Vygotsky's Stages of Intellectual Development Evaluation Flashcards
Support
Roazzi and Bryant offer strong evidence for the ZPD.
They found that 4-5 year old’s performed better on a number of sweets challenge when working with peers
This demonstrated that children can develop more advanced reasoning skills when working with more expert people
Supports validity of ZPD as a developmental concept
Contradiction
Not all individual differences are acknowledged
Both of vygotsky and piaget assume that processes of learning are universal
But not all children may learn effectively in a social situation
Personality of learner and style of processing may differ and need to be taken into account in explaining their cognitive development
Vygotsky may not be helpful in understanding the learning processes of every child
The idea may not be applicable to all
Alternative
Piaget’s stages
He believed that language is the key to cognitive development than the result
He also believes that individuals go through ages + stages
Suggests each child will progress through the same stages at relatively the same time
Direct contrast to Vygotsky - may mean his theory may not fully explain development
Practical Applications
Van Keer + Verhaeghe
Found that 7 year old’s tutored by 10 year old’s - in addition to whole class teaching
Progressed further in than a control group who only had class teaching
Suggests that he was correct in assuming more able people can enhance development
Supports validity + udefulness of the theory
Issues and Debates
Cross cultural research
Gredler pointed to primitive counting system as an example of how culture can limit cognitive development
Counting is done by starting on the thumb and ending at 29
This system makes it difficult to add and subtract large numbers
A limiting factor for cognitive development in this culture
This suggests that learning can impact development and whether higher mental functions can be developed
