vygotsky's theory of cognitive development

Question 1

what is the zone of proximal development (ZPD)?

Answer 1

the gap between child’s current level of development, and what they can potentially understand after interaction with more-experienced others (MEOs)

Question 2

how do children develop a more advanced understanding of a situation?

Answer 2

by learning from others, as opposed to through individual exploration of the world

Question 3

what does expert assistance allow a child to do?

Answer 3

allows a child to cross the ZPD + understand as much of a subject/situation as they are capable

Question 4

how did Vygotsky believe higher mental functions are acquired?

Answer 4

they can only be acquired through interaction with MEOs?

Question 5

what does the term ‘scaffolding’ refer to?

Answer 5

all the kinds of help MEOs give a child to help them cross the ZPD

Question 6

how does the level of help in scaffolding change as a learner crosses the ZPD?

Answer 6

level of help declines from level 5 to level 1

Question 7

how may an adult assist a child in level 5 + level 1?

Answer 7

an adult is more likely to use a high level of help strategies when first helping, the to gradually withdraw level of help as child grasps the task

Question 8

what is level 5 in scaffolding?
give an example

Answer 8

demonstration - e.g. adult draws an object with crayons

Question 9

what is level 4 in scaffolding?
give an example

Answer 9

preparation for child - e.g. adult helps child to grasp crayon

Question 10

what is level 3 in scaffolding?
give an example

Answer 10

indication of materials - e.g. adult points to crayons

Question 11

what is level 2 in scaffolding?
give an example

Answer 11

specific verbal instructions - e.g. adult says ‘how about the green crayon?’

Question 12

what is level 1 in scaffolding?
give an example

Answer 12

general prompts - e.g. adult says ‘now draw something else’

Question 13

how may cognitive development vary in different cultures?

Answer 13

children will pick up ‘mental tools’ that will be most important for life within physical/social/work environments of their culture

Question 14

true or false?
children will acquire the same reasoning abilities as the MEOs they learnt from

Answer 14

true

Question 15

list 2 strengths of this theory

Answer 15

~ support for ZPD
~ real-world application

Question 16

how did Roazzi + Bryant provide support for ZPD?

Answer 16

~ they gave 4-5 year-olds the task of estimating number of sweets in a box
~ in one condition, child worked alone, and in another they had help from an older child
~ most children working alone failed to give good estimates, whereas in the other condition, MEOs offered prompts

Question 17

in Roazzi + Bryant’s study, why did children with MEOs succeed more?

Answer 17

MEOs offered prompts to help children work out number of sweets

Question 18

where do Vygotsky’s ideas have a real-world application?

Answer 18

21st century education

Question 19

what did a study with 7 year-olds find?

Answer 19

7-year-olds tutored by 10-year-olds (in addition to whole-class teaching) progressed further in reading than controls who only had standard whole-class teaching

Question 20

what is a counterpoint for ‘real world application’?

Answer 20

Vygotsky may have overestimated the importance of scaffolding in learning

Question 21

what did a study in China find?

Answer 21

in China, classes of up to 50 children learn very effectively in lecture-style classrooms with very few individual interactions, therefore Vygotsky may have overestimated the role of scaffolding in development

Question 22

list one limitation of this theory

Answer 22

if Vygotsky was right about interactive learning, we would expect all children learning together to pick up similar skills + a similar mental representation of material

Question 23

what did Howe et.al. find?

Answer 23

what children learn actually varies considerably between individuals, even in group learning situations