They were born in the middle class circumstances and grew up in Provincial towns. Although Piaget lived in Switzerland and Vygotsky in Russia. They both had good educational opportunities and both showed talent early in life While Vygotsky spent his time as a boy playing happily with siblings and cousins.
Piaget’s father forbids interruption when he was working in his study. Piaget’s mother was hospitalized for psychiatric problems.But Vygotsky parents were leaders in the community; they established the town library and contributed to local cultural life. Having been reared in these very different families, it is not surprising that as adults Piaget and Vygotsky adopted different working styles Vygotsky emphasized on the importance of inner speech in development. Piaget view that speech is immature. For Vygotsky, the key influence was the culture or social group in which a child develops.
Whereas Piaget considered children as solitary or independent learners.For Piaget, children construct knowledge by transforming, organizing and reorganizing previous knowledge. Vygotsky , children construct knowledge through social interaction with others Piaget theory for teaching is that children need support to explore their world and discover knowledge. While Vygotsky theory for teaching is that students need many opportunities to learn with the teacher and more skilled peers. Criticism Some critics says that he over emphasizes the role of language in thinking.
Another major criticism is how his theory separate out the idea of language and thought. Many psychologists think that language and thought develop on parallel pathways instead of separate track. For example, A child may be asked to find a ball and that child is able to retrieve the correct item before he is able to accurately speak the word “ball”. Vygotsky idea is the direct opposite he believe that spoken words must be acquired before the thought or concept can be developed.Vygotsky theories rest heavily on the idea of cultural influences. It is the culture that helps people develop the individual including language development.
He believe little of language development comes from biological factors. Modern psychologist dismiss this idea that cultural influences play a dominant role in the development of language. Vygotsky theory is more valuable as an educator because it focus on the role teachers and society plays in student’s learning and development.
