Early Childhood: Vygotsky Flashcards
Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who argued that …
culture has a major impact on a child’s cognitive development
Vygotsky believed that … can facilitate a child’s potential for learning
the social interactions with adults and more learned peers can…
Vygotsky believed that without interpersonal instruction …
children’s minds would not advance very far as their knowledge would be based only on their discoveries
zone of proximal development:
a range of tasks too difficult for the child to do alone but possible with the help of others
describe scaffolding
adults aid learning by adjusting to child’s performance level (varies by culture)
describe one of the key concepts of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
expert guidance gradually leads to self-guidance
how did Piaget interpret private speech?
egocentric speech or speech that is focused on the child and does not include another’s point of view
describe Vygotsky’s interpretation of private speech
he believed that children talk to themselves in order to solve problems or clarify thoughts
Private speech: when does it increase? when does it become silent?
increases during difficult tasks and becomes silent, inner speech with competence
describe Vygotsky’s view of make-believe play
influences the zone of proximal development and is rich with private speech
describe how children in western cultures observe/participate in adult work
child-focused activities, little access to adult work, adults focus on preparing children for school success
describe how children in village/tribal cultures observe/participate in adult work
participation in adult work, observation of adult tasks, self-sufficiency and strong self-care skills, assumption of additional responsibility without adult prompting (limited scaffolding too)
Vygotsky’s theory: focuses on and deemphasizes what?
verbal dialogues, other routes to cognitive development
what does Vygotsky’s theory help us to understand?
cultural variation in cognition
Vygotsky’s theory says little about …
how basic capacities (perceptual, motor, etc.) contribute to higher cognitive processes
