Question 4 - Educational Theorists

Lev Vygotsky

Vygotsky believed strongly in the importance of the social and cultural factors on children’s learning. His work strongly emphasised social learning and he encouraged the essentials of students working together to solve problems and teachers’ ‘scaffolding’ their students learning. Scaffolding is the process in which the adult supports children’s learning by, for instance, asking key questions or encouraging children to work through a similar example first. Vygotsky also states the significance of the zone of proximal development (ZPD).
(http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html) ZPD refers to the notion that the level of skill a learner can reach in collaboration with an adult or peer collaboration, will exceed what can be achieved alone.


William Glasser

William Glasser’s Choice theory provides a framework for understanding why and how people behave. Choice theory suggests that all behaviour has its own purpose and this behaviour is related to satisfying the five genetic needs that all individuals are driven by. (Harshman, 2006) http://www.wglasser.com/whatisct.htm The theory suggests that all individuals have basic needs including survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun. Once all needs are satisfied, individuals are more likely to be motivated to learn.

Glasser’s choice theory suggests that all behaviour is chosen and that individuals can only have control over their own behaviour. (Harshman, 2006) Choice theory also suggests that no other individual can make you do or feel anything. All that an individual can do is to influence another by giving information, and it is up to that individual to make a decision regarding this information. http://www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2002/achper/Piltz2.pdf


Piaget stated four stages in cognitive development. These are:
• Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
• Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
• Concrete Stage (7-12 years)
• Formal-operational Stage (from 12 years)

http://www.funderstanding.com/piaget.cfm


These stages of cognitive development are believed to be the reason for the separation of schools into levels such as pre-school, primary and secondary.(2001) (http://hsc.csu.edu.au/pro_dev/teaching_online/how_we_learn/developmental.html)I believe that allocating certain age groups into specific levels of schooling is extremely effective because it allows individuals to progress from one cognitive stage to another. For instance, individuals from the pre-operational stage can not learn with individuals from the concrete operational stage because they are at a different cognitive level. That is the reason why the majority of schools do not combine five year old children with ten year old children in the one classroom.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is based on a constructivist view of learning. (2001) Piaget contributed to genetic epistemology the study of the development of knowledge. He theorised that individuals have ‘schemes’ mental concepts in their minds. For knowledge to take place ‘adaptation’ must take place. Adaptation is what Piaget sees as the final process in which individuals must adapt to their environment when a conflict of knowledge occurs. Individuals go through to processes. These are: assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is the concept that new information is accepted with the existing information. Accommodation is when new information is an old schema is adjusted with new information. (http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/piaget.html)

Jerome Bruner

Jerome Bruner organised the process of education into four basic parts: structure, readiness for learning, intuitive and analytical thinking, and motives for learning. Bruner explained that the role of structure in learning is about learning how things are related. Bruner suggested that the initial teaching of any subject should emphasise grasping the main points intuitively. He believed that the curriculum should then re-examine these points repeatedly so that students eventually understand the points and make connections between them until the student has grasped full understanding. He called this cycle the spiral curriculum.
(Smith, M.K, 2002) http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm