Vygotsky - Cog Dev

• Vygotsky's theory of cog dev

  Argues that the culture someone is raised in and the variety of social exp they go through, facilitates cog dev. Children internalise any understanding provided by the "experts" around them e.g. family, teachers. This understanding facilitates cog dev
• Social interaction with ppl from our culture allows us to see their problem solving skills and then internalise it. These skills include language and how to reason. Such skills help us better understand the world and therefore cog develop based on the nature of these skills
• Once these tools have been acquired, they go on to play a critical role in our cognitive development. e.g. language that we learn allows us to shift from basic mental functions to more complicated higher mental functions. At first language allows for external monologues (the child speaking aloud all their thoughts). Eventually this leads to internalised thought. Therefore culture and language facilitate cog dev
• Vygotsky argues that learning takes place between what a child currently understands by themselves and what a child can understand with an experts help. This gap in understanding is known as the zone of proximal development
• How is the ZPD crossed

  The ZPD is crossed via expert assistance and scaffolding which allows the child to achieve a higher level of understanding (cog dev). Vygotsky argues that higher mental functions (e.g. formal reasoning) can only be acquired through interacting with experts
• What is scaffolding and what does Vygotsky argue about it?

  Scaffolding refers to any support framework an expert provides to a child to enable them to cross the ZPD e.g. highlight the most critical features of the task clearly for the child and demonstrate for the child how to perform the task. Vygotsky argues that scaffolding allows a child to learn but it should then be gradually withdrawn to help the child perform independently and facilitate cog dev.
• S - supporting evidence for role of culture. Gredler - culture does have an effect on cog dev. Gredler found that ppl in Papua New Guinea had a primitive counting system where ppl could only count up 29. The Ps had real difficulties adding large numbers beyond 29 showing how culture can restrict cog dev. Shows Vygotsky is correct in asserting that culture heavily influences the level of cog dev ppl exp. Increasing V
• S - Vygotsky's - concepts like scaffolding + experts have practical application e.g. teachers can implement peer tutoring programmes such as "reading buddies" - enable cog dev. Reading buddies - pairing older (expert) with younger student - help reading skills through scaffolding. Van Keev et al found - 7yr olds who were tutored by 10yr olds progressed further in reading than 7yr olds who were taught in a standard class setting. S bc theory isnt purely theoretical, help improve the lives of students helping better access cog dev. Evidence adds V to the role of experts in learning. /U
• S - support for experts/scaffolding in facilitating cog dev. Roazzi + Bryant - 4-5yr old children estimate num of sweets in a box. Children worked alone in one condition + help of an older child in another. Most failed to give a good estimate working alone but most were successful when receiving help from older child (experts) - they'd give prompts + point them in the right direction to make an accurate estimate. S bc Vygotsky is correct in his notion that experts in our social environment + the scaffolding they facilitate helps individuals cog dev through gaining reasoning skills. / V
• W - incomplete explanation of cog dev. Vygotsky is overly focused on the role of others in facilitating cog dev and therefore ignores the role of internal mental processes like assimilation in facilitating cog dev e.g. Vygotsky simply argues that cog skills like reasoning are gained by internalising the understanding of others but he doesn't explain the actual mechanism through which info is internalised. Whereas Piaget claims that cog dev occurs via processes like accommodation + assimilation. As Vygotsky doesn't account for this, his theory is incomplete thus decreases V