Vygotskyan Theory Flashcards
Who was Lev Vygotsky?
Tutored through the Socratic dialogue
Studied medicine and law before psychology
did 10 years of psychological research
How did Vygotsky challenge the Piagetian theory?
Vygotsky stressed the indispensability of the impact of adult/expert guidance for the child to master more complex frameworks
Explain the socio-cultural theory
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
What do inter-mental and intra-mental represent?
inter-mental: social interaction
intra-mental: psychological
What developments are made through internalization? (VLFD)
Voluntary attention
Logical memory
Formation of concepts
Development of volition
Compare Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s views on language development
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
How does Vygotsky view make-believe play?
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
What is the zone of proximal development (ZPD)?
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”
Explain how a child’s independent activity can be different from their mediated potential development
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
Compare Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s views on instruction in learning
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
Explain instruction through mediation
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.
Are signs first inter-mental or intra-mental?
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
Compare written communication with oral speech (4)
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
How does scaffolding work?
- Initially the adult controls the child’s activity
- Then the adult lets the child take the initiative and adopts a supporting role
- Finally the adult cedes their control completely to the child
How does scaffolding help?
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
What is intersubjectivity?
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
According to Vygotsky, how can one discover the child’s potential?
through the zone of proximal development - by trying to teach a child something new and seeing how far the child responds to guidance
What is dynamic assessment?
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
Why is dynamic assessment helpful?
it may provide additional information about language development in children with serious intellectual challenges e.g., Down syndrome
What is the Instrumental Enrichment?
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
Explain the community mediation of literacy tool
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
What was community 1 and its impact?
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
What was community 2 and its impact?
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
What was community 3 and its impact?
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
What are the 6 modes of scaffolding?
Cognitive structuring
Reduction in degrees of freedom
Direct maintenance
Metacognitive coaching
Recruitment
Contingency
What are 5 facilitators used in scaffolding?
(RR-PP-M)
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
Explain Palincsar and Brown’s experiment of reciprocal teaching
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
What were Vygotsky’s 2 key principles for cooperative learning?
- emphasis on the social nature of learning
- children learn best the concepts that are in their ZPD
What was the impact of the Vygotskian theory? (2)
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
What concepts did both Piaget and Vygotsky share? (3)
the idea of intersubjectivity (intellectual empathy)
benefits that children get from interacting with each other in organizing activities
both constructivists
Distinguish between Piaget and Vygotsky’s beliefs (2)
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
