Vygotsky Flashcards
Socio-historical location - family
- 1 of 8 children
- dad banker, mom teacher
- known as “little professor” - mock trials
- Jewish (gained entry into uni - lottery system)
Socio-historical location
17 nov 1896-1934 (38)
- Gomel, western Russia
- tasked with indoctrination of communism
- ideas about human development influenced by his env (post-revolutionary Russia 1920s)
- influenced by broad range of writings, inclu. Freud, Piaget, bhvrists, gestalt theorists
Socio-historical location
1917- communist revolution
V had law degree, went back to Gomel - became a teacher (lit and psych) at 2ndary school and college
1924 - Moscow Institute of Psychology
1934 - died of tuberculosis
——–his colleagues and students kept his ideas alive (communist state banned his work)
Assumptions?
Technological determinism Tool-and-result Social constructivist Development is enculturation Educational agenda (indoctrination)
Technological determinism???
Influenced by Karl Marx
Tool-and-result
The tools of investigation determine the results, or what we learn about the mind
- how we measure determines what we measure and how we ascribe causation
Bhvrists scientific approach (epistemology) - unable to provide an adequate explanation of the uniqueness of human development (ontology), as compared to animals
-> NB bhvrists generalised findings from animals onto human bhvr
Ontology
(Tool-and-result)
- what (we study)
- refers to the substantive content, or the knowledge itself
- > concepts employed to make sense of the world
Epistemology
Methods and ways thru which content is constructed
Social constructivist assumption
Humans are born into a pre-existing social world
Social-> creates -> indi
- we learn how to become members of our fams and communities by appropriating methods in which members of that society interact with each other
Social constructivist language
Lang is the MECHANISM for interaction between Indis, and FRAMEWORK for the structure & content of consciousness (ie it defines/expresses human consciousness)
Social constructivist
The social world and interaction with others - provides a framework for the nature of our thinking
Development is enculturation
Ways of thinking (tools) are ideological because they are used by distinct groups of people to perpetuate a set of belief or ways of doing things
Educational agenda
Indoctrination
- > focus of theory is development caused by instruction
- support of parents, teachers, older children - crucial to development of the mind
Explanatory account
- conflict between external (social) and internal (individual) ways of thinking
- the natural and cultural lines of development
Basic principles underlying the Vygotskian framework (explanatory account)
(Related to assumptions…)
- children construct their knowledge (constructionism)
- development can’t be separated from its social context (social constructionism)
- learning can lead to dvpt (enculturation)
- Lang plays a central role in mental dvlpment (cultural tools)
Natural lines of development
Refers to the genetic organic growth & maturation of the child
-> thus biological characteristics and impairments were important
Cultural lines of development
Vygotsky emphasised these much more
-> improvement of psychology function, mastering the cultural methods of bhvr, working out new methods of reasoning, dvlpment of Lang as a tool of communication
Social vs individual
> Social 1. ext.
- living circumstances/relations btw people - Lang, ideology, practice
- instruction
- Scientific concepts
> Indi 1. Int
- Natural and cultural lines/ natural: genetic inheritance/ cultural: acquired/internalised
- Development
- Everyday concepts
Strengths of Vygotsky’s theory
- gazing beyond the individual
- role of the social/cultural aspects in cog dvpt = sociocultural
- can be applied broadly to different sociocultural contexts
- dialectical historical materialism = role of history/material conditions/conflict in dvpt change
Weaknesses of Vygotsky’s theory
- problems in exogenesis {external causes} (looking at external social world to understand indi problems)
- social determinism (ignores indi’s agency)
- no evidence for existence of int mental structures
Behaviourist tool-and-result
Scientific approach (epistemology) - unable to provide an adequate explanation of the uniqueness of human development (ontology), as compared to animals NB bhvrists generalised (findings from animals into human bhvr)
Freudian approach to tool-and-result
Presented a circular form of logic (epistemology) in which consciousness e.g. Free-association was used to account for consciousness (ontology) ie contents of the mind
Tool-and-result
Tools of investigation (epistemology) determined the results, or what we know about the mind (ontology)
Constructionism
Children construct their knowledge
Social constructionism
Development cannot be separated from its social context
Enculturation
Learning can lead to development
Cultural tools
Language plays a central role in mental development
Strengths
Support widely Beyond the indi Sociocultural Can be applied broadly Dialectical historical materialism
