Although there are substantial differences between the t of Piaget and Vygotsky They are not opposed since they share a conception of development that is equally far from the traditional empiricist and rationalist conceptions. Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence. It was first created by the Swiss developmental psychologist Jean piaget (1896-1980)... Child-centered classrooms and "open education" are direct applications of Piaget's views.
It is considered the most elaborate so far and the one with the greatest influence within the field: which is explained in art by the great breadth of its claims:
- Piaget intends to develop a Genetic Epistemology, that is, a "theory of knowledge" from the explanation of its "genesis and psychological development".
- In this endeavor, he argues that what essentially characterizes knowledge is its "creative" nature, which implies a "active" subject: to "know" not only perceives and reacts to objects without having to "act" on them transforming them.
Piaget extends the biological model of the growth of an organism to the psychological problem of the development of intelligence: it is a complex process that involves "adaptation" to the middle (external plane) and "organization" psychological (internal plane):
- The adaptation It is produced through two types of complementary processes, between which there must be "balance": The asimilation, which occurs when the subject tries to interpret and incorporate the information from the environment from the schemes already available.
- Accommodation, which supposes the modification of those previous schemes to make them consistent with the new experiences. the internal organization reflects the structures and changes that occur within the natural tendency of the organism towards higher levels of balance: The synchronous or horizontal organization: it is the structural result of the adaptation achieved at each moment (each "stage" of development: sesoriomotor, preoperative, concrete operations, formal operations) The organization diachronic or vertical: it translates the qualitative changes that occur in intellectual structures ("transition" between stages: continuity and change of general sequence, universality and order of succession)
The basic mechanism why they explain such changes is "equilibration":
- The "equilibration" is conceived as an internal and self-regulating factor that guides the processes of adaptation to the environment, allowing to achieve progressively "more adapted", more balanced cognitive structures (organized structures), in their way of relationship with the environment.
- These ensemble structures, insofar as they assume a certain norm of stable equilibrium (up to a certain point) is what allows defining and characterizing the different successive stages (forms of organization) of the growth.
- Equilibrium is not the result of the fortuitous balance between opposing forces, but a goal actively sought and achieved by the organism itself.
Piagetian theory it has undoubted merits, but it has also received serious criticism.
- In general, most of them refer to aspects that are commonly considered "neglected" by theory.
- In particular, it is worth highlighting the denunciation that has been made of the little role that Piaget seems to attribute to language and social factors in development.
Explanatory proposals of the ontogenetic change that have in common their ability to be formulated in a precise and operative way, through a computational model.
Production rule systems. The IP approach as formulated by David klahr, postulates a basic cognitive structure that does not change with age in its aspectsfundamental, and that is described by the production systems. A production is a condition-action rule, that is, from the fulfillment of a certain condition it establishes the performance of a certain action. Actions can modify the knowledge state of the system by adding, deleting or changing existing elements; actions can also correspond to perceptual or motor interactions with the environment.
Klahr proposes the existence of a set of innate productions from which, and through self-modification, the system learns and develops by acquiring new productions. To achieve this objective, the system has a series of specific mechanisms such as those of resolution from conflicts, discrimination and generalization. The explanatory capacity of this approach is reduced to the explanation of the quantitative changes in tasks and specific knowledge domains.
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