Compare & Contrast: Erikson, Vygotsky, Piaget & Dewey

Compare & Contrast: Erikson, Vygotsky, Piaget & Dewey

Carson Kober-Mazurkiewicz
Kutztown University

Compare & Contrast: Erikson, Vygotsky, Piaget & Dewey

The beginning of the 20th century saw an enormous growth in the field of study of
early childhood development and educational theories. As the theories were tested by
hypotheses and data, much of these significant findings are still being used today in
developing curriculum and classroom techniques. Four theorists stand out from this
time period as having a lasting effect on the way we currently view childhood
development and education. Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget were pioneers in the
breakdown of varied stages of cognitive development, while Lev Vygotsky and John
Dewey are best known for their contributions to educational theories and best practices.
Erik Erikson was born in Denmark, but moved to Germany at a young age. He
was a tall, blond, Danish-looking child growing up in a predominately Jewish community
and school. Because of this, he felt strangely out of place and later used those early
years as experiences to draw upon for his later study of childhood development
(Bloland, 2005). Erikson worked as a developmental psychologist and is famous for
coining the phrase, identity crisis (Cherry). In Erikson's four states of psychological and
social development in the lives of children, he identifies how children might typically
negotiate personal challenges and resolve them dependent on their age and stage of
development. Eriksons theory emphasizes the role of the sociocultural context on
childrens personal and social lives (Brekekamp, 2014).
Erikson's hypothesis about the four states of psychological and social
development made way for eight life-stage virtues which deduce emotional and
developmental patterns that are helpful to educators. The stages cover periods of early

Compare & Contrast: Erikson, Vygotsky, Piaget & Dewey

childhood by breaking them down into two to three year timespans, at most. Much of
his theories are helpful in understanding developmental stages, but lack details on how
education can and should be directed to adolescents based on these stages.
Luckily, Erikson wasn't the only developmental psychologist of the era conducting
studies and forming conclusions on how children learn.
Jean Piaget, born the son of a professor in Switzerland in 1896, showed interest
early in his life for biology and the natural world. Piaget believed that children learn by
constructing their own understanding based on their direct experiences with people and
objects (Ormrod, 2012).
"From birth, children are viewed as competent actors in constructing their own
understanding." Teachers need to provide an enriching environment and hands-on
materials for children to explore and investigate. Teachers facilitate childrens
engagement in projects (Santrock, 2001).
Like Erikson, Piaget's theories suggest that starting around four, children begin to
observe and question the world around them. Children become very curious. Piaget
calls this the "intuitive stage (Santrock, 2001). Subsequently, Erikson views this as the
age when children begin to experience feelings of guilt which leads them in future
decision making.
The following stage, focusing on the ages of approximately six to eleven, begins
to show the adolescent forming confidence and judgement in their learning. Both
Erikson and Piaget agree that this stage is brimming with logical thinking, comparisons
and self-identity exploration, relative to other children.

Compare & Contrast: Erikson, Vygotsky, Piaget & Dewey

It is clear that both Erikson and Piaget were similar in their conclusions about
early childhood development. Piaget's study conclusions end at stage four with the
formal operational stage ranging from eleven to sixteen (and onwards). Diversely,
Erikson's eight life-stage virtues continue throughout a person's entire life with the final
stage being Wisdom, Ego Integrity vs. Despair beginning at the age of sixty-five
(Brekekamp, 2014).
The study of the intellectual and developmental milestones by Erikson and Piaget
no doubt enabled Vygotsky and Dewey to develop learning techniques based on facts.
Lev Vygotsky, born in Russia in 1896, is best known for his Sociocultural Theory
by which he described learning as the result of social interaction within a cultural
context. He identified the zone of proximal development (ZPD)the distance between
the actual developmental level a child has achieved (their independent level of problem
solving) and the level of potential development they could achieve with adult guidance
or through collaboration with other children (Kozulin, 2014).
According to Vygotsky, through the assistance of a more capable person, a child
is able to learn skills or aspects of a skill that go beyond the childs actual
developmental or maturational level. This support he called scaffolding. This scaffolding
is based on his idea that children learn by solving problems collaboratively (Palincsar,
1998). The idea is that as a child learns, their support, be it a teacher or a peer,
provides less scaffolding and the child begins to be able to see and work independently.
The lower limit of ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working
independently (also referred to as the childs actual developmental level). The upper
limit is the level of potential skill that the child is able to reach with the assistance of a

Compare & Contrast: Erikson, Vygotsky, Piaget & Dewey

more capable instructor. In this sense, the ZPD provides a prospective view of cognitive
development, as opposed to a retrospective view that characterizes development in
terms of a childs independent capabilities.
Another accomplished authority of early childhood education is philosopher and
teacher, John Dewey. Born in Vermont in 1859, Dewey pioneered a vastly different way
of thinking about how education is administered. His basic principles stemmed from the
belief that the purpose of education is to ensure the effective functioning of a democratic
society (Brekekamp, 2014).
Both Dewey and Vygotsky theorized that education is most effective when there
is child-centered curriculum; not to be confused with letting a child control their
educational choices, but instead working on what is best for a particular child, in a
certain life stage, accounting for their specific interests. Both Deweys and Vygotskys
theories essentially corroborated that teaching should be directly linked to the study of
children and their developmental milestones.

Compare & Contrast: Erikson, Vygotsky, Piaget & Dewey

References
Bloland, S. (2005). In the Shadow of Fame. Penguin Books.
Brekekamp, S. (2014). Effective Practices in Early Childhood Education. Upper Saddle River:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Cherry, K. (n.d.). Identity Crisis - Theory and Research. Retrieved from wikipedia.
Kozulin, A. (2014). Dynamic assessment in search of its identity in Yasnitsky, A. Cambridge
University Press.
Ormrod, J. (2012). Essentials of Educational Psychology: Big Ideas to Guide Effective Teaching.
Boston: Pearson Education Inc.
Palincsar, A. S. (1998). Keeping the metaphor of scaffolding fresh - a response to C. Addison
Stone's "The metaphor of scaffolding: Its utility for the field of learning disabilities.
Journal of Learning Disabilities.
Santrock, J. W. (2001). Life-Span Development (9th Ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill College.