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Comparison and Contrast of Piaget and Vygotsky’s
Theories

Yu-Chia Huang1

1Shanghai American School, Shanghai, China
Corresponding author’s e-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are the two most influential developmental psychologists. Their contributions to the field
of developmental psychology, though different, are still similarly remarkable and unique. In spite of such resemblances,
there exists a crucial, and generally unnoticed, the difference between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories, and that this
difference underlies the way each author addresses the concept of cognitive development. In short, which theory is more
correct? Throughout this paper, we will discover what informs both psychologists’ theories, how they are similar, how
they are different, and why they have both remained so prominent throughout educational textbooks. Although never in

direct competition with each other, the theories developed by Piaget and Vygotsky are often used in contrast with oneanother, since both offer learning theories with a significant difference, but still impacting on understanding cognitive
development.

Ultimately, discovering that neither Piaget or Vygotsky’s theory is actively correct, but both are
highly important to be aware of when education early learners.

Keywords: Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Cognitive Development, Assimilation, Sociocultural

1. INTRODUCTION
Cognitive development is a field of study in

neuroscience and psychology that focus on how humans
think, explore and solve problems. It is the development
of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions,
which help children to think about and understand the
world around them. The methods and approaches to the
cognitive-developmental issue in psychology have been
greatly influenced by the research of Jean Piaget and Lev
Vygotsky. Both researchers have significantly
contributed to the field for children’s development. The
impact of their thoughts on how a person learns led to
theories on how a person should be taught. The work of
the Swedish scientist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) of genetic
epistemology concentrated on the social in learning.
While the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s cultural
historical theory concentrated on the individual in
learning. Piaget and Vygotsky both provided a distinctive
yet remarkable similar approaches to cognitive
development— bringing us to the crux of this research
paper. The development of scientific psychological ideas
is determined by the aggregation of many factors, where
it has its own logic of development which is expressed in
the gradual change of scientific paradigms, approaches,

and methods of research into a psychological reality. The
topic of “Piaget vs. Vygotsky” could be categorized as
“parallel discoveries” when contemporary problems
arising from the constant development of psychological
knowledge and based on previous discoveries are added
simultaneously by scholars representing different
scientific schools and traditions, where at times it can be
contrasting to each other.

Throughout this article, how both psychologists’
theories are similar and different, and why they have both
remained so prominent throughout today’s educational
textbooks will be discovered, in order to answer the
question of who’s theory is more correct. Although never
in direct competition with each other, Piaget and
Vygotsky’s theories are often used in contrast with one
another, since both offer learning theories with a
significant difference, however still impacting on
understanding cognitive development.

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 554

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Humanities and

Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2021)

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2. ANALYSIS

2.1. Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development
Theory

Jean Piaget definition of the cognitive development is
dependent on how the child interacts with the
environment, in other words, the constructivist approach
of the child. Children will actively construct and create
schemas (cognitive frameworks that organize and
interpret information) which strive in order to make sense
of the world around us. As the child goes through its life,
it will incorporate the experiences it had encountered into
its existing schemas [4]. However, sometimes the new
information and experiences do not ‘neatly fit’ or violate
a schema, thus the children must change their way of
thinking to accommodate the new knowledge or to make
sense of their environment. Disequilibrium occurs when
new knowledge does not fit with the children’s
accumulated knowledge [1]. Therefore, when a child
attains assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium,

the child creates a new stage of cognitive development.Humans essentially change their way of thinking to
accommodate the new knowledge.

2.1.1. Four Distinct Cognitive Stages:
Sensorimotor

Jean Piaget also proposed that the human mind
developed through the four distinct universal series of
stages from infant to young adult: sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete operations, and formal
operations. Between the ages of zero and two years of age,
the infant is in the sensorimotor stage. During this stage,
babies experience his or her world mostly through
sensory impressions and motor activities. Around the age
of 8 months old, the child begins to develop a sense of
object permanence, which is a realization that objects
continue to exist even when the object is not within the
field of vision. Moreover, the child begins to develop a
goal- directed behavior, where a child essentially begins
to understand that his or her actions could cause another
action. For example, kicking an object would result in a
movement in the object. Children in the sensorimotor
stage are able to reverse actions, however, still unable to
reverse thinking.

2.1.2. Four Distinct Cognitive Stages: Pre-
Operational

A child in the pre-operational stage, between the age
of two and seven years old, they will begin to master
language, however still unable to perform mental
operations; which refers to the irreversibility concept of
mentally reversing a sequence of events. Children early
in this stage are egocentric, as they view the world
through their own viewpoints and are unable to view a

Piaget asserted that since a child acts on his own
environment for learning, the social interaction will move
a child away from egocentrism. While later in this stage,
children begin to develop the theory of mind, which is the
ability to infer other people’s intentions, they can begin
to understand why somebody did something, and ho the
feelings, perceptions, and thoughts of others may result
in another’s behavior. This is because they can
increasingly understand and formulate expectations
about what will happen in a situation.

2.1.3. Four Distinct Cognitive Stages:
Concrete Operational

Concrete operational occurs between the ages of
seven to twelve years old. Reasoning processes begin to
take shape during this stage, as they can think
operationally and can understand conservation. However,
children in this stage cannot think in abstract, as they are
still just concrete thinkers. Take a child learning math, for
example, a child here will often use his or her fingers

(physical properties or tangible items) to add or subtract,since they struggle to make the jump to an abstract
algebraic question. In addition, reasoning processes also
begin in the concrete operational stage, as we gain the
ability to think about the way we think, or in other words,
children begin to develop metacognition. Piaget claims
that there are three basic reasoning skills that are acquired
during this stage: identity, compensation, and also
reversibility. A child will learn that a “person or object
remains the same over time” (identity) and one action
could cause changes in another (compensation) [7].

2.1.4. Four Distinct Cognitive Stages: Formal
Operational

The final stage of Piaget’s cognitive development is
the formal operational, which occurs between the age of
eleven years old to adulthood. This is when an adolescent
begins to think in a different manner, as the thinking
process starts to change from being confined to the ability
to think abstractly. Children in this stage now acquire
systematic or logical reasoning abilities. Through
hypothetico-deductive reasoning, one has achieved the
ability to think scientifically through generating
predictions, or hypotheses, about the world to answer
questions [4]. Thus, people have the ability of systematic
reasoning to conceive the best possible solution to avoid
consequences.

2.1.5. The Validity of Piaget’s Theory

Research supports Piaget’s basic construct of human
cognition unfolds basically in the sequence he described.
Infants, young children, and older children do use distinct
cognitive abilities to construct their understanding of the
world. However, Piaget underestimated the cognitive

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through their own viewpoints and are unable to view a
situation from another person’s point of view. However,

world. However, Piaget underestimated the cognitive

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abilities of infants and young children. At around 8
months old, babies have developed schemas for familiar
faces. When given over to someone who does not fit the
schema (an unfamiliar person) they often grow upset and
reach out to the familiar person, which this concept is
known as stranger anxiety. Babies also seem to be aware
of numbers. If shown 5 toys, then shown only 4, they
seem surprised and shocked. Thus, Piaget underestimated
the impact of the social and cultural environment on
cognitive development.

2.1.6. Final Thoughts on Piaget’s Theory
Conclusively, Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive

development essentially suggests that children progress
through a series of four distinct stages of cognitive
development from an infant to a young adult. Each stage
includes certain milestones where the child begins to
demonstrate a more sophisticated comprehension of the
environment, as well as the children’s continuous drive to
develop and adapt schemas, or understandings about the
world.

2.2. Lev Vygotsky’s Cognitive Development
Theory

Meanwhile, another psychologist offered his beliefs
regarding the cognitive development theory. As an
alternative to Piaget’s universal stages of cognitive
development, Lev Vygotsky proposed the Sociocultural
Theory of Development, which became a major influence
in the field of psychology. Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural
Theory of Development theory describes student learning
as a social process, which facilitates a child’s potential for
learning through social interactions and their culture [3].
Clearly, Vygotsky’s theory is much different compared to
Piaget’s cognitive development theory— children act on
their environment to learn, while Vygotsky emphasizes
on how children learn through social interactions and
their ability to communicate with their peers to acquire
the cultural values in society. While both Piaget and
Vygotsky agreed that children actively construct
knowledge. Vygotsky claimed that most of what children
learn comes from the culture in which they live in. This
indicates that language is the primary tool for social
mentoring, as it provides the building blocks for thinking
and, as the child grows older, it comes to serves as the
most important tool of learning.

2.2.1. Impact of “Dialogues”
Through the social interactions of “dialogues”,

people begin to move toward a more individualized
thinking. This learning process involves people
interacting with each other during shared activities,
usually to resolve a problem; when a child receives help,
he or she may be able to utilize the strategy from previous

“dialogues” will lead to internalization, which in turn
leads one to independent thinking.

2.2.2. Impact of Scaffolding
Scaffolding is another of Vygotsky’s principle of the

sociocultural perspective. This education teaching style
facilitates the student as he or she learns a new skill or
concept, with the ultimate goal of the student becoming
self- reliant [8]. Derived from Vygotsky’s theories, in
practice, it involves teaching material just beyond the
level at which the student can learn independently. Thus,
scaffolding involves providing the learner with hints or
clues, in order to allow the student to better approach the
problem. In this case, Piaget would assume that the
student does not yet have the mental structures to solve
the problem, Vygotsky would rather offer strategies, in
the form of scaffolding, for the student to attempt to solve
the problem.

2.2.3. Impact of Private SpeechPrivate speech also provides an aspect of language
development [2]. Vygotsky considered private speech as
a major transition point between social and inner speech.
Private speech is a type of speech addressed to the self
(not others) for the purpose of self-regulation. Thus,
Vygotsky understood the significance of self-directed
speech, while Piaget may view the private speech as
egocentric or immature.

2.2.4. Cultural Tools
Vygotsky also recognized the importance of cultural

tools in cognition. Cultural tools in cognition can be
referred to as any tool that supports communication [9].
For instance, the media or television are just a handful of
all the tools that are available for problem solving and
learning. Therefore, children can utilize the cultural tools
to help support their own learning.

2.2.5. Final Thoughts on Vygotsky’s Theory
Vygotsky stated that “learning is a necessary and

universal aspect of the process of developing culturally
organized, the specifically human psychological
function” [5]. This demonstrates that social learning
tends to precede cognitive development. Just like Piaget,
Vygotsky believed that there were problems regarding
children’s range of learning. Thus, Vygotsky proposed the
principle of the zone of proximal development. In
contrast with Piaget, Vygotsky believed that through
proper assistance and encouragement, children are able
to perform a task that Piaget would consider to be out of
the child’s mental capabilities. The zone of proximal
development refers to what the child can perform when
given proper assistance. Therefore, the term “proximal””

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he or she may be able to utilize the strategy from previous
experiences in the future. This social interaction of

given proper assistance. Therefore, the term “proximal””
indicates those skills that the learner is “close” to

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mastering [6]. Vygotsky believed the role of education to
provide children with experiences to socially interact
with each other will allow the children to acquire the
cultural values in society, thereby encouraging their
individual learning through his theory of the zone of
proximal development.

3. DISCUSSION
Both psychologist, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky

offered distinctive approaches to the cognitive-
developmental issue in the field of psychology. While
Piaget and Vygotsky both agreed that children actively
construct knowledge through the acquisition of speech.
Vygotsky claimed that most of what the children learn
comes from the culture in which they live. The
fundamental difference between Piaget and Vygotsky is
that Piaget believed in the constructivist approach of
children, or in other words, how the child interacts with
the environment, whereas Vygotsky stated that learning
is taught through socially and culturally. Piaget believed
children should be given the ability to understand
schemas on their own. While Vygotsky believes that
children will be able to reach a higher cognitive level
through instruction from a more knowledgeable
individual.

In addition, Piaget believed children will only learn
when they attain assimilation, accommodation, and
equilibrium. For example, when a child encounters a
horse, they might assimilate this information and call this
animal a dog. The process of accommodation will allow
the child to adapt to the existing schema in order to
incorporate the knowledge that some four-legged animals
are horses. Whereas Vygotsky believed that the
development could be taught with correct scaffolding
that is within the zone of proximal development. For
instance, if students are not at the reading level required
to understand a text, the teacher might use
scaffolding to incrementally improve the students’
reading ability until they are able to read the text
independently without assistance.

4. CONCLUSION
Ultimately, both psychologists have significantly

contributed to the field for children’s cognitive
development. Piaget proposed that children progress
through a universal stage of cognitive development
through maturation, discovery practices, and some social
transmissions of assimilation and accommodation.
Vygotsky’s theory emphasized the importance of culture
and language of one’s cognitive development. While both
Piaget and Vygotsky may provide a distinctive approach
to cognitive development theory that differs from each
other, both theories offer reasonable approaches on how
to teach certain material, concerning the ways in which
children’s process of thinking develops into adulthood.

When both theories are used in conjunction to one
another, there is an endless scope to help children develop
critical thinking skills as well as cognitive awareness for
a well-rounded method to learn. In the final analysis, it is
clear that neither theory is actively correct to answer the
question whether Piaget or Vygotsky’s theory is correct,
however both psychologists are highly critical to the
discussion of cognitive development.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First and foremost, words are powerless to express

my gratitude towards my mentor, Professor Li. I thank
you from the bottom of my heart for all you have done. I
truly appreciate the fact that you sacrificed your own time
to spread your knowledge and wisdom regarding the
subjects that you prepared: brain, behavior, and
psychopathology; where you could have rather spent
your precious time being around your family and friends,
especially during the time of a COVID-19 pandemic.

REFERENCES
[1] S. D’Mello. Cognitive Disequilibrium Theory.

ResearchGate, Jan. 2010,
www.researchgate.net/figure/Cognitive-
Disequilibrium- Theory_fig1_215835874.

[2] P. Feigenbaum. Private Speech: Cornerstone of
Vygotsky’s Theory of the Development of Higher
Psychological Processes.
lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Mail/xmcamail.2009_11.dir/pdf1
Gp XwFkltX.pdf.

[3] M. Lally, and S.Valentine-French. Lifespan
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courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-
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[4] S. Mcleod. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
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[5] S. Mcleod. Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky | Simply
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[6] S. Mcleod. What Is the Zone of Proximal
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[7] A.N. Meltzoff, and M.K. Moore. OBJECT

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