vygotsky's theory of cognitive development Flashcards
what is the zone of proximal development (ZPD)?
the gap between child’s current level of development, and what they can potentially understand after interaction with more-experienced others (MEOs)
how do children develop a more advanced understanding of a situation?
by learning from others, as opposed to through individual exploration of the world
what does expert assistance allow a child to do?
allows a child to cross the ZPD + understand as much of a subject/situation as they are capable
how did Vygotsky believe higher mental functions are acquired?
they can only be acquired through interaction with MEOs
what does the term ‘scaffolding’ refer to?
all the kinds of help MEOs give a child to help them cross the ZPD
how does the level of help in scaffolding change as a learner crosses the ZPD?
level of help declines from level 5 to level 1
how may an adult assist a child in level 5 + level 1?
an adult is more likely to use a high level of help strategies when first helping, then to gradually withdraw level of help as child grasps the task
what is level 5 in scaffolding?
give an example
demonstration - e.g. adult draws an object with crayons
what is level 4 in scaffolding?
give an example
preparation for child - e.g. adult helps child to grasp crayon
what is level 3 in scaffolding?
give an example
indication of materials - e.g. adult points to crayons
what is level 2 in scaffolding?
give an example
specific verbal instructions - e.g. adult says ‘how about the green crayon?’
what is level 1 in scaffolding?
give an example
general prompts - e.g. adult says ‘now draw something else’
how may cognitive development vary in different cultures?
children will pick up ‘mental tools’ that will be most important for life within physical/social/work environments of their culture
true or false?
children will acquire the same reasoning abilities as the MEOs they learnt from
true
list 2 strengths of this theory
~ support for ZPD
~ real-world application
how did Roazzi + Bryant provide support for ZPD?
~ 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
in Roazzi + Bryant’s study, why did children with MEOs succeed more?
MEOs offered prompts to help children work out number of sweets
where do Vygotsky’s ideas have a real-world application?
21st century education
what did a study with 7 year-olds find?
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
what is a counterpoint for ‘real world application’?
Vygotsky may have overestimated the importance of scaffolding in learning
what did a study in China find?
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
list one limitation of this theory
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
what did Howe et. al. find?
what children learn actually varies considerably between individuals, even in group learning situations
