Vygotsky

• Vygotsky's three main ideas of cognitive development

  The importance of social interaction

  Internalisation and language

  The Zone of Proximal Development
• What does Vygotsky say conative development doesn't occur in?

  A vacuum
• What concept does Vygotsky replace Piaget's "little scientist" with?

  The idea of a child as an "apprentice"
• How is a child and "apprentice" according to Vygotsky?

  They acquire cultural knowledge and skills through those who already have them and different stages
• What does Vygotsky say about children's cultural development?

  Any function in the child's cultural development appears twice, or on two planes, first it appears on the social plane and then the psychological plane
• What is meant by social plane? Vygotsky

  The world outside the person
• What is meant by psychological plane? Vygotsky

  The brain/mind
• Example to explain "Any function in the child's cultural development appears twice, or on two planes"

  A child's pointing gesture: pointing originally an unsuccessful attempt at grasping

  Others (social plane) interpret this as pointing

  Eventually the child internalises the gesture as pointing (psychological plane)
• How does Vygotsky say cognitive ability develops?

  Child gradually internalises the meanings provided by social interactions
• According to Vygotsky how do children's cognitive ability start?

  Thinking and reasoning are initially primitive and doesn't involve language (elementary mental functions) this includes attending, sensing, etc
• According to Vygotsky what does the child eventually internalise?

  Language which facilitates thinking/problem solving (higher mental functions)
• What three stages does language go through according to Vygotsky?

  Pre- intellectual/social speech (0-3 years)

  Egocentric speech (3-7 years)

  Inner speech (7+)
• What age is Pre-intellectual/social speech? Vygotsky

  0-3 years
• How does language work in Pre-intellectual/social speech? Vygotsky


  Speech is used to control others, thinking is not part of language
• What age is Egocentric speech? Vygotsky

  3-7 years
• How does language work in Egocentric speech? Vygotsky


  Language helps the child control their own behaviour but is spoken out loud
• What age is Inner speech? Vygotsky

  7+
• How does language work in Inner speech? Vygotsky


  A child uses speech silently to control their own behaviour and publicly in social communication
• What is The Zone of Proximal Development?

  The idea that a child's intellectual ability is greater when working alongside a more capable person than when working alone

  
• Vygotsky definition of Zone of Proximal Development


  The distance between the actual development level as determined by individual problem solving and the level of potential development as determined by problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with a more capable peer

  
• What happens in The Zone of Proximal Development?

  Adults are said to scaffold children through their zone of proximal development

  
• Vygotsky - what is scaffolding?

  Support and prompting, usually provided by an adult, which is gradually withdrawn as the child becomes more competent.
• Who provides evidence to support Vygotsky's ZOPD? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Roazzi and Bryant
• What did Roazzi and Bryant do? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Gave 4-5 year olds the task of estimating the number of sweets in a box

  In one condition children worked alone, the other they were assisted by an older child
• What did Roazzi and Bryant find? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Children working alone tended to give poorer estimates

  In the 'assistance' condition the older child was observed giving prompts - pointing them in the right direction
• What did Roazzi and Bryant conclude? (Vygotsky Eval)

  This supports the idea that children can develop reasoning skills when working with an 'expert' who scaffolds them through their ZOPD
• What did Wood and Middleton do? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Investigated type of parental assistance offered in block building activity

  Interactions between 4 year old children and parents observed during this difficult task
• Who provides evidence to support Vygotsky's scaffolding? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Wood and Middleton

  Wertsch
• What did Wood and Middleton find? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Results showed that parents initially showed child how to assemble blocks but withdrew physical support as child improved

  Verbal support and encouragement then given, demonstrating a variety of ways other than formal instruction
• What did Wertsch do? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Gave mothers and children, 2-4 years, the task of building a wooden truck based upon a model
• What did Wertsch find? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Younger children copied the mother when she looked at the model on 90% of occasions

  Older children were much less influenced by what the mother was doing
• What did Wertsch conclude? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Scaffolding may therefore be more important in younger children
• Support for Vygotsky in education? (Vygotsky Eval)

  Van Keer and Verhaeghe found 7 year-olds tutored by 10 year-olds, in addition to whole class teaching, progressed further in reading than controls who just had standard teaching.
• Strengths of Vygotsky


  Piaget did under-estimate the importance of social context/culture in cognitive development - Vygotsky addresses this

  Vygotsky has also had an importance influence on education - particularly the notion of scaffolding
• Limitations of Vygotsky


  There is no real account of the type of social interaction required to promote cognitive development

  Some types of social interaction may actually hold cognitive development back - overly competitive activities

  There may be other reasons why social interaction promotes cognitive development - social facilitation effects

  Young children may take months/years to master certain types of skill even with appropriate support - suggests that cognitive development might be constrained by ages/stages - Piaget's idea