Lecture 3- Vgotsky

Question 1

Which famous sociologist was Vygotsky heavily influenced by?

Answer 1

Karl Marx- he therefore subscribed to the idea that there is no/little difference between social and individual development.

Question 2

What are the four main infant elementary functions?

Answer 2

attention
sensation
perception
memory

Question 3

What were three principles of Vygotsky’s beliefs?

Answer 3

He believed that how we think is based on our social and cultural upbringing
he believed inner speech plays a crucial role in promoting cognitive development
He believed believed cognitive development occurred when a child is guided to solve a problem by an adult

Question 4

How can socio-culture (the society and culture a child grows up in) affect our play as children?

Answer 4

as our play usually reflects that of adult activity, so the different adult activity in different societies and cultures would vary the play we engage in

Question 5

How can language create subtle differences in cognition (give an example)

Answer 5

For instance, in our language we say the number 47 as “forty-seven”. In Germany, they would say “seven-forty”. German children can often have issues processing spoken numbers (i.e. mixing up 74 and 47)

Question 6

What are the three stages of creating inner speech?

Answer 6

First, the child’s behaviour is controlled by adult instructions.
The child will then voice their private speech out loud (self speech)
This self speech then becomes internalised monologues at around 7 years, so it is now inner speech

Question 7

What is evidence for the importance of inner speech in a child’s cognitive development?

Answer 7

Children tend to talk to themselves more whilst they are preforming a difficult/problem solving task

Question 8

What is the zone of proximal development?

Answer 8

The zone of what children can not accomplish on their own, but are able to with help- so when children are developing with the assistance of an adult. Vgotsky thought children learn best when they are in this zone

Question 9

What is scaffolding? who was it first pioneered by?

Answer 9

First pioneered by Bruner, it suggests that children’s learning is enhanced by more competent people providing a framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than the child can accomplish.

Question 10

What were the five important aspects of scaffolding suggested by Wood et al?

Answer 10

Recruitment- must engage the child’s interest
Reduction of degrees of freedom- reduce the number of acts needed to arrive at a solution
direction maintenance- must maintain the child’s motivation
making critical features- highlight important features
demonstration- model parts of or the whole action

Question 11

What is one piece of evidence supporting the beneficence of scaffolding?

Answer 11

Parental scaffolding while a child did a jigsaw puzzle seemed to positively correlate with academic attainment later on in childhood

Question 12

What is one way scaffolding is used in the educational system?

Answer 12

collaborative learning.

Question 13

What are three ways collaborative learning can be beneficial?

Answer 13

Motivation is enhanced when you are working with another person
this learning style involves having to explain ideas to and persuade others, so the child is required to articulate and carefully examine their ideas
collaborative learning increases self speech

Question 14

How are motor skill milestones biased?

Answer 14

They are predominantly based on western ideals and research

Question 15

How can motor skill acquisition affect other areas of development?

Answer 15

it can also affect perception and communication

Question 16

How has socioeconomic status been shown to affect children’s ability to delay gratification?

Answer 16

The lower your economic status, the less likely you are to delay gratification. This could be why children who can better delay gratification are said to later perform better academically, as they are from a higher socioeconomic status

Question 17

What are is one similarity of Piaget and Vygotsky?

Answer 17

They were both constructivists, believing children constructed their own understanding of the world

Question 18

What were 4 differences between Piaget and Vygotsky?

Answer 18

• Piaget focused on discontinuous, fixed stages of development (more qualitative). Vygotsky focused on continuous, flexible development (more quantitative)
• Piaget believed that the stages of development were (mostly) the same for everyone, while Vygotsky believed they were influenced by other factors, such as socio-culture
• Piaget focused more on nature, Vygotsky focused more on nurture
• Piaget believed self speech was egocentric-, Vygotsky believed it was a way of developing inner speech and cognitive perception