1) Key Words from Piaget’s Learning Theories:
Accommodation: altering existing schemes or creating new ones in response to new information.
Assimilation : incorporating new information into existing knowledge.
Cognitive structures : figurative and operative knowledge
Conservation: the principle that some characteristics of an object remain the same despite changes in appearance.
Egocentrism: assuming that others experience the world the same way as you.
Equilibration: balance between cognitive schemes and information from the environment as opposed to disequilibration when the information doesn’t fit.
Figurative knowledge: knowledge of static things such as visuals and language.
Organisation: arranging information and experience into mental systems or categories.
Object Permanence: understanding that objects have a separate, permanent existence.
Operative knowledge: knowing about change and transformation.
Reversibility: thinking backwards (in reverse).
Schemes: mental categories of perception and experience.
2) Keywords from Vygotsky’s Learning Theories:
Zone of Proximal Development: The area between what a student/child is capable of doing independently and what they can achieve with aid from a more competent person (teacher, parent, peer).
Egocentric Speech: The developmental stage of language where a child uses verbal speech to help solve internal problems. It may be between the child and another person or between the child and him or herself. For Vygotsky, egocentric speech becomes inner speech as the child develops.
Inner Speech: The developmental stage of language where a child internalizes speech, becoming able to “think” silently.
3) Keywords from Bruner’s Learning Theories:
Enactive Mode: This mode of learning is represented through actions.
Iconic Mode: represented through pictures.
Symbolic Mode: represented through words and numbers.
Scaffolding: mentor-structured interactional support systems.
Discovery Learning: problem-solving learning wherein the learner draws on her own experience and knowledge base. Learners “interact with their environment by exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and controversies, or performing experiments”.