How I see Piaget and Vygotsky

When I was first learning about Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky I thought that Vygotsky studied under Piaget and expanded on his theories.  These two theorists just seem like they would have worked together.  My reasoning for this was that I can see how Piaget’s discontinuous stages of cognitive development compliment Vygotsky and his continuous stages of cognitive development. 

Vygotsky's theory reminds me of how humans grow.  We all pretty much look the same, one head, two legs, two arms…you get the idea!  But we grow bigger and get more defined with our skills.  A continuous growth of our body and mind from birth. (Well actually it’s happening before birth.)  Mild daily changes that make parents wonder where time has gone when they look at their children growing up!

Piaget’s stages remind me of how a plant grows from a seed to a flower.  A seed is planted and soon there is a little green shoot coming out of the soil. That’s a big change! Then leaves grow, a stalk, and the flower itself starts to bloom. These are very defined stages of change.

I like both of these theorists and believe that they have helped in the development of education and teaching.  We have learned a lot from the work that they have done and we continue to expand on cognitive development and use their studies on a daily basis.