LEV VYGOTSKY

1
LEV VYGOTSKY
SOCIAL-HISTORICAL THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

• SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INTERACTIONS ARE CRITICAL TO
  LEARNING
• INDIVIDUALS CREATE PSYCHOLOGICAL TOOLS TO LEARN
  AND TO MASTER THEIR BEHAVIOR

2
BEHAVIOR
Development
Mediating mechanisms
Social Process Instruction (Zone of Proximal
Development)
Cultural influences - Tools and signs -
Cultural artifacts - Language
3
THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
. . . is the distance between the actual
developmental level as determined by independent
problem solving and the level of potential
development as determined
through problem solving under adult guidance or
in collaboration with more capable peers
Lev Vygotsky, 1935
4
POTENTIAL LEVEL
LEARNING
ACTUAL LEVEL
INSTRUCTION
5
POTENTIAL LEVEL
ACTUAL LEVEL
6
SOCIAL (Cultural) MEDIATION
7
CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
VYGOTSKY
PIAGET
and
1. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IS PRIMARILY A FUNCTION
OF
SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERACTION Adult-child
interaction
INDIVIDUAL CONSTRUCTION
Active agency
. . . but see Cole and Wertschs Beyond the
Individual-Social Antimony in Discussions of
Piaget and Vygotsky
8
2. ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND PRIVATE SPEECH
LANGUAGE CRITICAL - EGOCENTRIC SPEECH BECOMES
THOUGHT THAT IS SELF-REGULATING
COGNITION CRITICAL -EGOCENTRIC SPEECH DISAPPEARS
AS SOCIAL SPEECH DEVELOPS
COGNITION MEDIATES LANGUAGE
ONCE LANGUAGE DEVELOPS, COGNITION IS LANGUAGE
9
HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT I THINK UNLESS I HEAR WHAT I
SAY? Dean Acheson
10
3. HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN BEST?

• SOCIAL INTERACTION
• INSTRUCTION DEPENDENT
• ASSISTED LEARNING (ZPD)
• SCAFFOLDING
• COGNITIVE SELF-INSTRUCTION - guided
  by inner speech

• INDIVIDUAL CONSTRUCTION
• STAGE DEPENDENT
• SELF-DIRECTED, SELF-INITIATED
• EXPERIMENTATION
• INDEPENDENT MASTERY
• EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY

INTERNAL SE
LF-REGULATION
11
1. PARADIGMATIC CONSISTENCY
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM with an ever so slight
lean toward nurture
COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM with an ever so slight
lean toward nature
12
2. FOUNDATION OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
GENETIC EPISTEMOLOGY HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IS AN
INTERACTION BETWEEN BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT
PRIMARILY MEDIATED BY AN INDIVIDUALS ACTIVE
CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING
SOCIOCULTURAL MEDIATION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IS IS
AN INTERMINGLING OF BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS
-THE NATURAL AND THE CULTURAL - THAT FORM A
SINGLE LINE OF SOCIOBIOLOGICAL FORMATION OF
PERSONALITY
13
3. SOCIAL INFLUENCE ON LEARNING
THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL EXCHANGE DURING THE
PROCESS OF EQUILIBRATION
THE IMPORTANCE OF ASSISTED LEARNING TO REACH THE
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
DeVries, R. (1997). Piagets Social Theory,
Educational Researcher, 26(2), 4-17.