Vygotsky: Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development

• Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

  Development takes place through children’s social interactions with others

  • Focus on social and cultural influences

  Children as social beings – both learners and teachers.

  • Focus on interactions and experiences

  Development as continuous; no discrete stages.
• Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

  • Children are born with some innate capabilities (e.g. attention, perception, memory)
  • But social and cultural input allows for more complex capabilities to develop
  • Importance of language in intellectual development!

  
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

  difference between:

  • Child’s actual developmental level and…
  • …potential development under guidance of more capable adult/peer

  
• Guided participation (Rogoff, 1990):

  = Supporting learning through everyday activities

  “Intent participation” (Rogoff et al., 2003):

  • Learning from informal community involvement
  • Observing/listening with intent concentration
  • Collaborative participation is expected

  “Learning by Observing and Pitching in” (Rogoff, 2016):

  • Culture as “way of life” rather than static characteristic (e.g. ethnicity)
  • Learning through participation in cultural practices
• Importance of culture


  Any attempt to assess child’s cognitive development must take into account cultural context

  E.g., Morelli et al. (2003):

  • Children from middle-class European American cultures: typically segregated from adult work
  • → Less opportunity for learning through observing work activities
  • Children in nonindustrial communities: greater participation in adult world
  • → Less opportunity for learning through child-focused activities

  
• Cultural specificity of cognitive abilities: street maths vs school maths

  Carraher, Schliemann, & Carraher (1988) – young street vendors in Brazil:

  
• Importance of language

  According to Vygotsky, thought and speech begin independently and begin to join together in second year of life

  
• Vygotsky’s impact on education:

  Scaffolding

  • Teacher provides temporary framework to support learner’s thinking at a higher level than they could do alone

  Reciprocal instruction (/reciprocal teaching)

  • Teaching technique for reading based on ZPD, students and teachers collaborate and discuss a text

  Community of learners

  • Peers work together on a project, while a teacher facilitates (scaffolds) the process
• Strengths and limitations of Vygotsky’s theory

  Strengths

  • Raised awareness of social context for learning and cognition
  • Influenced development of educational concepts (scaffolding; guided participation)
  • Implication of culture and (cultural) tools used in cognition (e.g. literacy; numerical systems)

  Limitations

  • Focus on microgenic change (i.e., during specific learning experience) rather than ontogenic change (age-related, longer-term development)