Vygotsky's theory of cognitive develpment Flashcards
In contrast to Piaget, what did Vygotsky emphasise?
- Vygotsky did not suggest children develop te ability to think in specific, age-related stages
- Instead Vygotsky emphaises the importance of social interaction, context and culture, language and ZPD and scaffolding to cognitive development
The theory stresses the role of social processes
Vygotsky agreed with Piaget that children develop reasoning skills sequentically but believed this procress were mainly dependent on social processes
- First intermental (between someone expert and someone less expert)
- Then intermental (within the individual)
Cultural differences in learning are explained through differing experiences
Reasoning abilities are acquired via contact with those around us
As a result there will be cultural differences in cognitive development because we all grow up and learn about the world surrounded by cultural values and beliefs
Children pick up ‘mental tools’ that are most important for life from the world they live in
ZDP is the gap between current and potential capbilities
- Zone of proximal development (ZDP) is the gap between
- What a child knows or can do alone and
- What the child is capable of, following interaction with someone more expert
Vygotsky claimed that the role of a teacher was to guide the child through this gap to as full a level of understanding as the child’s developmental ability would allow
(doesn’t matter of age)
What are children born with?
elementary mental functions
e.g memory,perception
(role of culture allows to transform these basic biological functions into higher mental functions e.g use of mathematical system)
What are the role of others - experts
Experts are individuals who psess greater knowledge than the child
The child learns through sharing problem-solving experiences with the expert
Initally the expert guides the activity but gradually transfers responsibility to the child
What is the role of language?
Experts transmit cultures to the child using semiotics
Initially language takes the form of shared dialogues between the adult and child (pre-intellectual speech)
But as the child develops mental representation
he/she is able toc ommunciate with themselves to enable intellectual development
What is the role of social and individual level?
Every function in child’s cognitive development appears first on social level (between expert and child) then on individual level(inside child)
The social experience enables the development of higher mental functions
Both social and indvidual experiences depend on the use of semiotics
What is scaffolding?
An approach to instruction that aims to support a learner only when absolutely necessary i.e to provide a supportive framework (scaffold) to assist the learning process
Scaffolding describes the process whereby a learner is assisted through their ZPD
Increased skills and reasoning ability from experts
From Vgotsky , cognitive development was not just about acquiring moe facts but becoming more skilled at reasoning
The most advanced (formal) reasoning can only be achieved with the help of experts, not simply through exploration
Experts use scaffolding to help the learner cross the ZPD
Wood et al (1976) suggest a umber of features of scaffolding including:
- Recuitment - engaging a learner’s interest
- Reduction in degrees of freedom - focusing learner and getting started
- Direction maintenace - motivation learner to perserver
Progressive scaffolding stratergies
Wood et al identified progressive stratergies that can be used to scaffold learning. e,g prompts might be (from most to least)
- Demonstration (e.g mother draws object with crayons)
- Preparation for child (e.g mother helps child hold crayon)
- Indication of materials (e.g mother points out crayons)
- Specific verbal instruction(e.g mother says - green crayon)
- General prompt (e.g mother says ‘ draw something else’)
Strength
ZPD
- Roazzi and Bryant found that 4-5 year old performed better on a ‘number of sweets’ challenge when working with peers (who offered support on estimating rather than alone)
- This demonstrated that children can develop more advanced reasoning skills when working with expert peoople.
- This therefore supports validity of ZDP as developmental concept
Limitation
all individual differences are not acknowledged
- Both Piaget and Vygotsky assumed that the process of learning are essentially universal. However, not all children may learn effectively in a social situation
- The personality of the learner and style processing may differ and need to be taken into account in explaining their cognitive develpment
- Practically, Vgotsky’s theory may not be helpful in understanding the learning process of every child and the idea may not be appicable to all
Limitation
Not all children respond identically to learning opportunities
- Howe et al (1992) found that 9-12 year olds who had group discussions about the movement of objects down a slope showed a better understanding after the discussion but did not all pick up the same facts
- So even when children experience the same interaction or experience they do not necessarily have the same level of nature of cognitive development
- Vygotsky’s theory can be critised for not fully explaining the differental rate of development f different children whereas Piaget’s concept of maturation can
Another strength is support for the idea of scaffolding
- Conner and Cross (2003) observed 45 children at intervals between the ages of 16 and 54 months, findings that mothers use less direct intervention as children develop
- This shows how the level fo help given by an expert partner declines over time as suggested by the process of scaffolding
- This supports Vygotsky’s claim that scaffolding is a good description of the process by which children move through their ZPD
What did Vygotsky believe in ZPD?
He believed the thinking skills are developed by interaction
It does not take place with younger children (Pratt et al, 1992)
Extra information with language
- It has two distinct functions and used differently by younger and older
- Social speech ( using words to communicate with others - 7-8 years old)
- Vygotsky believed children were born with elemenatry mental functions like attention and memory skills into higher mental functions or complex thinking
- Also talking to themselves during a difficult task - egocentric task
Extra information with social, interaction , context and culture
- Vygotsky believed the ability to think and reason was the outcome of a fundamental social process
- e.g interaction happening everday , formal - school and informal friends
- This allows cognitive skills to develop as children interaterate with other people
- “Child is an apprenctice” - full of tools to think (children seeing adults using problem - solving skills and cognitive tools)
Outline Wood and Middleton (1975) to provide support for scaffolding
- Procedure- Tweleve mothers were asked to teach their own four-year old children how to put together a wood jigsaw puzzle so they could do it on their own
- The sessions were recorded and analysed
- Findings - The types of support offered by ,others categeroied. They found the most successful method was ‘mothers as teacher’s who would supply help on child’s action
What is methodological issues with Wood et al?
- The study was observational methods to provide detailed data
- However, concerned about generalising to a small sample
- Collected qualatative data to quantative data obervseration. This is subjective to interpreation
What is the ethical issues with Wood et al?
- This took place when mothers present in home and less likely to be stressful
- Understanding the right to withdraw
- Debreif given to parents
What did Moss (1992) show?
This shows that scaffolding doesn’t only take place with younger children
What did Pratt et al (1992) show?
They found out that there was some variations in children’s performances related to how parents scaffolded
