In Fairness to Piaget

In as much I highlighted Vygotsky’s theory, I would not want to undermine Piaget’s premises in the learning process.

Dorit Kaufman wrote, “Piaget’s developmental theory advocates a holistic approach. Learning is a developmental process that involves change, self-generation, and construction, each building on prior learning experiences. Learning for the child occurs through construction of new understandings through reading, listening, exploration and experience. This involves three distinct but interrelated processes of assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium.” (2004:304)

With his emphasis on the cognitive process and human capacity, Piaget underlines the complexity of the learning process where the individual learner bears much greater responsibility. He underscores the never ending processing of prior knowledge as new ones become part of it.

In my case, my new experiences like blogging, evaluating a website and interpreting a digital story would have to be adapted and incorporated into my prior knowledge so that reconstruction of my schema would materialise. Once the new and the old learning are integrated, I would arrive at new realisations and understandings.

Learning is central in the brain; therefore, negotiation of meaning is within the individual. This is where Vygotsky and Piaget largely differs as the former views the individual with multiple identities while the latter views the learner as the only channel through which knowledge is formed and meaning-making is attained.

The nature of instruction and the role of environment are other aspects where their theories differ but I will have to tackle them later.