Conociendo a Vigotsky, Piaget, Ausubel y Novak. | CECC

Summary

The video introduces constructivism through the ideas of four theorists: Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, David Ausubel, and Joseph Novak. Their work suggests that learning depends on learners’ prior knowledge, cognitive development, and social and cultural context. These ideas also imply that teaching should adapt to how students learn.

Vygotsky: Learning Through Society and Culture

• Learning is shaped by the culture and society in which a person grows up. People in different cultural settings may learn in different ways.
• Cognitive development is influenced by social interaction. Children often make discoveries with help from others.
• Parents, tutors, friends, and more skilled peers can model behavior and guide learning through instructions and shared activities.
• Language supports cognitive development by helping children express ideas, ask questions, form concepts, and connect the past and future.
• Guided learning is especially effective when learners participate in meaningful activities alongside people who can support and encourage them.
• Learners internalize processes and practices from the social groups and cultures to which they belong.

Piaget: Cognitive Development and Adaptation

Piaget studied how cognitive abilities develop and argued that people develop at their own pace. Learning involves reorganizing cognitive structures and adapting to the environment.

• Assimilation means interpreting new experiences or information through existing knowledge.
• Accommodation means adjusting existing cognitive structures when new information extends or challenges what a person already understands.

As learners encounter new knowledge, they may:

1. Keep their existing understanding when it already fits.
2. Modify it to incorporate or extend what they knew.
3. Change it substantially when they discover that their previous understanding was inaccurate or inadequate.

Teaching should give students opportunities to explore and manipulate objects, experiment, find meaning, and develop new ways of thinking. Learning is evident when their cognitive structures change.

Ausubel: Meaningful Learning

Ausubel developed the theory of meaningful learning and the idea of advance organizers. Learning is meaningful not simply because the material seems important to the teacher, but because students connect new knowledge to concepts they already understand.

Three conditions are needed for meaningful learning:

1. Logical meaningfulness: The material is organized in a coherent sequence.
2. Psychological meaningfulness: Students can relate the material to their prior knowledge and incorporate it into their cognitive structures.
3. A favorable attitude: Students need interest for learning to take place.

Novak: Concept Maps

Building on Ausubel’s theory, Novak developed concept mapping as an instructional tool for representing and assessing meaningful learning.

• Creating a concept map requires understanding a concept well enough to show how it relates to other concepts.
• Learning involves more than acquiring information: learners review, modify, and enrich their knowledge by forming new connections.
• Concept maps can help educators judge whether students have integrated new learning into their existing understanding.

Implications for Educators

Together, the four theorists point to the need to change teaching in response to what is known about learning. Educators should reflect on how they themselves learn, the social and cultural contexts that shape their learning, and how students’ prior knowledge affects their understanding. This can help make teaching more accessible and effective.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Speaker: An unnamed narrator or presenter explains the theories; no individual presenter is identified in the subtitles.
• Theorists discussed: Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, David Ausubel, and Joseph Novak.