THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
VYGOTSKY
LEV VYGOTSKY
believed that the adults in any society foster children’s learning and development in an intentional and rather systematic manner.
In particular, adults engage children in meaningful and challenging activities, show them how to use various physical and cognitive tools to facilitate their performance, and help them make sense of their experiences.
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Theoretical perspective that focuses on children’s learning of tools, thinking processes, and communication systems through practice in meaningful tasks with other people
importance of adult instruction and guidance for promoting cognitive advancements
emphasised the influence of social and cultural factors in children’s cognitive development
APPROACH
DIFFERED FROM PIAGET AND OTHER PSYCOLOGISTS OF THIS ERA
Rather than determine the kinds of tasks children could successfully perform on their own (as Piaget did), he emphasised the kinds of tasks children could complete only with adult assistance
KEY IDEAS IN VYGOTSKY’S THEORY
Biological factors (e.g. brain maturation) play a role in development.
Children bring certain characteristics and dispositions to the situations they encounter, and their responses to those situations vary accordingly.
Children’s inherited traits affect their behaviour, which in turn influences the particular experiences that children have
Vygotsky’s primary focus was on the role of nurture, and especially on the ways in which a child’s social and cultural environments foster cognitive growth
CENTRAL IDEAS
distinguished between two kinds of mental processes
Functions: Many species exhibit lower mental functions: certain basic ways of learning
responding to the environment, such as discovering what foods to eat and how best to get from one location to another.
human beings are unique in their use of higher mental functions: deliberate, focused cognitive processes that enhance learning, memory and logical reasoning.
Through both informal interactions and formal education, adults convey to children the ways their culture interprets the world
In their interactions with children, adults share the meanings they attach to objects, events and, more generally, human experience. As they do, they actually transform the situations children encounter.
This process of helping children make sense of their experiences in culturally appropriate ways is known as mediation. Meanings are conveyed through a variety of mechanisms—language, mathematical symbols, art, music, and so on
He saw value in allowing children to make discoveries themselves, he saw more value in having adults pass along the discoveries of previous generations
children as apprentices, rather than scientists
Every culture passes along physical and cognitive tools that make daily living more effective and efficient
cognitive tool
Concept, symbol, strategy or other culturally constructed mechanism that helps people think more effectively.
Thought and language become increasingly interdependent in the first few years of life so language becomes a very important cognitive tool.
For us as adults, thought and language are closely interconnected. We think using the words that our language provides. For example, when we think about pets, our thoughts contain words like ‘dog’ and ‘cat’.
thought and language are separate functions for infants and young toddlers. In these early years, thinking occurs independently of language, and when language appears,
self-talk is important in cognitive development
Talking to yourself as a way of guiding yourself through a task
eventually evolves into inner speech, where children ‘talk’ to themselves mentally rather than aloud.
inner speech
‘Talking’ to yourself mentally, rather than aloud, as a way of guiding yourself through a task
Complex mental processes begin as social activities and gradually evolve into internal mental activities that children can use independently.
The process through which social activities and shared thought evolve into internal mental activities is called internalisation
internalisation
the gradual evolution of external, social activities into internal, mental activities
For example, children frequently argue with one another about a variety of matters—how best to carry out an activity, what games to play, who did what to whom, and so on.
Childhood arguments help children discover that there are often several ways to view the same situation.
Eventually, children internalise the ‘arguing’ process, developing the ability to look at a situation from several different angles on their own.
Children acquire their culture’s tools in their own idiosyncratic manner.
Children often transform ideas, strategies and other cognitive tools to make these tools uniquely their own.
appropriation
Gradual adoption and perhaps adaptation of other people’s ways of thinking and behaving or your own purposes
Children can perform more challenging tasks when assisted by more advanced and competent individuals
zone of proximal development (ZPD)
Play allows children to stretch themselves cognitively
scenario of Jeff and Scott playing ‘restaurant’. The boys take on several adult roles (restaurant manager, server, cook) and practise a variety of adult-like behaviours: assembling the necessary materials for a restaurant, creating menus, keeping track of customers’ orders and tallying final bills.
preschool years, children expand their pretend play into elaborate scenarios—sometimes called sociodramatic play—they can also practise roles such as ‘parent’, ‘teacher’ or ‘superhero’, and they rehearse how to behave in ways that conform to cultural standards and expectations.
sociodramatic play
Play in which children take on specific roles and act out a scenario of imaginary events
CURRENT PERSPECTIVES RELATED TO VYGOTSKY’S THEORY
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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORY
TEACHERS
PARENTS
OLDER STUDENTS
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1896 - 1934