Piaget and Bandura

Albert Bandura proposed what is known as social learning theory in relation to his theory children learn new behaviours from watching other people such as their parents, friends or staff in residential children’s homes. Social learning theory would be in contrast to behaviour theories as bandura believed that external reinforcement was not the only way that children are able to   learn new things, alternatively basic reinforcements such as a sense of pride, satisfaction and accomplishment could also lead to learning. This would be done by observing the actions of others, including care workers peers in residential care setting this is called social modelling whereby staff act as role models to the young people in their care, children develop new skills and acquire new information.
In contrast to this theory Jean Piaget suggested that children think differently to adults and he proposed a stage theory of cognitive development. He was the first theorist to note that children play an active role in gaining knowledge of the world. According to his theory, children can be thought of as little scientists they are able to problem solve as they develop and work things out for themselves they actively construct their knowledge and their understanding of the world.   In residential care we encourage and teach children who are behind in their developmental stages to problem solve, for example we teach and guide them to think for themselves this theory of Jean Piaget is called cognitive development theory.
My third theorist is John B Watson who believed that development is considered a reaction to a reward, punishment, stimuli or reinforcement, this theory differs considerably from the ones I have previously mention in that other child development theories because it gives no consideration to internal thoughts or feelings instead it focuses purely on how experience shapes who we are.
Within our home the framework which we use is a humanistic approach which is based on the...