Series 8 Bonus Episode 6: Vygotsky, Piaget, Driver and New Research in Children’s Cognitive Development in the Age of AI
From The Power of (STEM)2 by Dr. Michael Hammond-Todd
February 17, 2026 · 9 min · Season 8 · Episode 6
About this episode
The episode discusses the relevance of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Driver's theories in understanding children's cognitive development in the context of AI's impact on education.
Series 8 Bonus Episode 6: Vygotsky, Piaget, Driver and New Research in Children’s Cognitive Development in the Age of AI - In this bonus episode of the 8th series, the host explores the need to revisit Piaget’s Stage Theories, Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and Driver’s seminal work on understanding children’s conceptions and misconceptions in science. Revisiting this work is particularly important in AI as a flawed educational technology that hallucinates may impact children’s understanding of science and nature in a wide variety of unknown ways. The episode ends with a call for new educational research that explores children’s cognitive development in science in the Age of AI in order to better understand both the benefits and possible impacts AI and other generative technologies may have on children’s ideas and conceptions of nature and STEAM.
People in this episode
Host: Dr. Michael Hammond-Todd
Topics covered
- children's cognitive development
- AI in education
- Piaget's Stage Theories
- Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development
- science misconceptions
- educational research
Keywords
- cognitive development
- AI
- education
- science
- Piaget
- Vygotsky
- Driver
- misconceptions
- STEAM
More episodes of The Power of (STEM)2
- (STEM)2 S9E2 Island STEAM - How Arctic, Desert and Tropical Islands are Utilizing Science and Technology in Schools and Society · June 5, 2026 · 11 min
- Series 9 Episode 1: Island STEAM - Why Teachers & Students Should Explore Island Life in Schools · May 29, 2026 · 12 min
- (STEM)2 S8E8 Earthday - Integrating Diverse Questioning in STEAM Lessons & Activities · April 17, 2026 · 13 min
- (STEM)2 S8E7 - EarthDay News in STEAM Education · April 8, 2026 · 9 min
- (STEM)2 S8E5 Series 8 Episode 5: Top 10 Graduate and Doctoral Research Topics in STEM Ed for 2026 (9 & 10) · February 4, 2026 · 11 min
- (STEM)2 S8E4 Series 8 Episode 4: Top 10 Graduate and Doctoral Research Topics in STEM Ed for 2026 (7 & 8) · January 30, 2026 · 11 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Power of (STEM)2 podcast page.