findings

• Gredler - People in Papua New Guinea - primitive counting system - only count to 29 - participants had real difficultites counting beyond 29
• 4-5 year olds estimate the number of sweets in a box - working alone vs older child condition - failed to give good estimates alone - other condition sucessful with presence of expert as prompts were provided and they were pointed in the right direction tot he right estimate
• vygotsky - focuses on the role of others - ignores role of mediational internal mental processes which leads to cognitive development - says we internalise cognitive skills from experts - doesn't explain mechanisms of how - Piaget describes how schemas develop leading to cog dev - whilst ZPD is thoroughly defined he does not offer compelling mechanisms of cog dev
• peer tutoring programmes - "reading buddies" - pair older "expert" students with younger students to coach skills like reading - aids literary progress - Van Keer found 7 year olds who were tutored by 10 year olds progressed further in reading than those just being taught in standard class setting