Vygotskyan Theory

Question 1

Who was Lev Vygotsky?

Answer 1

Tutored through the Socratic dialogue

Studied medicine and law before psychology

did 10 years of psychological research

Question 2

How did Vygotsky challenge the Piagetian theory?

Answer 2

Vygotsky stressed the indispensability of the impact of adult/expert guidance for the child to master more complex frameworks

Question 3

Explain the socio-cultural theory

Answer 3

Solutions to problems are socially generated and learned - hence social interaction is required for cognitive development

Group learning processes are central to cognitive development

All forms of thinking first appear in the inter-mental, then are internalized and become intra-mental processes within the child

Question 4

What do inter-mental and intra-mental represent?

Answer 4

inter-mental: social interaction
intra-mental: psychological

Question 5

What developments are made through internalization? (VLFD)

Answer 5

Voluntary attention
Logical memory
Formation of concepts
Development of volition

Question 6

Compare Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s views on language development

Answer 6

Piaget - children develop thinking and language through egocentric speech - then learn to use it in interaction with others

Vygotsky - children are first talked to as they are told what to do, then they start to use the language they learned with others to guide their own activity themselves - their self talk is private speech, not egocentric

Question 7

How does Vygotsky view make-believe play?

Answer 7

the reproduction of interaction

most make believe play between 1-2 year olds involved caregiver-child or child-child interaction

initially it is caregiver led, then it is elaborated by the caregiver, then the child might create/complete the fantasy on their own

Question 8

What is the zone of proximal development (ZPD)?

Answer 8

the stage at which the learner can do things with help

found between the “things the learner cannot do” and “things the learner can do their own”

Question 9

Explain how a child’s independent activity can be different from their mediated potential development

Answer 9

2 children both have the mental age of 7, but when pushed further in carrying out tests with help, 1 easily solves test items taken from 2 years above
- the other solves test items only 1/2 a year above

Question 10

Compare Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s views on instruction in learning

Answer 10

Piaget believed that when a child is taught something, he is denied the opportunity to discover it on his own

Vygotsky believed that because mental processes originated in social interaction, instruction had to be at a higher level than currently reached by the child to push him forward - instruction is only good when it proceeds ahead of development

Question 11

Explain instruction through mediation

Answer 11

Higher forms of mental functioning are mediated by tools and signs

Signs are the psychological equivalent of technological tools in the development of thinking
e.g., language, the counting system, use of maps etc.

Question 12

Are signs first inter-mental or intra-mental?

Answer 12

Signs are first inter-mental as they are always originally used for social purposes, a means of influencing other - only later a means of influencing oneself

Question 13

Compare written communication with oral speech (4)

Answer 13

it is a mediator of a higher form of thinking rather than a mere development from oral speech

written speech doesn’t have an interlocutor - you’re talking on your own

writing requires a conscious will to do so, while the structure for speaking was provided unconsciously

when speaking we make use of the context and nonverbal cues, but in writing, all meaning has to be explicit

Question 14

How does scaffolding work?

Answer 14

1. Initially the adult controls the child’s activity
2. Then the adult lets the child take the initiative and adopts a supporting role
3. Finally the adult cedes their control completely to the child

Question 15

How does scaffolding help?

Answer 15

Motivates or enlists the child’s interest related to the task

Simplifies the task to make it more manageable and achievable

Provides direction in order to help the child focus on achieving the goal

Model and clearly define the expectations of the activity

Question 16

What is intersubjectivity?

Answer 16

People influence each other when they start to share each other’s meaning and point of view

e.g., a teacher first asks a student what they know about a topic, then links new information to their existing knowledge

Question 17

According to Vygotsky, how can one discover the child’s potential?

Answer 17

through the zone of proximal development - by trying to teach a child something new and seeing how far the child responds to guidance

Question 18

What is dynamic assessment?

Answer 18

children are informed about the purpose of an intelligence test and are given a chance to practice with each kind of problem solving task, prior to actually being tested

Question 19

Why is dynamic assessment helpful?

Answer 19

it may provide additional information about language development in children with serious intellectual challenges e.g., Down syndrome

Question 20

What is the Instrumental Enrichment?

Answer 20

a system for assessment and teaching that emphasizes mediated learning - developed by Feuerstein

the child is helped to understand the goal of the task, provided with cues as they tackle the problem, until the child is able to do the same independently

Question 21

Explain the community mediation of literacy tool

Answer 21

Heath conducted a seminal ethnographic study about family mediating use of preliteracy tools

She studied 3 different communities from which children attended the same school

Question 22

What was community 1 and its impact?

Answer 22

In community 1 children only heard stories ORALLY without books or magazines - the stories were full of suspense, exaggerations, and repetitions

Impact: the children had difficulty treating book stories as separate from their personal experience - school texts and tests called for literal answers

Question 23

What was community 2 and its impact?

Answer 23

In community 2 the children were exposed to picture books, bible stories, and adult stories - the stories were sticking to the facts, and ending with a moral

Impact: the children could recount the plot but resisted demands by the teacher for them to predict what would happen as this would amount to “lying” about the facts in the story

Question 24

What was community 3 and its impact?

Answer 24

Community 3 was a middle class community where the children were exposed to many different types of storybooks about real life events and fairytales - adults also led them to link the stories to their own life

Impact: the children were flexible in treating stories as fantasy or real life events and engaged enthusiastically in predicting what would happen next - they made the smoothest progress in learning

Question 25

What are the 6 modes of scaffolding?

Answer 25

Cognitive structuring
Reduction in degrees of freedom
Direct maintenance
Metacognitive coaching
Recruitment
Contingency

Question 26

What are 5 facilitators used in scaffolding?
(RR-PP-M)

Answer 26

Role inversion - learner takes on role of instructor

Recapturing - summarizing main points learned

Prompting - verbal or non-verbal success cues

Putting learner at ease - enables efficient use of mental energy

Miscue analysis - learner gains insight into own mistaken thinking

Question 27

Explain Palincsar and Brown’s experiment of reciprocal teaching

Answer 27

Tried to support 13yr old poor achievers in reading by using strategies such as questioning, summarizing, clarifying and predicting

Prediction: if children are taught these strategies directly, they would improve

Result: students made significant gains in their reading comprehension over time

Question 28

What were Vygotsky’s 2 key principles for cooperative learning?

Answer 28

1. emphasis on the social nature of learning
2. children learn best the concepts that are in their ZPD

Question 29

What was the impact of the Vygotskian theory? (2)

Answer 29

Helped focus on the value of social experience in the child’s learning and development

Brought into focus the importance of mediational signs or tools for higher order learning, and scaffolding

Question 30

What concepts did both Piaget and Vygotsky share? (3)

Answer 30

the idea of intersubjectivity (intellectual empathy)

benefits that children get from interacting with each other in organizing activities

both constructivists

Question 31

Distinguish between Piaget and Vygotsky’s beliefs (2)

Answer 31

Piaget:
1. focused on the intra-mental thinking
2. emphasized individual constructivism through discovery learning as a result of individual activity

Vygotsky:
1. focused on the inter-mental interaction
2. emphasized social constructivism