Describe a theory into Cognitive Development and Critically evaluate and discuss how it is applied to education.

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COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

  1. Describe a theory into Cognitive Development and

b) Critically evaluate and discuss how it is applied to education.

Vygotsky believed that children’s cognitive development took place as the result of social interactions between children and other people. He identified two forms of mental functions:- elementary mental functions (innate capacities such as sensation) and higher mental functions (problem solving). He believed that cultural influences transform elementary functions into higher mental functions, so without culture, a child could not progress from elementary mental functions. According to Vygotsky, culture is transmitted via language and the help of persons with greater knowledge.

Adults, who have more knowledge, can provide a supportive context within which the child is guided towards the solution of problems. This is the idea behind Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), the developmental process where children move from an initial stage at which children are able to do things independently. For example, at first, a child is unable to swim on its own but with an adult’s help, they are able to learn to do it alone. So achievements are initially beyond a child’s unassisted grasp, but are attainable give help and support from an adult. Intelligence is the capacity to learn from instruction, according to Vygotsky.

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Vygotsky argued that children lean best from instruction, where expert knowledge is shared through interaction and instruction so that a child can move from their present stage of development into the Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky encourages teachers to assist children in their learning and give a lot of attention to teaching methods that involve instruction. This allows a child to move to higher mental functions, but Piaget would argue that children are ‘solitary explorers’ and should be allowed to discover things on their own. It was Piaget’s belief that by teaching a child something, you are preventing them form ...

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