child’s use of private speech. This is when a child is
speaking, but it is only directed at themselves. This is considered to be a,” major transition point
between social and inner speech.” (Huang 2021). Language is not something that Piaget placed
much emphasis on and although he recognized its significance, he didn’t use it as much as
Vygotsky.

Application of Both Theories to The South African Educational Context In Early Childhood.

We can apply both the theories of Vygotsky and Piaget by applying it to the children in Grade R
in South Africa. This can be done by apply these theorists in the integration of environmental
education in Grade R in South Africa. These theorists will mostly be used in the subject of
mathematics and to show how this can enable children to learn in ways that are more feasible
and understandable. This will be essential, especially in rural South Africa where language
barriers play a big role in affecting how well these children understand what they are being
taught. This can be done by the teacher enabling these Grade R learners to learn in ways they
never have such as to,” count concrete objects, estimate and count at least ten everyday objects,
count forwards and backwards, and solve word problems.” (Hebe 2017) This is important to
provide and educational, as well as stimulating environment for these children so that they can be
able to learn and grow. And because of this,” I would suggest that the lesson on the chosen
theme, like any other Grade R lesson, should involve playing/singing activities, as icebreakers
and sources of fun.” (Hebe 2017)

Another way in which we can apply both the theories of Vygotsky and Piaget to the South
African educational context in early childhood is by emphasizing the importance of play in
young children. It’s important for the education system to make time not just for classroom-
based learning, but also for outside play as well. This is because play has a large impact on the
cognitive development of children. More emphasis should be placed on play not just on the
psychological, but also the educational background. How we can implement this in South Africa
can be done by pushing the importance of play in the classroom. We can also educate the
teachers in South Africa that they shouldn’t also focus on theory but find ways to integrate
education and play together. This can be done by teaching them games that require them to be
outside and play but can also be educational and enable them to learn.

Conclusion

Both Piaget and Vygotsky play an important role in the implementation and the improvement of
the South African educational context in early childhood. It is important for us to be able to use
the frameworks provided to us by these theorists because their similarities and differences can
teach us so much about cognitive development and how we can use them to improve education.

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