Vygotsky

Question 1

What was Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 1

Sociocultural theory of cognitive development

Question 2

When did Vygotsky live

Answer 2

During the Russian Revolution - heavily influenced by Karl Marx

Question 3

Similarities between Piaget and Vygotsky?

Answer 3

• Both agreed that children are active learners and believe that interaction with the world is important for children’s development

Can be considered Constructivists - children construct their understanding of the world through experience

Question 4

Brief overview of Vygotsky’s theory

Answer 4

• The importance of sociocultural - Vygotsky thought that how we think is a function of the social and cultural world we grow up in. Their cognitive skills will be developed to handle the tasks and problems in their environment
• Instruction is at the heart of learning - cognitive development occurs in situations where a child’s problem solving is guided by an adult

Inner speech plays a crucial role in promoting cognitive development

Question 5

What is culture

Answer 5

Broad term used to describe customs, beliefs, and habits of particular people at particular times and their collective intellectual, material, scientific achievements over time

Question 6

What is the term socioculture?

Answer 6

Brings together how society, the world of a child, and the culture in which the child is living in may impact their development

Question 7

What is the impact of socioculture on development?

Answer 7

Play - SC determines the type of practical activities we engage in and the things we learn
Morelli et al - observed toddlers in 3 different communities
USA, Efe, Indigineous Mayan group
Main difference - USA - children are more segregated from adults.
Children in Efe and San Pedro Mayan imitated the work of adults in their play (USA unlikely)

Question 8

How does socioculture affect problem solving?

Answer 8

It influences the type of practical activity we engage in and the things we learn. Therefore it influences how familiar we are with thinking and reasoning about certain problems or topics.

Cole et al, Scribbler and Cole - Kpelle people are not as good at USA pps at estimating length, but are better at estimating quantities of rice, which is a daily activity for them.

Question 9

How does socioculture affect language?

Answer 9

Determines the language we speak. Subtle differences in language can lead to noticeable differences in cognition.

Gordon (2004)

• In two Amazonian languages, there are no words for quantities > 5
• Individuals from this culture can solve maths problems easily when working with numbers less than 5 but not more than five
  If children from this culture learn a language with words for numbers above 5, they become better at solving maths problems with numbers above five.

Question 10

Self speech and inner speech

Answer 10

Vygotsky thought that children’s behaviour is controlled by adults instructions, private speech said out loud (self-speech0, and internalised monologues appear at 7

Question 11

What did Vygotsky see self-speech essential as?

Answer 11

Children’s cognitive development

Question 12

Evidence for the importance of self-speech and inner speech

Answer 12

• Children engage in more self speech if a task is challenging, if they are making mistakes, or if they are confused about what to do (Berk, 1992)
• Children who use speech when facing challenging tasks are more attentive and perform better on cognitive tasks than ‘quiet’ children (Behrend et al 1992)

Children prevented from using inner speech perform more poorly on a planning task than children who were able to use inner speech (Lidstone, Meins, and Fernyhough 2010)

Question 13

How does children’s cognition improve?

Answer 13

Through interacting with people. espeically those who are slightly more experienced or knowledgable than the children themselves are

Question 14

What is the zone of proximal development

Answer 14

Refers to the increase in development that a child can reach through assistance by a more competent person compared to the development without this help

Question 15

What did Jerome Bruner suggest?

Answer 15

The idea of scaffolding

Question 16

What is scaffolding

Answer 16

Children’s learning is enhanced when more competent people provide a framework that supports children. Adjusted as the child becomes more capable

Question 17

What are Wood et al’s five aspects of scaffolding

Answer 17

Recruitment - you need to engage the child’s interest

Reduction of degrees of freedom - you should reduce the number of acts that are needed to arrive at a solution

Direction maintenance - you need to maintain the child’s motivation 

Marking critical features - you should highlight important features of the problem 

Demonstration - you should model the solution or parts of the task to stimulate the child to imitate this.

Question 18

Explain parental scaffolding

Answer 18

• Parents who provide a supportive learning environment have children who generate more private speech and are therefore more successful than children with a less supportive environment (Behrend et al)

Parental scaffolding while children did a jigsaw puzzle predicted preschoolers academic attainment one year later because it supported the development of high level cognitive skills such as working memory (Devine, Bignardi, and Hughes)

Question 19

Describe the Vygotskian classroom

Answer 19

● Structured learning activities.
● Helpful hints carefully tailored to the child’s current abilities.
● Monitoring the learners progress and gradually turning over the activity to the learner.
● Collaborative learning exercises where students assist each other

Question 20

What has data from WEIRD infants began to show?

Answer 20

Babies develop motor skills when their bodies are ready

Cross cultural example
Studied infants in a farming community in Kenya
Super observed that Kokwet infants
* Sat and walked a month earlier than Western infants
* Were slower at rolling over and crawling than Western infants
Kokwet mothers kept infants on their backs while working which strengthened the infants, boost in physical development
Mothers sought to keep their babies from crawling due to environmental hazards which limited opportunities to develop crawling which led to a delay in physical development.

Question 21

What is the marshmallow task

Answer 21

Measures ability to delay gratification
Predicts greater success in adolescnese and adulthood

Question 22

What is socioeconomic status

Answer 22

a measure of a child’s social standing relative to others and is often measured using family income and parental education in Psychology

Question 23

What did Watts, Duncan and Quan find?

Answer 23

Tested a large socioeconomically diverse group of children, and found less convincing evidence that delaying gratification leads to better outcomes. Evidence that socioeconomic status predicts how successfully children delay gratification

Therefore socioeconomic status may be a better predictor of children’s outcomes than delaying gratification alone.

Question 24

Role of culture in marshmallow task

Answer 24

Children from the Cameroonian community did better than Children from Germany and did twice as better on average.

Question 25

What can parenting practices do

Answer 25

Develop self control in children more quickly

Question 26

Comparison of Piaget and Vygtosky

Answer 26

Piaget - discontinuous development, little difference in development between children, cognitive development not affected by where someone is born, Self speech happens because children are self centred. Nature

Vygotsky - Many developmental trajectories, lang is important for development, social interaction is important for cog dev, children are NOT solely responsible for their cog development. Nurture