This document summarizes several theories of cognitive development, including those proposed by Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, and Lev Vygotsky. It outlines Piaget's theory that children progress through four stages of cognitive development - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. It also summarizes Bruner's three stages of cognitive development and Vygotsky's theory that social interaction aids cognitive development within a child's zone of proximal development.

1. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
THEORIES
Jean Piaget
Jerome Bruner
Lev Semanovich Vygotsky

2. JEAN PIAGET’S COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT THEORY
 Believes that children are neither driven by
undesirable instinct nor molded by environmental
influences
 Views children as constructivists, that is, as
curious active explorers who respond to the
environment according to their understanding of its
essential features
 Divides intellectual development into four major
periods

3. SENSORIMOTOR (BIRTH TO TWO
YEARS)
 Infants use sensory and motor capabilities to
explore and gain a basic understanding of the
environment.
 At birth, they have only innate reflexes with which to
engage the world. By the end of the sensorimotor
period, they are capable of complex sensorimotor
coordination.
 Infants learn that objects continue to exist when
they are out of sight (object permanence) and begin
to internalize behavioral schemata to produce
images or mental schemata.

4. PREOPERATIONAL (TWO TO
SEVEN YEARS)
 Children use symbolism (images and language) to
represent and understand various aspects of the
environment.
 Thought is egocentric, meaning, that children think
everyone sees the world in much the same way as
that they do.
 Children become imaginative in their play activities.
They gradually begin to recognize that other people
may not always perceive the world as they do.

5. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL (SEVEN
TO ELEVEN YEARS)
 Children are no longer fooled by appearances. By
relying on cognitive operations, they understand the
basic properties of and relations among objects and
events in the everyday world.
 They are able to solve concrete (hands-on) problem
in logical fashion.
 They understand laws of conservation and are able
to classify and understand reversibility.
 They become much more proficient at inferring
motives by observing others’ behavior and the
circumstances in which it occurs.

6. FORMAL OPERATIONAL (ELEVEN
YEARS AND BEYOND)
 They are able to solve abstract problems in logical
fashion.
 They become more scientific in thinking.
 No longer is logical thinking limited to the concrete
or the observable; children enjoy pondering
hypothetical issues and as a result may become
rather idealistic.
 They are capable of systematic, deductive
reasoning that permits them to consider many
possible solutions to a problem and pick the correct
answer.

7. PIAGET ON COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
“The principle goal of education in the schools
should be creating men and women who are
capable of doing new things, not simply
repeating what other generations have done.”
-Jean Piaget

8. JEROME BRUNER’S COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT THEORY
 The human mind gains inputs through the senses, processes
them through cognitive abilities, and produces outputs
employing language and creative expression. It involves three
stages.
• Children respond to sensory stimuli.
Enactive stage (0-
18 months)
• Children view the world through concrete
representations.
Iconic stage (18
months-6 years)
• The individual can handle abstract representations
using his thinking skills to understand things.
Symbolic stage (6
years onwards)

9. LEV SEMANOVICH VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOHISTORIC-
COGNITIVE/LINGUISTIC-COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
THEORY
 Cognitive development is dependent on the child’s
interaction with those around him; social stimulation
aids mental and language development.
 The child acquires new skills and information with
the zone of proximal development (ZPD), the
distance between a child’s actual development level
and a higher level of potential development
obtained through an adult guidance.
 This theory suggests that, in addition to providing a
stimulating environment, early childhood educators
need to promote discovery explaining and providing
suggestions to suit each child’s zone of proximal
development.

10. VYGOTSKY ON COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
“The teacher must orient his work not on yesterday’s
development in the child but on tomorrow’s.”
--Lev Semanovich Vygotsky