Vygotsky

• Vygotsky agreed with Piaget that children develop reasoning skills sequentially but believed that this process was mainly dependant on social processes. Vygotsky claimed knowledge is : first instrumental (between someone more expert and someone less expert) then intramental (within the individual)
• Cultural differences :

  Reasoning abilities are acquired via contact with those around us and as a result there will be cultural differences in cognitive development. 
• Zone of proximal development :

  The ZPD is the gap between what a child knows or can do alone and what they are capable of, following interaction with an expert. The role of the teacher is to guide the child through this gap as full a level of understanding as the child’s developmental ability will allow. 
• Advanced reasoning ability :

  Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development was not just about acquiring more facts but about becoming more skilled at reasoning as the most advanced reasoning can only be achieved through help with experts. 
• Scaffolding :

  the process of helping a learner cross the ZPD and advance as much as they can. Typically, the level of help given in scaffolding declines as the learner crosses the ZPD : 

  > Demonstration (mother draws an object with crayons)

  > Preparation (mother helps child hold crayon)

  > Indication of material (mother points to crayon)

  > Specific verbal instructions (mother says ‘how about the green crayon ?’

  > General prompt (mother says ‘now draw something else’

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• Evaluation

  One strength is support for the zone of proximal development. Roazzi and Bryant asked one group of 4-5 year olds to estimate the number of sweets in a box. Most failed to give a close estimate. A second group aged 4-5 were guided by much older children and most of them mastered the task. This means that children can develop more advanced reasoning with help from a more expert individual. 
• Evaluation

  One strength is the idea of scaffolding. Conner and Cross observed 45 children at age 16, 26, 44 and 54 months, finding that mothers used less direct interventions as children developed. The mothers alo increasingly offered help when it was needed rather than constantly. This means that adult assistance with children’s learning is well described by the concept of scaffolding. 
• evaluation

  One strength is real world application. Educational techniques like group work, peer tutoring and individual adult assistance are all based on Vygotsky’s ideas which have been increasingly used over the 21st century. Van Keer and Verhaeghe found that 7 year olds tutored by 10 year olds in addition to whole class teaching, progressed further in reading than a control group who only had class teaching. This means that Vygotsky’s theory has real world application in education.  
• evaluation

  One limitation  is Vygotsky VS Piaget. There is evidence to support Vygotsky’s idea that interaction with a more experienced other may enhance learning. However, if Vygotsky was right about interactive learning, we would expect children learning together to learn the same things but it varies a lot. This means that Piaget may have described learning better than Vygotsky in spite of Vygotsky’s useful emphasis on interaction.