Vygotsky

• What is Vygotskys theory of cognitive development?


  - 2 major influences of child development: social interaction and language

  - Empathasies the role of others

  - children acquire the mechanisms of thinking and learning as a result of social interactions between themselves and others

  - Two concepts: Zone of proximal development and scaffolding
• What is zone of proximal development?

  The difference between what a learner can do with help and without help
• What is scaffolding?


  When an adult aids the child at the beginning and then slowly removes support, until the child becomes independent
• How does culture influence cognitive development (vygotsky)?

  - Cultural attitudes and beliefs are passed from one generation to the next

  - Inherit cultural factors: technological, psychological, values
• How does the role of language influence cognitive development (vygotsky)?

  - Most important to transmit culture

  - Language is shared dialogue between adults and child, this then develops

  - Intellectual development is helped through language (internal monologue)
• 3 Strengths of Vygotsky theory

  Supporting evidence for ZPD- Roazzi and Bryant gave children aged 4-5yr olds the task of estimating sweets in a box, 1 condition they worked alone and the 2 condition worked with an older child. Most children failed alone and children with help were good

  Supporting evidence of scaffolding- Conner and cross followed up 45 children, observing them in problem solving tasks with help from mothers. Mothers used less and less direct intervention and more hints/prompts as children gained experience

  Real world application- In teaching, this has changed to group work, peer tutoring and teaching assistants. Keer and Verhaeghe found 7yr olds tutored by 10yr olds progressed further
• One weakness of Vygotskys theory

  Not universal- Liu and Matthews found in China, lecture style classrooms with few interactions with peers and tutors were very effective in learning, which according to Vygotsky is not possible.