Cognition And Development: Vygotsky's Theory

Question 1

Overview Of Vygotsky Work.

Answer 1

• Agreed on many of the basics of cognitive development with Piaget.
• For example, children’s reasoning abilities develop in a particular order, and abilities are qualitatively different at different ages.
• However, they differed on whether cognitive development was a social process and how important language was in the development of knowledge.

Question 2

The Social And Individual Level.

Answer 2

• Vygotsky saw cognitive development as a social process of learning from more experienced others – ‘experts’.
• Every function in the child’s cognitive development appears twice.
• Knowledge is first intermental, between the expert and non expert (social level).
• Then intramental, within the mind of the non- expert individual (individual level).

Question 3

The Role Of Others.

Answer 3

• A child learns through problem-solving experiences shared within someone else, usually a parent or teacher.
• All people with greater knowledge than the child are called experts.
• Initially, the person interacting with the child assumes most of the responsibility for guiding the problem-solving activity, but gradually this responsibility transfers to the child.

Question 4

What Is Zone Of Proximal Development (ZPD)?

Answer 4

• The gap between a child’s current level of development, defined by the cognitive tasks they can perform unaided, and what they can potentially do with the right help from a more expert other, who may be an adult or a more advanced child.
• Vygotsky learnt that learniing does not take place in the area of current development, nor does it take place too far ahead of what the child can already do independtly, instead it is taken place in the ZPD.

Question 5

What Is Scaffolding?

Answer 5

• An approach to instruction that aims to support a learner only when absolutely necessary.
• Provide a support framework to assist the learning process.
• It helps the learner to cross the ZPD and advance as much as they can.
• Experts create the scaffolding.

Question 6

Scaffolding: Bruner And Wood

Answer 6

• Identified 5 aspects to scaffolding to help child to better understand perform a task.
  1) Recruitment: engaging the child’s interest in the task.
  2) Reduction Of Degrees Freedom: focusing the child on the task and where to start with solving it.
  3) Direction Maintenance: encouraging the child in order to help them to stay motivated and continue trying to complete the task.
  4) Marking Critical Features: highlighting the most important parts of the task.
  5) Demonstration: showing the child how to do aspects of the task.
• When learners crosses the ZPD the level of help in scaffolding declines from level 5 to 1.
• An adult is more likely to use high level of help strategies when first helping then gradually withdraw level of help.

Question 7

Elementary And Higher Mental Functions.

Answer 7

• Vygotsky proposed that children are born with elementary mental processes, these are transformed into higher mental functions.
• Elementary mental functions are biological and a form of natural development.
• Higher mental functions are exclusively human.
• The role of culture is to transform elementary mental functions into higher mental functions.

E.g. of EMA: perception and memory
E.g. of HMF: mathmatical ability

Question 8

The Role Of Language.

Answer 8

• Culture is transmitted by experts using semiotics – the signs and symbols developed within a particular culture.
• Language is the semiotic system of foremost importance, but mathematical symbols are valuable too.
• Therefore, language and maths are the means by which culture is transmitted from expert to child.
• To begin with, language takes the form of shared dialogues between the adult and child, but as the child develops mental representation, they begin to communicate with themselves.
• In this way, language (semiotics) enables intellectual development.

Question 9

Cultural Differences In Cognitive Abilities.

Answer 9

• If reasoning abilities are acquired from the experts with who a child has contact, it makes sense that the child will acquire the reasoning abilities of those people.
• This means that there may be cultural differences in cognitive development, with children picking up the mental ‘tools’ that are most important for life within their physical, social and work environments.

Question 10

Evaluation: Strength - Supporting Evidence For ZPD.

Answer 10

• There is support for the zone of proximal development.
• Roazzi and Bryant (1998) found that 4-5-year olds performed better on a ‘number of sweets’ challenge when working with peers rather than alone.
• This demonstrated that children could develop more advanced reasoning skills when working with more expert people.
• This suggests that the zone of proximal development is a valid concept.

Question 11

Evaluation: Strength - Supporting Evidence For Scaffolding.

Answer 11

• There is support for the idea of scaffolding.
• Conner and Cross (2003) observed 45 children at intervals between the ages of 16 and 54 months, finding that mothers used less direct intervention as children developed.
• This shows how the level of help given by an expert partner declines over time.
• This study is particularly important because it explains what happens during the support, it does not just show that scaffolding occurs in learning.

Question 12

Evaluation: Strength - Application In Education.

Answer 12

• Vygotsky’s ideas have been highly influential in education.
• Van Keer and Verhaeghe (2005) found that 7-year-olds tutored by 19-year-olds, in addition to whole class teaching, progressed further in reading than a control group who only had class teaching.
• This suggests that children can learn more and faster with appropriate scaffolding.
• This has raised expectations of what children should be able to achieve.

Question 13

Evaluation: Limitation - Learning Varies.

Answer 13

• Children that learn together do not pick up similar skills and mental representation of material.
• Howe et al. (1992) found that 9-12-year-olds who had group discussions about the movement of objects down a slope showed better understanding after the discussion but did not all pick up on the same facts.
• This suggests that even when children experience the same interaction or experience, they do not necessarily have the same level of cognitive development.
• This suggests Piaget’s view of cognitive development occurring in stages and the child being unable to learn some concepts until they are ready could be along the right lines.

Question 14

Evaluation: Limitation - Indvidual Differences.

Answer 14

• Vygotsky assumed that the process of learning are largely the same in all children.
• Some children learn best during social interaction but this may not be true for everyone.
• Personality and style of information processing may have powerful effects on what sort of activities and what sort of help works for different children.
• Vygotsky’s theory therefore does not take account of individual differences.