3. Describe Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Include the four stages, their associated ages, and the developmental phenomena related to each. How did Lev Vygotsky's view challenge Piaget's?

See explanation

Explanation:

Piaget recognized four distinct stages of cognitive development in children. These stages range from birth to adolescence. Let us now look at the stages individually;

1) Sensorimotor (0-2 years):

Cognitive activity at this stage largely depends on the child's visual experience and experience acquired via the senses. The interaction of the senses and the environment is bedrock of intellectual development at this stage. Object permanence begin to appear latter in this stage. Children begin to understand that an object that is out of view still exists somewhere.

2) Preoperational stage (2- 7 years):

At this stage, the bond between children and the immediate environment begin to wane. In this stage, they expand their ability to form mental images. Vocabulary development picks up at this stage. At this stage, learning is mainly intuitive. Vocabulary development ultimately depends on the child's exposure to the use of words.

3) Concrete operational stage (7-11 years): At this stage, children begin to develop a point of view. They begin to comprehend facts logically and understand functional relationships. They make up their minds on a matter and stick with it irrespective of the weight of evidence against their perspective. This is a stage of many fantasies and dreams. Learning at this stage ought to emphasize concrete activities.

4) Formal operations (11-16 years): At this stage, the teenager has greater potential to examine evidences closely before arriving at a conclusion. Children at this stage also develop metacognition, that is the ability to think about their own thinking and that of others. They are sometimes engaged in a dialogue with themselves in the mind in order to establish the validity of their own thinking.

Vygotsky argued that social learning comes before cognitive development. Therefore, culture is integral in cognitive development. Piaget merely asserted that all children pass through a number of stages of cognitive development that are somewhat universal and applies to all children everywhere, Vygotsky asserted that cognitive development vary with the cultures of different people.

Vygotsky believed that intellectual development was continuous, with no end in sight. Piaget's theory did not take cognizance of the influence of social interactions or the cultural setting. The impact of social interaction on learning was the main point of Vygotsky's thoery.