vygotsky

• his theory focuses on the role of social interaction and culture in cognitive development via the child internalizing the understanding of experts(more knowledgable others)
• internalization of understanding leads to cognitive development
• social interaction with people from our culture allows us to see problem solving skills(cognitive tools) and then internalize it
• cognitive tools like reasoning and language allow us to understand how the world works and go on to shape our cognitive development
• language allows us to shift from basic mental functions to higher mental functions
• language facilitates thoughts via external monologues and this eventually develops into internalized speech
• internalized speech eventually leads to internalized thoughts
• internalized thought leads to language development showing how culture leads to cognitive development via said cognitive tools
• learning takes place in the gap between what a child currently understands by themselves and what a child can understand with an experts help - this is the zone of proximal development
• expert assistance and scaffolding allows a child to cross the zone of proximal development
• crossing the ZPD leads to a higher level of understanding . Vygotsky stated higher mental functions are only acquired through interactions with experts
• scaffolding refers to any support framework an expert provides to a child to enable them to cross the ZPD
• scaffolding allows the child to learn but it should be gradually withdrawn to help children perform independently and fascillitate cognitive development
• bruner wood and ross furthered vygotskys work by identifying five aspects of scaffolding hat help a child understand expert knowledge
• getting a child to focus on a task to start solving it is part of scaffolding
• engaging and retaining a childs attention on a task is part of scaffolding
• encouraging the child to maintain effort and focus is part of scaffolding
• highlighting the most critical features of the task clearly for the child is part of scaffolding
• demonstrating for the child how to perform the task is part of scaffolding