Piaget & Vygotsky

Question 1

What are the 2 underlying concepts of Piaget?

Answer 1

• Human beings are naturally curious

- Cognitive goal is to make sense of the world USING Equilibrium

Question 2

How do we make sense of the world?

Answer 2

Through schemas and schemes - Equilibrium and disequilibrium - Assimilation, Accommodation, & Avoidance.

Question 3

What is the process of adjusting or changing our schema?

Answer 3

Assimilation is adjusting our schemas by incorporating NEW information to pre-existing info to make sense of something.

Accommodation is CHANGING our existing schema completely or CREATING new information.

Question 4

A child seeing a zebra for the first time and calling it a horse. The child has __________ this information into her schema for a horse.

When the child ___________ information, she takes into consideration the different properties of a zebra compared to a horse, perhaps calling a zebra a horse with stripes. When she eventually learns the name of zebra, she has ___________ this information.

Answer 4

Assimilated this information into her schema for a horse…

When the child Accommodates information, she’s taking into consideration properties of a zebra compared to a horse….
She has Accommodated this information.

Question 5

Provide examples of assimilation and accommodation.

Answer 5

2. A mental representation, or schema of a certain group of people (a racist schema) – your whole life you grew up with those around you just adding more and more information to that schema that made sense to you (assimilation) – you only notice information that fits your schema (assimilation) and confirms it – then you get to college and actually meet people from that group and realize what you have learned from real interactions requires a radical reorganization of your schema
   regarding that group (accommodation). Your new schema is completely different, not just full of additional information.
3. A child learns his father is called Daddy, so he calls other males ( e.g. the mailman) Daddy. This is assimilation. He is quickly told that the other man is not Daddy, he is _______. Again, the schema for Daddy is modified. This is accommodation.

Question 6

Describe equilibration and disequilibrium.

Answer 6

Equilibrium is a state where the schemes we have of the world matches schemes in our head.

Disequilibrium is when something doesn’t match our scheme, so we are either confused or need to incorporate a new scheme through assimilation, accommodation, or avoidance.

Question 7

Exam help: The 2 C’s in Accommodation stands for…

Answer 7

CREATE and CHANGE schemas.

Question 8

What is a great example of Avoidance during Disequilibrium?

Answer 8

Stereotyping - that when we see an individual that acts outside of stereotypes, we regard is as they are just unique and we still don’t disregard our stereotypes - We ignore it - or Avoid it.

Question 9

What was the purpose of the lifesavers experiment in class?

Answer 9

It illustrated how culture and environment affects our schemes - it created disequilibrium.

Question 10

According to Piaget, what is the goal of a teacher?

Answer 10

To provide just enough or the appropriate amount of disequilibrium.

Question 11

What are the main differences between Piaget and Vygotsky regarding motivations of Learning?

Answer 11

Piaget believed that we are motivated to Make sense of the world by Creating and Developing schemas, whereas Vygotsky believed that learning was rooted in culture.

Question 12

A fourth-grade teacher begins a new unit on astronomy - she is teaching children about supernovas and stars. She starts by asking the students, “Has anybody ever heard of Astronomy?” “Can you name some of stuff you might find in space?”

Then gives out a pre-quiz that doesn’t affect their grades.

What atmosphere is she creating in the classroom?

Answer 12

She is creating perfect disequilibrium to see where the students are so that she could begin to challenge their existing schemes at appropriate levels.

She will help to assimilate or accommodate the new information.

Question 13

Jimbob understands that subtraction is the opposite of addition.

What stage in Piaget’s stages of development is he in?

What age group and school level is he in?

What type of mental action is he and others in that stage beginning to do?

What might Jimbob not be able to do yet?

Answer 13

Jimbob is in the Concrete Operational Thinking stage.

He is between 7-11 y.o.

He is able to do reverse mental actions pertaining to real concrete objects…

Limitations at this age may be that he can’t think outside of his own experiences yet…

Question 14

Piaget’s Stages of Development (with mnemonic)

Concrete Operational Thinking

Answer 14

Concrete Operational - 7 - 11 y.o (elementary school); Stages 3 and 4:

There are 2 stages of Concrete Operational:
Early elementary ( k - 3rd) and Later elementary (4th and 5th):

Question 15

Ms. A often includes scenarios of children of the same age-group into stories in her classroom - how old may these students be? What stage will they be? Why would this be helpful to them during this stage?

Answer 15

They are between 7 - 11, and in the 3-4 stages, or concrete operational stage.

During this stage, the children need CONCRETE information - things that they’ve experienced before to relate to.

Question 16

Ms. A teaches math class and often uses legos.

“If we have 7 lego toys and your mom takes away 3 lego toys from you, how many do we have left?”

What stage may she be teaching? Why might this be better than just asking them to do the math?

Answer 16

She’s teaching children between 7 -11 years old, in 3-4 stage; They need something old and concrete to build something new.

Question 17

Mr. J takes his students on a field trip to the zoo then asks his students to use colored construction paper to color-code their short essays on animal life, where blue is introduction, green is body, and red is conclusion.

What stage of development may his students be?

What age and grade group?

Why is his way of teaching effective?

Answer 17

The students are in the early stage of Concrete operational thinking. They are in Early elementary (k - 3rd grade).

He is using children’s lived experiences (field trips) and CONCRETE props and visuals to help them learn sequences of events.

Question 18

Mr. J assigns his students to grow a bean sprout in class to see the process of plants… how does this help his students learn?

Answer 18

By using Discovery learning, he actively engages students so they could discover the topic.

Question 19

Mrs. F asks her kindergarten students to use clay to create planets - what is she helping the kids do?

Answer 19

By using physical material, they are moving to concrete operational stage.

Question 20

Mr. X starts his class by showing a short movie clip of Romeo and Juliet in class and pauses the clip and asks, “What do you think Romeo will do next based off of what you’ve seen?”

How old are these students, what stage are they in, and what is Mr. X trying to get them to do?

Answer 20

The students will be in the later stage of Concrete operational stage, between 4-5th grade, and Mr. X is trying to get them to think more abstractly.

He is using the familiar example (of what they’ve seen) to incorporate more complex ideas.

Question 21

How would we define abstract?

Answer 21

Thinking outside of personal and previous experience to mentally manipulate ideas; not just concretely.

Question 22

John Jacob is a gifted student who excels in English, and was placed in a test to see how far he could place in all the rest of the exams. He did not do so swell in math. Why is this?

Answer 22

Perhaps Abstract thinking is domain specific.

Question 23

When does Formal operational thinking emerge?

Answer 23

In secondary & postsecondary school (middle school+)

Question 24

Lucille has begun to rely more heavily on scientific and systematic reasoning, while Desi reasons through trial and error - what stages are they in?

Answer 24

Lucille is in the Formal operational stage, while Desi is still in the concrete operational stage.

Question 25

When asked what the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” was about, Fred replied, “Killing a mockingbird,” while Ethel replied, “The freedom of a bird (or anyone) of their cage”… What stages are they in?

Answer 25

Fred -> Concrete

Ethel -> Formal ; She understands metaphors, sarcasm, irony; etc, at this stage.

Question 26

Junior high teachers often relate current events to older topics - how can this help students learn?

Answer 26

For those in formal operational thinking stages, this helps them to think and talk about larger abstract issues.

Question 27

If I’m giving a teacher advice about facilitating learning with the students, what’s the first step that they should take to create the appropriate level of disequilibrium?

Answer 27

We would have to access their existing schemes first… we need to KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW first.

Question 28

What can we do to use hypothetical issues to teach students to learn abstract?

Answer 28

We can have students create a blog about a situation that occurred back in the day to present day.

• Creating a world and representing that world
• Creating a newspaper article a day in life as the person

Question 29

What are the similarities between Piaget and Vygotsky?

Answer 29

They are both Constructivists - they believe children learn best as they actively construct and participate in their own environment.

Question 30

Who believes Social interaction is key to cognitive development?

Answer 30

Vygotsky believed social interaction was key.

Question 31

A child can learn by dropping things constantly and learning that blocks don’t break but eggs do break - whose concept would say that he is learning without any social interaction?

Answer 31

Piaget would say that social interaction’s not key because the child’s still learning through accommodation.

Question 32

Who believed that learning was rooted in culture?

How do we include language and thought process in this theory?

Answer 32

Vygotsky believed that culture affected learning - language for example can affect thinking process.

Whereas piaget believed that talking to oneself was egocentric, Vygotsky thought it was something that helped children cognitively develop through something.

Question 33

Mrs. G tends to guide her students through puzzles by putting all the similar colored pieces together - what is she participating in?

Answer 33

Scaffolding.

Question 34

James begins to start talking to himself as a way to talk himself through a math problem - he often repeats what Mrs. G taught him - what is he displaying?

Answer 34

Mrs. G scaffolded him and now it has become his internal monologue.

Question 35

Peter and Sam are both in geology class together. While they both don’t understand the concepts of all the different rocks, Mr. T walks them both through - Peter still doesn’t understand it afterwards, while Sam does.

Why is it that one gets it and the other doesn’t?

Answer 35

Mr. T is scaffolding both, but it works more effectively with Sam because the problem is within his ZPD, while it’s above the limits of ZPD for Peter.

Question 36

Define ZPD

Answer 36

Range of tasks too difficult to work through alone - different limits are reached or not reached depending on scaffolding.

Question 37

Sometimes I understand everything that’s going on in class - then I go home and look at the homework and wonder wtf I’m looking at - what ZPD is this assignment in?

Answer 37

This is in my ZPD because I understood the content in class WITH scaffolding. If I didn’t get it even with scaffolding, this would be above my ZPD.

Question 38

How is ZPD and Disequilibrium similar?

Answer 38

They have similar messages for educational application. We want to provide just enough to not overwhelm kids…

Question 39

Ms. C often uses scissors, construction paper, and computers to help facilitate learning.

Whose theory may she be applying?

Answer 39

Scaffolding through Vygotsky’s use of cultural tools for learning.

Question 40

How come the Brazilian kids could calculate and convert currency so quickly in the streets, but unable to do well in classroom context?

Answer 40

Perhaps the cultural context is so important to shaping the tools they have - they could have created their own way of doing it. Therefore, DOMAIN is very important to consider.

Question 41

According to Piaget, those who speak more than 1 language may understand more schemes - how is this similar to Vygotsky?

Answer 41

Vygotsky believes language is the most important tool we have to learn…. so this theory is kind of a blend of both,

Question 42

A teacher encourages students to sing a mneumonic to internalize their monologues - whose theory may she be using?

Answer 42

Vygotsky’s theory of scaffolding - encouraging students to talk through difficult tasks.

Question 43

The use of beakers, water, balloons in a chemistry class to explain Charles’ law works better than a dry lecture - according to whose theory would this work better?

Answer 43

Vygotsky - because the cultural tools make difficult tasks easier.

Question 44

Peter is having difficulty with his math assignment. His teacher, Ms. Jacobs helps him work through the first problem step-by-step.

Peter begins to understand the concepts and begins the other problems.

Suzanne also struggles with the assignment. However, even when Ms. Jacobs works through the first problem with her, she still cannot grasp how to do the remaining problems.

Meanwhile, Clarice has breezed through the assignment with no difficulty at all.

Q.1: What would Vygotsky say about the assignment for each of the three students?

Q.2: According to Vygotsky, what is Ms. Jacobs doing for Peter and Suzanne?

Q3. How could Ms. Jacobs help Suzanne?

Answer 44

Q1: Peter -> In lower limit of ZPD

Suzanne -> Above ZPD (even WITH help, she doesn’t get it)

Clarice -> below ZPD

Q2:
Ms. Jacobs is providing hints as a way of scaffolding

Q3:
Prepare if MAYBE there’s a Short Essay Question…

> Using Vygotsky’s theories… “according to Vygotsky, it seems that suzanne may be in …. Maybe Ms. Jacobs should provide tasks that students can do with assistance…”

Question 45

If you were a teacher, how would you implement Vygotsky’s theory to help students?

Answer 45

Specific examples of:

• Scaffolding
• Use of cultural tools (field trips, materials; etc)

Question 46

Marley believes that children learn better with other peers, while Damien belies that children learn better with more experienced people. Whose theories are they siding with?

Answer 46

Marley sides with Piaget, while Damien sides with Vygotsky.

Question 47

What are some strategies to provide scaffolding?

Answer 47

• give hints and cues
• simplify task and give clear instructions
• provide detailed feedback
• connect new learning to old learning
• complete part of the problem

Question 48

According to Piaget, what are the 4 factors that influence changes in thinking?

Answer 48

1. Biological maturation
2. Activity
3. Social experiences
4. Equilibration

Question 49

What are the 2 tendencies Piaget believed all species had?

Answer 49

1. Organization -> our thoughts (schemes)

2. Adaptation -> adjusting to our environment (equilibration through assimilation and accommodation)

Question 50

By the time children are in the later elementary to middle school years, what stage are they in?

What should have have mastered by this time?

Answer 50

They are in the concrete operational stage.

They should be a master of:

Identity -> whether something is added on or taken away, the material is the same.

Compensation -> Understanding that even though glass is narrower, liquid amount is same.

Reversibility.

Classification -> Knowing that a city is part of a state AND a particular country.

Seriation -> Orderly arrangements

Question 51

Using timelines in history and 3 dimensional models in science or diagrams to illustrate hierarchical relationships such as governments, to teach is targeted to what stage of students?

Why?

Answer 51

Concrete-Operational - because we are using Concrete props and visuals.

Question 52

What’s the major difference between concrete and formal operational stage?

Answer 52

Concrete operational stage is all about PHYSICAL objects- things that can actually be manipulated and touched; whereas formal is more abstract and hypothetico-deductive reasonings. Many adults even have issues at this stage.

Question 53

What did Vygotsky believe appeared twice in a child’s cultural development?

Answer 53

First on a social level (interpsychological), or between people, THEN inside of the child (intrapsychological).

Question 54

What does co-construction demonstrate in Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 54

That social interaction from a knowledgable teacher or peer is important for a child to internalize their learned material.

Question 55

A 6 year old child is having difficulties solving addition problems - the teacher asks, if there are 5 apples and we take away 2 apples, how many do we have left? The child responds with “IDK” then teacher says, “is there more than 4?” child replies, “no”, then again, “Is it more than 3?” “no” - what type of process is this?

Answer 55

This is a co-constructed process between the teacher and student; the child was able to internalize what was shared between the two.