CD - Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)

INTRO / BASIC THEORY from slides
1. His work has become very popular in a field now known as Social Development Theory. VYGOTSKY's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition. He believed COMMUNITY played a strong role in the process of making meaning.
2. Vygotsky stated that no single principle can account for development, social and cultural context leads to development.
3. PIAGET and VYGOTSKY both claimed that infants are born with the basic abilities for intellectual development. Piaget focuses on motor and sensory abilities. Whereas Vygotsky refers to elementary mental functions such as attention, sensation, perception and memory.
  1. Vygotsky stated that through social interactions these are developed into more effective HIGHER MENTAL FUNCTIONS.
    1. Culture determines the type of memory strategy we develop, in our culture it is note-taking but in others it is carrying pebbles etc..
HOW VYGOTSKY IS DIFFERENT TO PIAGET
1. Piaget believed that children's development must come before learning. WHEREAS VYGOTSKY argued that learning is a necessary part of the process of developing. Therefore social learning comes before development.
2. VYGOTSKY places more emphasis on culture shaping our cognitive development, which contradicts Piaget's view of universal stages.
3. Vygotsky emphasises social factors in development, Piaget doesn't
4. Vygotsky places more emphasis on the role of language in cognitive development, whereas Piaget is critisised for the lack of emphasis on this.
SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
1. BOTH Piaget and Vygotsky believed that young children are curious and actively involved in their learning of schemas. VYGOTSKY however placed more emphasis on social contributions, whereas PIAGET emphasised self-initiated discovery.
2. VYGOTSKY - 1978 - important learning occurs through interaction with a tutor, the tutor provides instructions and the child seeks to understand these, then internalises the information and uses it to guide themselves.
  1. SCHAFFER - 1996 - e.g. young girl can't do jigsaw alone but when father shows her basic strategies and leaves her to do it then, she can. THIS CO-OPERATIVE DIALOGUE promotes cognitive development
MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE OTHER (MKO)
1. Someone who has a better understanding than the learner. It is NOT always the case that a MKO is a teacher or adult, it may often be the child's peers. It may not even be a person at all, some companies now use electronic tutors.
THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
1. This relates to the difference between what a child can achieve alone and what a child can achieve with guidance from a skilled partner.
2. VYGOTSKY - 1978 - sees the zone of proximal development as the area where the most sensitive instruction should be given in order for the child to develop higher mental functions and use such skills alone.
  1. Vygotsky views interaction with peers as an effective way of developing skills and strategies.
EVIDENCE FOR VYGOTSKY AND THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
1. FREUND - 1990 - study where children placed items of furniture in a dolls house. they were either 1. allowed to play with their mother like this before (zone of PD) or 2. work alone (Piaget's discovery learning). FOUND those who worked with their mother (ZPD) showed greatest improvement. BEING GUIDED led to greater understanding.
2. ROGOFF, ELLIS AND GARDNER - 1981 - mothers stretched the zone of proximal development by giving more intense instruction, to compensate for the child's lack of skill.
3. PRATT ET AL - 1988 - said a good tutor is one that SEEKS OUT the zone of proximal development and gradually reduced support
VYGOTSKY AND LANGUAGE
1. Language plays two critical roles in development. 1. it is the main means an adult transmits info to children. 2. language is a powerful tool for intellectual adaptation.
2. PRIVATE SPEECH - when people talk aloud to themselves. He sees it as a means for children to plan activities and aid their development. He believed more private speech = more socially competent children.
  1. Language develops from social interactions. Thought and 'inner speech' is the result of language.
    1. BERK - 1986 - found private speech describes the child's actions, that children engage in private speech more often when alone, and that private speech is the same in all cultures.
APPLICATIONS OF VYGOTSKY'S WORK
1. RECIPROCAL TEACHING is used to improve students ability to learn from text. Where the students and teachers collaborate on four key skills, summarizing, questioning, clarifying and predicting
2. SCAFFOLDING - a more advanced person structures and arranges a task so that a novice can work on it successfully.
  1. WOOD ET AL - created scaffolding where caregivers organise their interventions according to the child's progress,
3. Suggestion that group members should have different abilities so more advanced peers can help less advanced members.
CRITICISM OF VYGOTSKY
1. ROGOFF - 1990 - the assumption that it is relevant to all cultures is not correct. Rogoff states that the concept of scaffolding (heavily verbal dependent) may not be useful in all cultures for learning. observation and practice may be more useful skills.
2. COMPARING PIAGET AND VYGOTSKY
  1. They share the same stance about the role of nature / nurture, saying development is the product of interaction between the child and environment.
  2. Piaget is more biological, Vygotsky is more socio-cultural.
  3. BOTH suggest the child is ACTIVELY INVOLVED, however PIAGET says development comes first, then learning / knowledge, VYGOTSKY says its the other way round
  4. PIAGET is discontinuous theory - leaps and bounds, whereas VYGOTSKY is a continuous theory of development
3. CRITICISED for too much emphasis on external regulation of learning (tutors) and not the internal processes of the pupil
VYGOTSKY'S GENETIC METHOD
1. human mental processes must be looked at using a genetic method to examine the origins of these processes. genetic progressions are defined in terms of TOOLS and SIGNS.
  1. SIGN = sound, letter, word, note, symbol etc..
    1. SIGNIFIER = surface form.
    2. SIGNIFIED = meaning
  2. TOOLS - child acquires patterns of social interaction in the form of objects. LEONTIEV - 1981 - infant handles spoon, the handling slowly becomes reorganised by adult
2. SPEECH and THOUGHT begin as separate things but as time goes on merge into one, VERBAL THOUGHT.

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CD - Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)

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	Created by becky.waine almost 11 years ago