ASSESSMENT COVER PAGE

Course Name:
Instructor Name:
Task Title:
Due Date:

Learn Teach Contemporary UAE

Course Code:

Dr. Mindy Colin

An essay comparing the theories of two of the following
cognitive theorists: Piaget, Vygotsky and/or Bruner.

2 May 2016

Date
Submitted:

Student Fatima Nadel Ali Al mandoos Al blooshi

Name:

Student ID:

EDU 1503

H00279154

Section:

Vygotsky and Bruner

Name: Fatima Nadel Ali

ID: h00279154
Section: 2
Course teacher: DR. Mindy Colin
Course code: EDU 1503

Introduction:
In this essay I will find out two similarities and compare two different
things of Bruner and Vygotsky. compare and contrast the development
theories of Bruner and Vygotsky Child development has been an area of
study that has attracted an enormous amount of interest and debate since
the last century. However, Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social
interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition and
Bruner theoretical framework is that learning is an active process in which
learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past
knowledge.

There are two similarities things between Bruner and Vygotsky theories. The
first, emphasise a child's environment, especially the social environment, so
both agree that adults should play an active role in assisting the child's
learning. The second, emphasized the social nature of learning, citing that
other people should help a child develop skills through the process of
scaffolding. For example, the child could not solve the jigsaw puzzle by
himself and would have taken a long time to do so, but was able to solve it
following interaction with the father. However, there is two significant
difference between Bruner and Vygotsky. Which are Bruner focuses on
environment. As well, he students learn better if they acquire the information
themselves using active participation, with scaffolded interaction and the
teacher giving support at the right time. For example, Teacher repeats the
example more than once. She asks the students questions and encourages
them when they try to answer. She also corrects their answers and provides
assistance. on the other hand, Vygotsky focuses on social. Also, interaction
falling short of saying that students should never acquire information
independently, believed that problems occurred when teachers left too much
for the student to do independently. He felt that students learned better
through assisted learning, or guide participation through conversations and
interactions with people. For example, a child might be shown pennies to
represent each sound in a word (e.g., three pennies for the three sounds in
man). To master this word, the child might be asked to place a penny on
the table to show each sound in a word, and finally the child might identify
the sounds without the pennies. When the adult provides the child with
pennies, the adult provides a scaffold to help the child move from assisted to

unassisted success at the task. In a high school laboratory science class, a

teacher might provide scaffolding by first giving students detailed guides to
carrying out experiments, then giving them brief outlines that they might use
to structure experiments, and finally asking them to set up experiments
entirely on their own.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, Bruner believes that students who are exposed to selfdirected learning, while making available the opportunity for at the right time
support, provides a very positive learning environment. Conversely, Vygotsky
believed that allowing the student too much free time to work was not a
good idea. He believed that assisted learning or what essentially equates to
direct instruction, with a great deal of social interaction is a better form of
instruction.

References:
1- Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
2- Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction, Cambridge, Mass.:
Belkapp Press.
3- Wood, D. J., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in
problem solving. Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology.