Comparative Literature Review on Educational Thinkers Assessment Answers

Subject Name : Education

Comparative Literature Review on Educational Thinkers
Mishal Mishal
A1701400
Alphacrucis College Paramatta and global online
EDU540 S1 18
Assignment Minor
Due date 8 April 2018
Submission date 7 April 2018
Word Count 1888
Plagiarism Quiz Score ltinsert quiz scoregt
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I hereby declare that the following work in this assessment is my own, except where indicated through due referencing. This assessment has not, in full or part, been submitted for another class or course at AC or any other institution.
SignedM.M.Date 7 April 2018

Comparative Literature Review on Educational Thinkers
The philosophy of education has evolved by thoughts of many thinkers. The scope of this essay is the development theories of Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Jerome Bruner. The essay begins with the description of development theories of these thinkers, and continues to compare these theories, and then applies them to teaching pedagogy. In the end, the implementation of these theories in Australian school system and Australian Professional Teaching Standards is discussed.
Cognitive Development Theory of Jean Piaget
The theory explains that cognition develops with biological ageing and societal interaction (McLeod, 2018). According to Jean Piaget, childrens thinking develops through four different qualitative stages (Siegler, 2015)
Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years) where a childs thinking process is governed by physical interactions with the environment.
Preoperational reasoning stage (2 to 7 years) where a child develops symbolic representation capabilities, but has a conservation problem of understanding only a single dimension.
Concrete operational reasoning (7 to 11 years) where child overcomes the conservation problem and begins to think logically.
Formal operational reasoning stage (begins at 11 years till adulthood) where the child can think about abstract ideas and shows scientific reasoning.

Figure SEQ Figure ROMAN I Adaptation process Development Theory of Jean Piaget (McLeod, 2018)
Socio-cultural Theory of Development
Lev Vygotsky gave socio-cultural theory of development which emphasized that learning precedes development rather than vice versa. It focused on the role of social interactions and culture on the creation of cognitive ability (Daniels, 2016). He explains that if the child learns tasks from a skilled person, he is helped in cognitive development than being left to devise of self discovery. Once the child has internalized the teachers instructions and developed new schema, then he can be left to learn independently. An important postulate is that the process of internalization, thus, development of individual, requires external mediation especially via language. Learning involves temporary help of an external scaffold that may be removed when the child develops higher cognitive capabilities. Vygotskys theory has two important principles (i) Most Knowledgeable Other (MKO) refers to anyone who has better skill than the child, and (ii) Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) refers to the gap between what is known to the child and what is not known to the child (Mishra, 2013).
Jerome Bruners Theory of Development
Jerome Bruners theory of development is a stage-based theory. He opined that any subject can be taught to a child. He proposed three mode of representation of information in individuals memory (Metsmuuronen amp Rsnen, 2018)
Enactive (0-1 years) In this initial stage, learning of an individual is action-based. For example, muscle memory created by shaking of rattle by infant.
Iconic (1-6 years) In this stage, the learning is image-based. For example, it is easier to learn a new subject with aid of images in conjunction with the verbal information.
Symbolic (7 years onwards) This is last stage of development where codes and symbols such as language are mode of learning.
Comparative review of development theories
Theories of educational thinkers, Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner, are stage-based theories. However, in Piagets theory the stages are strictly age-related. Both the thinkers have emphasized that learning of an individual occurs by comparison of existing knowledge with the new information encountered. Therefore, they promote discovery learning as a method for learning of a child. According to them, a child should be left on his own devise and be challenged with new information, and as a result, learn by self-discovery.
The socio-cultural cognitive theory of Vygotsky contrasts the development theories of Piaget and Bruner. Vygotsky gives importance to social interactions than self-discovery in cognitive development of a child. Every individual is born with some basic mental capabilities, but culture provides for methods to further hone these capabilities. According to him, the child will acquire new knowledge when someone more knowledgeable explains the new information to him. According to Piaget, biological maturation leads to learning. However, Vygotsky contradicts that by stating that innate mental capacities of a child mature after he is assisted to reduce Zone of Proximal Distance (ZPD) by a Most Knowledgeable Other (MKO).
Vygotsky gave importance to learning through language. According to Bruner, the learning is action-based, image-based, and symbol-based depending on the life development stage of a child. According to Piaget, childs ability at a specific age governs his learning.
The unique feature of development theory of Bruner was the spiral curriculum (Jiang amp Perkins, 2013). He explained that curriculum should be organized in a spiral manner so that the student can be build upon what has been learnt previously. On the other hand, Vygotsky emphasized that curriculum development should involve the student as well.
Implementation of development theories in teaching philosophy
As a teacher, I would like to incorporate these theories in best possible way while teaching. I would like to incorporate the best tenets from all the three thinkers - Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner- in my pedagogic practices. Undoubtedly, these theories give much insight into child psychology, which is a must for teaching. As stated by Vygotsky, I believe that children learn when they are assisted by a teacher and any other more knowledgeable person. In this regard, I would promote learning of my student by creating varied types of external scaffolds. External scaffolds may be hints, cue cards, supplementary questions, or complementary examples. Piagets developmental stages emphasized the importance of different ages in the learning process. According to this theory, I will teach students according to their present cognitive ability. Bruner also recommended that sequential instructions from action-based, to image-based, to symbol-based should be provided depending upon the childs developmental stage. Therefore, I will use variety of verbal and non-verbal teaching aids in classroom to incorporate high use of language as suggested by Vygotsky and address differentiating capabilities of students as suggested by Piaget.
Piagets postulation of discovery learning is also important. According to Piagets theory, a child learns by self discovery and not passively by observation (Amineh amp Asl, 2015). Therefore, I would adopt active discovery learning to educate children. I will assign tasks to students, like research-based assignment, that cause disequilibrium with existing schema of children and help them learn through rediscovery of truths.
Bruner has given the concept of spiral learning for cognitive development. According to him, the basic idea should be revisited repeatedly in the curriculum with increasing degree of complexity I would ensure that basic ideas are repeated in parallel with advancement of students cognition while creating curriculum. He also expressed that students are active learners and should be involved in negotiating the curriculum. The same has been corroborated by socio-cultural cognitive theory of Vygotsky. Therefore, I would take feedback from the students about the curriculum and engage them in curriculum design.
I will use the concept of ZPD as given by Vygotsky during assessment of the students. ZPD varies between children. Therefore, I will consider what a child can do and what he can potentially achieve. I will give greater attention to children with larger ZPD.
A direct inference that can be drawn in pedagogy from Vygotskys theory is implementation of group activities amongst students. In this case, students can learn skills from peers having advanced capabilities. I would also apply peer-tutoring in classroom teaching based on MKO concept of Vygotsky. In addition to these theories, I will also be focused to use Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in my teaching. I will be fully apprised of the content to be taught, understand students and their learning capacity, which can create an environment conducive for learning, and engage in my professional learning.
Australian schools and Constructivist theories
Australian schools are making sure that the quality of education delivered by teachers is of utmost importance. In this regard, the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia helps teachers to impart successful learning to students (Department of Education and Training, Australian Government, 2017). The framework incorporates tenets from the constructivist theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner. It uses play-based learning whose importance has been expressed in Sensorimotor stage of development theory by Piaget. It highlights the importance of language in learning as Vygoysky explained the importance of language-mediated instructions in childs learning. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia is focused on socio-cultural constructivitism, thus, emphasizing the role of society and culture on childrens learning.
North Sydney High School is one of the top-rated schools in New South Wales. One of their strategic plans for 2018-2020 is to develop challenging learning experiences for students to promote critical thinking (North Sydney High School, n.d.). This is in sync with Discovery Learning as proposed by Piaget and Bruner. Once disequilibrium is created between existing schema of students and the new problem, the process of adaption promotes their cognitive development. The Mission statement of Macgregor State School, Queensland, states its pedagogy as facilitative and provides negotiated curriculum to students (Macgregor State School, 2019). This implies that the school is implementing concept of scaffolding from Vygotskys development theory. They are giving student the opportunity to be a part in learning journey via negotiated curriculum as postulated by Vygotsky. As per the Piagets cognitive development theory, Macgregor State School is helping students learn via discovery learning. Implementation of cognitive development theories of educational thinkers is also evident in functioning of another top Australian school, Perth Modern School. The objectives of Perth Modern School involve co-operation between parents, teachers, students, and community, and provision of resources, facilities, and amenities to students (Perth Modern School, 2018). This indicates implementation of development theories of Vygotsky and Bruner. Interaction of students with MKOs like parents, teachers, and community will augment their learning. Bruner mentioned use of visual and action-oriented teaching aids, while Vygotsky emphasized language learning. Perth Modern School is applying philosophy of both the educational thinkers by exposing students to varied resources.
Professional learning, practice, and engagement to improve quality of teachers is provided in Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2017). They successfully incorporate tenets of cognitive development theories. For example, standard 1.5 promotes different pedagogy to fulfill the particular learning requirements of students according to their capacity. This is in sync with philosophy of cognitive development of Jean Piaget that teaching method should match a childs mental ability. Standard 3 of APST mentions establishment of challenging learning goals for students. This supports the concept of discovery learning as postulated by Piaget and Bruner.
Though APST guide teachers to design their teaching approach, but there are problems faced by teachers in adopting APST. The teachers are burdened by the problems of accountability, compliance and time constraints. Therefore, instead of supplementing their teaching abilities, standards are creating hindrance for teachers. This is because teachers time is wasted in showing compliance of standards to the leaders rather than focusing on implementation of the standards. Teachers cannot be burdened to follow the standards rather they need to adopt them with time and in their own context and situation. A cultural change may be needed for acceptability and effective utilization of the standards. Knowledge building through collaborative activities can help in better implementation of the standards (Call, 2018).

References
Amineh, R. J., amp Asl, H. D. (2015). Review of constructivism and social constructivism. Journal of Social Sciences, Literature and Languages, 1(1), 9-16.
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2017). Australian professional standards for teachers. Retrieved from https//www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards
Call, K. (2018). Professional teaching standards a comparative analysis of their history, implementation and efficacy. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 43(3), doi 10.14221/ajte.2018v43n3.6
Daniels, H. (2016). Vygotsky and Pedagogy, New York Routledge.
Department of Education and Training, Australian Government. (2017). Early years learning framework. Retrieved from https//www.education.gov.au/early-years-learning-framework-0
Jiang, X. and Perkins, K. (2013). A conceptual paper on the application of the picture word inductive model using Bruners constructivist view of learning and the cognitive load theory. Interdisciplinary Journal of Teaching and Learning, 3(1), 8-17.
Macgregor State School. (2019). Mission and values. Retrieved from https//macgregorss.eq.edu.au/Ourschool/Missionandvalues/Pages/Missionandvalues.aspx
McLeod, S. (2018). Jean Piagets theory of cognitive development. Retrieved from https//www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.htmlstages
Metsmuuronen, J. and Rsnen, P. (2018). Cognitive-linguistic and constructivist mnemonic triggers in teaching based on Jerome Bruners thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, https//doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02543.
Mishra, R. K. (2013). Vygotskian perspective of teaching-learning. InnovationInternational Journal of Applied Research, 1(1), 21-28.
North Sydney Boys High School. (n.d.). School plan 2018-2020. Retrieved from https//northsydbo-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/about-our-school/school-planning-and-reporting.html
Perth Modern School. (2018). Annual report 2018. Retrieved from https//www.perthmodern.wa.edu.au/annual-report/.
Siegler, R. (2016). Cognitive development in childhood. Retrieved from http//cool4ed.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/180950/Cognitive20Development20in20Childhood-Noba.pdfsequence1