Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective
Russian psychologist
He believed that human activities take place in cultural settings and that they cannot be understood part from theses settings. One of this key ideas was that our specific mental structures and processes can be traced to our interaction with others. These social interactions are not simple influences on cognitive developemtn; they actually create out cognitive structures and thiking processes.
The Social Sources of Individual Thinking
Every function in a child's cultural development appears twice
Social level (interpsychological)
Individual level (intrapsychological)
Cognitive developement and
Culture
Interaction
Cultural tools: play an important role in cognitive development/ they support learning and cognitive development as they change the thinking process.
Technical tools : allow us to act upon an object in the environment.
Psychological tools:
The Zone of Proximal Developement
The Zone of Proximal Development is the distance between the child’s current performance (the problems the child can solve independently without any support) and the level of performance that the child could achieve with guidance.
Private sppech
It has an important role in cognitive development because it allows children to self-regulate their behaviour and thinking processes. In this way, they can control theirability to plan, monitor, and guide their own thinking and problem solving.
Language
Learning
Language is critical for cognitive development because it provides a way to express and ask questions, the categories and concepts for thinking, and the links between the past and the future.
Culture shapes cognitive development by determining what and how the child will learn about the world (the context and processes of thinking).
Social interaction was more than an influence to Vygotsky; it was the origin of higher mental processes such as problem solving. Vygotsky suggested that children’s cognitive development is fostered by interactions with people who are more capable or advanced in their thinking, such as peers and teachers.
Vygotsky believed that learning is an active process that does not have to wait for readiness. In fact, he believed that properly organized learning fosters cognitive development and sets in motion a variety of mental processes. For him, learning was a tool in development.
Limitations
As Vygotsky died before expanding his ideas, his theory consists of general ideas.
As he did not have time to detail the applications of his theories for teaching, the applications described today can be misunderstood, misleading, or incomplete. .
Implications for teachers
-Students should develop higher mental functions, not simply fill their memories with facts.
-Children use help for support while they build a firm understanding that will eventually allow them to solve problems on theiw own.
-Provide scaffolding.
Assisted learning or guided participation: requires first learning from the student what is needed; then giving information, prompts, reminders, and encouragements at the right time and amount; and gradually allowing the students to do more and more on their own,
-Students should be encouraged to work in groups (someone needs to be a bit better in the activity).
-Tailor scaffolding to the needs of the students.
-Make sure students have access to powerfull tools that support thinking.
-Build on the student's cultural funds of knoweldge.
-Capitalize on dialogue and group learning.