Cognitive Development - Piaget/Vygotsky

Hey there my lovelies.
Just going over revision for PYA4, and while I have enough notes to describe/evaluate the theories independently, I seem to stumble when it comes to a compare/contrast essay :frown:

I've got a list of important differences including importance of; language / culture / scaffolding / order of maturation / Researcher culture / order of egocentricity (is that a word? :confused:

)

And a list of important similarities including ; Developmental / Interactionist / Constructivist / Some similarity between stages and phases / Both based on lack of experimental evidence (most research done afterwards)

I think outlining the differences/similarities above should be sufficient to get enough A01 marks, but how the hell do I get the A02 marks?

Only thing I can think off would be putting into applicable context (eg Education)

Any help mucho appreciated!

Your resident love monster,
Rob

xxxx

Reply 1

bigforehead

i think AO2 would just be the way in which these differences and similarities are actually significant, for example, is the role of language actually important (research etc). As well as What could be deduced from the two agreeing points in the two theoies, and has this got any opportunity of a real-life application as it tells us something useful.

Hope that helps

Reply 2

yellow96

A question comparing and contrasting the two theories has never come up so I don't think we have to know it. The only comparing and contrasting essays are therapies ones in PYA5 I think.

Reply 3

kattapillar

I think the only compare/contrast question you're likely to get would be to do with Applications to Education.

Reply 4

Robbolo

Oh...hmmm...awesome! :biggrin:

My teachers always telling me about compare/contrast essays for the two theories, and just checked the spec and its not in there explicitly.

So is there no chance of a compare/contrast Piaget and Vygotsky, or is it just unlikely cause its never been done before?

Thanks for all the help anyway

Reply 5

Waster

Nah well in a question on Piaget's theory you could contrast Piaget's theory with Vygotsky's for A02 marks if you wanted to, but it's way easier just to go on about other studies like Hughes's and Rose and Blank's criticisms of Piaget. Isnt it? Loooooool i bet this doesnt even come up and it'l be fckin Eisenberg or summat radge. I wouldn't be too pleased like.

Reply 6

charlier2810

hmmm i think maybe you can get marks for just comparing them, for example saying what the differences and similarities are. You can also use these differences to evaluate the theories. For example Piaget doesn't account for social interaction and 'scaffolding' like Vygotsky does. He just concentrates purely on the child interacting with play materials. Also Piaget has a rigid stage thoery, where as Vygotsky doesn't. Therefore Piaget's theory is too rigid and perhaps cannot be generalised to all children. Some children may develop cognitive ability earlier than his stage system suggests. You can also say that Piaget's work is subject to a variey of bias, as he used his own children as subjects in his experiments. Demand characterisitcs are also present.
I think you can also gain A02 marks by suggesting the useful applications of both theories. Both have contributed to education. For example Piaget's work helped to develop montissori practices.

Hmmm I hope this kind of helps. :smile:

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