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Child and Adolescent Development for Educators, 2/e
Judith Meece, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Student Study Guide by Nancy Defrates-Densch

Cognitive Development: Piaget's and Vygotsky's Theories

Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

Describe a constructivist approach to teaching and discuss its underlying proposition.

Define the three types of knowledge proposed by Piaget and describe how knowledge is organized.

Describe the two major principles of development of Piaget's theory of development and give examples of assimilation and accommodation.

Identify the four factors from Piaget's theory which contribute to children's cognitive development.

Outline Piaget's four stages of development and identify what develops at each stage.

Discuss criticisms of Piaget's theory and current research related to it.

Describe children's abilities to understand the perspective of others at different stages of development.

Define adolescent egocentrism and describe two important aspects of it.

Discuss major curriculum reforms that have occurred as a result of Piaget's research on children's intellectual development.

Describe Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development and discuss why it represents a cultural-historical perspective of children's development.

Identify psychological and technical tools for thought and describe how they are used in thought processes.

Describe the three stages of development in children's use of language.

Define the zone of proximal development and describe how teachers and parents working within the zone of proximal development can move children to a higher level of functioning.

Identify similarities and differences between Piaget's and Vygotsky's theory of development.

Describe the role of private speech in learning.

Define and describe the processes of guided participation and scaffolding.

Describe the reciprocal teaching model and identify how it relates to Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development.

Describe the role of peer interactions from the perspectives of Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories.