Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development

12 Key excerpts on "Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development"

• 

  eBook - PDF

  Child Psychology

  Development in a Changing Society

  • Robin Harwood, Scott A. Miller, Ross Vasta(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  In the cultural/historical context, individual development unfolds in a particular cultural and historical niche that itself is dynamic and changing. As noted earlier, socioculturalists believe that individual development must be studied in its cultural context. Moreover, so- cioculturalists study how changes in cultural practices and institutions (such as the intro- duction of formal schooling, move to a market economy, or invention of new technologies) shape the human mind. The Social Origins of Thought In addition to emphasizing the cultural contexts of knowledge and intelligence, Vygotsky focused on the role of social interaction in learning. According to Vygotsky, children acquire knowledge and cognitive skills by participating in cultural activities with more experienced partners. By participating in culturally meaningful activities with more knowl- edgeable members of their society, children internalize the values, customs, beliefs, and skills of their culture and, over time, come to use them independently. Vygotsky believed that the most productive interactions occur in what he termed “the zone of proximal (potential) development.” The zone of proximal development is the dis- tance between what a child can accomplish on his or her own and what the child can achieve under the guidance of an adult or in collaboration with a more capable peer. The zone of proximal development involves activities that are slightly beyond the child’s cur- rent capabilities but can be accomplished with help. Interactions within the zone of prox- imal development promote cognitive development because the social support allows children to extend their current skills to a higher level of competence. Vygotsky and the Sociocultural Approach 257 Scaffolding A method of teaching in which the adult adjusts the level of help provided in relation to the child’s level of performance, the goal being to encourage independent performance.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Social and Emotional Development in Infancy and Early Childhood

  • Janette B. Benson, Marshall M. Haith(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  However, Vygotsky did not view individual psychology or human cognition as a direct consequence of social experience, that is, socially determined. He proposed that human development, including cognitive develop-ment, is socially constructed. That is, in the course of social interaction, the cultural context of development, as instan-tiated in social behavior and cultural artifacts, and the biological aspects of the human system, including genetic, maturational, and neurological characteristics, create new understandings and capabilities. In other words, individual psychological functioning is an emergent property of the sociocultural experiences of the human organism. This means that psychological development is a dynamic and constructive process, the outcome of which cannot be known beforehand or by examining the individual and the social context separately from one another. Rather, devel-opment is generated by the processes that transpire over the course of human social experience in cultural context. Vygotsky was particularly interested in social interac-tions involving more and less experienced members of a culture. As these partners collaborate in solving a problem, the more experienced partner assists the less experienced partner, the learner, in ways that support the learner’s engagement in actions that extend beyond the learner’s current individual capabilities. In an effective learning situation, this engagement occurs in what Vygotsky called the learner’s zone of proximal or poten-tial development, the region of sensitivity for learning. The more experienced partner supports the learner’s activity through the use of signs and tools of the culture. As the learner gains competence at the activity, the more experienced partner gradually withdraws support and, in time, the learner comes to function on his or her own in a more advanced intellectual way.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Developmental Psychology

  Revisiting the Classic Studies

  • Alan M Slater, Paul C Quinn, Alan M Slater, Paul C Quinn(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Despite having been written nearly a century ago, Vygotsky’s critique of other theoretical views about learning and development and the ideas he introduces in this paper are relevant today. When his ideas became known, his perspective about the culturally organized and socially mediated nature of learning and intellectual development was not previously available in developmental science (Schaffer, 2006). His view overcomes some of the limitations of approaches that focus on cognitive development as determined solely by mechanisms inside the individual. It is true that Vygotsky’s assertion that development occurs at the “child-society border” has been difficult for some Western-trained scientists to understand after years of doing research aimed at separating the individual child and the external world (Kessen, 1979). Yet Vygotsky’s view has been useful in helping to direct the attention of researchers to the social and cultural origins of thinking along with the historical-cultural context of intellectual growth. These ideas are relevant to studying many of the concerns raised in today’s world.

  Vygotsky’s ideas about learning and development have also increased awareness of the role of the immediate social context in learning and cognitive development, and challenged developmental researchers to explore the role of context in greater depth. His emphasis on collaborative problem solving with more skilled partners has been influential in the learning sciences (Göncü & Gauvain, 2012; Sawyer, 2014) and developmental researchers have demonstrated the value of this approach in studies of children’s learning in many areas of cognition including attention, memory, problem-solving skills, and planning (Gauvain, 2001). This research shows that children’s understanding and cognitive skills can indeed be improved when adults or more skilled peers provide them with appropriate support for learning. His notion of the zone of proximal development, in particular, has given rise to several important concepts such as scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976) and guided participation (Rogoff, 1990). In addition, it coincides with the growing interest in microgenetic change that occurs over a learning experience (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018; Siegler, 2006). Vygotsky’s ideas are also relevant to studying child development during cultural change, a topic that is garnering significant interest during this period of rapid societal change in the context of globalization (Gauvain & Munroe, 2018).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Learning and Cognition

  • Vibeke Grøver Aukrust(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Elsevier

    (Publisher)

  In fact, Vygotsky argued that when studying human beings, one always studies change. This idea he developed as a critique of the research of, among others, Piaget and his stage theory and of the representatives of traditional intelligence testing such as Binet. An assumption of such theories is that ‘‘learning trails behind development’’ (Vygotsky, 1978: 80). This implies that ‘‘[d]evelopment or maturation is viewed as a precondition of learning but never as a result of it’’ (Vygotsky, 1978). From the point of view of educating children this implies that development is seen as a more fundamental process; chil-dren can only learn it when they are at the required stage of maturation. Instruction, thus, should be adapted to the developmental level of the child. For Vygotsky, and from a sociocultural perspective, the opposite assumption, that is, that learning is constitutive of development, is more productive. It is by appropriating cultural tools that children develop and become familiar with the accumulated knowing and skills of their com-munity. When children begin to appropriate the basics of addition and subtraction, they become familiar with specific cultural tools and ‘‘this provides the basis for the subsequent development of a variety of highly com-plex internal processes in children’s thinking’’ (Vygotsky, 1978: 90). Expressed differently, through learning the development of the child is set in motion in a specific direction. However, learning is not identical with devel-opment; rather, it is a necessary prerequisite for the child to develop ‘‘culturally organized, specifically human psychological functions’’ (Vygotsky, 1978). These ideas of the dynamics of human thinking, and that learning contributes to development, are incorporated into the famous concept of the zone of proximal develop-ment (ZPD).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Vygotsky and Education

  Instructional Implications and Applications of Sociohistorical Psychology

  • Luis C. Moll(Author)
  • 1990(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  The difference for Vygotsky is that the context in which the interaction occurs is of crucial importance. Vygotsky proposed that each child, in any domain, has an "actual developmental level," which can be assessed by testing him or her individually, and an immediate Peer collaboration in the ZPD 157 potential for development within that domain. Vygotsky termed this difference be- tween the two levels the zone of proximal development, which he defined as "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solv- ing under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). Vygotsky gave the concept a clearly maturational slant: The zone of proximal development defines those functions that have not yet ma- tured but are in the process of maturation, functions that will mature tomorrow but are currently in an embryonic state. These functions could be termed the "buds" or "flowers" of development rather than the "fruits" of development. (1978, p. 86) Vygotsky also provided some indication of a seemingly teleological view of the developmental process, a process in which children come to be socialized into the dominant culture. Just as Marx wrote that the first use of tools mediated human beings' experience of the physical environment and had a huge impact on social relations among people, Vygotsky used the notion of "psychological tools" to ex- plain the developmental revolution from "natural" processes to higher mental pro- cesses. Thus language, a tool of immense power, ensures that linguistically created meanings are shared meanings, social meanings. Words that already have meaning for mature members of a cultural group come to have those same meanings for the young of the group in the process of interaction.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Play and Educational Theory and Practice

  • Don Lytle(Author)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  American Psychologist, 41, 264–274. Kozulin, A. (1990). Vygotsky’s psychology: A biography of ideas. Cambridge, MA: Har- vard University Press. Lambert, E. B., & Clyde, M. (2000). Rethinking early childhood theory and practice. Katoomba, NSW: Social Science Press. Lamborn, S., & Fischer, K. (1988). Optimal and functional levels in cognitive devel- opment: The individual’s developmental range. Newsletter of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, 2, 1–4. Low Deiner, P. (1997). Infants and toddlers: Development and program planning. Or- lando, FL: Harcourt, Brace, & Co. McLeod, L. (1997). Young children and metacognition: Do we know what they know they know? And if so what do we do about it? Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 22, 6–11. McLune, L. (1986). Symbolic development in normal and atypical infants. In G. Fein & M. Rivkin (Eds.), The young child at play: Reviews of research: Volume 4 (pp. 45–62). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Meadows, S. (1993). The child as thinker. New York: Routledge. 96 Vygotskian Theory and Scaffolding Miller, P. (1989). Theories of developmental psychology (2nd ed). New York: Freeman & Co. Minick, N. (1987). The development of Vygotsky’s thought: An introduction. In K. Rieber & S. Carton (Eds.), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Volume 1 (pp. 17–36). New York: Plenum Press. Moss, E. (1992). The socio affective context in joint activity. In L. Winegar & L. Valsiner (Eds.), Children’s development within social context: Volume 2: Research and Methodology (pp. 117–154). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Murray, F. (1991). Questions a satisfying developmental theory would answer: The scope of a complete explanation of developmental phenomena. In H. Reese (Ed.), Ad- vances in child development and behaviour (vol. 23, pp. 39–48). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Nuthall, G. (1996). Commentary: Of language and learning and understanding the com- plexity of the classroom.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Vygotsky and Pedagogy

  • Harry Daniels(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The maturation of the child’s higher mental functions occurs in this co-operative process, that is, it occurs through the adult’s assistance and participation. In the domain of interest to us, this is expressed in the growth of the relativeness of causal thinking and in the development of a certain degree of voluntary control in scientific thinking. This element of voluntary control is a product of the instructional process itself…. In a problem involving scientific concepts, he must be able to do in collaboration with the teacher something that he has never done spontaneously … we know that the child can do more in collaboration that he can independently. (Vygotsky, 1987, pp. 168, 169, 216) The zone of proximal development Schneuwly (1994) discussed Vygotsky’s theory of development in terms of the individual’s reorganisation of lower psychological functions to form new higher ones whilst emphasising that psychological functions are themselves historical-cultural constructions. He viewed the concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD) as the theoretical attempt to understand the operation of contradiction between internal possibilities and external needs that constitutes the driving force of development. The concept of ZPD was created by Vygotsky as a metaphor to assist in explaining the way in which social and participatory learning takes place (John-Steiner and Mahn, 1996). The general genetic law of cultural development asserts the primacy of the social in development. I have sought to emphasise that Vygotsky was concerned to develop an account in which humans were seen as ‘making themselves from the outside’. Through acting on things in the world they engage with the meanings that those things assumed within social activity. Humans both shape those meanings and are shaped by them. This process takes place within the ZPD. This well-known concept is often cited as Vygotsky’s most profound contribution to educational debate

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Child Psychology

  A Canadian Perspective

  • Alastair Younger, Scott A. Adler, Ross Vasta(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  These include the use of tools such as language, and social-cognitive abilities that support learning in social contexts. • Cultural/historical development occurs over decades and centuries and leaves a legacy of tools and artifacts, value systems, institutions, and practices. Individual development unfolds in a particular cultural and historical niche that itself is dy- namic and changing. Socioculturalists believe that individual development must be studied in its cultural context. Moreover, socioculturalists study how changes in cultural practices and institu- tions (e.g., the introduction of formal schooling, moving to a market economy, invention of new technologies) shape the human mind. TOOLS AND ARTIFACTS A third theme in Vygotsky’s writings is that human thought and action are mediated by material and symbolic tools (Vygotsky, 1981). Tools and artifacts, in this context, refer to all the means individu- als have at their disposal to achieve desired goals, from simple objects (such as sticks and rope) to complex technological devices (such as smartphones and laptop and tablet computers). Tools and artifacts also include representations (such as maps), sign and symbol systems (such as language), and social practices (such as routines and rituals that organize and structure human activity). Children learn how to use these cultural tools through interactions with parents, teachers, and more experienced peers. As a result of using these tools—first in cooperation with others and later independently—the child develops higher mental functions: complex mental processes that are intentional, self-regulated, and mediated by language and other sign systems. Examples include focused attention, deliberate memory (consciously using strategies for remembering things), and verbal thinking (thought using words that denote abstract concepts). Vygotsky believed that the particular structure and content of higher mental functions vary with social experience.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Vygotsky in Perspective

  • Ronald Miller(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  There is a sense in which Vygotsky’s theory seems to over-reach itself by attempting to explain more than it can. In the first few lines of the opening paragraph of 32 In discussing the learning and teaching (and also the development) of mathematics, Ilyenkov (2007a, p. 45) comments as follows: ‘Number and counting really presupposed and presuppose as real preconditions a number of ideas that mathematics (like “all sciences”) was to come to understand only in retrospect. I speak here of the general preconditions of both number and counting, of the concepts that must be developed (and mastered) before number and counting because they are more general in character and therefore logically simpler.’ 168 vygotsky at home the chapter, Vygotsky sets the tone by claiming that the problem of the development of scientific concepts ‘contains the key to the whole history of the child’s mental development’ (p. 167). In the course of developing the theory he tries to unlock the problem of the relationship between develop- ment and instruction and also introduces the concepts of conscious awareness and imitation. But perhaps most significant is the way in which Vygotsky engages with Piaget and presents his own ideas as an alternative not only to other prevailing theories but specifically and explicitly to those of Piaget. In so doing, the questions to which the zone of proximal development and related concepts are an answer become entangled with Vygotsky’s engagement with his interpretation of Piaget’s ideas. Rather than follow Vygotsky’s approach, it seems more productive to leave open the question of what the theory is designed to explain and to consider the possibility that, contrary to Vygotsky’s view, his theory is not an alternative to Piaget but addresses the very issues Piaget deliberately ignored. According to Vygotsky, his own theory is about instruction and the development of scientific concepts and the explicit con- text is an alternative to Piaget’s theory.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Catching Readers Before They Fall

  Supporting Readers Who Struggle, K-4

  • Pat Johnson, Katie Keier(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  1986 ). Following the list, we elaborate on these foundational concepts, putting them into practical terms with examples that are more closely connected to you and your classroom.

  • Teaching is most effective (and learning is most likely to happen) when it takes place within the child’s zone of proximal development.
  • Language is a central tool of humans and, when used appropriately in teach-ing/learning situations, can play a crucial role in children’s cognitive development.
  • The sociocultural aspect of teaching and learning is important and includes developing environments for learning that foster lots of talk, interaction, and joint projects.

  The topic most written about, and the one we will address most completely from Vygotsky’s work, is the concept of the zone of proximal development. Let’s begin there.

  Zone of Proximal Development

  Have you ever wondered whether or not your students are actually learning what you are teaching? We have. We have had times when we thought we were teaching our hearts out only to realize that nothing much sunk into the children’s brains. So were we really teaching then? We thought we were, but how can teaching exist without learning?

  For us, Vygotsky’s concept of the ZPD answers the question, Where does effective teaching really lie? Vygotsky’s answer: You are doing your best teaching when you are working within the child’s zone of proximal development. He defines ZPD as where the child can do it with your help (Vygotsky 1986 ). When you teach children within their zone of proximal development, they have the highest potential for successful learning. They see the task, skill, or strategic thinking modeled by you, they do it together with you, and eventually they take on the new learning independently as you back off your supports.

  We have adapted a graphic explanation of ZPD from Frank

  Smith’s book The Book of Learning and Forgetting (1998)

  . Refer to Figure 3.1

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology

  • Anton Yasnitsky, René van der Veer, Michel Ferrari(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  We can show that the most varied subjects of instruction have a common foundation in the child’s mind. Moreover, this common foundation is a basic new formation of the school age, a formation that develops and matures in the process of instruction itself. Its developmental cycle is not completed before this age. The development of the psychological bases of school instruction [does] not predate instruction; they develop in an unbroken internal connection with it. (1987, p. 206; italics in the original) It is in the context of instruction leading to conscious awareness or reflective knowing that Vygotsky introduces the concept of the zone of proximal develop- ment 40 that refers to the difference between the child’s performance based on independent problem solving, on the one hand, and performance in collaborative problem solving with an adult who provides the child with assistance, on the other hand. According to Vygotsky, the ability of children to perform at higher levels when provided with instruction and to go beyond their actual levels of development is a distinctive human achievement. He attributes this ability to imitation but points out that this is not a blind or mechanical kind of imitation. 41 Although children can achieve more in the context of collaboration than on their own, there are limits to what they can learn 42 and there is a ceiling 43 beyond which collaboration and instruction become ineffectual for each child. If I am not able to play chess, I will not be able to play a match even if a chess master shows me how. If I know arithmetic, but run into difficulty with the solution of a complex problem, a demonstration will immediately lead to my own resolution of the problem. On the other hand, if I do not know higher mathematics, a demonstration of the resolution of a differential equation will not move my own thought in that direction by a single step . . . We said that in collaboration the child can always do more than he can independently.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Handbook of Psychology, Educational Psychology

  • Irving B. Weiner, William M. Reynolds, Gloria E. Miller(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Vygotsky's (1987) examination of the relationships between first and second language acquisition shows how both “represent the development of two aspects of a single process, the development of two aspects of the process of verbal thinking. In foreign language learning, the external, sound and phasal aspects of verbal thinking [related to everyday concepts] are the most prominent. In the development of scientific concepts the semantic aspects of this process come to the fore” (pp. 222–223). He added another comparison between learning scientific concepts and learning a second language. The meanings that a student is acquiring in a second language are mediated by meanings in the native language. Similarly, prior existing everyday concepts mediate relationships between scientific concepts and objects (Vygotsky, 1987). Vygotsky cautions, however, that “the learning of the native language, the learning of foreign languages, and the development of written speech interact with each other in complex ways. This reflects their mutual membership in a single class of genetic processes and the internal unity of these processes” (Vygotsky, 1987, p. 179). The unity Vygotsky found in inner speech, verbal thinking, and meaning has been a focus for sociocultural researchers, especially those looking at these three aspects in second-language learners who are trying to create meaning in a new language.

  Sociocultural Approaches to Second-Language Acquisition and Development

  Researchers interested in diverse facets of second-language acquisition both in and out of educational contexts, have utilized sociocultural theory in a variety of ways. Some have focused more on the internal aspects of language, the mental processes involved in making and communicating meaning through language acquisition, while others have focused more on the social, cultural, physical, and historical contexts of second-language learning and acquisition. All have strived to understand second-language learning and acquisition and examine the role of sociocultural context as a mediating force in language development and use and have recognized the essential role of semiotic mediation—making meaning through signs—in the development of the mind.

  James Lantolf has played a central role in developing a sociocultural approach to the study of second-language acquisition (SLA) and second-language teaching/learning. He and his students and colleagues have developed a methodological approach to researching second-language acquisition based on the work of Vygotsky using mediation; inner speech, private speech, and internalization; the regulatory function of language; the zone of proximal development and scaffolding; testing, including dynamic assessment. (Lantolf, 2000; Lantolf & Appel, 1994; Lantolf & Poehner, 2008; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). Lantolf and Beckett (2009) reviewed sociocultural research investigating SLA from 1985 to the present. Mahn (2013) similarly describes aspects of Vygotsky's methodology and theory that have guided sociocultural approaches to SLA research.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book