vygotskys theory

• vygotskys theory is a social interactionist theory
• zpd - zone of proximal development
• zpd - gap between childs current and potential ability
• zpd - zone where cognitive development takes place expert assistance allows the child to cross the zpd
• role of experts - experts model behaviour and provides verbal instructions
• mkos - more knowledable others
• scaffolding - assisting a learner through zpd - temporary support which is gradually withdrawn as child can work independantly
• process of scaffolding - 1-general prompts - 2 specific verbal info - 3- indirection of materials - 4 - preperation - 5 - demonstration
• vygotsky - agreed with piaget that children learn differently from adults
• vygotsky - emphasises the role of others culture and contex - beleived that langauge is an important part of cognitive development
• influence of culture - innate elementary functions - attention - sensation - perception - memory
• semiotics - the signs and symbols developed within a particular culture
• 3 stages - social speech - 0-3 - preintellectual
• egocentric speech - 3-7 years - self talk
• inner speech - 7+ - internal self talk
• cognitive development stems from social interactions
• influence of culture on learning - innate elementary functions such as attention, sensations, perception, memory
• semiotics - signs and symbols developed within a particular culture
• wood and middleton - observed mothers using various strategies to support 4 year olds - most effective was to vary strategies
• cultural bias - developed in a collective culture - may overstate the importance of social factors at the expense of individual ones