Developmental theory (1) Flashcards
What are the the main principles of Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective?
Language
Zone of proximal development
Scaffolding
How does vygotsky believe language contributes to development? What are the 3 forms of language?
- suggested language is an intellectual development and adaptation tool
- social speech, private speech and silent inner speech
What do the 3 forms of language (Vygotsky) entail?
- social speech - external communication used to talk to others
- private speech - directed to the self and serves an intellectual function
- silent inner speech - private speech is diminished in audibility through self-regulation
What does Vygotsky suggest is useful for children wrt private speech? How is this supported?
Product of child’s social environment.
Strong positive correlation between rates of social interaction and private speech in children
What did Winster (2007) suggest with regards to private speech in children (supporting Vygotsky’s hypothesis)?
- suggested children use private speech during intermediate - difficult task to self-regulate by using verbal planning and organisation of thoughts
- frequency and content of private speech = functionally related to cognitive performance (eg problem solving)
Outline vygotsky’s principle of scaffolding?
- internalisation of knowledge from mutual interaction between a child and a more knowledgeable other is known as scaffolding
- through social interactions the child would acquire the skills of thinking and learning –> child becomes more knowledgeable
Who termed the principle of scaffolding?
Wood et al (1976) –> as task becomes more familiar and more within child’s competence, those who provide scaffold leave more for child to do until the child can performs independently
What did Connor, Knight and Cross (1997) show wrt scaffolding? What did the folllow up study show?
- effect of parental scaffolding on 2 year olds during problem solving tasks
- quality of the scaffolding predicted the childs performance on various tasks
- follow up study demonstrated the effects were long-lasting
Outline Vygotsky’s principle of the zone of proximal development?
- the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable other
- sensitive guidance should be given -> allows child to develop independent skills, thus develop higher mental functions
- scaffolding derived from this theory of Vygotsky’s
Outline results of Freund (1990)s study wrt ZPD
- children decide which items of furniture should be placed in particular areas of a dolls house
- Those that played with their mother in a similar situation before they attempted the task alone (representing the ZPD), showed the greatest improvement compared to others
- suggested guided learning within the ZPD leads to greater understanding and thus performance
Evidence for Vygotsky’s theory - case study
CASE OF GENIE - 1970
- discovered at the age of 13 years having been in isolation since 20 months of age
- never achieved full language acquisition and had the cognitive age of a 13 month old upon discovery
- Genie was deprived of social interaction during development, she never acquired language and as such did not develop higher cognitive functions therefore supporting Vygotsky’s theory
Educational implications - Vygotsky’s theory
- teacher must modify scaffolding techniques around the child they are trying to support
- Vygosky’s theories encourage collaborative learning –> group members should have different levels of ability –> more knowledgable group members can help less advanced members
Criticisms - Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective
- some types of social interaction may negatively impact the progression of development
- idea of social facilitation
- young children often take months / years to master certain skills even with appropriate social support (supports Piaget’s theory)
- theories of cognitive development have also been cited as being vague and speculative; lack of empirical evidence to support or contradict Vygosky’s concepts of cognitive development
What is implicated by Piaget’s constructivist approach?
- children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment
- the essence of knowledge is activity e.g. directly manipulating objects to learn about their properties or forming hypothesis to solve scientific problems
What was meant by Piaget being a constructivist?
regarded cognitive development as progressive reorganisation of mental processes which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the environment
