Vygotsky

• Who was vygotsky influenced by ?

  Piaget
• What did vygotsky agree with piaget ?

  Vygotsky agreed with Piaget that the way children

  think is qualitatively different from how adults

  think and that children’s reasoning abilities

  develop in a particular sequence
• What is cognitive development driven by in a child ?

  a child’s biological maturation but also a child’s interactions with others
• What are the key ideas of vygotsky?

  • The role of culture
  • The role of others
  • The role of language and semiotics
  • Zone of proximal development
  • Scaffolding
• The role of cultures

  • Children born with elementary mental functions e.g attention,perception, memory, sensation
  • These are transformed into higher mental functions (e.g. use of mathematical systems) by the influence of culture
  • Cultural influences come from interactions with others and through language There will be cultural differences in cognitive abilities

  Higher mental functions are exclusively human
• The role of others

  • Child learns through problem solving experiences shared with someone else. E.g. teacher, parent or more competent peers
  • All people with greater knowledge = experts
  • Initially, the expert interacting with the child assumes most of the responsibility for guiding problem-solving activities
  • Gradually, the responsibility transforms to the child (via scaffolding)
• Role of language

  • Culture is transmitted by ‘experts’ to the child using semiotics
  • Knowledge is first intermental. To begin with language is between the more and less knowledgeable other
  • Knowledge is then intramental. As the child develops the skill of mental representation, they begin to communicate with themselves

  Language enables intellectual development
• Zone of proximal development

  • The ‘region between a person’s current abilities and their potential abilities’

  1. Learning involves crossing the ZPD

  2. Expert assistance allows a child to cross the

  ZPD and understand as much of a subject or

  situation as they are capable of

  3. Children develop a more advanced understanding of a situation and more advanced reasoning abilities by learning from others, as opposed to individual exploration
• Scaffolding 


  refers to the help that adults and more advanced peers give a child to help them to cross the zone of

  proximal development.

  The adult creates a temporary support (scaffold) which is gradually withdrawn when a child is more able to work

  independently.
• Example of scaffolding 


  5. Demonstration - mother draws an object with crayon 5. Demonstration - mother draws an object with crayon

  4. Preparation for child - mother helps child grasp a crayon

  3. Indication of materials - mother points to crayon

  2. Specific verbal instructions - mother says ‘how about the green crayon’

  1.general prompts - mother says ‘now draw something else‘
• What are the differences between Vgotsky and Piaget?

  -P - Understanding occurs through the process of adaptation of schema.

  -V - Understanding occurs through social experiences.

  -P - Knowledge is acquired through direct experiences.

  -V - Knowledge is acquired through the internalisation of the expert's understanding.
• Differences through Piaget and Vgotsky (2) ?

  P - Cognitive development is driven by a child's inbuilt tendency to adapt to new experiences.

  -V - Cognitive development is driven by social interaction and experience within a culture.

  -P - Cognitive development is mostly the same universally.

  -V - Cognitive development differs from culture to culture and one historical era to the next.