Piaget and Vygotsky, Children move through 4 stages of mental development: The Sensorimotor Stage, The Preoperational Stage, The Concrete Operational Stage, The Formal Operational Stage.As kids interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information. Interested in the nature of intelligence. Development is influenced through interactions with family, friends and culture. Concepts of cognitive development are both physical and intellectual and include the process of schemas, to assimilation and then accomodation. Vygotsky has his concept of Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD pertaining to the learning of children. Children who are in the zone of proximal development for a specific task can almost perform the task independently, but not quite there yet. However, with an appropriate amount of assistance, these children can accomplish the task successfully. The lower limit of a child’s zone of proximal development is the level of analysis and problem-solving reached by a child without any help. The upper limit, on the other hand, is the level of additional responsibility that a child can receive with the support of a skilled instructor. As children are verbally given instructions or shown how to perform certain tasks, they organize the new information received in their existing mental schemas in order to assist them in the ultimate goal of performing the task independently. This emphasis on the concept of Zone of Proximal Development made by Vygotsky underscores his conviction that social influences, particularly instruction, are of immense importance on the cognitive development of children.

Chomsky, We all have an innate learning ability. Children are born with specialised information processing abilities that enable them to figure out structure of development.

Skinner, Watson and Bandura, Learning is gradual and continuous. Development is a sequence of specific conditional behaviours. Main emphasis is on the environment, not heredity. Observable behaviours are considered most important.

GESSELL, Growth and development occur in orderly stages and sequence. The individual genetic timetable affects rate of maturation.

Erikson, Qualitative changes in the way children think. The child is considered an active learner going through stages.

Bonfenbrenner, Balance between nature and nurture. Child is placed in the middle of concentric factors which all influence the child. Emphasis is placed both on environment and heredity.

Behaviour is controlled by unconscious urges. Three components of the mind are id, ego and super ego.